Plagirism Among Students

Imagine being betrayed by one or more team members, or thinking team members are not honest with their ideas. Plagiarism can be described in many ways like dishonesty, misrepresentation, cheating, lying, and fabrication. Committing plagiarism makes one dishonest and makes one a traitor to the team. Plagiarism not only hurts the student, but hurts the team. Teams trust all members to research, cite, and acknowledge properly. Each team member must contribute honestly to reach a common goal. All members must be responsible for accuracy and validation of their information to ensure the success of the assignment and the team.

“Webster’s OnlineDictionary defines plagiarism as: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source; to commit literary theft; present as new and original an idea; to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source” (“What Is Plagiarism,” 2007. Educational. Ð'¶ 2).

Plagiarism is wrong and is a violation of academic writing. Knowing that the consequences could result in an “F” for the class or even expulsion from the university, one would think that plagiarism would be a minute problem in the educational system. Students manipulate and rearrange information from the internet to appear as their own work. With all the information available online, the creation of original interpretation may seem like "busy work" compared to finding the best sources (Searching vs. Researching, 2007).

Dishonesty is a major factor in committing plagiarism. Morals are set aside and the belief that if one is not caught then using another person’s work is fine. Today, women can take a girls’ vacation to Las Vegas and believe “What ever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Then back to their families as if nothing ever happened. Morals have been lowered, are no longer honorable, and if no one got caught, everything was fine.

Plagiarism may be an unintentional act where sloppy research was done and information was not cited properly. “Copy & Paste” is another handy tool that promotes plagiarism. Putting a few words here and there is convenient and before one realizes, the author’s words become the student’s words. The student is convinced that it could not be said any other way and the words stay in the paper.

Lack of knowledge concerning citing standards is another form of plagiarism. Ignorance of the law is no release of liability. One should still be held accountable, and in a team situation, the whole team can be penalized.

Students must realize that the real talent of writing an essay is to understand and examine the information. What they do with that information is skill. How they can relate to that information is what is significant. Remember the essential rule: avoid any form of plagiarism (Adams & Saintsburry, 2007).

Plagiarism has often been thought of as an ethical issue in the classroom, but it has repercussions. Plagiarism is a serious matter that may not only involve one person, but can impact a whole team. According to a past president of the Edinburgh Students Union Association, “there is a thin line between a good piece of work and a plagiarized piece of work.” (Larkham, 2003, p.4). Types of plagiarism are global and internet plagiarism, and paraphrasing and patchwork plagiarism.

Global plagiarism is stealing an entire paper from another source and passing it off as one’s own. One of the most blatant and unforgivable kind of plagiarism is the turning in another person’s paper as one’s own. Global plagiarism is grossly unethical (Mallon, 2001). When global plagiarism takes place in a college classroom, the student is either being deliberately dishonest or has put off the assignment until the last minute. Then in an act of desperation the student downloads essay papers or uses another student’s from previous terms, and delivers it as his or her own.

No subject causes more confusion or more temptation than internet plagiarism (Avoiding Plagiarism, 2001). Because is so easy to copy information from the internet, this can affect a student’s knowledge. Many people are not aware of the need to cite sources when they use the internet materials in their research papers. Another problem with regard to the internet is the large number of Web sites that sell entire papers. In addition to being highly unethical, using materials from one of these sites is risky.

Paraphrasing is when a student restates an author’s ideas or summarizes the information (Plagiarism and How, 2007). Paraphrasing is a simple concept, but taking another person’s ideas or text and putting into one’s own words is plagiarism. Paraphrasing another person’s work and taking credit is one kind of plagiarism. Even if the words are changed from the original source, if the source is not cited, the student still plagiarized.

Patchwork plagiarism occurs when a student pilfers from two or three sources at the same time (Plagiarism and How, 2007). Copying word for word from a few sources or copying from a single source is still plagiarism.

Students plagiarize for a number of reasons. Some students plagiarize because they do not know any better. Lack of organizational skills, too much information, laziness, and fear are other reasons for plagiarism (Beasley, 2004). Some students plagiarize because it is easy, while others plagiarize because they do not see anything wrong with using any information that is available (Badke, 2007).

Students who do not understand rules associated with plagiarism do not realize they are doing anything wrong (Badke, 2007). These students have not learned when, what, or how to cite other people’s works (Beasley, 2004). They gather the data for projects, copy it, and they turn it in as their own.

Unorganized students typically have poor time management skills or take inadequate notes. They also have difficulty choosing what sources to use (Beasley, 2004). In order to complete their project on time, the student finds it easier to plagiarize and take the chance they will not get caught.

If the student collected too many documents in his or her research, then more time was spent gathering the data than analyzing it. The internet has a wealth of information available, and is a big factor of information overload for students and teams (Beasley, 2004).

Students who take the easy way out are concerned that they cannot produce an acceptable research paper, or they may have a need to excel. These students