College of Technology London

The Study Skills

MEP5
Lecturer: Roseline Oluitan

ACCESS TO THE INTERNET HAS INCREASED THE OCCURRENCE OF UNFAIR

PRACTICE AT BRITISH UNIVERSITIES

Student ID: 095466-88

Page 1 of 12
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. PLAGIARISM 4

3. RECOMMENDATIONS 6

4. CASE STUDIES 7

5. VALID ARGUMENTS 7

6. FALLACIES 9

7. EVALUATION OF TWO ARGUMENTS 10

8. CONCLUSION 11

9. REFERENCES 12

Page 2 of 12
INTRODUCTION

Internet is the world wide web service that is the most important invention in the electronic
industry. It is the internet that provides the best sources for any kind of findings. There is
nothing that internet cannot give information on. It is the interconnection between the all the
computer networks in the world. The internet uses a particular protocol called as Internet
Protocol Suite(IPS) to serve millions people around the world. It is the internet through
which the e-mail service, e-market, e-office etc... runs. As the use of internet has been so
reachable these days the people around the world use internet as their referencing tool. As the
internet is used so much the unfair practices by people has increased very much. This is
because the people has got access to any of the documents or any of the things that a common
man desires in today’s world. The internet has also led to access to sexual, criminal,
plagiarism etc... side of the world.

The report here shows the assessment of unfair practices in the British universities. The
unfair practices can be divided into several forms. Some of the forms of unfair practices are
as follows:

• Plagiarism

• Submitting someone else’s assessments that has already been submitted earlier

• Submitting assessments that another person has done it.

Plagiarism

Wiktionary defines plagiarism as

The act of copying of another person’s ideas, texts or other creative work and presenting it as
one’s own especially without permission.

New Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary defines plagiarism as

Plagiarism is “the unauthorized use of the language and thoughts of another author and the
representation of them as one’s own”.

Submitting someone else’s assessments that has already been submitted earlier

If one takes an assessment of another that has already been submitted and submit it then it is
another type of unfair practice that is been very popular.

Submitting assessments that another person has done it.

If a person assigns to some other person with his assignment and submits for the university
then it is another type of unfair practice.

Page 3 of 12
As the study suggests that one of the unfair practices is the plagiarism, it is important to
discuss about the main type of unfair practice.

Plagiarism

The word Plagiarism is derived from the Latin language. It is made up of two words known
as Plagiarius-meaning abductor and Plagiare-meaning to steal.The act of copying the exact
texts or the idea given by a previous person and then submitting as one’s own wordings is
known as plagiarism. The type of plagiarism that the students perform is known as the
Academia Plagiarism.

The following are considered as plagiarism:

• Using someone else’s ideas without giving them credit

• Using someone else’s work and saying it is one’s own

• If quotes are not used in quotations

• Using the same sentence structure but changing the words without giving credit

Types of plagiarism

Plagiarism is mainly divided into two types

Sources Not Cited

Sources Cited

These two types are further divided into following:

Sources Not Cited

• The Ghost Writer

The writer uses someone else’s words and depict as his or her own idea.

• The Photocopy

The writer takes the exact verse said by someone else and put down in his or
her piece of work without modifying it.

• The Potluck Paper

The writer tries to hide his act of plagiarism by adding texts from so many
different sources and then making all of the sentences look like one. The
writer here uses much of the original phrases in this type.

Page 4 of 12
 • The Poor Disguise

The writer here keeps the essential contents of the sources but changes the
words or the phrases in a whole and depicts in his or piece of work.

• The Labor of Laziness

The writer instead of working on original work he or she paraphrases the texts
from several different sources. But in this case it’s never an original work of
the writer.

• The Self Stealer

The writer here steals from his or her own previous piece of work which
violates the production of originality.

Sources Cited

• The Forgotten Footnote

The writer provides the authors name that he or she referenced it from but
forgot to mention the book that he or she referenced.

• The Misinformer

The writer here provides false sources. He or she provides sources that are
wrong. This makes it impossible to find out the sources for the assessor.

• The Too-Perfect Paraphrase

Even if the writer provides the correct source of the quotation used but forgets
to put the quotes then too its considered as plagiarism. This is because it seems
to the assessor that the writer is showing it as his or her own piece of work.

• The Resourceful Citer

The writer here references everything in the correct form, he or she

paraphrases everything properly but the work he or she has done is not
original at all. This makes it impossible to detect plagiarism.

• The Perfect Crime

In this case the writer properly cites the sources at some place in his or her
report but then he paraphrases so many of the phrases taken, by doing like this
it shows as if it his own piece of work. This looks as if he or she has cited the
resource somewhere.

Page 5 of 12
Reasons for Plagiarism

Lack of Research Skills

The students usually will not have any research skills form the past. So in this case the
students are so frustrated that they do not know what to do when it comes to making a report
on a topic or writing an assignment on a topic. The students have might had practice using
libraries, referring books etc... Students with high research skills are very minimal in manner,
so ultimately students end up copying from several sources and using them as their own
findings.

Lack of Writing Skills

Usually students will not have a good writing skill. They will not be able to express in
words what they understand from researching. This leads to lumping several sources and
making it together and creating a weak thesis. The students with writing skills will lack in
clarity to explain the point in a well manner.

Internet Source Evaluation

In today’s world for easy answers the students end up looking in the internet for the
research materials. This may lead to weak resources which result in a weak thesis
preparation. The students are not aware how to filter the information from the internet.

Confusion about how to cite sources

Many of the students are not aware how to cite the internet sources. So this leads to
plagiarism as the phrases have not been referenced properly. The students feel insecure about
the citation part and in result he or she cites the particular phrase wrong.

Poor Time Management and Organizational Skills

The students usually lack in time management and organisational skills as they have
not had exposure towards these type of matters in life. This leads to copying from the source
directly in order to complete the report somehow.

OUTCOME OF PLAGIARISM

The plagiarism may lead to course lag for the student as the institution will surely fail
the student if they find any type of unfair practice. It leads to loss of money used for the
expense of the course that the student has opted. This even leads to loss or wastage of time as
the student will be executed for the practice of plagiarism. Time wastage is happened because
plagiarism leads to failure of the module or the course.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The students should be properly educated by the lecturers on how to reduce

plagiarism. Most of the lecturers in the institutions do not spend much time with students on
how to fight the plagiarism.

Page 6 of 12
 The students must be provided with ample information about the terminologies of an
report preparation. The words like citation, paraphrasing, quotations etc... must be explained
properly. This will help the students to create a good thesis.

They must be given guidance on how to approach the topic of report writing. The
research paper question must be well explained to the students. This will help in reducing
plagiarism.

The student must be well aware of t what the course has to offer him or her. They
should discuss with the faculty of the institution about the syllabus of the course. This will
help the student to understand the course better and it will help the student understand what
the institution is expecting from the students.

CASE STUDY 1

“According to a Boston University investigation into misconduct, Martin plagiarized

approximately one third of his doctoral thesis. He also appropriated others' text, without
credit, for his famous speeches, including "I Have A Dream"”.

Martin Luther King had been a victim of plagiarism at the time of submission of his
doctoral thesis. This is because he had used so many texts from several sources without even
giving the sources a credit. He has even been accused for plagiarism in his famous speech “I
Have A Dream”.

CASE STUDY 2

“Senator Joseph Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic Presidential
nominations when it was revealed that he had failed a course in law school due to plagiarism.
It was also shown that he had copied several campaign speeches, notably those of British
Labour leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In both cases he was essentially
exonerated.”

The renown politician was not allowed to stand as the candidate for the 1988
democratic presidential nomination because he was accused for plagiarism in law school. He
had failed a module in his law course because he had copied from several sources. It was
even proven that his campaign speeches were also stolen and copied.

PENALTIES FOR PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is one serious offence which no instructors will tolerate. Usually the
penalties for the act of plagiarism is determined by the instructor itself. Usual punishments
practiced by the instructors are failure in the module or failure in the course as a whole or
even exclusion from the institution. Exclusion is done when the student does not improve
even after chances given for previous submissions.

Page 7 of 12
VALID ARGUMENTS

Valid arguments is the phrases that supports the sentence. With a strong valid argument a
sentence can never be proven false unless the premises are false. Valid argument is very
important in order to phrase a sentence. If we take a false assumption then there is no
possibility of the conclusion being true.

Valid arguments are of four types in main. They are as follows:

• Modus Ponens

• Modus Tollens

• Disjunctive Syllogism

• Hypothetical Syllogism

• Dilemma

Modus Ponens

The other name of this valid argument is the LAW OF DETACHMENT

“If John makes this field goal, then the U of A will win.
John makes the field goal .
Therefore the U of A wins”

The first premise in this statement is “if-then” . The argument made in this statement is valid.
In this premise should be true in order to make the conclusion true. According to the above
statement if the condition happens then “U of A wins”.

Modus Tollens

“If the patient has malaria, then a blood test will indicate that his blood harbours at least one
of these parasites: P. falciparum, P. vivax , P. ovale and P. malaria
Blood test indicate that the patient harbours none of these parasites
Therefore the patient does not have malaria.”

This argument here is a valid argument as it has to strong premise in it that supports the truth
of the argument. As the premise supports the argument as true the conclusion also resulted to
true or in favour.

Disjunctive Syllogism

This argument is commonly known as the Process of Elimination.

Page 8 of 12
“Either The Patriots or the Philadelphia Eagles will win the Super bowl
The Patriots lost
Therefore The Eagles won”

As this argument suggests that out of two teams any one team will win. So if a team wins
then the other team loses.

Hypothetical Syllogism

“If John gets a raise, then he will buy a house.

If John buys a house, he will run for a position on the neighbourhood council.
Therefore, if John gets a raise, he will run for a position on the neighbourhood council”

In this type of argument if the first sentence influences the second sentence and the second
sentence influences the third sentence then ultimately the first sentence influences the third
sentence.

Dilemma

“Either we increase the tax rate or we don't. If we do, the people will be unhappy. If we don't,
the people will also be unhappy. (Because the government will not have enough money to
provide for public services.) So the people are going to be unhappy anyway.”

In this type if it happens then its fine but then if it does not happen then its no fine because
that will lead to some other problem

FALLACIES

A fallacy is an argument in which the given premises for the conclusion does not have the
capability to support the argument. In some cases even if the premises were true the
conclusion would not be true, then it is known as a fallacy.

Fallacies are divided into many forms. Some of the most common fallacies are as follows:

Ad Hominem

Appeal to Belief

Appeal to Emotion

Appeal to Fear

Appeal to Common Practice

AD HOMINEM

Ad Hominem means against the man. So in this type of fallacy the argument of the phrase is
rejected on the basis of not referring the author properly

Page 9 of 12
APPEAL TO BELIEF

This is the kind of fallacy in which the people are forced to believe that something is true by
claiming that it is true. Therefore people think that it is true.

APPEAL TO EMOTION

This is the fallacy that works on the emotional factor of someone. Usually in this fallacy a
thing is made acceptable to community by working on the emotions of the people. The
evidence is created by creating emotions to support the argument.

APPEAL TO FEAR

The creation of fear in the mind of people do not give evidence for the claim. A fear is
created in the mind of people and that fear is used as the premise to support the argument
used.

APPEAL TO COMMON PRACTICE

The fallacies that are done commonly in spite of knowing that it is wrong to do. As every one
does so then it is accepted in general case.

EVALUATION OF TWO ARGUMENTS

“Living costs are also increasing in the areas of housing affordability. In a recent survey,
68% of people said that they found it more difficult to pay their rent or housing loan than last
year”.

This argument suggests that the living cost is increasing in the area of housing affordability.
The premise that supports the argument is that in the recent survey it showed that 68% of
the population found it more difficult to pay back the loan amount taken by them.

Strengths

According to the argument 68% of people say that they find it difficult to pay back the loan.

Weaknesses

But there is no enough proof of the higher living expenses in that housing area.

“No evidence has yet been found of a direct link between this particular product and heart
diseases or other illnesses. Therefore, we would conclude that it is perfectly safe for people of
all ages to take it”.

This argument suggests that there is no direct link between the product and the heart
problems. This argument here does not have a good premise to support it. The premise here is
not so relevant to show that the argument is valid or not.

Strengths

Page 10 of 12
No correct evidence of the heart problem and the product.

Weaknesses

But what about the diseases or other illness?

CONCLUSION

As there are so much of access to the internet these days the rate of unfair practices have
increased in the present world. The main type of unfair practice that take place in the
academic system is the plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of copying one’s words and depicting
it as his or her own piece of work. The plagiarism can be avoided if certain measures are
taken by the students and by the module instructors. The students must be aware of the
expectations of the instructors and work accordingly in order reach the point of expectation.
The instructors must provide the students with relevant information about the report writing
so that the students will have some idea what to do.

Page 11 of 12
REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#Academia

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plagiarism

http://www.plagiarism.org/

http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-plagiarism.html

http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_types_of_plagiarism.html

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/arg/valid2.php

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

Page 12 of 12