Plagiarism In Higher Education: Article Analysis

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A major topic of discussion regarding U.S. higher education is the issue of plagiarism. The scholarly article, “Internet Plagiarism in Higher Education: Tendencies, Triggering Factors and Reasons Among Teacher Candidates,” by Esra Eret and Ahmet Ok discusses the factors associated with plagiarism among students. Aspects such as having a poor academic standing, not being aware of what plagiarism is, social pressures, and laziness are some of the many factors which make an individual vulnerable to plagiarizing. I am not surprised by this fact since these are the factors I would expect that would make an individual prone to plagiarize. A study conducted among teachers shows that acts of plagiarism took place, whether it be often or sometimes, which includes “citing from an Internet resource to an unacceptable extent, using the same assignment in different courses or using the Internet to copy others’ work without …show more content…
Das suggests that the issue of plagiarism should be treated at the root, meaning that schools should educate its students on what plagiarism actually is and its repercussions. By doing so, students would get an idea on the ethical issue of plagiarizing and not be oblivious of their actions. The article stresses the importance of not tampering with a mentor-student relationship by accusing one of plagiarism, rather, the issue should be solved by having an upfront confrontation. Plagiarism is a sensitive topic, as it is questioning a student’s academic integrity and it is important to be “highly vigilant of students' activities without appearing insensitive, paranoid, or discriminatory” (Das, 2003). I am surprised by the idea of students memorizing material from textbooks and using that information on exams being compared to plagiarism.. A student may not be able to differentiate the action of textbook memorization from plagiarism, as there are some shared