Plagiarism among University Students - Coursework Example

Business Management – Plagiarism among Introduction Plagiarism is the copying or stealing of ideas or information from another person without giving credit to them. Plagiarism comes from a Latin verb that means, “to kidnap.” If you plagiarize you’re kidnapping and stealing others’ hard work and intellectual property (What is plagiarism? n. d). In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices, 2003, p.1) Preparation of a literature or an essay is not an easy thing and the author may need to undergo lot of hard work in order to prepare a paper. Nobody wants to steal their hard earned property easily by others. Plagiarism is an addiction like alcohol or drug addiction among school and college students. Students are giving more importance to their leisure activities than studies which prevent them from working hard for completing their assignments in time. This paper briefly analyses the plagiarism issue, its importance in the current world, reasons for plagiarism and solutions for it. Importance of plagiarism issue Shortcuts are the order of the current world which is actually harmful in the long run. Short term goals are given more importance by sacrificing the long term goals. During their studies, most of the students will search for shortcuts in order to get good marks or grade in the examination. The current curriculum is filled with lot of assignments which require lot of time and efforts to complete. These assignments are meant for improving the numerical, reasoning and analytical skills which are essential for their future endeavour. But it is difficult for the students to think about the importance of these skills in future and they will look for shortcuts to solve the assignment problems. The negative impacts of plagiarism will be visible only when the students grow up and engage in some kind of profession. Most of the current professions require skills like numerical ability, reasoning, quick decision making, analysis etc. Because of the underdevelopments of these skills during the studies, these people would find it extremely difficult to handle such situations. During their studies, they have access to lot sources which helped them getting good marks or grade. But during their professional or family life, they might not get enough help from others and will face stiff challenges. Though most of the academic people are against plagiarism there are some who sees some benefits out of plagiarism. Russell Hunt of St. Thomas University has cited four reasons for supporting plagiarism. In his opinion, plagiarism should be welcomed because The institutional rhetorical writing environment (the "research paper," the "literary essay," the "term paper") is challenged by this, and thats a good thing The institutional structures around grades and certification are challenged by this, and thats a good thing The model of knowledge held by almost all students, and by many faculty -- the tacit assumption that knowledge is stored information and that skills are isolated, asocial faculties -- is challenged by this, and thats a good thing by facing this challenge we will be forced to help our students learn what I believe to be the most important thing they can learn at university: just how the intellectual enterprise of scholarship and research really works. (Hunt, 2002) The current curriculum is filled with lot of assignments and the many educationalists have doubts over the effectiveness of transfer of learning through research papers or assignments alone. The increased volume of assignments increases the efforts needed by the people, but at the same time it decreases the efforts of the teachers and the teachers will be lazy in their profession. They will try to teach all the topics through assignments alone which might not be good teaching practice.The achievements of the students are rated by the grades they received as per the current academic curriculum. But we have lots of examples in which those who got better grade failed in their professionals. In other words the current grading system has lot of disadvantages and the rating scales used by the teachers need to be modified. There is a superstition among academic scholars that knowledge and skills are isolated things. The purpose of assignments is for developing the skills rather than knowledge. But the academic experts conveniently forget the fact that without knowledge, skill cannot survive. For example, an elderly teacher who relies entirely on his academic knowledge acquired during his studies to teach students might not be a good teacher. The current and the past knowledge have lot of differences and the current students need current knowledge. Analogue receivers were used, a couple of decades before in order to receive television signals, but at present more compact and advanced digital receivers were used for the same purpose. In other words, the same technician who worked on analogue receivers need to acquire knowledge about digital receivers in order to polish his repairing skills. Thus knowledge acquirement is essential for skill development and hence assignments alone might not yield the desired results. Moreover the students will get in depth knowledge about the importance of intellectual property when they try to plagiarise something. Reasons for plagiarism The major reason for plagiarism is the students’ concern about the grades. They were afraid of failure if they work on their own ideas and will go after other’s ideas. Most of the assignments are time consuming processes and generally the students are poor time managers. So they will use the shortcuts. When they compare the importance of achieving better grades against cheating, they usually select the second option. Most of the assignments provided by the teachers are complicated ones which need thorough analysis and in depth knowledge. Most of the students, who have doubts in their abilities, will look for alternate options in such cases. Another reason for the increased volume of plagiarism is the soft approach towards it by the teachers. Only through enforcing stiff penalties plagiarism issue can be countered. The papers submitted by the students must be scanned thoroughly for plagiarism issue and only the genuine papers should be accepted by the authorities. Solutions for preventing plagiarism “Instead of asking students to write about "What were the factors that led up to the French Revolution", or some other historical event, why not ask them to write about "Why did an equivalent event during the same historical period NOT happen?” (Dealing with Plagiarism Issues, 2005) The current methodology in providing the assignment should be thoroughly revised. The direct questions should not be given as assignments, instead indirect questions which need lot of self evaluation should be provided as assignments. Distinguish between misuse of sources and plagiarism, Ask students for documentation; Ask students to draw on and document a variety of sources, Use plagiarism detection services cautiously, Take Appropriate Disciplinary Actions, Talk about the underlying implications of plagiarism etc are some means of avoiding plagiarism. (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices, 2003, p.4 to p.7) Before providing the assignments the teachers must give the students a clear picture about the assessment criteria of the paper. The teacher should clearly indicate that he/ she gives more importance to own ideas rather than others’ ideas. The teacher must encourage the students by giving higher grades to self made papers even is some mistakes are there. Students must be given periodical awareness class about the importance of developing skills during their studies. Most of the students don’t think much about their future when they engage in plagiarism like issues. It is the duty of the teacher to make them aware of the dangers involved in plagiarizing. The overload of assignments should be reduced and the students should be given enough time to prepare their papers. The increased dependence of assignments for the grading criteria must be reduced. The teacher should adopt other methods like class tests to assess the capacity of a student. It is better to give different short topics to different students and ask them to complete those short assignments during their class time itself. The lengthy assignments can be thus divided into small parts and it can be worked out in the class time itself. The volume of home assignments should be reduced and that of the class assignments must be increased. Conclusions Plagiarism is one of the serious academic issues face by the teachers at present. Most of the assignments given to the students for developing their skills have been plagiarized and hence the purpose of giving home assignment has been vindicated. Students are giving more importance to their leisure activities than their studies and the increased influence of computers and internet has encouraged them to go after shortcuts in order to complete their assignments. The volume of the home assignments should be reduced and the class assignments must be increased by reducing the size of the assignments in order to counter the plagiarism issue. Stiff penalties must be imposed for those who found guilty of plagiarism. References 1. What is plagiarism?, (n. d), Retrieved on 19 August 2009 from http://www.wadsworth.com/english_d/special_features/plagiarism/definition.html 2. Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices,( 2003), Retrieved on 19 August 2009 from http://www.wadsworth.com/english_d/special_features/plagiarism/WPAplagiarism.pdf 3. Dealing with Plagiarism Issues, (2005), Retrieved on 19 August 2009 from http://www.rmcdenver.com/useguide/lessons/plagiar.htm 4. Russell Hunt (2002), St. Thomas University, Four Reasons to be Happy about Internet Plagiarism, Retrieved on 19 August 2009 from http://www.stu.ca/~hunt/4reasons.htm Read More