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Do all students write papers using only their own ideas? Of course not. No work can be prepared without citing other people’s research and thoughts. However, some are too keen on outright plagiarism.
We suggest finding answers to the following questions:
- Is stealing other people’s texts always bad?
- What are the sometimes unobvious consequences of digital plagiarism in online learning?
All students need to submit unique papers. That’s why they should always use a plagiarism checker before the assignment goes to the teacher. Only in this way can students be sure that their papers are original.
Consequences of Plagiarism in Education
Stealing is bad. That’s what we are taught in childhood. However, before giving an assessment of plagiarism, let’s remember what is considered as such in the modern world:
Plagiarism is a case in which a person appropriates or uses ideas, developments, or texts of other people without indicating the authorship.
However, it is impossible to create something fundamentally new. The success of books like Austin Kleon’s bestseller «Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative» confirms this statement.
It is true that in music, art, and business, it is now not shameful to steal other people’s ideas. The main thing is to do it creatively, so that no one can sue you for copyright infringement.
In art, it is even commendable when the author relies on other people’s works, reinterprets them in a new way, or weaves in references to texts from great works. This technique is called hypertextuality. However, if the similarity is too obvious, you can get a bad reaction from the public and a lawsuit.
As we can see, in other areas, a certain amount of plagiarism is quite appropriate. But how is it possible to combine academic integrity and plagiarism?
Plagiarism Detection Tools for Students
As we have already written, it is unrealistic to write a paper without using other people’s texts. On the contrary, a student must show that they have studied literary sources, analyzed them, and thoughtfully reworked them.
To do this, you need to rewrite particularly liked excerpts in your own words or provide full quotes, not forgetting the rules of proper citation.
If a student or scientist writes a paper without relying on other people’s research and without citing others at all, this is a very bad sign. Most likely, such a person either rejects the achievements of modern science or other researchers.
Nevertheless, you should always use special tools to make sure that you don’t borrow too much; these tools will help you:
- PlagiarismCheck
- Grammarly
- Quetext
- Plagiarism Detector
- Plagscan
References and Academic Plagiarism Software
References to literary sources and attribution in student papers should almost always be included, especially if you use scientific materials that are no more than five years old.
However, as with any rule, there are exceptions here. They concern the formulations of laws and phenomena that have long been known to everyone. For example, you definitely shouldn’t indicate the authorship of the periodic table or Newton’s law. This will look rather strange and even ridiculous.
In addition to plagiarism itself, autoplagiarism is also a factor. This is when the author uses excerpts from their previous works, but does not provide links to the original articles. It should be remembered that this type of «self-theft» is also not welcome.
If you want to prevent this, you need to use software that focuses on references, citations, and advanced detection capabilities. Some of them are the following:
- Turnitin
- Scribbr
- Unichek
- iThenticate
Why Is Preventing Plagiarism in Digital Classrooms Important?
Problems start when students don’t want to spend a lot of time and insert pieces of someone else’s work into their text, or simply submit essays and research papers from the Internet. Fifteen years ago, such tricks could work; now, almost all colleges use programs that allow you to quickly compare a paper with other works and identify plagiarism.
However, such programs are not always a panacea. On the one hand, there are services that help rewrite words and phrases of the original text so that no robot will notice the catch. On the other hand, such programs often highlight quotes as plagiarism. It is desirable that after automatic processing, a real human checks the work.
Digital Plagiarism Detection and Consequences of Borrowing
Let’s look at the list of consequences of thoughtless appropriation of other people’s work:
- A work that contains excerpts from other texts will have very low uniqueness – any program will detect plagiarism in a jiffy
- An unoriginal work will automatically receive a lower score, or the supervisor will not accept it at all
- Most likely, you will have to revise the text, which means wasting time and effort
- If the teacher is principled, you can lose their trust forever
- If you dream of a scientific career, a plagiarism scandal can become an indelible stain on your reputation.
If a person applying for a candidate or doctoral degree commits outright plagiarism, this can close the door to scientific activity. That’s why detecting plagiarism in remote education is important.
How Plagiarism Impacts SEO
Of course, the presence of posts and entire articles on a website that were previously published on other resources negatively affects its promotion. This is not even because of the illegality of plagiarism from a legal point of view, but because Google algorithms now strive to present only useful and unique content in search results. Indeed, how will the value for users of a resource that offers them other people’s articles be expressed? Each site must contribute to the development of the Internet and provide new, unique information in response to a user’s search query.
Why Do Students Plagiarize?
For what reasons do students take risks and commit plagiarism? There may be several explanations:
- Lack of interest in the research topic or the subject itself
- A habit of cheating that developed in childhood
- Lack of self-confidence
- The student’s laziness or lack of time
Let’s look at each reason in more detail.
Lack of Interest in the Research Topic or the Subject Itself
When a person is interested, they will search for information themselves and try to complete the assigned task. Unfortunately, many universities have rather strict curricula with a specific list of subjects, many of which students will never even need. It is necessary to write papers on them.
It is not surprising that most students decide to forge and submit essays or research papers written by other people. The desire to avoid unnecessary work is understandable, but it can bring negative consequences to the student.
The Habit of Copying that Formed in Childhood
“We all come from childhood,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said. This applies not only to our psychological characteristics but also to our love of plagiarism.
The first shoots can be found already in school. Remember how the first teacher wrote an example on the board and demanded that you repeat it exactly. For freedom and creative impulses, you could get a low grade rather than praise. The same piggy bank included tasks that require retelling stories or doing something according to a model.
Who has never copied a test from a neighbor? Or has never helped someone else? If you don’t complain, they will call you a loser and despise you in the whole class. Therefore, we are simply used to plagiarizing and not condemning others for it.
Nevertheless, students don’t need to be told why plagiarism is bad. Cheating can end in expulsion for them.
Lack of Self-Confidence
Unfortunately, the habit of looking at others and following a strict pattern can have very negative consequences for the individual. A lack of self-confidence, self-doubt, and a fear of expressing ideas are formed. Then, a person may feel that their opinion and thoughts are not as valuable as those of others.
This leads to the student avoiding making independent decisions, putting off writing the work until the last minute, and deciding to use plagiarism – after all, someone else’s finished text still looks better and more convincing than their own work.
Such a lack of confidence can ruin not only the final grades, but also their whole life. After all, people who cannot act because of the fear of making a mistake do nothing. To help yourself, it is worth making small but independent decisions every day.
The Student is Lazy or Does Not Have Enough Time to Prepare
Most students are people who simply do not have enough time to write their papers on their own. Career, family, children – if only they could find a way to rest and get enough sleep. Then, they have to pore over tests, coursework, and theses!
That is why they prefer to solve issues with preparing written materials quickly: find, download, format, and hand in to the teacher. The result of such experiments is rarely satisfactory. Repeated rewritings and low scores push away the desired goal – to get the coveted diploma.
Whether you want to write a paper or not, it is better to avoid stealing other people’s texts. This will not bring the desired results.
