Running head: WHAT ROLE DOES PLAGIARISM PLAY IN COLLEGE

Transcription

1 1 The Role Plagiarism Plays in College Devan Miller Coastal Carolina University

2 2 Abstract In the world of writing today, there are two types of plagiarism: intentional and unintentional. With plagiarism on the rise, colleges and universities are keeping a watchful eye. When plagiarism is committed, punishments such as failing assignments, courses and even expulsions can occur. By educating students about the types of plagiarism and how to prevent these actions, this problem can be minimized. Programs such as Mendeley and Turnitin.com are designed to help students because of plagiarism. Mendeley is a program designed to help students save and cite sources, and allows sharing research papers and organization. Turnitin.com is a website designed to scan submitted papers for plagiarism and highlights the areas where plagiarism occurs. Programs such as these help students by preventing plagiarism and helping students independently. Keywords: Intentional plagiarism, Unintentional plagiarism, Mendeley, Turnitin.com

3 3 Introduction In college today, plagiarism is very common when it comes to writing paper. It is also extremely easy to do since the opportunity is available to copy and paste a text from the web to a paper. Although some students may plagiarize, most do not know what plagiarism is. The two types of plagiarism acts that are committed are intentional and unintentional plagiarism. College campuses are using programs to detect the possibility of plagiarism, which will catch anything. There are many methods that college students are using to cheat the system. Many college students face severe punishment for committing these acts. To avoid plagiarism, quotation marks and citations are essential. Although some students may plagiarize and not realize these acts, most colleges are using programs to detect plagiarism, which can result in many consequences. The Question Since plagiarism is such a problem, colleges and universities should educate their students about what plagiarism is? If plagiarism goes on at every college, do students really know what plagiarism is? The two types of plagiarism are intentional and unintentional. In this report, intentional and unintentional will be introduced as well as the consequences of plagiarism. Is plagiarism increasing and what are solutions to resolve this issue? What role does plagiarism play in college and can it be minimized?

4 4 Literature Review Plagiarism Plagiarism is when someone takes and uses another person s idea in part or all of his/her s own assignment without giving credit to the author (What is plagiarism?). Plagiarism is the act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author s work as one s own, by not crediting the original author (Plagiarism). Without this essential knowledge, students commit plagiarism without realizing that they re actually plagiarizing. Plagiarism comes in different forms from intentional and unintentional. Intentional plagiarism is being aware of the acts you are committing, for example, copying and pasting. Unintentional plagiarism is the lack of citing sources or properly paraphrasing. Intentional Plagiarism The definition of intentional plagiarism is claiming someone else s work as your own. Intentional plagiarism occurs when a student deliberately chooses to use another person s idea in part or all of his or her s own assignment without giving credit to the author (Intentional Plagiarism). These types of plagiarism occur when using another student s paper or purchasing papers offline and also by taking stories from a newspaper articles (Intentional Plagiarism). Other types of plagiarism can occur when a student invents sources, deliberately alters material or treats unauthored sources as common knowledge or falsifying data (Intentional Plagiarism). A national survey was taken and

5 5 statistics show that 54% of students plagiarized from the internet, 74% of students have admitted at least once engaged in serious cheating; 47% of students believe their teachers sometimes chose to ignore those students (Facts about plagiarism) Unintentional Plagiarism Younger students such as freshmen and sophomores are the most common type of students to commit unintentional plagiarism. The definition of unintentional plagiarism is not caused by sloppiness, laziness, or failure to learn or acknowledge sources (Unintentional Plagiarism). Unintentional plagiarism can be caused by not quoting sources and without acknowledging the author with quotation marks and citations. Failure to quote the original author and paraphrasing incompletely can cause many consequences and will be considered plagiarism (Unintentional Plagiarism). Some examples of unintentional plagiarism are poor paraphrasing and poor quoting and citing the information inaccurately (Scope of the offense). Types of Plagiarism There are 5 common types of plagiarism. One type of plagiarism is the Copy & paste (Copy & Paste Plagiarism) With this method you are lifting a sentence or phrase from a source, without using quotation marks and referencing the source (Copy & Paste Plagiarism) A second type of plagiarism is word switch (Word Switch Plagiarism) In this method you take a sentence from a source and change around a few words, without using quotation marks and giving credit to the source (Word Switch Plagiarism). The third type of plagiarism is style (Style Plagiarism) Style plagiarism involves taking sentences from a source and changing the order in which they go (Style

6 6 Plagiarism). The fourth type of plagiarism is metaphor plagiarism (Metaphor Plagiarism) Using metaphors in papers is very important to get an idea across to the reader, if using the author s metaphor be sure to always cite after the metaphor is complete (Metaphor Plagiarism). The last type if plagiarism is idea. (Idea Plagiarism) Idea plagiarism is distinguishing the author s ideas and solution from the source you are finding them. (Idea Plagiarism). Plagiarism Increasing Is plagiarism increasing or minimizing? Fordham University noticed a difference between the GPA of students who cheated and those who did not (Cheaters have higher GPAs). The average of those who cheat host a 3.41 while those who did not hosted a 2.85 (Cheaters have higher GPAs). These statistics could be a reason why students feel it is necessary to cheat to achieve the highest GPA in order to be at the top of their class. Even college students that don t cheat will still think it s a valuable strategy to scoring the best grades, internships, scholarships and awards possible (8 astonishing stats on academic cheating). With this being said some students feel obligated to cheat in order to keep a high GPA, which is another reason plagiarism will never be resolved. Consequences Plagiarism punishments can be a hefty toll. Many colleges and universities have a zero tolerance for plagiarism (Academic Punishments). When plagiarizing a paper you can receive a failure for the assignment and fail the course and sometimes in expulsion (Academic Punishment). If plagiarized an Fx, will appear which means failed the course, and can no longer take the course over again and will remain on your

7 7 transcripts. The college or university can also expel and kick you out. Legal punishment are considered misdemeanors, punishable by fines of anywhere between $100 and $50,000 (Legal Punishments). Plagiarism is considered copyright and copyright laws exist to protect our intellectual property (What are copyright laws?). Copyright laws are made to make anything illegal that is reproduced from someone else s expression of ideas or information without permission. These expressions can include music, images, written words, video, and a variety of other media (What are copyright laws?). Minimizing the problem There is no complete way to prevent plagiarism, but educating students of this issue will help minimize and resolve them from contributing. Plagiarism will continue to be a problem but many colleges and universities are taking many precautions as to help limit how much goes on. Colleges and universities have been cracking down and requiring students to use websites such as This website allows students to submit their paper and gives statistics about how much of their paper was plagiarized. Although you are guaranteed to always have a tiny percentage of plagiarism it does not always mean you plagiarized. Not only are websites like useful, but can also help minimize plagiarism in the classroom. The pros and cons of minimizing plagiarism could be debated by creating more work for teachers, but could also keep the problem to a minimum. A Stanford University professor said, who wants to sit around looking for websites trying to find out if a paper is plagiarize or not pretty soon you re a private investigator (Facts about Plagiarism).

8 8 Recommendations Although plagiarism will never be resolved, there are steps and precautions that can be taken to help avoid these crimes. A recommendation could be to use Mendeley. Mendeley is a downloadable program that organizes and shares research papers online. Mendeley has an online database for research. With this program, libraries can be created to sort and organize the information that is found useful (Conducting Initial Research). This program can highlight and annotate in the Desktop PDF Viewer to keep track of ideas, plan research and design experiments (Conducting Initial Research). With plagiarism being a problem at colleges and universities, Mendeley allows for the writer to cite and write. With this being said, Mendeley covers thousands of citation styles and you can even create your own (Writing a paper, review or grant proposal). Mendeley allows for private groups to invite your advisors and committee members to join so that everyone has easy access to all documents and references, all the time (Submitting a dissertation for review). If Mendeley is a program used religiously, a profile can be created and colleagues can be found online and added. Mendeley is a free program provided to any and everyone who would like to use their service.

9 9 References Plagiarism. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. Retrieved September 11, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: Facts about plagiarism (n.d.) iparadigms, LLC.. Retrieved September 6, 2012, from Plagiarism.org website: What are copyright laws (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012, from plagiarism.org website Conducting Initial Research (n.d.) Mendeley, Ltd.. Retrieved September 1, 2012, from Mendeley.com website: Writing a paper, review or grant proposal (n.d.) Mendeley, Ltd.. Retrieved September 4, 2012 from Mendeley.com website Submitting a dissertation for review (n.d.) Mendeley, Ltd.. Retrieved September 4, 2012 from Mendeley.com website Collaborating in project teams or lab groups (n.d.) Mendeley, Ltd.. Retrieved September 4, 2012 from Mendeley.com website Identifying Collaboration Partners (n.d.) Mendeley, Ltd.. Retrieved September 4, 2012 from Mendeley.com website Some specific examples of intentional plagiarism (n.d.) Retrieved September 5, 2012 from website

10 10 Some specific examples of unintentional plagiarism (n.d.) Retrieved September 5, 2012 from website Scope of the offense (n.d.) Retrieved September 5, 2012 from website Barnbaum, C. Plagiarism: A Student s Guide to Recognizing It and Avoiding It. Valdosta State University Retrieved September 7, 2012 from valdosta.edu website Legal Punishments (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012 from plagiarism.org website Academic punishment (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012 from plagiarism.org website 8 astonishing stats on academic cheating (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012 from oedb.org website Intentional Plagiarism (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012 from anselm.edu website from Integrity/Forms-of-Plagiarism.htm.

11 11 Untentional Plagiarism (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012 from anselm.edu website from Integrity/Forms-of-Plagiarism.htm. What is plagiarism? (n.d.) Retrieved September 6, 2012 from anselm.edu website from Integrity/What-is-Plagiarism.htm.