The Importance of Ethics Academically and Professionally

1251 Words3 Pages

According to plagiarism.org, “A national survey published in Education Week found that 54% of students admitted to plagiarizing from the internet; 74% of students admitted that at least once during the past school year they had engaged in "serious" cheating; and 47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating.” About two years, a classmate of mine was caught plagiarizing. The classmate was always known to be a great writer because they would receive astounding letter grades on their papers. However when this particular assignment was turned in, they was guilty of plagiarism. Consequently they received a zero on the assignment which resulted in them ultimately failing the class. This incident affected them so badly that they immediately transferred schools. Personally knowing the classmate, when asked why they did it, they responded because they honestly thought they would not get caught. Although all of my professors would stress to everyone about plagiarism, I never understood how exactly they would know the truth or even think a student would be brave enough to engage in plagiarism and get away with it. Judging from the statistics, there is a major issue with academic dishonesty at the institutions in the United States. Moreover, if plagiarism is considered unethical then why do students continue to engage in such activity? Perhaps they do not fully understand the proper way of citing, or know the definition therefore they associate plagiarism with other things or they don’t understand the consequences not only academically but as an employee. The purpose of this essay is to understand why plagiarism is unethical and how student attitudes toward plagiarism could impact the work envir...

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