Plagiarism

Plagiarism Trends – Facts and Charts

Here are some recent findings about the facts regarding plagiarism. The Center for Academic Integrity have studied that almost 80% of college students admitted that they cheated at least once. 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.

What is Law of Plagiarism?

Like any other legal offence, plagiarism is also counted as an offence. Colleges and universities have the right to expel any student who is involved in plagiarism; they can confiscate his/her academic history and degree. The copyright law gives an owner of the original material or the true author the right to sue the person who has copied the contents in federal court for the violation of copyright laws. Therefore, plagiarism is reckoned as fraud and the plagiarist is the committer for fraud as he/she is deliberately concealing the original author’s name – not giving credit to the actual author.

Types of Plagiarism

Any thing copied without giving any due credit to the author is deemed as plagiarism. There are various types of plagiarism, but we will discuss only common ones. It is important to note that not only dumb students resort to plagiarism, but also the intelligent ones do it. Plagiarism is done due to several factors; the main reason would be a lack of time or a habitual procrastination which then tends to make a student scrape for time as the deadline is too close. These factors create different typess of plagiarisms. The most common type of plagiarism is copying without acknowledging that is copying from other sources without using quotation marks or referencing it precisely. These days the copying strategy is very easy as lifting materials from either one source or multiple sources has become easy using the internet. The second type is known as Double dipping and self plagiarism; it happens when a student copies an assignment of his own that he submitted in his previous one. Technically, this is a form of plagiarism. Thirdly, students are now finding it even hard to copy and paste the contents of other authors. To even reduce that effort of copying, nowadays, there are cheat sites on the internet that provide students the entire papers for free, this type is the free papers on the internet.

What are Consequences of Plagiarism?

The consequences of plagiarism are severe. We observe that some students get away with plagiarism or are not caught in the act. But cheating or plagiarism in some cases have caused the students to be expelled and suspended from their college and also have their degrees revoked. Writers and journalists who have been found guilty of plagiarism have lost their jobs as it can impair the reputation of the newspapers or televisions. Those people who use the words of others in their speeches are also regarded as shameful, and it is not only a humiliation, but also an action that results in lawsuits. Nevertheless, the problem of plagiarism is increasing in schools, colleges and universities. Plagiarism penalties vary from being least such as a loss of privilege or failing in an assignment to not being promoted to the next class, or at the highest level, being expelled and getting the degree revoked. When caught in a plagiarism instance, not only the time, money and efforts are wasted, but the guilty students find it difficult in getting admissions to another university and faces unfavourable effects in their career. Plagiarism damages a student’s skills and makes him incompetent in his research skills and abilities. Keeping the severe consequences of plagiarism in mind, it is advised to avoid this offence. A good way to not get caught is always paraphrase the content, give proper credit to the author along with a proper reference.