Laziness or Dishonesty is Ruining Reputation
Plagiarism A study by the Center for Academic Integrity found that almost 80% of college students admit to cheating at least once, while this is between 75% and 98% of high school students. You might not believe this, but the statistics of 2018 show that. Although, it is not astonishing news when there are fears of failing, desires to get better grades, poor time management, or a lack of recognition of plagiarism among students.
Also, there is another kind of plagiarism that is stealing other’s quotes, arts, recipes, and ideas without mentioning the name of the owner, and it is non-academic plagiarism. There are some similarities between academic and non-academic plagiarism particularly in motivations or reasons, methods, and effects. In academic plagiarism students have reasons and methods to cheat and obviously, they will result in negative effects. Plagiarism in academic situations is nothing new, and there has been a high percentage of college students and high schools’ who have plagiarized for several years. The most important reason should be getting better grades without enough effort, due to laziness or lack of talent, confidence, and knowledge to stand on their own feet. Most cheaters would like to have a fun social life so, they don’t spend time studying as much as they should.
Other motivations for plagiarizing would be the pressure and excessive demands ultimately fear of failing, lack of preparation, lack of understanding, confusion about writing and also, and cultural differences. Accordingly, the students use some methods to steal others’ information. For cheating, they can sit next to each other, or they use a fake ID or copy from google. They steal others’ research, ideas, and statistics, and use other students’ lab reports and fake signatures on official documents for their financial aids applications. ultimately, the consequence shows that most of the cheaters get disciplinary actions, alerts, and notifications.
They can be removed from all classes for one or more terms, and this affects the student’s ability to attend graduate schools and will be noted on their academic transcript. On the other hand, hold and pending may be placed on students’ records, and the record will be kept for a minimum of five years. And the worst result of that trauma and shock is the psychological and mental impact on them which remains for years. However, all the sanctions and policies are to protect the safety and integrity of the University community, and to learn the students, new behaviors. Non-academic plagiarism is similar to academics in terms of motivation, methods, and effects.
For instance, the similarity in music, art, politics, journalism, authorship plagiarism, and the academics. For the first motivation to plagiarize we can mention the laziness which motivates politicians to use others’ words and sentences. Another reason is a lack of knowledge, confidence, and talent to talk or write confidentially, so they steal from a confident person his/her speeches and quotes without mentioning their names. Sometimes, some cheaters don’t like to spend enough time and energy to find out what they will represent in their presentations like Melania who would rather look for the newest of the designers to waste her time finding something new to say.
However, the pressure and fear could be the motivations for the politicians to plagiarize, because it would be a safer way to steal a confirmed presentation. On the other hand, other reasons would be a lack of preparation, or confusion. The same as academics, the politicians repost some sentences in their speeches or books without mentioning the name of origin, and without respecting the real author and mentioning her/his name. As a matter of fact, the result will be losing their reputation, trust, dignity, expulsion, losing their positions, quitting their job, getting impeached, just like the college students when be caught of plagiarism.
In summary, the main similarity between Academic and non-academic plagiarism should be the personal, professional, ethical, and legal consequences. If in academics, plagiarism causes a student to be suspended, the same can cause to a politician to be impeached. In the case where a journalist works for a magazine, newspaper or other publishers, or even a student is found plagiarizing in school, the offending plagiarist could have to pay monetary penalties. Both types mean a destroyed reputation and the end of the academic position. Following as a result, laziness or dishonesty can lead to ruined reputation, the loss of a career, and legal problems.
