¶ … advise students on the proper techniques for citations as well as on the consequences of plagiarism, this form of cheating is becoming even more popular with the advent of the World Wide Web, according to Julie Ryan's article "Student Plagiarism in an Online World." However, Ryan also notes that the Internet also makes catching cheaters easier than ever and suggests the use of basic search engines like Alta Vista and Yahoo to aide professors or teachers in snagging dishonest students. Plagiarism essentially entails passing off someone else's work as one's own, and the act can take several forms, from purchasing ghost-written material from a willing writer to blatantly cutting and pasting blocks of text from online or print material. Regardless of the means or method, plagiarism is illegal and unfair.
While Ryan does not delve deeply into the various psychological reasons behind cheating, she does mention that laziness is one of the main motivating factors causing students to plagiarize...
Many students who are caught or suspected of plagiarizing will deny it outright or act as if what they did was perfectly harmless, according to Ryan. A professor of an information securities class, Ryan finds it ironic and disheartening that as many as one out of six students plagiarize their work when they hand in reports, essays, or term papers. Furthermore, when a student fails to properly footnote his or her ideas, he or she comes dangerously close to plagiarizing.
However sneaky students can be and however simple it is for them to copy the work of others, professors and teachers can utilize online and other electronic tools to bust cheaters. While it may not be possible to catch every student using a search engine, they do offer a quick and easy way to find out if certain blocks of text have been copied directly. Ryan mentions her experiences using Internet search engines, advising her readers to place quotation marks around a string of words or a phrase so…
