Why College Students Plagiarize

Rodney Stafford

J. Anokye

English Comp II 1321

15 March 2015

Why Do College Students Plagiarize? To plagiarize means to forge someone else’s idea and/or work and pass it off as one’s own. Synonyms are: to take, to steal, to kidnap, and to copy. In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud and is performed by most college students. There are so many reasons why students plagiarize but when done, it hurts more students than it helps. In my opinion, college students plagiarize because of laziness and procrastination, they’re afraid of responsibility and failure, and they’re sometimes confused between the differences in plagiarism and paraphrasing. Laziness from college students’ often comes from not having their priorities in order. They

They plagiarize assignments because it’ll be so much easier to submit an assignment that is guaranteed an A than working hard on an assignment with many errors and a grade below basic. Students focus on their grades so much that they are determined to score high. The fear of responsibility and failure is what encourages them to cheat. Lynnette Crane declared, “I surveyed my classes of first-year English students. They reported their main concerns to be fear of failing the course or of not graduating. When asked why they thought cheating had become the behavioral norm, the composite answer of my students was that it was "necessary to get good grades and to pass the course; otherwise we can't graduate and get good jobs, and there is a lot of competition in the job market. Interestingly, students did not mention lack of skill or lack of knowledge as motives” (Plagiarism, Cheating, and Getting Ahead). So it’s not that students aren’t prepared for college level classes, they’d just rather cheat to declare themselves a good job opportunity or

Paraphrasing is expressing your ideas that you’ve obtained during a research but changing the material around and organizing it into your own understanding. Plagiarism is taking someone else’s idea or work and claiming it as your own to receive credit. Even if you use a string quotes it is still plagiarism because it’s not paraphrasing. To avoid plagiarism, be sure to take good notes and summarize them as you go so it’ll be a whole lot easier. “One of the best ways to paraphrase properly is to research several different sources, formulate your own understanding and idea from these sources, write them in a way that expresses your own voice, and compare your finished product to your sources. If the wording is too similar, rewrite the information in a different way (Differences Between Paraphrasing & Plagiarism).” When doing research papers or assignments, students should be more aware of the difference between the two. In conclusion, students plagiarize for many reasons but the key motives would have to be laziness and procrastination, fear of responsibility and failure, and not knowing the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism. Students must stop taking the easy way out and practice hard work. For those future career opportunities that they must show dedication towards, plagiarism will not be available. Then what will they turn to? College students enjoy plagiarizing but