What Could Possibly Go Wrong If academic dishonesty is bad, why do students do it? Students across the country plagiarize for many reasons. Whether accidental or intentional, academic dishonesty has the same punishment for all students. Students who usually commit academic dishonesty either don’t know how serious the consequences is or only care about getting their assignment turned in. However, teachers don’t understand why students don’t take plagiarism seriously. When students commit academic dishonesty, they risk having severe consequences that they could prevent. There nothing worse about academic dishonesty then when it’s intentional. In fact, most students who intentionally plagiarize have two reasons. These reasons are due to laziness or the fear of taking a zero. When that student is too lazy to complete an assignment correctly, most of the time they just cut-and-paste information from websites. To those students, this method helps them finish the work faster. Students …show more content…
Unlike any other punishment students receive, such as interrupting class or eating in a lab, students only get one offense with academic dishonesty. Once they have that one offense commit that first offense, there is no way to try and fix it. Not only will that student receive a zero for that assignment, they will face extreme punishment. For example, a friend of mine who cheated on a test wasn’t allowed to take the course again and she had to pay her school back for that course. Committing academic dishonesty can have a great impact on their courses but also on their major. In addition to being expelled from school, the academic dishonesty the student committed will stay on their school record. This mean that any college students apply to in the future will know they committed academic dishonesty. Colleges can reject students and their opportunities of any sort will be taken
Malesic mentions that a student committing plagiarism is “shameful” and “dishonest” (87). If a student plagiarized an author’s article then it is a disgrace. It is dishonest because the student is stealing someone else’s words and ideas. For example, once there was a student who was plagiarizing an author’s work on the Revolutionary War, and an honest student told the other that this was a shameful, idiotic decision. Whether a student feels guilty or not, plagiarizing is dishonest to him/herself the professor, and the author.
That stomach churning feeling of guilt for many seems to appear as a small price to pay when completing an act of academic dishonesty. Colleen Wenke wrote an essay on cheating eighteen years ago called “Too Much Pressure”. In the past fifty years, the number of students who admit to cheating has increased fifty to seventy percent(Gaffe). Many people wonder what leads the students to make this unjust decision. Today, the reason for a rise in cheaters is because of how easy it has become, leading many students to the false conclusion that they aren’t breaking any rules; It is simply viewed as a shortcut to success in the classroom and beyond.
Firstly, several students, either in high school or college, are completely oblivious on the consequences of plagiarism or cheating. For students it is easy to go to the internet and “simply insert phrases directly into reports” (Source D). Might seem convenient at the moment, but it would not be when they get expelled or suspended because of their actions. Just by making a student sign “a pledge of honor for each piece of paper submitted” (Source B) does not guarantee the student will stay true to that pledge. By signing this “honor pledge” does not mean the student is informed about the consequences of breaking the pledge. Students also believe that this
When times get rough and tough it seems like most students do turn to the internet for a little extra "help". In Cybercheats it clearly shows how students use certain websites to get free or even pay for important papers and essays. As technology gets more advanced it appears that some people actually get lazier. Plagiarism plays a very important and major part in this article. It is clear that if caught plagiarizing you can be suspended, expelled, and/or receive an F on your assignment. For most students though it is worth the risk. Plagiarism is an act of cheating. Plagiarism is cheating.
They show their view of plagiarism clearly in their documents through the use of terms such as “without hesitation” and “will not be tolerated” (Student code of conduct and discipline, 2015, p. 6; 9. Academic Honesty, n.d.). Many college students try to find out the ways how to avoid being accused of committing a serious academic offence as much as they can. Putting their own name on someone else’s works and getting good grades, some of them might succeed cleverly, but it is nothing but dishonesty. Both colleges warn students the consequences of plagiarism strongly, saying it can bring negative
On a research paper, how much information can you “borrow” with or without citing the original author? How do you cite the resources you “borrowed” or quoted from the original author? Will anyone know if you submit a friend’s research paper? No one can see you taking an online test from your living room – should that change how you take a test?
Plagiarism is a severe problem because it has since become an epidemic and is being practiced at an alarmingly increasing rate. It has become widely accepted among students at many colleges and universities across the United States. It has gotten to the point that many students don’t even consider it cheating. This fact alone makes it even more serious and harder to control. It is now common practice to obtain someone else’s writing and turn it in as an original work. It is not difficult to purchase a pre-written paper or hire another individual to write a paper. Students are willing to pay whatever the cost so that they don’t have to do the work themselves. In fact, paper-selling services such as this have become quite a lucrative business. With the age of technology quickly advancing it has become all the more easily to plagiarize.
Many students are using technology to cheat because they are able to find answers quickly online by just searching for them. Cheating is increasing in the United States at higher rates because many of the students in high school or in college have to deal with different responsibilities, pressure, and loads of different types of work. Richard Perez Peña states in “Studies Find More Students Cheating,” “Internet access has made cheating easier, enabling students to connect instantly with answers, friends to consult and works to plagiarize.” Plagiarism, which means using a work of someone else as if it were yours, is the most common form of cheating in high school and in college. Plagiarism occurs by not citing a source correctly or by not putting the proper quotation marks on a quote that you borrow to state your point. Some students don’t even know what plagiarism is, and they do it using the technology that we have today. Therefore, Julie Rasicot states, “High schools and teachers should make clear what constitutes plagiarism, how to avoid it and what the consequences will be if students are caught.” If students are not informed about plagiarism, then they tend to use technology as an easy way to do an assignment, which prevents them from learning. On the other hand, many professors have argued that the technology is developing
An infectious, virulent plague is ravaging the landscape of academia. It consumes young and old, male and female. The doctors won’t touch it for fear of ineffective results do to the rampant spread of “everyone has done it.” Plagiarism, as defined by the Austin Peay Woodard Library (2004), is “the act of using someone else's words, sentences, or ideas and passing them off as your own without giving credit by citing the original source.” While plagiarism isn’t actually a disease, its spread has been nothing short of pandemic. An infographic found at Schools.com lays out a telling revelation that over 75% of students admit to some form of plagiarism in their academic career. (Lynch, 2011) On the surface, it would appear that we may never find the cure to plagiarism, especially with the rise of universal access to information on the Internet. It is my position that this simply isn’t true; a prescription exists to eradicate the virus of plagiarism: 1) educate students early and often about the dangers of plagiarism; 2) identify and utilize a set of tools that aid the student in avoiding accidental plagiarism; and 3) encourage and reward students who strive for academic honesty.
Academic integrity has been a major concern among many colleges and universities across the world. Many people may ask the question: what is academic integrity? University of Missouri’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities (n.d.) states, “Academic integrity is the core set of values and principles that underwrites the very mission of the University itself; integrity, honesty, hard work, and the determination to translate personal and professional principles into behavior.” Some also may view academic integrity as the act of sustaining honest and rightful behavior in an academic setting that avoids, prevent and provide disciplinary actions for those who commits academic dishonesty, plagiarism and cheating of any kind. Majority of college and universities in all disciplines has academic ethics and honesty policies for all students regardless of their academic statues as undergraduate or graduate students. For example, Webster University’s Statement of Ethics (n.d.) for both graduate and undergraduate programs says, “Those who elect to partici...
Honesty and integrity are two major core Catholic and humanist values that many students in modern times seem to lack. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, honesty is defined as "the quality of being fair and truthful." Honesty plays a huge role in our society and daily lives. Honesty is a key characteristic that makes up a person, and defines who they truly are. Usually, if a person is very honest, which according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary means, “the quality of being honest and fair.” As you can see, the definition of honesty and integrity go hand in hand. Just as Spencer Johnson tells us, “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” Without honesty, there is absolutely no integrity. In the past few years, many major corporations conducted tests to determine how much of the world’s population was considered, “honest.” WalletTest.com conducted an experiment in which one hundred wallets were left on the streets on purpose, filled with a good amount of cash, and a picture identification card to explicitly show who the wallet belonged to. Of those one hundred wallets, seventy four of them were returned and twenty six were not. The sample of people they used were of mixed gender, age, and race, giving a good testing sample. The results were good, showing that most people were honest, and the honest people outnumbered the dishonest people nearly three to one. Honesty and integrity does not only play a large role in daily life situations, however. Honesty and integrity play a large role in academics in different levels of expertise: Elementary, High School, and College.
Cheating on academic work is a serious issue that most students admit to doing at some point in their academic career. Elite students are surprisingly the culprits of cheating, but hide it well. (Romm, para 5) Cheating is such a large issue that “70% of students from a sample of 1,800 from nine campuses said they had cheated at least once during their college careers.” (Schneider, para 9) Students cheat on academic work because of different, ongoing pressures in their lives. Understanding the student’s motives and pressures are essential to preventing cheating from occurring in the future. Students cheat for different reasons specific to them regarding their priorities, pressures and because of how easy it has become. Even though eliminating cheating will not happen, there are actions that educational professionals can and should take to prevent most of it from happening so often. Therefor cheating problems are minimized and have a positive impact on the student’s education and understanding of concepts.
Academic dishonesty, specifically cheating and plagiarism, recently has increased in popularity. Students often justify unethical academic behavior. Technological innovations, like the cellular telephone, have provided students with new methods of cheating. Plagiarism has also been influenced through technologies, specifically internet companies have emerged that provide unethical solutions to academic assignments.
This form of cheating occurs more often than it should because students may not feel confident in their own work; they are constantly being reminded by society that they must do their best and receive the highest academic achievements. So why has society shamed students for taking such actions when society is partly to blame for the situation. But society is not to blame alone; students themselves are also held at fault, because it is their self-doubt and lack of time management that result in them plagiarizing. If students had the experience of submitting actual personal work, they would understand that being praised by their peers is more appreciable and could add to their overall self-worth. Students would also be proud of the grade they receive because it is one they truly deserve for their hard work and not for the work what someone else has already done. Students do not see how easy they could commit plagiarism without knowing they are plagiarizing. It is as simple as using a quote and not giving credit to those who deserves it. Students also do not seem to know that there are different forms of plagiarism, that there is not just one, but five types of
Plagiarism is a serious offense and a growing trend in our society today. Some may associate plagiarism with the idea of taking someone else’s writing and making it their own. In fact plagiarism involves anything that is copied or taken and said to be of your own work. Dictionary.com defines plagiarism as “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work, as by not crediting the author”. In fact this definition covers all types of cheating and misrepresentation of ones own work. There are many numbers and statistics that can be found on the amount of individuals that have admitted to cheating. Perhaps the most astounding number is one that was reported by Moeck in 2002 aloft of 40% of higher education students commit academic dishonesty. This number I’m sure has grown since this report and will continue to grow with the development of the Internet. There are a number of ideas and strategies that can be employed in order to stop this ever-growing phenomenon. As teachers and adults, we are responsible for stopping this trend and educating students about the consequences and dangers of plagiarism. I believe there are a variety of reasons individuals plagiarize. First, students are insecure with their own ability; they don’t believe they can do the work therefore they take others. Second, students believe they can get away with the act because they know others who have plagiarized, and there were not any consequences. Lastly, students are uneducated on what plagiarism is and do not know the consequences of their actions if they commit an act. These ideas will be the focus of the position taken on plagiarism in today’s academic society.