By Colleen Maidhof
In attempt to control student plagiarism, U.K academics proposed a strict plan. If they have their way, students worldwide could face a tax for cheating.
A Student Plagiarism Tariff has been presented by Peter Tennant, a Newcastle University research assistant, and Gill Rowell, academic adviser at plagiarismadvice.org. Their finalized version is to be launched at the Fourth International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle.
Plagiarismadvice.org, an advisory service formed a point-based system that deals with the penalties of those who plagiarize. Each offense equals a certain amount of points with a penalty, and as the points spike up so does the penalty. A greater penalty is given for each repeated offense.
An academic integrity policy and program that lists the penalties of those who plagiarize exists here on campus. However if a student decides to transfer from this two year college to another, it most likely will have a different set of penalties. This new college may have a more lenient or aggressive system. To equate all the different systems into one, the plagiarism tariff was proposed.
According to the Center for Academic Integrity, housed on the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina, “In a sample of 1800 students at nine universities 84 percent admitted to cheating on written assignments and 52 percent had copied a few sentences from a website without citing the source.”
When balancing work and a social life with college exams, essays, and term papers, it is likely that a frustrated student will search for the easy way out when possible. Copying, stealing, and purchasing words of others are tempting forms of plagiarism. A student may think plagiarism is their easy way out, but there are penalties when they are caught red handed.
Students and professors seem to have the same idea when it comes to why students plagiarize.
“Students plagiarize for two distinct reasons: a) to save time; b) to avoid failing owing to poor knowledge of the topic and poor writing skills,” said Professor Eriksson of the English Department.
“I believe most students plagiarize because they are too lazy to do the work themselves, they don’t care, and they think their professors aren’t really going to look into where their paper came from to make sure it wasn’t plagiarized,” said Early Childhood major Amanda Meyer”
When it comes to the most common form of plagiarism, students shine the spotlight on the internet.
Copying words off of the internet must be the most common form of student plagiarism. With a few words typed into the Google Search Engine, and a few clicks all their work is done for them, said Meyer.
Ghost-writing websites where students can purchase essays are readily available to anyone with an internet connection. I believe the internet has made it extremely easier to plagiarize. It being so easy makes it even more tempting, said Mike Reilly, Biochemistry major.
“I think the internet may make it easier for students to have access to material they can plagiarize, but it’s actually made it harder for students to succeed in getting away with it because it’s easier for faculty to track down the original source. I don’t think many students are aware of the multitude of sites teachers have access to that detect plagiarism.” said Professor Gaete of the Communications department.
Is such a strict system a good idea? When it comes to the idea of the tariff expanding worldwide, both students and professors have different opinions.
“I believe the tariff should be adopted worldwide. It is a set way of dealing with plagiarists, and there isn’t just one strict rule. There are different consequences for different levels of the offense,” said Meyer.
Another student also in favor of the idea says “Personally I believe a universal plagiarism system is a great idea. It allows all institutions to figure out exactly how to handle each situation rather then play it by ear” said Reilly
“The tariff seems a bit complicated to me. Could it be used worldwide? I doubt it. There are too many modifications available. The more “points” there are for application, the more negotiation between student and teacher occurs. The British may find it workable, but the American system doesn’t sweat the small stuff. To award points for a missing quotation seems a bit fussy to me. To suppose that this is a problem that can be solved with points, or with any approach, is simply naïve,” explained Professor Eriksson of the English Department.
Overall, I think we as students need to be more educated about plagiarism, as well as warned by our professors. It is more likely a student who is not warned will commit the crime. They are more likely to fear that the professor is constantly checking when they are warned. I feel that some professors just give up with stopping plagiarism because plagiarism is constant, explained Reilly.
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