Internet promotes plagiarism.

Discuss

Introduction
There are many types of plagiarism, including several scenarios of inadvertent and deliberate
plagiarism. This paper will discuss how internet promotes plagiarism, its impact on academic
integrity and how plagiarism can be avoided. It will also provide suggestions on ways to
eliminate both inadvertent and deliberate plagiarism. There are several ways to define
plagiarism. One such definition, according to the Regis rubric is, “theft of intellectual property”.
There are several ways an individual can plagiarize work. Whether it is direct plagiarism,
paraphrasing an individual’s work without acknowledging the original author, or using the
majority of someone else’s work but rearranging the order and replacing words and phrases
with one’s own thoughts. It is also even possible to self-plagiarizing one’s own work by reusing
work previously submitted. As such, because there are several types of plagiarism, it truly goes
beyond the above noted definition. Since one can resubmit previous work, this cannot be
deemed stealing intellectual property. But rather should be defined as integrating published or
unpublished theory, concept, or work into one’s own personal work with or without approval,
whether intentional or unintentional. This definition broadens the definition of plagiarism by
the addition of passing off one’s own previous work as original.

Before delving deep into the effects of plagiarism and how to prevent it, it is important to
understand the reason for it. While the availability of information is certainly a forerunner,
there are several other reasons which leads to it as well, the main one being the academic
pressure to which students are subjected and the emphasis on good grades in today’s
competitive world (Elliot, 2004). However since the focus of this paper is on digital plagiarism,
the main reasons why internet promotes plagiarism are:

Access to unlimited information through websites and various search engines

With the advent of technological era, information is easily accessible and the temptation to
pass someone’s work as your own is quite high. There is no limit to the amount of information
available on the internet covering any subject imaginable. While this kind of information
accessibility is advantageous in several ways and facilitates learning in some scenarios, it also
leads to several problems with plagiarism especially in the academic context. Due to the
availability and easy access to information without any restrictions, the effort to plagiarise is
much less compared to earlier days when students had to go through a laborious process to
get access to various resources in order to copy. In this context the impact of internet on
plagiarism can be considered extremely high and is known as digital or cyber plagiarism.

The easy with which content can be copy-pasted

As mentioned in the previous paragraph it was difficult for many to get access to resources as
these were not readily available. Even if the books were readily available the information was
mostly in hard copy and it required a great deal of time to copy it. With the development of
the internet information is now available in easily downloadable formats such as well doc,
pdf, xls etc. Various softwares can be used to download the information or to simply copy and
paste the information to a new document. Due to the ease at which the content can be copy-
pasted internet acts a catalyst to plagiarism.

Difficulty in detecting plagiarism

Due to sheer amount of information against which an essay or a particular paper needs to
compare with, it has become difficult to detect plagiarism due to internet. Various authors
upload their work on particular subjects on the internet and one can use even up to ten or
more authors so as to run away from anti-plagiarism softwares which are meant to detect
plagiarism. This makes it difficult for the reviewer to detect if a particular author’s work was
plagiarised or not.

Lack of standards and criteria

Due to lack of standards and criteria it makes it difficult to pin down a work as exact
plagiarism. The internet is available to anyone who needs access to it and it doesn’t provides
the standards on what to upload, how to show the information and the criteria to which
anything is supposed to be done. Is there are no standards for example financial standards or
criteria for example how a certain operation is supposed to be done it becomes difficult to
detect plagiarism. Due to these lack of standards and criteria internet does work as a
component which is needed to complete the puzzle of plagiarism and those people who
plagiarise knows exactly what they will be doing and why.

The temptation of internet

Internet and availability of information has caused the temptation to use technology in almost
every aspect of school work. Not only is it easy to plagiarize by simply cutting and pasting, but
it’s also easy to purchase fully written papers, reports, even PhD dissertations. In fact, for a
small fee students can buy and download a professional college ready paper on virtually any
subject. There are sites dedicated to nothing but providing academic papers to the next kid
with a debit card. On many college campuses, the internet has changed from a tool for
gathering information to one for stealing & buying information.

The growth of uncontrollable social media platforms

The rising growth in social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram etc
has made it socially acceptable to copy and paste someone’s work. This usually happens in a
scenario where one just copy and forward certain messages to various groups or even to
someone without acknowledging the source. This has resulted from the use of internet and
which in some way it is making it socially acceptable to use someone’s idea without crediting
the source.

However it makes sense to note that the availability of internet does not in itself promotes
plagiarism and the following paragraphs will discuss other reasons besides the internet on
why people plagiarise.

Lack of Confidence

Of all of the reasons for committing plagiarism, this one seems to come up the most
consistently, especially in academic environments. When a writer doesn’t feel as if they are
up to the task they are given, they are often tempted to steal. Typically they take from those
they idolize or see as more talented. In academic environments, this pressure is especially
understandable. A student under pressure to get a good grade but unsure of their writing
ability is likely going to be tempted to plagiarize. However, this also seeps into professional
environments, especially when authors are given tasks outside of their skill set.

Lack of Time

This one is a singular problem with two causes. First, it might be the author’s fault. Through poor time
management or lack of focus, they might find themselves in a situation where they don’t have enough
time to finish a task. Second, it could be the fault of the person who assigned the writing. Overloading
authors or students to the point that, even with perfect time management, there’s little to no way
they can complete the task ethically. Either way an author with a deadline they can’t meet is far more
likely to plagiarize than one who is comfortable they can make it in time.

Laziness

This one is a difficult one for educators and editors alike but some writers simply do not care
about the task at hand or are otherwise not motivated to complete it. Whether they think it’s
pointless or merely beneath them personally, when an authors doesn’t take an assignment
seriously, the odds that they will simply submit the works of another as their own increases.
Simply put, when authors see the value in a work, their work ethic improves and they’re much
less likely to plagiarize.

Don’t think they will get caught

Due to advancing technology, this one is a diminishing reason but it still lingers. Many
plagiarize simply because they can and they feel that they won’t get caught. The logic here is
pretty straightforward, why spend the time and effort to complete a project if you can
plagiarize it with little to no risk? Many people plagiarize simply because they can and that’s
the end of it.

They made a mistake

This one is by far the least common, but it does happen. Whether through poor paraphrasing,
lost citations or some other means, mistakes do happen. To be clear, plagiarism that results
from an error doesn’t look like malicious plagiarism. It usually deals more with inadequate
attribution than no attribution and is generally smaller in nature. Still, many students and
authors have found themselves facing accusations of plagiarism over simple mistakes.

Due to all the reasons mentioned above and many others the incidents of plagiarism are
steadily on the rise in the last decade. While a lone stance of plagiarism is negligible massive
increases such as these indicate a self-destructive trend among the student community and
are becoming a cause of worry (Lathrop and Foss,2000). If the plagiarists regularly gets good
grades it will also compel other students to do the same and the problem will continue to be
widespread. The following are some of the ways to combat plagiarism.

Boost their confidence

Whether in an academic or a professional environment, reach out to those who are

struggling with their writing and boost their confidence. Give then the skills needed to
succeed and confidence that their writing will make the grade, do the job or otherwise be
enough. People who believe they can meet the standard before them are far less likely to
plagiarize.

Make deadlines more reasonable

While you can provide and help authors with time management skills, this really is a
situation where it is up to the creator. Still, you can ensure that you don’t overload the
author or push them beyond what they are capable of. This can be tough in an academic
environment where a student might be working with half a dozen other instructors, but not
overloading a writer is the best step you can take to prevent them from plagiarizing for this
reason.

Manage student’s laziness

There’s no easy answer to this one, it’s important to explain WHY a particular writing task is
important. This might seem silly, especially in an academic environment where the purpose
of the assignment might seem clear, but it’s a reality nonetheless. As long as a percentage of
students don’t take a task seriously or don’t care enough to do the needed work, they will
be prone to cheating.

Highlight the consequences of being caught to writers

Consistent use of plagiarism detection tools is important here. It’s nearly impossible for
someone to think they won’t get caught plagiarizing when many others are. There’s no
simple answer here other than having a strong system for detecting and dealing with those
who plagiarize.

Educate them

Education is the key here. Remember that using outside writing in your work is a skill that
needs to be taught including citation and paraphrasing. Help writers that are in need,
including offering remedial education if necessary. However, in a professional environment,
one would usually expect a writer to be familiar with the rules of citation. Still, it’s often
amazing how far writers can go through their education without really learning the rules of
avoiding plagiarism.

Conclusion

All in all the benefits that comes with the use of internet outweighs the abuse that other
lazy writers does with it in their studies or publications. It only needs somebody who has
being trained and educated well in using internet material. Ethics plays a pivotal role in
preventing plagiarism as the future is online and innovative ideas are still very crucial in our
lives and academic excellence.
References

1. Plagiarism – Impact of Internet. [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/plagiarism-

impact-of-internet-essay[Accessed: 23 May. 2019].

2. [PT] Plagiarism Today. Jonathan Bailey

3. TechNewsDaily Staff. “College Presidents Blame Rising Plagiarism on Tech Increase.”

September 16th, 2011. http://www.technewsdaily.com/college-paper-plagiarism-rising-3256/

4. Unicheck-Academic Integrity. https://unicheck.com/