Identify the main reasons why university students plagiarise in English speaking countries.
Present an argument and support with evidence from academic sources Part 1 Plagiarism is the act of using another’s work without appropriate acknowledgement, is often grouped with other cheating behaviour such as taking notes into an exam, fabricating a bibliography, lying about personal circumstances to get special consideration and other similar actions. There is a significant and growing body of literature on plagiarism in higher education( Park, C. 2003)This essay will show the reasons why students plagiarism and state different argument in different views by people . and believe that lacking of high standard of study attitude is main reason than being for convenient . or we say the common cause of plagiarism was seen to be lack of moral attitude rather than laziness or contempt for the assessment process. In this essay there are mainly 3 parts following . at the first part we are gonging to illustrate why moral attitude become the main reason of plagiarism and discus this issue in every detail views. Second part there are also other opinions from different views should be considered .
t the last we sum up all information in this essay and conclude it Part 2 In Chinese idiom : attitude makes everything . people’s action are leaded by thought. once you make up a beautiful standards of attitude that means you’ve achieved half way. It is the same thing in university study. Plagiarism is kind of problem of attitude . Many students generally don’t take plagiarism as ‘ big deal’. Researcher found that students often view plagiarism as a relatively minor offence, Students often do not see cheating as a major problem among their peers (Daniel et al.
, 1991). Most part of students plagiaries on purpose, knowingly.Some students cheat because they have negative attitudes towards assignments and tasks that teachers think have meaning but they don’t (Howard, 2002). And also those students found it hard to get study motivation . they always have a big test coming up but just not motivated to study. Fallen back on their classes but still not able to get themselves to study hard . And some student label studying as “boring”, “painful” or “uncomfortable” that way they will be pre-framing themselves negatively even before they start.
They’d have lost the battle before it even began Doctor Jo Boyden , the professor of social science in Oxford University . he is Director of the innovative student study based at the University’s Department of International Development. She is a pioneer in the emerging field of global student studies and is breaking new ground in theorization, conceptualization.
(Boyden ,J . 2005,April 20th). She point out that main reason is that student don’t have a high moral motivation or attitude to study.
So she believe that to feel the right emotions is fully as important as to hold the right ideas. And she also explain that in order for an individual to study effectively it is essential for an individual to stay motivated.This allows the individual to work through the material and complete the tasks that the individual has set out to complete. However, the more complicated, difficult, unpleasant, or uninteresting the task, the harder it is for an individual to stay motivated. As a result, it is important for an individual to be able to identify the various rewards that he or she can obtain by completing a particular task. This may sound simple, but it can often be difficult to identify the exact reason that an individual should complete a particular task specially if that task is related to completing a large long-term goal.This is because a particular task may not have a direct reward such as receiving a license, a job, or passing a class, but may instead have a reward that is harder for the individual to define. And by her research shows that top university student’s rate of plagiarism are much less than student from relative normal university .
The most A level students have a much higher motivation and self discipline than high talent . Most student who have attended top university are relied their insistent hard working through years. “I never plagiarism not because of avoid punishment just because I don’t want to cheat myself . 2rd year graduate, Physics .
Mily from Oxford Univerisity. But situation in some relative low quality University is quite different. For example, a study by Lim and See (2001) based in Singapore, which they describe as ‘one of the most competitive educational systems in the world’, found that students ‘are morally ambivalent about academic cheating and are rather tolerant of dishonesty among their peers. On the issue of whether cheating behaviors should be reported…a majority of students chose to take the expedient measure of ignoring the problem rather than to blow the whistle on their peers’.Motivation not only important in University but also in future working area . the reason less adult cheating than student is they not only have strong motivation but also take plagiarism seriously . they realize they are truly participating in the society and nonsense to do such cheating thing . For example , many studies have shown that academic staff and students have very different attitudes towards cheating and plagiarism (Stern & Havlicek, 1986; Anderson & Obershain, 1994; Roth & McCabe, 1995; Higbee & Thomas, 2000).
Evans & Craig (1990) uncovered general agreement between high school students and staff that cheating is a serious problem, but major differences in views regarding scale and criteria, causes and effective approaches to prevention. Academic staff views on plagiarism appear to vary between disciplines (Roig, 2001). Although staff generally consider specific dishonest behaviours as more serious than do students, there is evidence that the differences decrease as students progress towards graduation (Sims, 1995).Ashworth and Bannister (1997) argue that, in the UK ‘in general, plagiarism is a far less meaningful concept for students than it is for academic staff, and it ranks relatively low in the student system of values’. The doctor Jo Boyden said university and education institution should have responsibility to let student known how serious plagiarism affect their future working life and make them get used to social life as soon as possible .
For those of student do plagiarism often Jo Boyden suggest that There’s no shame in admitting you’ve been slacking. Students may understand why they’ve lost momentum in the first place.Only they can decide themselves what’s behind their work-shy attitude, some of the main offenders are Lack of focus, like graduating, don’t register . and another reason is lacking of interest, for example: their coursework leaves them cold and then Lack of drive .
They’re not good at working under their own steam. Other factors can include stress, depression, the break-up of a relationship, or problems with drink or drugs. Jo said:” The key is to highlight what’s holding you back, in order to take steps to overcome the situation. ” Jo suggested if you’ve worked out what’s gone wrong, and taken steps to sort any underlying issues.
With nothing to hold you back, you need to look at ways of firing your enthusiasm. There are several strategies, but first establish the willpower to make them work for you. That you’ve identified a problem with knuckling down is an important first step. It shows you want to make a change. The key now is to build on it.
Part 3 Also there are some people believe there are some other reasons than moral attitude . for example : fist people thin some of students are lack of skills and fell to work out a piece of writing in a good manner. Or they are lack enough practice and maybe just don’t want to sort out all the aspects of academic writing.And secondly some students don’t bother to write down all the details of sources they use for obtaining ideas and borrowing certain phrases at the preliminary stage. Lacking of skills is another reason. Students just don’t know how to create a piece of writing in the necessary manner.
They either lack enough practice, or have low self-esteem, or just don’t want to sort out all the aspects of academic or other writing. As in this way plagiarism can be found, while the author of the work is unaware of it. And lacking of knowledge in proper citing is another reason of plagiarism and citation style is very important . nd also people believe insufficient understanding of the plagiarism concept and its consequences is the reason as well . Student also feel pressure surrounding them.
They often find themselves in such a situation when their parents and/or friends expect too much from them and they just cannot let some piece of writing destroy their reputation. In fact, they just don’t realize how bad plagiarism can affect this reputation. Poor time management is a reason for plagiarism as well. Student are lack of skill to control their time for studying and playing.
It results in huge amount of work that is necessary to perform at the end of semesters.And the last and the most believe one of reasons especially for foreign students is that they decide to make use of the free information available online and lead to plagiarism because of easy accessibility of many texts online. (Park, C. 2003) Part 4 This is an essay on plagiarism by students, particularly in the context of moral attitude is major reason for plagiarism, The essay shows that plagiarism by students is common and getting more so , that there are multiple reasons why students plagiaries and that students often rationalize their cheating behavior and downplay the importance of plagiarism by themselves and their peers.
Whether or not the problem has reached epidemic proportions, it is clearly a major problem, and one that appears to be on the increase. And it discuss the reason of moral study attitude more serious than other reason like be convenience . Students should be encouraged work on their own .
Teacher or education institution have responsibility make student be aware the nonsense of plagiarism in their future life . For these reasons plagiarism must be prevented at all levels of academic work from student papers to academic books. Nevertheless, care must be taken whenever one suspects a writer of plagiarism.It cannot be stressed enough that everyone makes a few mistakes and that genuine cases of similar use may easily occur.
Therefore, what must be identified are patterns of behavior, repetitive practices, and clear indications of deliberate attempts to deceive. Reference : Park, C. (2003) In Other (People’s) Words: plagiarism by university students—literature and lessons. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol. 28, No. 5, October 2003 Devlin, M. and Gray, K. (2007,).
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