"The action or practice of plagiarizing; the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc. ) of another. " This makes the whole concept seem quite simple.
However, plagiarism includes a range of deeds from failure to use proper citation to indiscriminate cheating. A student who plagiarizes may do so inadvertently or with painful purposefulness. The second definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is ". A purloined idea, design, passage, or work.The problem is considered to be a serious matter in academic work because by creating, for example, an essay, one is stating or implying that what is written is your own work; your own thoughts, ideas and theories on the subject. The moment that one uses another's words, without acknowledging that, one is plagiarising.
More recently, due to the widespread use of the worldwide web, plagiarism has become more frequent and easier to perform, whether intentionally or not. Due to the huge amount of literature available to many students at universities, colleges and schools all over the world; on the World Wide Web and in libraries.Guidelines to protect the original writers had to be set down. Plagiarism is in effect stealing; taking someone's words is considered the same as taking a person's property.
Recently published statistics show just how huge the problem of plagiarism is; "According to a survey by the Psychological Record 36% of undergraduates have admitted to plagiarizing written material. "1 A further problem shows that many do not get caught- "A poll conducted by US News and World Reports found that 90% of students believe that cheaters are either never caught or have never been appropriately disciplined.This shows that there must be something done about the problem of plagiarising. It is a long and strenuous process to get to the bottom of cheating cases and "Too few universities are willing to back up their professors when they catch students cheating"3 A frequent problem is that people plagiarise without intending to; this is where difficulties can occur.
However, what usually happens in these cases is that they will be given one more chance; having been through this ordeal the offence would be unlikely to occur again especially now that the writer would be much more careful of and aware of plagiarism.The fact is that "It is essential to learn to use an accepted system of practices in order to avoid plagiarism... (it) is a disciplinary offence"4 The most common problem that professors, teachers and anyone who is trying to mark student's work, find is that, with the huge amount of literature available, it is impossible to recognise plagiarism in every case.
There has begun to be a development of computer programmes that are designed to be able to recognise plagiarised work. Plagiarism normally occurs because of lack of organisation and time planning.Those students who know how to manage their time and are realistic about essay deadlines, and how long they think their essay will take to write in its entirety, are less likely to plagiarise. One would have to be simply lazy or very under confident to order pre-written essays online.
"Much of it (plagiarism) takes place at the last minute, long after a tailored web essay would have had to be ordered. Often plagiarism is committed at the end of the assessment process"5 Some students do not seem so understand that although one has open access to such a vast amount on the web, it does not mean that it is open for everyone to use and copy.The Internet makes plagiarism easy for students who might have thought twice about copying from a book or published article. "6 To conclude, plagiarism is a huge academic problem. It is a frequent occurrence and many are not caught. The problem is that plagiarism is becoming increasingly easy to commit and many students take advantage of the fact that it is also a difficult offence to be caught at committing.
This is primarily because of the vast numbers of students and secondly because of the even more enormous internet. Plagiarism must be considered as a serious matter in academic work because of the offence occurring so frequently.
