Plagiarism

By BriAnn Seagraves

Plagiarism; we all know what that is, we know it is wrong, we know its cheating, yet

people and students everyday still do it. Why do students still continue to plagiarize if they know

it’s wrong? What are the consequences of plagiarism? I am going to explain my thoughts and my

research on these questions and I will even give my firsthand experience with plagiarism.

Why do students continue to plagiarize knowing it is wrong? There are some students

that have a fear of failure. Students are so worried they won't succeed that they take the words of

someone else and pass it off as theirs to succeed. Fear can significantly impact a person’s

behavior and make them do things that they know is wrong. It is a self-esteem issue, not having

the confidence to know you can be successful on your own. Thinking your work isn't good

enough. Thinking you have to steal someone else's work to keep your grades up or keep your

status.

Lack of interest can also lead a student to plagiarize. Honestly there have been many

times that I've had to write about a topic I have little to no interest in, and when students have a

lack of interest it pushes them to be lazy and in return plagiarizing their work. They tend to think

it’s not worth their time, so they just complete it quickly and continue back to what they think is

more important or worth their time.

Pressure; the pressure placed on students either by themselves, parents, peers, or teachers

can make them feel as if they have cheat and lie just to reach unrealistic goals or expectations.

This can be played back into the fear factor as well.

The consequences of plagiarism,

  "Plagiarism can get you expelled from your course, college and/or university.

 Plagiarism can result in your work being destroyed.

 Plagiarism can result in expulsion from you academic institution, in some cases

permanent expulsion.

 Plagiarism can result in legal action; fines and penalties etc." -( Scanmyessay.com.

(2018))

Even given these consequences students everyday still do it! Did you know 86% of college

students cheat, and 54% of college students believe it is ok and or necessary to cheat. 76% of

students copy their peer's work identically, and 42% of students purchase essays from custom

writing services. These statics were done at Kessler University. They took 300 students to be

surveyed form public, private and online colleges.

I have had my own experience with plagiarism. It was my freshman year in college and I was

assigned a small writing assignment I only had to write one paragraph. It was late the night

before and I had forgotten about the assignment. Looking back, it would have taken me only a

few more minutes to actually write it by myself. I copied and pasted a paragraph from a website

that sounded good enough. My professor pulled me aside right after that class the next morning

and called me out on my lie. I was completely embarrassed and terrified she was going to fail me

for the entire class and report me to the dean. Instead she explained the consequences could be

severe and she gave me a zero for the assignment. I quickly learned not to do that again. The fear

of the consequences was much more severe than the fear of failure on an assignment. Students

are not held accountable for their actions, that survey I talked about earlier; 97% of those

students admitted to cheating and admitted they have never been caught. If we as teachers want
our students to use their skills that we are teaching them; critical thinking, creativity and

individuality then we must ensure they know the consequences of their actions and hold them

accountable.

Citations:

Farkas, K. (2018). 86 percent of college students say they've cheated. It's easier than ever with
mobile devices. [online] cleveland.com. Available at:
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/02/cheating_in_college_has_become.ht
ml [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

Hanski, M. (2018). Why Students Plagiarize: 5 Reasons You Probably Ignored. [online] On
College Life and Writing | Bid4papers Blog. Available at:
https://bid4papers.com/blog/why-students-plagiarize/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

Scanmyessay.com. (2018). Plagiarism | The Consequences Of Plagiarism. [online] Available at:

https://www.scanmyessay.com/plagiarism/consequences-of-plagiarism.php [Accessed 14
Sep. 2018].