Plagiarism in academic writing

¶ … pressure on students in the academic environment to turn in assignments in a timely manner. This pressure may encourage students to engage in practices that reduce the time it takes to produce a quality paper. One of those practices is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the bane of the academic world and individuals who engage in such a practice quickly become academic pariah. In this essay, plagiarism will be defined and consideration will be given to the reasons students plagiarize. Additionally the nature of plagiarism will be explored in its multiple facets. The situation is such that it may be better to err on the side of caution, rather than to be labeled as a plagiarist.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary provides four possible meanings for the verb to "plagiarize." Firstly, it means, "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own," secondly "to use (another's production) without crediting the source (Plagiarize, 2010, par 10). Thirdly "to commit literary theft" and finally "to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source" (Plagiarize, 2010, par 12). These four positions suggest a degree of intentionality on the part of the individual and it places the onus on the student not to engage in these practices. Plagiarism is a fraudulent act and which involves attempts to pass off another individuals work as your own (What is Plagiarism? 2010, par. 10).

This action is not limited to only direct quotes that are lifted from the work of another. It includes using the ideas of another person and not providing them with the credit for the idea. Some of the other behaviors that are classified as plagiarism are as follows, submitting another students work as your own, not including quotation marks in a quotation so that it appears in the text as you words when it is not ( What is Plagiarism? 2010, par. 15). Additionally, providing inaccurate information "about the source of a quotation" is also plagiarism (What is Plagiarism? 2010, par. 16). The use of the sentence structure of another individual qualifies as plagiarism as well as placing so much of another person's work in your own that it becomes greater than your own contribution.

Students engage in plagiarism for a multitude of reasons one of the simplest is time constraints. Students are often pressed for time as they may have a many projects and assignments to submit for grading. As a result, it is easy to copy the work of another person than to spend the time to do the work yourself. It is also possible that the content of the paper may be beyond the ken of the student who would like to get a good grade in the course and the student decides to steal the work of someone else that is of a much higher quality than they could produce on his or her own.

Harris (2009) suggests that poor time management and planning is another reason students engage in plagiarism (par. 6). The student may be a good student but because they have waited until the last minute to begin the paper is pressed for time and employs what they believe is a time saving device. For a small number of students plagiarism is a thrill (Harris, 2009, par. 8). These students are excited about breaking the rules and the possibility of being caught or getting away with it. Whatever the reasons may be it is academically unhealthy for students to engage in plagiarism.

There are occasions when a student may unintentionally engage in plagiarism. There are essentially two types of plagiarism intentional plagiarism, which is an act of cheating and involves a deliberate attempt to deceive. These is also unintentional plagiarism where the student is guilty of a "misuse of sources" (Plagiarism: What is it? 2009, par.11). This type of plagiarism is accidental and often occurs where a student is unaware of the rules that govern citation as it relates to ideas. They student may also be sloppy in the use of quotation marks and in the act of paraphrasing. It should also be noted that there is a cultural component to plariagism, as writers from other cultural orientations may not completely appreciate the "sanctity with which American academics endow the concept of idea ownership (Plagiarism: What is it? 2009, par. 11).

To avoid plagiarism requires that the student learn and engage in proper citation. The correct in text citation format should be employed as well as the correct source referencing. Citation allows your readers to be able to identify the source of your quote and it gives credit to the original author of the quote. Improper citation is plagiarism because you have failed acknowledge that the idea or words are not yours and give credit to the original author. An example of this would be saying that improper citation also includes giving credit for theory. The idea of theory comes from another author but I have not given credit for it even though it is used. The idea comes from "The purpose and importance of citations" website.