Some Insight on Plagiarism in Higher Education
Amy Joyner
Liberty University

Evering, L., & Moorman, G. (2012). Rethinking plagiarism in the digital age. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(1), 35-44.
The article written by Evering & Moorman, 2012, is an article about the complexity and issues that evolve around plagiarism. Plagiarism as we see it today is clearly an issue of concern as far as why people do it and what can be done to avoid it. Plagiarism is not just an issue but clearly a serious and ongoing problem in the world today that needs to be put under control. According to Evering & Moorman, 2012, “Most public and private schools, colleges, and universities have academic integrity or honor codes and consequences for plagiarism, but few professors and teachers explicitly address what plagiarism means or provide examples of individual contexts and degrees of unauthorized copying”. Plagiarism is considered a serious issue that needs to be re-exam as far as Evering & Moorman are concern because it is said that not many students understand what plagiarism is let along trying to prevent it. Although several schools have honor codes about plagiarism and the penalties you can get, it’s still not a discussion with students about what it is and how to avoid it. The article states that “students are seldom engaged in instruction or discussion about what plagiarism is, why it is a problem, and how it can be avoided” (Evering & Moorman, 2012).
Plagiarism continue to be an issue because it is not universally recognized, therefore not everyone see plagiarism as plagiarism. Furthermore, plagiarism is based on property and ownership, meaning the ideas, and words are created by the person who has the rights to ownership (Evering & Moorman, 2012). With technology advancing more and more, digital revolution does makes it hard to determine ownership but if you find it from the web or any place that not your thoughts or ideas clearly you should know it’s not yours and therefore you should cite it. As the article states, “owned by everyone and no one at the same time” seem to be a good thought when thinking of plagiarism (Evering & Moorman, 2012). Although all plagiarism is populate in today’s day and age, internet Plagiarism seems to be the biggest among all because people like copying and pasting things that they find on the web. Plagiarism is very common among American secondary schools and higher education, a survey was done to determine the severity of plagiarism and the findings are that majority of the students plagiarize or admitted to plagiarism (Evering & Moorman, 2012).
Plagiarism has always been a concerned for schools because they expect for students to put forth their own effort and time to reflect their learning. There are several reasons why students plagiarize to include: they are just plain lazy and don’t want to do the work, lack of maturity, lack of writing skills, they don’t have interest in the assignment or they just want to find an easy way out. All in all, when a student is ask to write a paper that are ask to brain storm ideas of what they think the article meant or a summary of what the article was about. Most students think of that as having to come up with something that is even more thorough then that of the article for which they have read. According to Evering and Moorman, 2012, “When student are ask to research what experts in a given field have written about a particular topic in an original way, we perpetuate the notion that knowledge and ideas can be individually owned, thus increasing the pressure on students to come up with writing that is as equally insightful and rigorous with writing of the noted scholars they research”. “No wonder they plagiarize”! (Evering & Moorman, 2012). Although plagiarism should be avoided most students avoid it because of the fear of getting caught not because they are supposed to avoid it.
After reading the article I feel that Plagiarism should be given close reconsideration because technology does make hard for you to find out who’s material or ideas is who’s. I do think that every school should make it a discussion about what plagiarism is, why it is a problem and how it can be avoided, so that each and every student will have a clear understanding about it. I do understand that schools are making the penalties and punishments more severe but what will they do for that first time student who doesn’t have a clear understanding or nearly a clue of plagiarism let along how to prevent it. Although every school has honor codes or codes of conduct that every student is supposed to read, some students may not understand what they mean when reading about plagiarism. I feel that every student deserve that right to know about plagiarism and how to avoid it before the crime is committed without them even knowing they committed it. I know that no matter how I put it plagiarism is plagiarism but students should at least have a clear understanding of it. I think that the article by Evering & Moorman point out some really good points as far as schools being engaged in discussions with students about plagiarism and the fact that when we research we try to be more thorough then the article that we read. I think that is the case most of the time, we are all guilty of trying to make a paper that’s better then the article we read but I still don’t think that’s why most people plagiarize. Most people plagiarize because they are lazy, they don’t want to do the work, they not interested in the work that’s assigned or they just don’t understand or have a clear understanding of plagiarism. Of course, there is no excuse for someone copying and pasting work that they found on the web or an article. I have learned a lot from this article and I am very thankful for that but I never would have thought so many people plagiarize. I feel that the only way to address plagiarism is to discuss it and teach about it so that the ideas of stealing or committing the crime can be avoided.
In Conclusion, bringing plagiarism to the forefront can save a lot of people the time and thought of committing it. As far as I am concern I will cite everything even if I am not sure if it should be cited. This is the very first time I have had to write or discuss plagiarism since I have been in school. I have read about it and taken a quiz on it and I have even tried to make sure that I avoid it, but as far as discussing it or write about it this is my first time. I must say it feels real good to really get a full understanding of plagiarism and how to avoid it. Of course, I know you don’t have to be a rocket science to know that if you didn’t write it or came up with the idea you should cite it. This discussion have brought about a lot of thought about how people use and abuse information but I want to make sure that I use information appropriately. I was always told that a mind is “a terrible thing to waste” and “if you don’t use it you will lose it”. Therefore I want to make sure that I’m constantly thinking of this and I want to gain all the knowledge I possibly can and use it to my advantage. Furthermore I think plagiarism is a good tool for me to make my writing stronger and better or better yet a good tool to use for everything that I do. In fact, I think that it should be a tool for every student to make them stronger and better at everything they do also. I know that I am not perfect but I like to take my time with everything that I do and I try to make sure that I avoid any stop signs that don’t seem right. I am only human and I do make mistakes but this is one I try to avoid if I can help it.
After submitting my paper to safe assign the results indicated that my paper was only a 9% match. It was 9% because of the article name and a quote that I was always told, other than that nothing else came up as a match. I tried to be as originator as possible to avoid plagiarism. I actually feel good that my paper is done as it should be. This lets me know that when I write a paper that I do so correctly. I wish that all school would let you see the results of your paper so that you would know how much of a match it is to another paper or article. Just seeing the results of my paper make me more confident that I can do a great paper without many quotes and I can also avoid plagiarism.