Alexy Kinga MAT 1331 (Saturday at 8:30)

Why do we plagiarize?
Recently, debates concerning plagiarism among students have become more and more intensive.
There are critical attacks on plagiarised essays although plagiarism is inevitable for the students
who are not able to put down their ideas in an independent way.
There are some serious reasons why students plagiarize. First of all people have often difficulties to
find sources. You can find an article on the internet more easily than in a library. Children at
secondary school are not trained at all in how to use resources for their research-work. The second
reason for plagiarism can be that reading some ideas in an internet resource the writer cannot
suppose himself to be able to compete with its author as it may seem to be a so well phrased text.
In addition to texts that can be printed in ten seconds, students find writing tiring. Having read a text
many students are not able to remember the content. Moreover, you do not make so many mistakes
if you cite some paragraphs word for word.
Besides the lack of capability to research, students are often worried about failing a course. They
cannot stand the stress. They are either too eager to get a good mark or they are too busy to write
essays and that is a further cause for plagiarism. Other students claim that essay writing is
superfluous because of the fact that all issues were so many times discussed that they could not add
anything new to the previously written ones.
Some opponents claim that plagiarism should be forbidden in higher education as plagiarism is
stealing of others thoughts. Some well-known persons have been promoted on the merit of others
intellectual results. This way they cheat their readers as they make them believe that they are
cleverer and well-trained than they are in reality.
In conclusion, we do need plagiarism to some extent as through it undergraduates get a model of
how to write scientific piece of work. On the other hand after a while they should get rid of this aid
and they should be able to express their own ideas in an independent way. To achieve this aim
courses should be offered to students where they should be taught how to compare different sources
and in conclusion how to phrase their own independent opinions. Courses like this should be
organised at secondary school so that students can reach the required standard at university.