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Why Plagiarism is not in Students’ Best Interest

Why Plagiarism is not in Students’ Best Interest

Autumn Pfaff

Texas A&M University – Commerce

Robert Wolfe

ETEC 424

January 22, 2020

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Why Plagiarism is not in Students’ Best Interest

Research papers are a big part of education today. Teachers use research papers, so
students have to think outside the box while learning about a new subject. One main concern
when assigning a research paper is plagiarism. Some students when researching can’t take what
they learned and put it in their own words, so they choose to use the authors. In some cases, this
is fine if the students quotes the author and they cite the work correctly. Students who do
plagiarize tend to become absolute non-thinkers. As a teacher we never want our students to
become non-thinkers, we want to teach them the complete opposite, to continue learning and
always think outside the box to have new ways to learn.
There are several ways to keep from plagiarizing one is to start early. If you start early
you have the time to collect the information you need and think about what you are trying to say.
Another is to cite correctly and quote, by doing this you are giving credit where credit is due. If
you think you might have plagiarized there are many online plagiarism checkers you can run
your work through, or simply ask your teacher.
Some reasons students might plagiarize is that they panic about the assignment. It might
be something they have never heard of or learned about before and it freaks them out. When this
happens, students tend to lose confidence in themselves. They tend to lose their confidence
because they feel like they can’t put the authors words into their own. This goes back to having
time. If they plan the time out just right to do the research paper, they will have time to research,
think about it, put it in their own words, type the paper, run it through a plagiarism check online,
proofread their paper, then submit the paper on time.
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Why Plagiarism is not in Students’ Best Interest

References

Why are my instructors so concerned about plagiarism?.

https://theplagiarism.com/articles/why-are-my-instructors-so-concerned-about-
plagiarism

10 Tips for Students: How to Avoid Plagiarism in Your Writing.

https://writingcooperative.com/10-tips-for-students-how-to-avoid-plagiarsim-in-your-

writing-11892264deb4

Cleary,M.N. (2017) Top 10 Reasons Students Plagiarize & What Teachers Can do About it (with
apologies to David Letterman). Phi Delta Kappan 99 (4), 66-71.