custom writing plagiarism

custom writing plagiarism

The Importance of Academic Integrity

1. Introduction

The correlation between academic integrity and quality education is quite clear. According to a study conducted by Sydney in 2003, the use of contract cheating (where students get third parties to complete work for them) directly undermines the abilities of graduates. 80% of employers agreed that contract cheating detracts from a student’s written and oral communication skills, ability to think critically, and reduces the overall quality of their education. The same study showed that the more competitive a student is, the more likely they are to cheat. This occurs because the higher achieving student will perceive high grades as being more important due to increased expectations from parents, teachers, and themselves. It is apparent that if one is to secure the future of quality education, steps must be taken to remove the temptation that causes students to neglect their own abilities. It is also important that employers and university faculty have high expectations of integrity, as this will diminish the probability of students resorting to academic misconduct.

In the international arena, the United States of America is currently the global leader in the provision of higher education. Because of this, unfair academic practices have been able to become the norm in several countries. In these countries, it is seen as unwise for a student to complete a degree without also acquiring the degree certificates of a Western university, regardless of whether or not they have actually attended that institution. Students are also more likely to use fraudulent transcripts in order to meet the entry requirements of postgraduate study. Measures should be taken in the US to stop this trend. This can be achieved by making an explicit effort to educate foreign students about what is required of them. For the most part, these students are not knowingly engaging in academic misconduct; they are simply abiding by the standards of their own country. So by making the requirements known, these students will have the opportunity to develop integrity. Measures should also be taken to validate the authenticity of degree certificates obtained by foreign students. Doing these things will ultimately result in a cultural shift concerning what is deemed as acceptable academic practice.

Academic integrity is a fundamental value and a prerequisite to an academic institution’s ability to function in the complex, information-rich environment of the 21st century. It is of increasing importance in today’s society that is underpinned by the delivery and management of information. The ease at which information can be accessed has caused a shift from a knowledge-based society to an information-based one. Because of this, it is now even more essential that the work produced by academic institutions is original and innovative. This is something that cannot be achieved if students do not have a strong sense of integrity.

2. Consequences of Plagiarism

Integrity is, indeed, a subject with many dimensions, and the stakes are high. Students who plagiarize are unlikely to be developing their understanding of the material, and it can be argued that they are only cheating themselves. Nevertheless, the propensity to engage in dishonest behavior may ultimately damage the student who cheats. Having to acknowledge that you have used someone else’s ideas in your work is an embarrassing prospect and it is possible that a person may become less and less able to draw a line between honest and dishonest writing. Feeling ashamed and unable to face their peers and instructors, it is not uncommon for students who have plagiarized to drop a course or even withdraw from school. In the UK, unintentional plagiarism of a source can still result in a court case. The recent case of Arnup v. MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd saw PhD student, Mr. Arnup taken to court over a claim that he had passed off a business plan idea as his own. The presiding judge found in favour of the claimant, also a PhD student, stating that “all that is necessary is to show that the work is an original product and that it was used in an identifiable form”. In this case, the work can be identified by a distinct business plan written up by the claimant, even though he had not filed a patent for this idea. Mr. Arnup found himself with legal costs of well over £50,000 and later encountered further setbacks when his PhD supervisors told him they didn’t want the negative publicity of having a litigious student associated with their research. This was not an isolated case. The claimant’s attorney stated that “for a variety of reasons we are aware that commercial entities frequently hijack the ideas and work product of graduate students in the United Kingdom.” With such a nebulous stance on the subject, it is clear that students need to be aware of the consequences of plagiarism in academia and how to avoid it.

3. Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

There are a number of strategies students can use to avoid plagiarism. However, many students are unaware of what constitutes plagiarism. Conor says, “A friend of mine who is doing a master’s degree in Anthropology has told me a different way to detect plagiarism. It is ‘looking at the references that the person has used, some people take the same author and read the same quote and then use the same quote, this is plagiarism and they will get done for it, the computer system is well good, it always comes up with something if you’ve done something wrong.'” Although Conor is paraphrasing, the detection system is designed to detect if students have used metaphor, similes, or the same unique term the author has coined. Paraphrasing is still plagiarism if the student does not provide citation. Students should be aware that to rephrase the work of another without acknowledging the original source is still considered to be plagiarism. The first strategy to avoid plagiarism is to give credit where credit is due. This means that any time you use information that is not common knowledge, you need to acknowledge the source. This includes information that is not a direct quote but is still an idea or concept of another. This source information must be cited in the text and included in a reference list at the end of the work and must be referenced accurately. When working on assignments, it is a good idea to keep a log of sources to make referencing and citation that much easier when finished the assignment.

4. Tools for Detecting Plagiarism

Today, instructors have various tools to detect plagiarism in any given assignment. The intimacy of the classroom environment among students and instructors is what led to the increased amount of plagiarism. In a small community, it sometimes just circulates through word of mouth that an instructor will only give a warning for a certain assignment. Rumors like these have led to increased acts of plagiarism in higher education and also provide a larger temptation for students to cheat. The increase in resources also provides an explanation as to why there are more reported cases of plagiarism within recent years. Adapting to these changes, instructors also need to increase efforts to stay ‘one step ahead’ of the students and never assume that they are free from the risk of plagiarism in any given assignment. All of these cases are reasons why higher education instructors are most in need of tools to detect and prevent plagiarism.

5. Conclusion

It is often said that the end result is more important than the journey. However, it is the process by which students complete their education which is of the greatest importance. If a student simply focuses on the end result, an education may be devalued and lose its importance. Academic integrity is a benchmark of the degree to which the student has learned and understood the material. An individual having only obtained the desired end result has cheated himself and his professors by not putting forth the effort necessary to achieve his degree. Academic integrity more often than not will result in a student achieving his academic goals. Knowledge obtained has the possibility of being lost or forgotten, but a degree earned with integrity is permanent and cannot be taken away from you.

By understanding the importance of academic integrity, students can avoid committing academic dishonesty, understand the value of their education, and work hard to earn their degrees. Honesty and integrity are of the utmost importance in the eyes of the academic world, and it is important to recognize that it will be beneficial for personal development. An individual’s character will be put to the test and can be developed and maintained by adhering to high standards of honesty and ethics.