A Pedagogic Placebo for Plagiarism - Essay Example

In this context, it would be instructive to look at the specific instance of plagiarism by students and researchers. Plagiarism can be defined as the “lifting of parts or entirety of another person’s work without citing them properly”. It can also mean to be that the student has just copied another person’s work without bothering to put his or her own ideas in the paper. The other definitions of plagiarism include the use of another person’s ideas and thought processes as one’s own and imitating the style and tenor as well.

However, these instances are dealt with lightly by the academic authorities who are more concerned about the outright lifting of other people’s work.Plagiarism is a matter of utmost importance in an academic environment. There are very few universities that do not have an anti-plagiarism policy in place and the punishments for plagiarism are often very severe and result in expulsion and debarring the student. The whole issue of plagiarism assumes serious proportions in an academic environment as the students are expected to do their papers with due diligence and without recourse to other people’s work.

The issue can be framed as a battle against originality versus copying other’s work.On the other hand, some of the devices and tools that are used to check the veracity of the papers fail to distinguish between “quoted materials and original writing” (Carbone, 2001). This is the flip side of the academic community’s attempts to stamp out plagiarism. Thus, what we have is an overzealous attitude that is counterproductive insofar as detecting the cases of plagiarism goes.

In concluding the introduction to the paper about plagiarism, it would be worthwhile to note that plagiarism is practice should be discouraged as far as possible and efforts should be made to inculcate a sense of responsibility and honesty among the student community. But, these efforts should not push the envelope so far as to tread on the