As academia has grown over the years, so have the reported incidents of plagiarism. Numerous learning institutions are seeing these rising numbers and are wondering why and what they can do to change that.
Most students today will unashamedly say they are procrastinators. It becomes a competition among friends to see who can procrastinate the most and get the best grade. Some joke about getting a degree in procrastination. These jokes can all be funny and are often not harmful. However, there is a correlation between the fine art of putting things off until tomorrow and academic dishonesty.
When you have given yourself only five hours before a deadline for a paper to begin, you may feel slightly pressured but optimistic. As those five hours dwindle down, you begin to remember just how much work it takes to really write a good and thorough paper. Surely, your professor won't notice a cut and paste here or there, right? With minutes to spare, you submit your paper. The use of even just these few sections (be they phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or entire papers) is plagiarism--an offense often punishable with the harshest repercussions.
It is easy to see procrastination give way to plagiarism. Another common cause of plagiarism is simply being uninformed of unaware of how to properly cite a source. This form of plagiarism is often regarded as unintentional. However, just as with procrastination, it is preventable. There are numerous books and websites that can clarify the process to prevent accidental plagiarism. When in doubt, always cite.
Professors and educators making a point of addressing plagiarism and enforcing strict repercussions is an important part to curbing the widespread nature of plagiarism today. However, it is equally important to not abuse that power and to take full advantage of the learning opportunities in those situations.
No comments:
Post a Comment