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Academic Plagiarism

Academic plagiarism is an issue of concern in the US and people realize how crucial the problem is. Some of the students and even scholars keep stealing the achievements of others in order to be successful. Such kind of stealing is addictive like marijuana. There are a lot of forms of academic plagiarism. They can roughly divide them into three main types. Firstly, plagiarism is using the sentences of other authors without pointing out the original creator. Secondly, it is using the information without acknowledging the source. Thirdly, it is using the sentences which do not differ much from the original ones. Therefore, any of them can be regarded as plagiarism. Apparently, all of the original authors detest plagiarism because they do not want the others to steal their effort by just copying and pasting.

More and more international students come to the US to study and do research; thus numerous problems arise, one of which is academic plagiarism. Some developing countries disregard protecting intellectual property; their younger generation is not aware of the meaning of intellectual property. Therefore, they do not realize how serious the consequences of plagiarism are. As a result, they will not be tormented with remorse because of plagiarism. For example, I saw my elder brother copy something from the Internet without referring to the original author in order to get a high grade for his final essay. I have realized how evil it is to use other people’s ideas only after I came here. Some students prefer working together on the home assignments which are individual. Even though they can obtain knowledge in the group discussion, it is still can be considered a kind of cheating. However, not only some international students behave not in a decent way. Even some of the students who have established good reputation at the university would do the same thing.

There has been a plagiarism accident at Harvard University recently. More than one hundred students shared answers in the take-home test. Jay Harris, the Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education said that the groups of students appeared to have worked together on responses to short questions and an essay. He accused them of violating the no-collaboration policy which was printed on the exam itself (Carmichael). Therefore, the plagiarism problem is vital not only among international but local students as well. The issue is even more sensitive in that case, since the locals are well aware of the rules. There is no doubt that the plagiarism epidemic disease has been spreading in the academic circles rapidly.

This situation has some far-reaching effects in many fields. The author who has suffered from plagiarism would not be encouraged to create new production. Moreover, those who have experienced using the work of other people without negative consequences might be willing to do the same. Hence, no one wants to be the first person to post their new ideas because they know those ideas can be easily stolen. Students will prefer to copy the assignments of other people and enjoy their free time. If the diploma is obtained using plagiarized papers, the students have learnt nothing and the diploma turns into a trash paper. If a company hires such students, they cannot bring so much profit as the students who have studied hard in college. Provided that it happens this way, the whole country is not going to be creative. Thus, there will be no progress at all.

In order to eradicate plagiarism as it is, three methods can be applied. The first one is teaching students and improving the level of their moral standards. It can be done when they get to know about the consequences and negative effects of plagiarizing papers. For example, a good solution is to refer to their patriotic feelings and emphasize that their country will not make any progress if they cheat. Thus, they may feel ashamed of plagiarism. Another approach is to stiffen the penalties and punishment for cheating. The school or college authorities should abandon the conventional system of mere warnings. Moreover, the society requires responsible citizens who will report about the cases of plagiarism. The authors should not fight by their own efforts only, they need assistance and support.

To sum up, those who care about the future of the society should not tolerate cheating in any areas. Plagiarism is an unacceptable phenomenon since authors exert much effort to do their own research or creative work. Plagiarizing can be equaled with stealing. The thieves take other people’s things, while those who plagiarize take the ideas and souls which is even worse.