PLAGIARISM

PLAGIARISM

Thesis Statement: Plagiarism has been in academics for many years now, but in the new generation of millennials, the prevalence in plagiarism has increased significantly with the technology and internet growth and combating the issue of plagiarism has become a challenge.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using or stealing another person’s ideas, works, research and production without that person’s approval and acknowledgement. Plagiarism has been on the debate in a lot of education institutions times and a lot of reasons have been associated with plagiarism including educational context environment and culture Typically, plagiarism can be termed as academic cheating, misconduct fraud, cheating, or other dishonesty through electronic means. In academics, the act of plagiarism is considered a breach of ethics since it involves dishonesty. This act in academic is illegal and disallowed across all institutions all over the world. Institutions of education aim at reducing plagiarism while promoting quality writings and the use of technology to enhance academic writing. The most common area where plagiarism manifests itself is in written materials where students copy word and ideas from sources that have been published already. Ideally, a lot of students paste the information without proper acknowledgement by the owner of the source, moreover, the students paraphrase all the information in the source without acknowledging the source. To acknowledge the source, the students are needed to cite and reference the source.

Due to the increase in plagiarism among the institutions especially those of higher learning. A lot of institutions have formulated rules in their institutions to punish those students and scholars spotted with plagiarism in their academic writing.  Although writing differs with institutions ranging from severe punishments, slap or ignorance by the teacher. Moreover, the influence of the traditional plagiarism definition by the digital revolution plagiarism remains to be the most considered aspect in writing. Plagiarism in o education institutions has been facilitated by the availability of information on the internet thus making it difficult for these institutions to handle the problem of plagiarism. This makes plagiarism a complex issue which needs to be addressed with much gravity.

Currently is seen from a capitalist perspective where it is considered as a property and owned. Therefore, the capitalist context assumes that everything that is owned and is of value can be bought and sold. This context is highly appreciated by the western culture. Ideally, the constitution of the United States allows the promotion of the progress of science and arts. Therefore, this right allows the authors of any form of writing to own their works and sell their writings at their will.

In the schooling perspective, plagiarism is more of moral and ethical consideration (Emmerson 123). Referring to plagiarism as a generational matter, plagiarism is mostly viewed negatively in schools. Discussion by professors about plagiarism is always. pioneered by mistrust as well self-righteous. Since ancient times of the Greeks, there has been that perception that there is always something wrong about the generations of the future. It is said that Socrates roamed the streets criticizing the lazy youths and referring to them as being unable to learn of what is required of them as citizens. Currently, the same generation is being criticized as being indiscipline and unproductive. This critics from the ancient Greeks clearly explains the current spike in the levels of plagiarism by colleges and schools. It is evident that the lazy youths from the words of Socrates represent themselves clearly in different ways but now in plagiarism. Deliberate plagiarism is considered to be a crime and sin in academics. Therefore, the attitude brought about plagiarism fosters a bad relationship between the students and teachers Although the focus has been centred on student plagiarism, the teachers and the administration are also involved in plagiarism. It was discovered that a student’s handbook at Oregon University was pasted from the Stanford University book. Moreover, an article used as a syllabus was found to have three identical sentences which were similar to another journal. The other astonishing issue is that professors were not vigilant with the student’s work which and were not keen on recognizing and the citation sell.

Plagiarism and other academic frauds are most common in American students ranging from College schools and institution of higher learning. According to as survey 2,294 of high school teens at 15 public and 11 private schools discovered that 34% of their completed works were pasted almost word to word from other written sources and another per cent of the students copied just a few sentences the written sources. According to McCabe a lot of high school students believe that since the information is from the internet and knowledgeable to some people there is no need for citation nor footnotes.

Even though plagiarism is purely in academics, the influence of the media where students intermingle and the increased internet growth are the sources of information which have fostered plagiarism (Considine et, al 471). Moreover, plagiarism has frequently involved teachers and administrators who are determined to see the efforts of the student’s comprehension of learning. With the easy access to the internet and availability of all topics, plagiarisms have started to influence all teachers in all levels and diverting the students from the work of writing and reading. Although, there is no experimental research that proves the link between plagiarism and digital media as well as the internet some studies suggest that easy access to the internet acted as a catalyst in promoting plagiarism. Moreover, technology has turned out to be a tool for communication and offers idea and information but again, it has created misinterpretation of these ideas by the students. Since there a lot of ways to access content and information from different authors, the students have become very familiar with the search engines and tools which are outside the academic field.

The current spike in cheating and plagiarism is documented, it is not something new from the old one, the only difference is the technology. Cases of students participating in dishonesty behaviours like copying one another’s work have remained to be a challenge for teachers and administrators for the last 200 years. The current scholars belong to the millennial generation born in the years 1982 to 2002, the found easy access to technology (Chapter Twenty-Seven np). These millennials grew up using computers and internet technology as their medium of communication, publication and productivity. For this reason, the millennials do not see taking information from the internet as the same as copying directly from a book. They have different perceptions of the value of the intellectual property. Additionally, most of the content from the internet is free making it easy to be easily accessed by the students. Moreover, students plagiarize because of the academic standards and expectations set to them by the teachers and administrators.

In conclusion, a lot of students especially the millennials must plagiarize to complete their given assignments. This is something they have become used to since the majority of them are lazy and do not want to work on their own. Ideally, some students plagiarize with valid reason while others plagiarize for reasons that are not justifiable. Therefore, plagiarism affects the way of studying while demoting the quality of studies. To reduce plagiarism teachers and administrators should teach subjects that are interesting to the students to reduce plagiarism since students engage in plagiarism due to lack of interest in assignments.

Works Cited

Considine, David, Julie Horton, and Gary Moorman. “Teaching and Reaching the Millennial Generation Through Media Literacy.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.6 (2009): 471-481. Print.

“Chapter Twenty-Seven: David C. Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle, The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America’s Public Schools (1995).” Popular Educational Classics (n.d.): n. pag. Print.

Emerson, Lisa. “Plagiarism, a Turnitin Trial, and an Experience of Cultural Disorientation.” Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism (n.d.): 183-194. Print.