Who is at fault for plagiarizing, and why? How could plagiarism have been avoided?
Why do students plagiarize?
How will you ensure that you will not inadvertently plagiarize while engaged in your studies at UoPeople? Be sure to discuss at least two strategies you will use to prevent plagiarism in your work and to address the importance of APA citation and references.
Even though many students believe that they won’t be caught plagiarizing (especially if they “stole” the idea or a short sentence only and paraphrased them well), for an instructor it is not that difficult to find out that these words are not unique – they know a lot about the subject and read too many books, articles, and works, after all.
I believe that the one at fault for plagiarizing is always a person, who actually used someone else’s work and plagiarized it. Because it either means that a student doesn’t want to write his own thoughts and ideas and is seeking easier ways, or that he or she doesn’t know the rules on how to cite properly and hot to avoid plagiarizing.
So, why do students plagiarize? It happens because of many reasons. First of all, sometimes we read some materials while preparing for writing assignments and, of course, we find ideas that we agree with and that will suit our work very well. Then, it becomes very difficult to write the same thing but using different words – and at this step, many people believe, that they do not need to include the citation because they worked on re-writing themselves and the resulting text is unique enough. Another reason is that many students simply don’t realize the importance of writing their own works and citing properly – they do not pay much attention to it and think, that all these “college assignments” are a part of the boring, unnecessary, and useless routine. One more problem is, that many students write their assignments at the last moment and do not have enough time to do it properly – they “steal the information” simply because they can’t write a good work themselves in a rush. And, in fact, many students are too lazy to bother themselves thinking – this is another reason why they plagiarize – they do not want to engage with the material. There are many other reasons for plagiarizing and I covered only the most common ones because there is too much to say on this topic.
But how can we avoid plagiarizing? Well, the easiest way, of course, is to use your own thoughts and ideas when writing. But, obviously, good writing includes some research and preparation so we cannot avoid finding interesting information from other resources. First, we should always read the format (e.g., APA style) requirements and understand them. It is also a good idea to have a so-called “cheat sheet” and check it from times to times, especially before sending our works for assessment – it is essential to make sure that everything is written according to the requirements. Using ideas and citing something is not a bad thing – but we should always remember to prepare a reference list and include all our resources in it.
There is much advice on how exactly to avoid plagiarizing. I decided that, first of all, I will always write my own thoughts and ideas about the topic. And if I got inspired by someone else’s materials – then, definitely, cite them! Citing is very important even if you paraphrase something and feel that this already is your own work. It is – though, not completely. Probably, it is not the best idea to ask other students because they might also be not quite sure how to cite things properly, but if I have time, I can always ask an instructor for advice. That leads us to another important thing – we should never write our assignments at the last moment. Finally, there are many online resources about APA (and similar) styles, that sometimes provide the ability to cite all kinds of resources – it is a good idea to use them, too. APA format is very important in academic writing – it makes it very clear, organizes the structure, and makes the text easy to follow.
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Speaking directly about that exact case, first of all, as I mentioned above, the ones who are at fault for plagiarizing are the students – whether they did it intentionally or not.
Reggie wasted most of his time playing – writing at the last moment often leads to plagiarism and that is what exactly happened. It is 100% his fault: he knew beforehand that he had to read the material but he didn’t do it. Even though Reggie paraphrased, he didn’t really understand what he wrote and it is especially easy to notice because when Sally asked him to explain what that essay was about, he couldn’t do it.
But Arnie did even worse – he simply copied the essay and didn’t even try to change it (adding a conclusion and changing a title don’t count as a “change”). It means, that he didn’t even try to write the essay and didn’t think much about it.
What made things worse is the fact, that the essay Arnie used (and suggested Reggie use as well) was written on a topic that was different from the one they had. It shows, that both of them didn’t understand the assignment – probably, this happened because they actually didn’t read the material properly.
References
College success. (2015). Retrieved from http://open.lib.umn.edu/collegesuccess/
DCULibrary. (2013, February 15). Why do students Plagiarise? [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyEr9Wqp_1E
GCFLearnFree.org. (2018, September 13). Avoiding Plagiarism. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzZsButRaHs
Michelle Knoll. (2012, August 23). The Importance of APA Style: Giving Credit to Get Credit. Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/the-importance-of-apa-style-giving-credit-to-get-credit/
Sheridan Library. (2016, December 1). Student Interviews: Plagiarism. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiE2erQBbHk
Steelman Library. (2017, August 18). How to Avoid Plagiarism: In 5 Easy Steps. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsFcU1PH_8E