Post 254: Why do students Plagiarize?

Post 254: Why Do Students Plagiarize?

Plagiarism is defined as stealing information from others without giving them credit. Students plagiarize for many reasons. I remember when I was at school, I remember seeing students write the answers of test questions on their hand or up their sleeve. Others would look at their notes with the looseleaf binders on their laps. Yet, others would look over the shoulder of a smart student to get test answers.  When I was in college, there were rumors that the fraternities kept a file cabinet of all test answers of all professors from the college. I have no idea if this urban legend is true, but I do know that throughout my educational career, I have seen students cheat.

With the advent of the internet, it is even easier to cheat on exams or papers. Students just cut and paste what they find on the internet into their test answers or they look up test answers on cheat websites where previous students have already uploaded the answers to the test. Here are some reasons why students have cheated on their exams and their assignments:

1. Students do not have time to write the paper because they are too close to the deadline so they cut and paste parts of their paper from the internet.

2. Students have no confidence in their own original thought so they steal information from others. Students think if they just use the fancy language of other authors, they can impress the teacher.

3. Students from other countries may have different cultural definitions of plagiarism. In some countries, copying other writer's work is considered an honor and flattery. When you see bits and pieces of other people's work, you are honoring that writer and giving him respect even if you don't notate who that writer is. International students need extra instruction on the Western definition of plagiarism to avoid copyright violations.

4. Students think they will get caught. Students think teachers are too busy to double check on student papers so students cheat. Now with Turnitin, teachers know right away if students cheat or not.

5. Students think, "Teachers are too stupid to notice cheating." Similar to Reason 4. Students put very little stock in teacher intelligence. But I notice cheating is if a student can barely write sentences in class and suddenly he writes like Shakespeare for his paper, I get suspicious that he did not write his paper himself.

6. Students cheat for the thrill of it all. Some students cheat on a dare or to look cool in front of the other students.

7. Some students find the topic of the class too complex and cannot understand the class so students cheat off of the smarter students.

8. Some students just don't want to take the time to study thinking the class is not relevant to their lives.

9. Some students accidentally plagiarize because they are not familiar with research notation methods.

10. Lastly, students self plagiarize because students think if they wrote the paper themselves, then it is not plagiarism.

What are some other reasons why students cheat that you have found in your classes, or when you were growing up?