The Plague of Plagiarism
Simply defined, the word plagiarism means "the unauthorized use of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own" ("Plagiarism"). While many students understand and comprehend the first clause of this definition, many encounter problems with the second part - the thoughts part. Many students in today's educational system are frequently unable to develop their own thoughts, opinions, and ideas relating to the subject matter that they are studying. However, when people at a university are educated according to the ways set forth by John Henry Newman in "The Idea of a University," their ability to create original concepts would be cultivated to the point, where they do not feel the need to plagiarize and cheat. Newman also states that in the end, the university will produce citizens that can give back to society (48). Jeffrey Hart makes a similar point in "How to Get a College Education." Therefore, according to both Newman and Hart, an honest person will be fashioned by the university. Since honesty does not breed cheating, should not cheating then be minimized? Plagiarism and its sister cheating are plagues on society that only serve to corrupt it. Nevertheless, the education given by a university can diminish and, perhaps, even eradicate the disease by instilling in students, a sense of honor, and implementing harsh penalties on those caught cheating or plagiarizing.
The fostering of independent thought is sometimes forgone in today's educational system. At times, students are encouraged to just complete their assignment instead of thinking about what they are doing so that they may fully understand their...
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... single disease. So, if universities devote even part of their programs seriously to curing society of this plague, it is quite possible that cheating and plagiarism can be eradicated once and for all.
Works Cited
Clayton, Mark. "A Whole Lot of Cheatin'Going On." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 185 - 190.
Hart, Jeffrey. "How to Get a College Education." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 126 - 131.
Newman, John Henry. "The Idea of a University." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 126 - 131.
"Plagiarism." Random House Webster's College Dictionary. 2nd ed. 2001.
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Babe Ruth is still a very well-known person in history today, even almost one-hundred years later. He did not only change the way people viewed negro baseball leagues, but he also gained a large reputation for his ability to play baseball, obviously due to his amazing abilities. Ruth’s ability to play was almost impossibly good, in fact, he was even titled “athlete of the century” for his ability. With that ability and power that he had once he won, he would become a
In consideration, many unexpected events can occur to us, which helps to shape one’s belief in something that they should avoid having. The novel, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver portrays the life of Taylor Greer, a young and spirited woman who is brave enough to move out of a rural home in Kentucky with the goal of avoiding pregnancy. Little did Taylor know, she faces a human condition of accepting a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle. Throughout her journey, she creates many friendships with other people and love toward Turtle so there are many things that
Babe Ruth did not have an ideal or even average American childhood. George Herman Ruth, Jr. was born on February 6, 1895 on the second story of his grandmother's house on in Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth did not have a happy childhood. Ruth fended for himself most of his childhood while his parents worked in their saloon (http://www.baberuth.com, 1). Mr. and Mrs. Ruth had seven children after Ruth but only one survived, his sister Mary Margaret. By the time Ruth was five he was a very rebellious child, he skipped school, stole, drank, and, participated in many adult behaviors. Looking back on these days Ruth told Fred Lieb, "I learned early to drink beer, wine, whiskey, and I think I was about five when I first chewed tobacco. There was a lot of cussin' in Pop's saloon, so I learned a lot of swear words, some really bad ones" (http://fsweb.wm.edu, 1). When Ruth was seven his father sent him to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, and signed custody over to the Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic order of Jesuit missionaries who ran St. Mary's. Ruth did not like the strict atmosphere at St. Mary's. Jackie Stelle quotes Ruth in his biography, "it was like a prison to me. St. Mary's had a stone wall that surrounded us, and guards that were always on duty" (http://www.
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He was only 7 years old and was a troublemaker by drinking, chewing tobacco and taunting police, when Ruth’s Family decided he needed more discipline. His family sent him to a Catholic orphanage and reformatory for boys for 12 years. A monk named Brother Matthias, who was a father figure to Ruth, introduced him to baseball and after playing one game, he excelled. By 15 years of age, Ruth became skillful and strong in the game by the minute. One day, Ruth had his luck made by Jack Dunn owner of minor league Baltimore Orioles. Babe Ruth is hero due to displaying the heroic traits of talented and devotion.
... Ruth, along with others, came at a time when the country was looking for, and needed heroes, and the new commercial radio stations of the 1920s gave people more access to them. Many people began to admire athletes such as the boxer Jack Dempsey, or golfers Bobby Jones and Walter Hagan, and other baseball players like Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb. The country was in desperate need of distractions from the pain and suffering that had gone on during the war, and these men provided it.
As American education enters a time when the ability to use technology becomes imperative, a time when students will become expected to communicate and work via the Internet, and a time when students will need to be able to find and interpret information efficiently and correctly, secondary school teachers are searching for ways to provide their students with assessments that mirror the expectations those students will face in the workforce. One way to do this is to have students research topics and create position papers, presentations, and various other forms of written expression that require students to synthesize and analyze information. However, in the midst of researching topics and sharing ideas, these same students are faced with the temptation to simply copy and paste information as they find it. Instances of plagiarism are on the rise, yet teachers are in a position where they cannot discontinue this type of assessment. Therefore, teachers face the question: How can we stop the rise of plagiarism among students?
...own its scholars. Plagiarism has become so widespread and tolerated, that it is almost too much work to eradicate. The result is sending a message to students that plagiarism is an issue of cleverness (who can avoid being caught) rather than morality. For this, I am saddened that higher standards of thought and morality are not enforced for the good of the scholar and society.
Lang, J. M. (2013, 8 4). How college classes encourage cheating. Retrieved 4 16, 2014, from http://www.bostonglobe.com: http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/08/03/how-college-classes-encourage-cheating/3Q34x5ysYcplWNA3yO2eLK/story.html
Early in the fall semester, a professor of American studies at Cornell found a three-page paper on the Internet analyzing a poem by Anne Bradstreet. A student in his course had just handed in that very paper. Accused of plagiarism, the student confessed that she had taken the paper from an Anne Bradstreet Web site. She had locked herself out of her apartment the night before the paper was due, she said, and without access to her notes had panicked.
Plagiarism is a very serious topic to be dealt with, due to the fact that it can damage one’s future very severely. It is done often by students in high school and other institutes such as universities and colleges. People plagiarize intentionally and sometimes even unintentionally. The people who plagiarize intentionally are people who don’t really care about their future and career. The people who plagiarize unintentionally are people who do not cite their work properly and completely. Most people that plagiarize do not get a good mark and most likely have to face consequences such as failure, suspension or the chance of being expelled. In conclusion it is believed that one should not put his/her future at risk and try to expand their mind through the process of critical thinking independently, so they do not have to make the mistake of plagiarizing.
The pressure on students in high school and college students can be quite overwhelming. A student may have several different classes, each with a heavy workload and none of which they are interested in taking. With their parents breathing down their necks and their financial aid dependent on passing grades, some are tempted and even go through with acts of academic dishonesty in the forms of cheating and/or plagiarizing. There are many reasons why students cheat and plagiarize, they may not even understand the difference between the two, but there are also possible solutions to prevent cheating and plagiarizing in education.
Every year millions of students enroll in college. Some will give it their all, some will do the best they can and some will try to get out of doing the work required by cheating. The most common form of cheating in college is plagiarism. “Plagiarism is theft: the stealing and appropriating of someone else’s words and ideas and passing them off as your own” (“Preventing Plagiarism”). Due to increasing pressures to excel, students who are motivated by a goal to maintain their GPA because they believe they will obtain a high paying lucrative job once they graduate from college turn to plagiarism as a way to succeed.
“ACADEMIC DISHONESTY, with Internet plagiarism as one of the most common forms, is a concern on college and university campuses more than ever before. A review of the literature validates these concerns. According to a 2003 nationwide research study of 23 public and private colleges and universities, conducted by Donald L. McCabe, Internet plagiarism is on the rise. Thirty-eight percent of the undergraduate students surveyed indicated that they had engaged in Internet plagiarism (as cited in Rimer, 2003); one study states that nearly 49% of students in undergraduate marketing classes admitted cheating in 1988 compared to 100% of the students in an undergraduate management class in 2008 (Brown, Weible, & Olmosk, 2010). Education Week found that 54% of surveyed students admitted to Internet plagiarism, and 76% admitted to cheating; and the Center for Academic Integrity found almost 80% of the college students surveyed admitted to cheating at least once (“Facts About Plagiarism,” 2011)” (Jones, 2011). The overwhelming increase in academic dishonesty, cheating, and plagiarism within student bodies across the country have created a concern for the morality and discernment of those inside the field of academia. It has created a rise in question of whether or not students these days have the capabilities to ethically choose the correct decisions, not just in academics, but also throughout life.
Cheating is prevalent and on the rise, especially in schools. In a 2009 study of advantage high school students from 4,316 high schools, 93% stated they cheated at least once. Within this same study 26% of upperclassman cheated five out of nine ways students cheat (Galloway 378), usually by plagiarizing , copying another student’s homework or exam, or collaborating on homework (McCabe 3). Students are under a lot of stress and pressure to succeed in school and in their personal life which comes from other peers, society, family expectations, and themselves. When students see fellow classmates cheat, it sends a message to them that it is acceptable. It has become the normalized (Galloway 378-379). However the consequences if they are caught are getting expelled from school, or receiving a low grade in the class, which in turn will show on their transcript. It’s been shown that teachers don’t report students cheating, handle it in their own way, or they just simply ignore the issue because the teachers don’t want have to deal with all the paperwork in reporting (McCabe 133). According to McCabe’s survey of 789 teachers at 16 U.S. colleges from 2002 to 2010, 40% ignored the issue of cheating and 51% didn’t repo...