In the world of academia, cheating is known as “Plagiarism.” Plagiarism is seen as an immoral act. It is defined as stealing someone’s idea or work and using it as one’s own; paraphrasing without citation or failure to follow citation rules is also plagiarism. To survive in the college bubble, most of the students fear this word. These students might not know the in-depth concept of plagiarism, but they know for sure about its negative consequences towards their career. Jennifer A. Mott-Smith in the essay “Plagiarism deserves to be punished” in the book, Bad Ideas about Writing, talks about different methods that plagiarism should be taught and not punished. She leaves her audience with a better concept of plagiarism. Many times, student writers unknowingly make mistakes which leads to charges of plagiarism. Instead of punishing plagiarism, professors should teach students the ways to avoid it. They should explain the importance of academic honesty. There is a difference between direct copying and failure to follow some convention rules.
To begin with, there are a few primary reasons that result in academic dishonesty. In the book, My word! Plagiarism and college culture, Susan Blum talks about these reasons, such as students’ inability to cope up the pressure of their fast going lives, fierce competition, the pressure to get good grades and better jobs, lack of personal integrity also results in academic dishonesty. Students explain unknowing plagiarism as accidentally forgetting to put quotation marks around used quote (Blum 175). These factors result in varied forms of plagiarism.
There are different types of plagiarism. Professional plagiarism includes double publication or unauthorized republication; while student plagiarism includes buying or importing paper, patchwriting or imperfection in citing sources. Each type of plagiarism deserves different punishments. Blum explained, “Penalties for each type of would vary along a continuum from the kind of plagiarism that is clearly fraudulent, and deserving of severe penalties, to the kind of plagiarism that is uninformed, and deserving of education.” (Blum 27). If the mistakes made are not similar, then it should be punished differently. Failure in following the citation rules should not be punished, instead, rules should be taught to be followed. Students should be explained the importance of citation, such as quoting in writing is essential because it separates the author’s voice from the sources or references used. It expands the interaction of another source author, and researchers follow the citation list to track down the sources used.
Student writers are required to back up their voice with the help of reliable sources for any writing class. They face many complexities while using sources. Mott-Smith said, “taking ideas and using them in your own writing is a sophisticated skill that requires a good deal of practice to master.” (Smith 248). Implementing and analyzing different sources is a skill which freshers develop in their first few years of college which most likely result in patchwriting. Patchwriting is the way of writing a summary for the fresher students who are just learning to paraphrase. Rebecca Moore Howard in A Plagiarism Pentimento states, “it is the outsider’s membership application, a way of acquiring the language of the target community.” (Howard 240). Students write a summary to understand the information they are learning for the first time. This process helps them put the learned material in their own words. Many first-year college students struggle to analyze source information whether that is quoting, explicating, paraphrasing or engaging in discussion
Moreover, citation rules are summarized as “give credit.” Professors who teach basic college-level English are the unappreciated heroes for teaching rules. They try to educate the students about the basic citation rules rather than the faculty or administrators who make some guidelines for plagiarism and expect students to follow them throughout all college classes. College students struggle with the different expectations from their teachers in different classes. Citation rules vary from one field to another; these different expectations are hard to meet for student writers. Blum addresses this confusion with the example, “in engineering, for instance, the quotation is not considered desirable, while in the humanities it is expected.” (Blum 165). It even differs from source types like using magazine, online database or referring from movies or shows. English teachers cannot teach all these variations in expectations, within the class of a few weeks.
However, student writers face more negative outcomes compared to professional writers if caught plagiarizing. Susan Blum said, “At the most of colleges and universities, students are threatened with expulsion.” (Blum 20) Plagiarism severely impacts student’s grades; it follows the student throughout the academic career. It is “academic death penalty” Blum quotes Rebecca Moore Howard. (Blum 20). The students tag themselves as a cheater for further years of their life.
Plagiarism policies should be evaluated. Faculties should be explicit about what needs to be taught and what needs to be punished. The correct definition for plagiarism should be direct cheating such as knowingly and willingly buying a midterm paper, falsifying bibliography or copying and pasting someone’s ideas. Every student does not lack academic integrity, so they should not be punished for their unmindful mistakes. Learning citation rules and implementing them in different classes takes times. Students should be taught how to cite and paraphrase, so they can use sources or references without the fear of being plagiarized. Campuses should develop honor codes and create an academically honest atmosphere, which can help students learn without thought of cheating.
Works Cited
Blum, Susan Debra. My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture. Cornell University Press, 2009.
Howard, Rebecca Moore. “a Plagiarism Pentimento.” a Plagiarism Pentimento – the Citation Machine, www.citationproject.nets/2018/03/Howard-Plagiarism-Pentimento.pdf.
Mott-Smith, Jennifer a. “Plagiarism Should Be Punished.” Bad Ideas about Writing.