Avoiding Plagiarism as an Educational Problem, Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism As an educational problem, plagiarism most likely dates back to the beginning. Plagiarism involves the failure to attribute one's sources for research. At best, this behavior indicates careless research. At its worst, plagiarism is nothing less than the theft of ideas. This paper focuses on student plagiarism, which is becoming increasingly rampant in universities. It first defines different forms of plagiarism, and how these forms vary by degrees. The paper then looks at the different reasons why students resort to plagiarism.

It then discusses proper citation and how students could avoid committing plagiarism in the first place. In the conclusion, this paper argues that given its capacity for individual and social harm, universities and colleges should take stronger stands in curbing this behavior in school. What is plagiarism? Though most universities enforce their own plagiarism policies, these policies often have important characteristics in common. Plagiarism policies include cheating on examinations and falsifying information for any written or presented work.

Plagiarism could also include turning in a paper that was partially or completely written by another person. Any alterations in academic or clinical records could also be viewed as plagiarism. This paper focuses, however, on the most popular task associated with plagiarism -- using another person's words, ideas or ideas without giving credit. The point is to deceive the audience into thinking that the work is one's own. Many students inadvertently commit plagiarism simply through carelessness.

They do not use proper citation for their research and do not attribute their sources properly (Foss and Lathrop 2000). For example, a student who uses Harold Bloom's analysis of a Shakespearean play may fail to use in-text citation to identify which paraphrased ideas come from Bloom. Because of this, it may be confusing for the reader to identify which points are made by Bloom, and which ones are being made by the student.

Though this form of plagiarism is unintentional, the student is still guilty of making a poor effort (Foss and Lathrop 2000). After all, a simple search of a citation generator on the Internet will solve this problem. This form of plagiarism is defined by laziness on the part of the student, and is a symptom that he or she would apply this same work ethic to their other tasks. The problem of plagiarism Intentional plagiarism is a more serious and increasingly rampant problem.

To illustrate, a study conducted among 23 college campuses in the country found that 38% of undergraduate students have simply "cut and paste" text from the Internet. Others have simply paraphrased sentences and paragraphs from the Internet without citing their sources. Even more alarming, more than half the students who admitted to this behavior do not even consider plagiarism as cheating (Rimer 2000). Many factors fuel this belief.

One is the view that "everyone cheats." Others mistakenly believe that material posted on the Internet is public domain and therefore does not need to be attributed. Still others argue that it is the professor's task to detect and to deal with plagiarism (Rimer 2000). These arguments, however, miss much of the point of getting an education. These statements show that many students refuse to take responsibility for their actions and for their own learning.

Instead of taking part in the process, they create shortcuts, wanting the reward without having to do the work. Even worse, some students justify their actions by placing the burden of detecting plagiarism on the school authorities. Some are right, however, in pointing out that plagiarism in schools are a symptom of what goes on in society at large. The growing acceptance of plagiarism as "not a big deal" may very well lead to the view of plagiarism as acceptable behavior.

This could very well lead to a growing number of Americans who would choose deceit over honest work. Avoiding plagiarism: the role of students The first line of defense against plagiarism lies with the students themselves. The simplest way to avoid plagiarism is for students to learn proper citation methods. By acknowledging the sources of research, there is no longer any danger that a reader might get confused while reading the paper. In his book Doing Honest Work in College, scholar Charles Lipson (2004) suggests three simple principles for academic honesty.

Lipson (2004) states that students should actually write their papers, cite other people's work and present research material truthfully. Towards this, Lipscomb prescribes a simple note-taking system to avoid unintentional plagiarism. One of this tips is to mark verbatim quotes with a letter "Q" and page numbers from where the information was taken. This will ensure that students can refer to their notes more easily while writing papers later. Proper citation remains problematic, especially now that more students are using electronic resources for research.

Towards this, Hacker (2002) has compiled a useful resource for the various citation styles for electronic resources, from online journal to Instant Message. These resources will help students avoid plagiarism by suggesting standardized systems of citation for electronic sources. More importantly, Hacker also cautions researchers regarding how to evaluate which electronic resourcs are really reliable. Combating plagiarism: the role of universities To address this behavior, many universities are turning to an ironic source -- technology.

To combat Internet plagiarism and cheating services, websites such as plagiarism.org and turnitin.com are comparing student papers with information and commercial papers available via the Web. Plagiarism.org founder John Barrie, a University of California at Berkeley student, hopes that his website would help to "level the playing field for honest students" (Barrie, cited in Kopytoff 2003). Many students have protested such practices, arguing that anti-cheating technology erodes the campus tradition of honor codes.