Reasons for Plagiarism among University Students - Essay Example

Reasons for Plagiarism among University Students (Student Name) (Student Number) (Department) (Date of submission) Introduction University education is designed to train students for life long research and writing. For this to happen effectively, products of the system should be able to practice academic integrity. However, this does not happen, many undergraduate students plagiarize when answering assessment test and when writing their thesis and dissertations, Jones et al, (2011). It has been noted by Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014), that an ideal situation is where educators identify plagiarism and address them. However, it is not simple to identify because it comes in multiple dimensions. According to Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014), plagiarism is synonymous to academic dishonesty. Academic dishonest can be seen in different perspectives. To begin with, , (Chris, 2003) said that using another person’s ideas and works and failing to acknowledge them or citing and referencing them improperly is plagiarizing. Secondly, a student is said to plagiarise if he/she claim responsibility for other people’s work, like copying direct from a fellow student, copying and pasting from the internet or copying from lecture notes, Jude Carroll and Zetterling, (2010). Thirdly, a student is said to Plagiarize if the student claims to having done assessment work which was done someone else thereby deliberately deceiving the maker, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). Reasons for student’s plagiarism The main reason for students’ plagiarism is universality plagiarism policy. Students plagiarize because of lack of proper disciplinary action to students who plagiarize. Plagiarism with the University student has sky rocketed since the emergence of the internet. Most students adopt the writing and research approaches that amount to plagiarism. However, the markers do not realize that such works have been plagiarized thereby ends up giving the students good marks. This tends to motivate the students to use the same method of research and writing the next time they are handling a term paper, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). A good university policy on plagiarism should be backed up by instructors. Instructors should do a thorough investigation of student’s works to ensure that they are authentic. If such investigation is not thorough, students gets away with plagiarism, lecturers and tutors mark the students work and award marks thereby encouraging the same behaviour in future. However, when proper investigation is conducted and the plagiarizing culprits subjected to a disciplinary action, students learn that plagiarism is dangerous to their academic life, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). Another reason for university students plagiarising is ignorance. Most students do not understand how to appropriately use primary and secondary research material to answer their assignments, Carroll and Zetterling, (2010). Academic writing, source citing and referencing are skills that are key to performing research in the university. Absence of such skills leads students to plagiarize. With this kind of plagiarism, students do not feel guilty of plagiarism, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). They always attribute the failure to their tutors or lecturers of system for not training them to accurately do the task. Sometimes instructors do not teach student how to conduct research, do proper citation and referencing, Williams, (2002). They just give students assignments to research on. In such cases students end up plagiarizing, Carroll and Zetterling, (2010) National intellectual property rights differ from one country to another. Some countries’ policies are porous to protection of intellectual property rights, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). In such countries student researchers conducting academic research may infringe other people’s intellectual property rights thereby plagiarizing. However, such students are still acting within the laws that are accepted in that nation. Examples of such countries are Vietnam, China and Japan. In Vietnam, referencing is important but in text citation is not given a lot of attention. With this kind of referencing style, a student can easily use and information material and fail to reference them considering how hard it is to verify the truth in the reference list. In other countries where academic policies are exam oriented like Malaysia, students rarely get exposure to research and plagiarism issues, when such students conduct researches in future they end up plagiarising because of their lack of understanding of need for academic integrity, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014) Other countries where English is a second language or foreign, plagiarism occurs because researcher may not know how to internalize a concept and put it in own words. When English is second or subsequent language, reading and understanding other people works which are written in English pose a challenge to the student. The student ends up coping and pasting of the information they need from the source material. If this happens and proper quotation and citing is not done, then it amounts to plagiarism, Bloomfield, L. (2002). Lack of knowledge and proper understanding of idea; distinguishing between intellectual property and general knowledge sometimes confuse students, the end up using another person’s idea thinking it is a general knowledge thing hence failing to acknowledge the source, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). The do not understand that however famous an idea or some words are, they should not use them until they get to know the real owner so that they can mention them and follow it with correct in text citation and proper referencing. Because of the difficulty associated with determining such small details, students end up plagiarizing unintentionally, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). Other issues that may confuse the students is ‘using own words’, proper citation, quoting, referencing and copyright clearance for copying large portion of intellectual property. Students also plagiarize to get good grades. Other plagiarizes because of an external pressure exerted to them pushing them to perform well. For whatever reason it is, they plagiarize to get better grades, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). Most students start working while learning in the university, some to raise fees, some to raise pocket money for own use. Other do not necessary work but are faced with various challenges which demand part of their time. Such challenges could be co-curricula activities, family needs and active social life. Blending academic works with these time demanding issues sometimes may challenge students in terms of time management. When students don’t manage their time well yet having to attend classes, work and perform their house cores at the same time; they will end up spoiling the broth. This happens when they do not get enough time to solve the assignment and therefore rashly Google for related answers, copy them and paste and edit a few things and call it own works failing to acknowledge the source, Bloomfield, L. (2002). Some students out of their laziness decide not to do genuine work for some funny reasons. Such reasons include social pressure or truancy. Most of the students nowadays copy and paste from the internet. Many new students are likely to be recruited to this culture now or in future because, if some have done it and have always succeeded, then why should they not try? In such cases, students who plagiarise for this reason, take shortcut a clever way to handle assignment. Such students can recollect past assignments. Others go and extra mile to copying a whole thesis that was written by someone else, rewrite it or rewriting part of it and submitting as their own work. This is totally unethical, Bloomfield, L. (2002). Some students just find fun in plagiarizing; they enjoy every bit of truancy and dishonesty that accompanies it, Anon. (2002). Such students have very little or no respect for authority. They consider assignment less important and give them equally unimportant treat. Such students do not take time to think about their future and need for honesty. Another category of student is those who cheat for their negative attitude towards the course. Such attitude could be as a result of negative attitude towards the instructor of the course. However, some students tend to charge a tutor, lecturer of professor as not likely not to go through the detailed contents of the research carefully. Such students lack true integrity in their academic works, Anon. (2002). Sometimes students find that benefits that accrue as a result of plagiarism outweigh the risk associated with it. When the chance of being caught are limited and punishment for plagiarism it at all they are caught is light, the students are motivated to plagiarize, Ting, Musa and Mah, (2014). Conclusion Tertiary education is meant to prepare students for life long research. It is therefore important for academicians to learn proper skills of research. However, this does not happen, students end up breaching intellectual ethical code of conduct. Some students practice unethical writing and research methods. Reason for such misconduct is weakness in the university policies in areas governing students conduct and need for lecturers to take keen interest in preparing students for the life long research. This is backed up by; ignorance, national policy, language, students personal attributes and poor time management. References Anon. (2002). Plagiarise. Let no one else’s work evade your eyes. The Economist. [Online]. Available: http://economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=1033832 [8 April, 2015]. Bloomfield, L. (2002). The Plagiarism Resource Site. [Online]. Available: http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/links.html [8 April, 2015]. Brisbane Graduate Jensen, L.A., Arnett, J.J., Feldman, S.S. & Cauffman, E. (2002). It’s wrong, but everybody does it: Academic dishonesty among high school and college students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 209-228. Jeremy B. Williams, (2002) Are Students Entirely to Blame? Retrieved from: www.emiraldinsighht .com. [8 April, 2015] Chris Mark, (2003), In Other (People’s) Words: plagiarism by university students—literature and lesson. (Online)Available From:,... [8 April, 2015] Jude Carroll and Carl-Mikael Zetterling, (2010) Guiding students away from plagiarism, Ting, S-H., Musa, M. K. And Mah S-F, (2014). Plagiarism and Norms and Practices in Coursework. International Journal of Education,(1)73-89. Retrieved from: www.proquest.umi.com on [8 April, 2015] Read More