Penalties for plagiarism in US and UK academic institutions
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Outline This paper outlines a little background on plagiarism as well as the current definitions of the practice. The second section evaluates why the act of plagiarism is considered as a bad practice. The policy being used by the UK and US academic institutions on plagiarism has also been reviewed. The penalties on plagiarism that exist have been discussed in the paper as well. Finally, the paper presents a personal opinion on the penalties purported to be heavy as well as a conclusion on the entire paper.
Introduction
Plagiarism has found its way in the colleges’ courses more recently than ever. During the daily learning activities in colleges, people are progressively involved with the ideas of other people. This may be through incorporation as writings, class discussions and lecture dictations or through reading of texts. Due to these reasons, it is necessary that the owner of the material be given adequate credit where it is due. This paper seeks to evaluate the penalties that exist for those found plagiarizing particularly in the academic institutions of UK and US. The paper defines succinctly what the term plagiarism refers to and also reviews the anti-plagiarism policies existing in the academic institutions found in the US and UK. Also, the paper clearly outlines the penalties imposed on those found plagiarizing in these institutions. Finally, a personal opinion on whether the heavy penalties are justifiable has been given.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism refers to the act of using the ideas and words of another person without acknowledging them with clarity as the information’s source. The word has been derived from a Latin word that means kidnapping or stealing. According to the UNC honor Courts; plagiarism is the reckless or deliberate action of representing the ideas, thoughts or words as one’s own without ascription in relation to submission of academic work whether for grading purposes or other reasons (Carroll and Appleto 35). There are several reasons why plagiarism is considered as a bad practice. Plagiarism can not reveal to the instructor the level of subject understanding of the student. This is because plagiarism does not differentiate the building block ideas that have been borrowed from other individuals and the ones that are well reasoned conclusions and perspectives from the student. Plagiarism does not indicate the distinction between a student’s analysis and that given by a book author. Finally, plagiarism does not support the aspect of supporting owns ideas while referring to other peoples’ works. Therefore, when using well cited sources, the aspect of using the ideas of an expert as evidence or proof of a new being developed by the student comes into place. Plagiarism also contributes to laziness, where students do not undertake enough research on their own (Clarke 91).
Anti-plagiarism policy adopted by UK and US academic institutions There are strategies that have been developed and adopted by many academic institutions in the UK and the US, packaged into one document as the anti-plagiarism policy. The policy applies to all students in these academic institutions. The policy outlines that these institutions must foster sound academic integrity by ensuring that the contribution of other individuals has been appropriately acknowledged for any work that has been submitted for publication or assessment (Clarke 91). The citations or attribution to these sources must also be done according to the standard conventions of referencing or writing bibliographies (Joseph 25). The policy also states that there must be stern measures taken against those found breaching the principles of academic integrity or cheating. According to the policy, clear referencing should be ensured at all times in order to allow any other interested readers to make a follow-up on the works cited as well as read quotations in the original form.
Penalties imposed on the culprits of plagiarism There are various penalties that exist for the students found plagiarizing. Some of these have been outlined in the policy while others are just common with particular institutions. Since plagiarism is considered as an unfair and dishonest practice, students who are found plagiarizing are subject to sanctions on the academic grounds. This involves a reduced score or total fail for the assignment that has been plagiarized. Also the student may receive a low grade or a failing grade for the entire course he or she was undertaking. Such students may also be liable to sanctions on administrative grounds that involves suspension or in the worst cases, expulsion. However, these penalties are not exercised without considering the various levels of plagiarism. The circumstances under which plagiarism has been done may prompt the faculty members to penalize the students themselves or involve the administrators. Other mild penalties imposed by the administration are reprimand, loss of privileges, restitution and probation (Carroll and Appleto, 35).
Personal opinion on the heavy penalties The heavy penalties in my opinion would be the expulsion or total failure for the entire case. The justification of these penalties may be argued from two perspectives. First of all, the penalties are justifiable. Expulsion or total course failure will ensure that other students learn a lesson of the implications of plagiarism. On the other hand, the penalties may be deemed unjustifiable. This is because of the fact that the student may have practiced plagiarism only once or he or she was not aware of the implications of such a practice. However, the penalties are more justifiable since they will lead to total eradication of the vice.
Conclusion
The issue of plagiarism is a negative practice that should be discouraged at all costs since it does not promote academic integrity. The usage of another person’s ideas without properly acknowledging them contributes to plagiarism. The penalties that exist should also be exercised at all times to ensure the vice is no more. However, the level of plagiarism must be evaluated before a particular penalty is imposed on a student.

Works cited
Joseph, Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
Carroll and Appleto. Oxford Brookes University. Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide. Oxford: Joint

Information Systems Committee, 2001.

Clarke, R. “Plagiarism by academics: More complex than it seems.” Journal of the Association for

Information Systems, 7.2 (2006): 91-121.