Consequences of Plagiarism

Consequences of Plagiarism



Consequences of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an illegal and unauthorized mode of copying and presenting someone's work as our own. Although some universities have enforced clear guidelines and consequences for plagiarism, inconsistencies remain with how students are to be punished. Depending on the instructor, student, and situation, many different actions may be taken. A student who admits to plagiarism when confronted could possibly receive a less harsh punishment than one who denies committing the plagiarism. In one case where two students had admitted to plagiarism, they received a failure in the course, had to enroll again in the program and had to retake the course in another semester. Another case involving a student who denied plagiarism resulted in the student's expulsion from the school(Lowe, 2003).

Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. In an academic environment students are faced with a variety of ways to practice intentional plagiarism such as downloading a paper from the internet, paraphrasing without using the proper citations, copying papers from students who may have already completed a course and various other ways. Students should respect academic values and give credit to the original authors.

Some examples of unintentional plagiarism are faulty paraphrasing where the writer takes the author's sentences and alters the words slightly. Another type of unintentional plagiarism is in-text citations. When a student quotes directly from a source it must be cited in the text as well as on the reference page. Sometimes when in a hurry and time management has not been in the agenda a student may overlook in-text citations. Though unintentional, the serious case of plagiarism remains. One other example of unintentional plagiarism is the reference page. Again a student may rush through a paper and enter in-text citations, but may forget to list a reference page. This is still considered ...