Plagiarism: Academic Integrity

Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity that a concern of educational institutions, including Liberty University (Liberty University, 2017; Sisikyou Union High School, 2012). Graduate students at Liberty have an ethical and moral obligation to be aware of and attain to the standards regarding plagiarism outlined in the Graduate Honor Code. In addition to keeping within the rules, students may avoid plagiarism by seeking to obtain to the higher value, and consider practical steps to achieve this goal (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Summary
After viewing the LU official plagiarism policy and the avoiding plagiarism video, I conclude that plagiarism is the misrepresentation of authorship or information as original work due to lack of or improper

citation (Liberty University, 2017; Sisikyou Union High School, 2012). Plagiarism can be both intentional and unintentional. There are multiple types of plagiarism with varying degrees of guilt. Firstly, there is complete misrepresentation of an entire work. This occurs when students directly takes the work of another author and submits this work as their own. This may occur as students paying for someone to write their paper, downloading an article from the internet, or copying and pasting an article from the internet. This is considered the most offensive type of plagiarism and at Liberty University, is grounds for more severe punishment (Liberty University, 2017).
Another type of plagiarism involves taking the words of another author and using them directly in the paper without giving the original author credit, such as “directly quoting or paraphrasing a specific passage from a specific source without properly referencing the source” (2017). While this is a form on intentional plagiarism, it can also happen unintentionally if a students fail to remember proper citation. Quotation marks or blocked quotes are to be used to distinguish the research source, including with an in-text citation (Sisikyou Union High School, 2012). Plagiarism can also occur with the student using the words of another author. Ideas are also considered the property of the author with whom they originated or who conducted the research. However, ideas that are common knowledge do not require a citation (2012).
Lastly, it is possible to plagiarize by submitting a single academic work to multiple sources as an original work. Each submission to Liberty University must contain original work according to each assignment, even if the topics overlap. For example, counseling techniques section in research project on the effects of child abuse for CMHC 502 may not be copied and pasted or slightly edited and then resubmitted in CMHC 505. Students may submit one work for multiple assignments after obtaining explicit permission from both professors (Liberty University, 2017)
Reflection
If I’m being honest, I found the information presented in the video and in the code of conduct more of a review than a revelation. Throughout my high school and college career, I have had the privilege of attending some excellent lectures on what constitutes and nature of plagiarism. However what struck me the time was not what proper citation was, but why I struggle with it.
I have never intentionally stolen someone’s work, however, proper citation is still a struggle. Frequently, when talking about plagiarism, conducting research, and formatting citation would evoke a high amount of anxiety. I understand that proper citation is necessary to attribute proper credit where credit is due, and to maintain academic integrity by ensuring that ideas come from trustworthy sources, therefore academic consequences for plagiarism can be severe. A student may receive severe academic penalty for something they did not realize they were doing.
Ellery (2008) conducted a study of 151 students at University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, where the plagiarism rate was around 40 percent, despite clear penalties.

The study introduced education-centered methods to inform students about plagiarism, citation, and strengthening literacy skills. The rate of plagiarism in the study then dropped to 25 percent of the student (n=151). The author highlights the importance of not only education, but also creating a school culture of academic integrity and good reading and writing practices. The author concludes with her recommendations to provide both positive incentives such as education to help students who plagiarize unintentionally as well as negative reinforces for students who cheat intentionally to reduce plagiarism in higher education institutions (Ellery,

2008).
I have found unintentional plagiarism can be simple and easy when juggling a large research paper filled with multiple academic sources. Remembering how the main points from a particular article inform and flow into a paper can be difficult if one is concentrating on remembering where the information came from and how to properly cite it. For myself, plagiarism is most likely to occur not as a result purchasing a paper from the internet, but through being rushed to complete a paper and overlooking a citation or failing to cite through disorganization of sources.
Therefore, my goal should be to practice a higher level of academic reading and writing; rather than focusing on an academic source fits into my paper to reach the required source limit, practice graduate level reading comprehension skills and then integrate what the research states into a cohesive and comprehensive manner in professional writing. I have found that when I truly understand what an article says, I do not need to constantly recheck-it when I want to use that idea.
Particularly as Christians we should strive for academic excellence by seeking the best knowledge that we can, and proving our ideas trustworthy by supporting them with verifiable research and openness with our sources.
Action
One of the most practical steps to increasing my academic writing is to budget my time better so that I do not feel rushed when reading articles or pressured to find that last article I need to support my idea. Despite its simplicity in design, over the past twenty-four years I have been alive, I have yet to properly execute this plan. Two plans to overcome this are to first, create a specific and realistic plan to schedule out my time during the day in order to work me efficiently with the same about of time. The second is to identify motivations that drive me to procrastination and subsequent methods of overcoming.
There are some techniques I have used in my undergraduate as an online student such as self-discipline. It is especially easy to procrastinate as an online student because there are no required times to attend lectures, and I certainly failed many times in my attempts to practice time management. However, I want to take advantage of the opportunities being a residential graduate student, so before the start of the semester, I marked out the hours of 8:30-4:30 every day as solely devoted to homework, mostly at the library or graduate lounge because it is easier to stay focused in the environment. This has greatly helped with my procrastination; it forces me to start on assignments at a reasonable hour instead of waiting till the last possible minutes simply because I can wait.
Secondly, I practice good reading skills.

I have begun to implement the reading and writing strategies we learned in class. It was encouraging to hear that good reading skills do not require and exorbitant amount of time, and these skills can significantly contribute to comprehension, not just memorization.
Lastly, to increase my skill in APA citation and avoid unintentionally plagiarism, I plan on finally reading the APA Publication Manuel. I bought a physical copy of the book years ago, but I have barely read it. I preferred to use website to generate citations for me. However my ethics professor advised us to read the manual for the purpose of understanding why APA citation is formatted the way it is, and thus better comprehend and not just memorize. With spring break coming up, there will be more time to do extra reading.
Conclusion
Plagiarism policies are in place to protect academic integrity. Students can plagiarize both intentionally and unintentionally, however the goal is to aim is to add to scholarly writing rather than avoiding academic penalty. Graduate level literacy skills take time and energy to acquire, but a well worth the effort, not only to avoid plagiarism, but also to promote academic excellence. Small but particle steps in education can produce graduate who are ready add to the filed of knowledge, not simply glean from

it.