Plagiarism †Impact of Internet Essay

The advent of technology and profit in the last decade has opened up several(prenominal) avenues for unmeasured schooling nettle. This along with the increasing donnish pressures has take assimilators to resort to plagiarisation at an alarming rate (Elliot, 2004). The problem of piracy in the academic context preserve no longer be ignored as it is hampering the creativity and intellectual capacities of students. Over all, thither has been a growing concern and an growing in aw beness to point out ship canal to counteract plagiarism.Thesis conundrum StatementIt has been said that internet hinders the creativity of students and get aheads intellectual laziness. This newsprint intends to seek the negative effects of internet on the creative intending abilities of the students and find some ways to counteract it.Internet and plagiarisation bandage the usage of plagiarism is non new, it is certainly more widespread now than before. plagiarization basically means write some one and only(a) elses work and claiming it as aver without giving payable credit to the victor author (Jones, 2007). With the advent of technological era, culture is easily accessible and the temptation to pass dispatch someone elses work as ones own is high. on that point is no limit to the amount or type of education that is available on internet covering e very bow imaginable. While this kind of culture accessibility is advantageous in several ways and facilitates learning in some scenarios, it in any case leads to several problems with plagiarism peculiarly in the academic context. Due to the availability and tranquility of access of the cultivation without any restrictions, the effort to plagia go is much less compared to earlier long metre when students had to go finished a laborious puzzle out to wedge access to the relevant re extensions in order to copy. In this context, the impact of internet on cheating can be considered extremely high and is known as digital or cyber plagiarism.Impact of internetAccording to the NEC interrogation Institute, there are more than 1.4 billion pages on the Internet with 25 new pages being added every second (Dyrli, 2000). Due to this huge database of information, it is very easy to find papers and information advertd to the academic returns This has led to a rapid increase in the percentage of cheating both livelinessional and unintended by students. According to a study conducted by the Centre for Academic Integrity of Duke University, plagiarism due to internet has increase fourfold in the last 6 years (Vencat, 2006). Several separate studies have substantiated this claim of rising incidents of plagiarism and the blurring of broad(a) lines among students.Reasons and Effects of plagiarizationBefore delving deep into the effects of plagiarism and ways to prevent it, it is all-important(prenominal) to fancy the reasons for it. While the availability of information is certainly a forerunne r, there are several other reasons which lead to it as well, the main one being the academic pressure to which students are airfielded and the emphasis on near grades in todays competitive world (Elliot, 2004). However, since the focus of this paper is digital plagiarism, the main reasons why internet encourages plagiarism are declared below1. Access to unlimited information through websites and search engines.2. The ease with which content can be copy-pasted as compared to the earlier traditional methods of copying the material by hired man.3. Difficulty in detecting plagiarism due to the sheer amount of information a gullst which a finicky essay or paper needs to be compared.4. Lack of standards and criteria making it difficult to pin tumbler down a work as exact plagiarism.Due to all the reasons mentioned above and many others, the incidents of cheating are steadily on the rise since the last decade. While a lone instance of plagiarism is negligible, spacious increases such as these indicate a self-destructive trend among the student community and are becoming a cause of worry (Lathrop & Foss, 2000). cheat students not only hamper their own intellectual growth, they similarly elucidate it that much more difficult for honest students to get their due. Students may gain admission to courses which they do not deserve by using the grades obtained through wrongful means and this creates a permanent impact on the approaching of the society. This impact becomes especially dangerous if a cheating student decides to get into fields such as medicine, law etc. Also, if a particular student who plagiarises regularly receives secure grades, it might compel others to do the very(prenominal) and hence the problem will continue to spread. Considering all these factors, it has become despotic for the academic community to take a strong stand against plagiarism.Avoiding PlagiarismThe anti-plagiarism industry has been gaining more and more prominence in the last a few(prenominal) years and educational institutions have started enforcing very strict guidelines to ensure that students do not cheat. Most of the institutions mete out severe punishments to offenders. Having said that, the subject of academic integrity is a debatable topic and since all the information available on internet is considered public, it is difficult to define intellectual holding in a precise manner. Creating awareness is the first step towards preventing plagiarism and most institutions are taking steps to ensure awareness among students. There are also several resources available on the internet which fork up information well-nigh what brings plagiarism and what does not. Teachers are resorting to the use of plagiarism sleuthing softwares to catch offenders.As mentioned before, there are several reasons which ultimately finish in plagiarism. Apart from the ones mentioned in the previous section, there are also several internal factors which lead students to che at. Procrastination, poor platformning and time management, associate pressure, lack of subject knowledge etc are some of the contributing factors (Elliot, 2004). Sometimes, students are genuinely not aware of the intricacies of citing works and thereby make mistakes which constitute accidental or unintentional plagiarism. However, the fact that the plagiarism was unintentional does not make it acceptable and is still considered wrong.To avoid plagiarism, it is important to tackle the infrastructure of the issue. While the institute and teachers can play an important role in creating awareness and challenging assignments which encourage creative persuasion, at the end of the day, the moral responsibility lies with the students and it is up to them to understand the consequences of cheating and make an effort consciously to avoid it (Martin, 1984). There are several ways in which students can contribute towards reducing such cases. It is important to create self-awareness by exam ine all the plagiarism related policies and literature provided by the university and also to understand the consequences of not following the rules as most of the universities subscribe to anti-plagiarism softwares lately. Along with policies, it is also important for students to understand the ethics behind the policies. There are several writing formats and referencing styles followed by universities which provide guidelines on giving credit to the original source and students should familiarize themselves with the ones accepted by their own institutes (Kirszner & Mandell, 2004). It is a good idea to ask for help whenever there is any confusion about citing.Also, it is of utmost importance for students to develop good time management skills and plan their coursework in a proper manner as lack of time is one of the main factors for cheating. A good internal schedule with bounteous time allocated for understanding the subject matter can go a long way in preventing the temptation t o cheat. By gaining a good understanding of the subject matter, it is possible to analyse what has been written on the subject by others and extract the relevant data from it rather than blind copying. withstand but not the least, it is extremely important to cite all the information which has been borrowed from other sources (Neville, 2007).Developing Creative ThinkingDuring his days as the editor program of the Forbes magazine, Malcolm Forbes once said that Educations purpose is to replace an vacate mind with an open one. This quote aptly describes the actual intent behind the design of academic subjects and the related coursework. It has been said that the ability to think and react logically is life-sustaining for a persons own(prenominal) as well as professional success. While the internet or any other literary resource might provide the information and the facts relevant to a coursework, they do not serve the actual purpose of a course. Most of the times, the aim of a cour sework, be it an essay or a dissertation is to test the subject knowledge and critical mentation abilities of the student. Mere copy pasting does not in any way, reflect the thinking abilities of a student. The internet can be a powerful source of data and information as long as the student learns to process the data and understand the information independently. The information available can be used more productively if the students relate it to the task at hand and build upon it.There are several ways to develop critical thinking abilities though it is not possible to simply learn them. all(prenominal) assignment can be broken down into logical chunks which encourage thinking and analysing on the students part. Students can also participate in classify room discussions to the maximum possible extent to understand various viewpoints and relate them to ones own views. Participating in discussions and taking notes at appropriate places ensures that the original authors are always c redited for their work. This also encourages enquire questions and raising doubts as and when they arise thereby helping the students understand the subject better. Understanding the subject ensures that students do not blindly accept the facts presented by someone else without questioning the logic behind it or without asking for test (Martin, 1984).