Code of Ethics (Plagiarism) - Research Paper Example

PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is a terrible problem affecting many peoples' educative possibilities. It must be seriously dealt with at universities. Plagiarism is presenting somebody else's work as your own. It is using sources or copying words and not citing them properly. The punishment for plagiarism is often severe: failing the class or being expelled. It is something that no honest student or scholar should ever do. The Student Code of Conduct, Academic Integrity, talks a lot about plagiarism, how to detect it and what should be done in terms of discipline.

It is quite comprehensive. It also deals with falsifying data or work (“Promoting Academic Integrity”). Professors should be on the watch for work that appears to be too professional for a student to have done. The Ethics at the COB section talks about similar things, but mostly in terms of values. There are a number of values that the school looks for including integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness (“College of Business Ethos Statement”). All of these things would preclude a student from plagiarizing.

Students must be honest with the school and honest with themselves. The truth is that all good essays should show evidence of deep and original research. Plagiarism should simply never be tolerated in submitted work. At university it is never enough to regurgitate a Wikipedia entry and pretend it is your own work. A good essay will includ primary and secondary sources, and be written in your own words. In the sciences, and scientific academic work, for example, raw data is important, but few can doubt that how that data has been interpreted by others, over the years, is also very significant.

You cannot just pretend you have discovered this stuff yourself. You must cite work done by others and not just present it as your own work. It is honestly easy to forget where your work starts and where someone else's begins—for that reason you should keep careful notes. That is what scholars with integrity do. That is how a lot of plagiarism starts. You copy a few quotes into your paper planning to cite them properly. But then time passes and you begin to forget what work is your work and what writing is not.

In the future, I will be careful to always cite my sources, keep notes of my research, and avoid using wikipedia. It is possible to wonder if plagiarism will ever be eliminated. Eastern Michigan University has a lot of rules on the matter, but they probably work to only deter a few people. There seems to be a rise in the amount of plagiarism these days. The truth is that there are many different people in society. Some people are self-starters who have integrity and are honest and would never think of plagiarizing some one else's work.

But there are other people too who are lazy and unable to write. These people may will plagiarize and get away with it. Classes are so big these days that it is hard for professors to know. This is not a problem we can blame on ignorance of the rules. They rules are clearly written in the code of ethics. And every plagiarist will claim to be ignorant of their act when caught if they think they can get away with it. The problem is that there are people in university today who should not be there.

When fact this is acknowledged by university administrators then the debate can truly begin. Bibliography Anderson, Gregory L. (May 1999). Cyberplagiarism. College & Research Libraries News,, V. 60 Issue 5, pp. 371-375 “College of Business Ethos Statement.” Eastern Michigan University http://www.cob.emich.edu/include/templatesubpage.cfm?id=1137 “Promoting Academic Integrity: A Guide for Faculty.” Eastern Michigan University. http://www.emich.edu/studentconduct/facultylinks/academic_integrity.html