The Problem of Internet Plagiarism
In November 2001, CNN reported a case of alleged rampant plagiarism at the University of Virginia involving 72 cases and 148 students. What happened at the University of Virginia is only one of many cases of plagiarism faced everyday all over the world. Plagiarism itself is not a new problem, but the Internet has made a difficult situation even more complex. According to Ryan:
Plagiarized work used to be generated through frat house recycling efforts, purchased from local ghost writers, or simply copied from campus library reference materials, all clumsy efforts readily detectable by educators familiar with their course material. But the World Wide Web and other resources have changed the game and left educators scrambling to keep abreast of plagiarists' new methods.
The problem of online plagiarism is the focus of this term paper. While this form of plagiarism is a problem at all levels of education, this paper will concentrate on the University level.
The definition of plagiarizes as defined by Webster=s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary is as follows, Ato take and pass off as one=s own (the ideas, writings, etc. of another)@ (p.1371). This is a broad definition that addresses the overall concept of plagiarism but does not focus specifically on the electronic aspect. Lothrop and Foss specifically describe electronic plagiarism. They call it Acyber plagiarism,@ and say it is, Athe new term for student copying from the many online Web sites, or paper mills, which offer thousands of reports and term papers on almost any topic@ (p.18).
So how extensive is the problem of electronic plagiarism on college campuses today? According to Ryan, exact numbers are hard to establish due to...
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Claudett Killen, H. B., Claudett Monica, B., Wong M. C. S., Martinez A. N., Espinoza R.
One of the most pressing issues facing the United States today is its failing educational system. While many solutions have been proposed, the idea of charter schools has been both popular and controversial. The topic of charter schools is being debated in as many places as local school board meetings to state supreme courts. Though on the surface, charter schools seem like an exciting and promising step for the future of education in America, they are not the answer to this country’s ever-increasing educational problems. Charters will drain already scarce funding from regular public schools, and many of the supposed “positives” surrounding them are uncertain and unpredictable at best.
In the text, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, author Diane Ravitch explores her ideological shift on school reform and the empirical evidence that caused this shift. Once a proponent and contributor of testing, accountability, choice, and market reforms, Ravitch’s support began to diminish as she realized that these current reforms were not viable options. She came to realize that the new school reforms focused entirely on structural and managerial adjustments and that no focus was given to actual learning.
Plagiarism is defined as using others people’s ideas, writings, and quotes without giving credit to the author by citing the material in the paper. Plagiarism can come from copying many things including charts, graphs, text, and music. Even paraphrasing an author’s work without citing it can be considered plagiarism. Plagiarism certainly has been around long before the first research project was assigned. One of the most famous scientists Gregor Mendel had his work plagiarized by another scientist Hugo de Vries in the 19th century.[1] Mendel had come up with breakthroughs in genetics, but no one realized what he had accomplished. Later in the early 1900’s, de Vries published a paper with very similar to Medel’s work. It was not realized until a third scientist Carl Correns was doing some similar experiments and read the works of both Mendel and de Vries. In his paper, he gave credit to Mendel and discredited de Vries’ work.[2]
To understand the actual differences of charter and public school quality of education, it is important to emphasize a fact often lost in the debate; namely, charter schools are public schools, which simply operate under different guidelines. This reality is more critical because of how perception clouds it. Charter schools are perceived as private institutions, supporters of them tend to be conservatives who feel the schools represent the value of competition in education, while opponents typically express the need for public school reform as more crucial in promoting educational equality (Rofes, 159). This political and ideological compone...
The issue of whether charter or public schools are more beneficial for students has been an ongoing debate. The question that arise is which type provides a better education. Having gone to a charter high school myself, I got to see and experience first-hand the benefits of going to a charter school as well as realizing the issues charter schools face here in Oklahoma. These problems need to address in order to guarantee that students are getting the best education that they can get. We are facing an epidemic today with our education system and charter schools could be the solution. There may be opponents to the idea of having charter schools, but they have been wildly successful lately and are quickly expanded throughout the states. This is due to the fact that charter schools can benefit people economically, educationally, and as well as socially.
The better educated you are, the better off you are socially, and economically. Having a degree is, in general, a good indicator of your level of education. To get it some students study very hard. Others, on the contrary, prefer to take some shortcuts that seem to be easier for them. Those, not so much interested in acquiring a solid education, simply want to plagiarize to pass their classes, to get that degree. Plagiarism spreads out through any level of our education system. It even extends beyond that limit to reach almost any aspect of our society. With the internet revolution, this problem becomes more acute. “The web has provided global access to an unfathomable cornucopia of term papers, essays, and other scholarly works, right there out in the open for purchase or outright theft” (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 160). This paper will discuss the different types of plagiarism. Before getting deeper into that discussion, we will start by explaining the word plagiarism.
New York Times journalist, Trip Gabriel, puts into perspective students ability to use their creativity throughout their academic career in “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age.” This article discusses issues of plagiarism in the digital age, especially through college students. There are different perspectives from various people either attending college or professors that argue why plagiarism occurs. Whether it’s because of laziness, unpreparedness going into college, originality, or authorship not taken into consideration. Overall, this article infers the different standpoints of plagiarism, demonstrating the ease the digital age gives students to plagiarize, and the importance
In many high schools around the country, student athletes are using drugs. “The percent of students that have drunk alcohol is 72.5% while the number of students who have used marijuana is 36.8%” (Report: Nearly Half of High School Students Using Drugs, Alcohol). The students believe that since they are athletes that they do not need to abide by the rules because they feel more superior and that the narcotic will not hurt or affect them. Implementing random drug tests for athletes will create a positive image and not hurt others or themselves. Schools need to have drug tests for student athletes because drugs effect relationships, using drugs have consequences, and lastly they have a major effect on the body.
Plagiarism exists in greater and lesser forms. It can range anywhere from copying a phrase without giving credit, to copying entire works and submitting them under ones own name. In Steven Wilhoit’s book "Helping Students Avoid Plagiarism", several forms of plagiarism are outlined:
Whitbourne, S. K. (2013, February 26). Is Low Self-Esteem Making You Vulnerable to Depression?. Psychology Today. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201302/is-low-self-esteem-making-you-vulnerable-depression
The Web. The Web. 1 Apr 2011. http://0-www.jstor.org.library.acaweb.org/stable/3527981>. Parker, Michael.
Petridis, Alexis. "Elton John: 'When I Was on Drugs There Was a Monstrous Side to Me'" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 May 2014.< http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/15/elton-john-drugs-monstrous-side>
Thanks to the internet and the technological advancements of the modern era, information and entertainment come at the push of a button. While this is mostly beneficial to society because it aids in communication and work, it has also influenced the rise of a certain ethical issue (Bailey, pars. 5-6; Rasmus, par. 1). This ethical issue would be plagiarism. This is common with students in regards to literature. As an example, the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics conducted a survey on over 23,000 American high school students in 2012. 32% of the students admitted to using the internet to plagiarize for their assignments (Josephson Institute, par. 3). Plagiarism also takes place in the field of art, which will be the main focus of this
In the recent past when computers were available to the public, users could easily type a document without having to retype a whole page to correct or add a part to a document. Shortly after that came the Internet where countless pages of documents and information became accessible to nearly everybody. The problem with plagiarism was much smaller and easier to detect before the Internet. Preceding the Internet, plagiarized materials used to originate from fraternity houses’ efforts to recycle earlier information, copied directly from books at a library, or purchased from local ghostwriters. Professors who were familiar with their materials easily detected plagiarism in these forms. The World Wide Web and electronic resources made it much more difficult for educators to cipher the difference between original and plagiarized material.