Mr. Walsh senator of Montana committee plagiarism in his master thesis in 2007.”an examination of final paper required for Mr. Walsh’s master’s degree from the United States Army War College indicates the senator appropriated at least a quarter of his thesis on American Middle East policy from other authors' work with no attribution” (Martine,2014). Plagiarism is an immoral act that is usually done to deceive audience by pretending that some copy and pasted ideas, which are used by other experts, originally comes from intellectual knowledge of the author. (SHashok,2011). It is understandable that this phenomenon has ever been a potential concern for academics and artwork creators. However, these days it seems that with proper and unlimited access to the internet, using polarized materials has become easier than ever before. Personal, academic and cultural factors are responsible for this academic dishonesty which appears to has direct impacts on individuals and society.
The first probable cause of the plagiarism can be personal issues. Some of the students may commit plagiarism duo to their lack of time. It is very probable that their short time leave them with little choices such as using others ideas or words. In addition, some mental and economic pressures on individuals might contribute to plagiarism. For example, those students who are under pressure of their family to pass a course with a high GPA, are more prone to commit plagiarism in their essays. Also, failure in the course for those students who suffer from financial problems is challenging as it may lead to imposing huge expenses upon their families which they cannot easily afford. Furthermore, it seems that there are some association between students major and using plagiarized materials as McCabe (1996) pointed that according to an academic survey engineering and business students commit plagiarism more than language and humanity students. (as cited by James,2017). However, personal factors are not the only intentions for this immoral phenomenon as more general factors can lead to plagiarism.
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Another conducive factor for plagiarism is cultural factor. It has been shown on numerous occasion that differences between education systems in different countries will lead to plagiarism. For example, in Chinese learning and education institutions, it is acceptable to paraphrase and use some part of others ideas or words without citation. In addition, in some cultures student are more appreciated if using expert ideas as oppose to their own ideas (Hu and Lai,2012 as cited by Wiley 2016). Another major contributing factor of plagiarism has to do with different definition of plagiarism in different countries. For example, sometimes using other author's book may be considered as sharing knowledge as oppose to plagiarism. Furthermore, lack of prohibiting policies in some countries may lead to more prone to plagiarism. It is obvious that without legal punishments or academic honesty policies people are more likely to commit plagiarism.
Another key element which can make profound impact on the rate of plagiarism is academic factor. Firstly, unfamiliarity with plagiarism and correct citation method is the most frequent academic issue for many of the plagiarism cases. It has shown on numerous occasion that some of the students or even authors are not aware of methods for citation.so they might commit plagiarism unintentionally (SHashock,2011). In addition, lack of language knowledge or skills may eventually lead to plagiarism for some of the international students as they usually more rely on the others native writer’s words. Secondly, seeking for higher GPA between students may cause academic dishonesty. In today competitive job markets in some countries students are more likely to have a prestigious job in the future with higher GPA as oppose to lower scores.
Either personal or cultural or academic factor is responsible for plagiarism
The effects are the same.
The first and perhaps the most important effect of the plagiarism is personal failure.
With regard to effects on students, plagiarism may lead to some sort of academic punishments which are mostly irreversible. For example, university students may lose their scholarships, fail the courses or even fail the programs which can directly affect their academic and professional life’s. Moreover, the effect of plagiarism for international student might be even more profound as they may lose their visas. Considering occupied people, plagiarism may cause losing jobs for employees. Another possible negative consequence of plagiarism can adversely affect creativity of the society. To exemplify, authors will not have incentive to publish their unique ideas as they will not receive credits for their works and their ideas will be stolen. On the other hand, people who do not want to plagiarize have to do that as other people are using plagiarized materials and they are in unfair competition.
There is no denying that even one relevant cause may lead to plagiarism. However, the possibility of committing plagiarism among students goes up when more than one causes is involved. International students who are not completely aware of the importance of the proper citation and also have financial problems are a lot more likely to commit plagiarism as opposed to domestic students. In addition, it should be considering that, some of the contributing factors to plagiarism are not major factors for this academic dishonesty. For instance, being under pressure and not having enough time is particularly the case for the students who have a family to run. lack of language knowledge and skills is more correlate with international student. On the other hand, it is understandable that in detected plagiarism case the element that is affected more is individual as oppose to society duo to direct influence it will have on their future life.
References
- Cummings, J. N., Butler, B., & Kraut, R. (2002). The quality of online social relationships. Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 103-108.
- Hu, Y., Wood, J. F., Smith, V., & Westbrook, N. (2004). Friendships through IM: Examining the relationship between instant messaging and intimacy. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10, 38-48.
- Tidwell, L. C., & Walther, J. B. (2002). Computer-mediated communication effects on disclosure, impressions, and interpersonal evaluations: Getting to know one another a bit at a time. Human Communication Research, 28, 317-348.
- Underwood, H., & Findlay, B. (2004). Internet relationships and their impact on primary relationships. Behaviour Change, 21(2), 127-140.
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