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Plagiarism

Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course Number

Date
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Plagiarism is the ownership of another persons’ work, words, idea or a piece of writing

and presenting it as your own without their consent or full acknowledgement. Plagiarism exists

in more than one form namely direct plagiarism, self-plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism and

accidental plagiarism, depending on the circumstance of its occurrence. Plagiarism may occur

due to different causes such as intentional, unintentional or due to recklessness. Plagiarism can

be avoided using numerous means to avoid conviction as observed in other states. Plagiarism is a

professional misconduct in the field of academic writing and a breach of journalistic ethics,

hence considered as a crime, which may call for a penalty or conviction. Avoiding plagiarism

cases is best advice for genuineness in working and also avoiding legal actions.

Plagiarism occurs in more than one form depending on its linguistic context and its

placement in a context. The common types of plagiarism include direct plagiarism which is

word-for-word or direct transcription of a section of someone’s work, without attribution and

quotation marks. Secondly, is the self-plagiarism which is seen when one submits or presents

his/her own previous work or mixes some parts of the previous work with no permission from all

the involved examiners (Korali et al., 2019). Thirdly, is the mosaic plagiarism, it involves

borrowing phrases from a source without using quotation marks, or using synonyms for the

language in the source while maintaining its general structure and originality. Lastly, is the

accidental plagiarism, in this case it occurs when one neglects to cite their sources or

unintentionally paraphrasing a source by using similar words or sentence structure without

attribution. These forms of plagiarism both intentional, unintentional and recklessness do not

exonerate an individual from the responsibility of plagiarism and are taken serious. So, one

should always watch out for this malpractice while handling their work to avoid penalties.
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A number of factors aid in the occurrence of plagiarism by students and the reasons are

within scope. Plagiarism may occur out of the unquestionable sincere lack of knowledge by an

individual in an aim to being successful or right. Some have out righteous reasons which are

black intentions (Husain et al., 2017). These causes include the desire of a student to get a good

score from the examiner, some have the motive of passing so to conquer the fear of failing in

them while other opt to plagiarize since they lack interest in the assignment or work they are

doing hence cheating becomes an option. Some commit this act due to poor time management

and procrastination of the piece of work, others engage in this act in the mind that they will not

be caught but some get caught up in it by confusion of what the act of plagiarism entails. All

these causes come from a genuine mindset and pure intentions by the individual, but in the long

run it doesn’t make it right since it sabotages the right means and the hard work of the other

individuals.

As discussed above plagiarism has its vast disadvantages but no matter how small it still

has its advantages. Plagiarism can lead to numerous outcomes some of the shortcoming may be

personal, professional, ethical or legal (Awasthi, 2019). Some of the disadvantages are

destruction of reputations of students leading to suspension or even expulsion, professionals like

public figures ruining their careers like politicians and for famous academics their careers may

be ruined. Legal penalties are enacted to those who violate the copyright laws and they may lead

to imprisonment. I n these disadvantages emerges some little advantages like saving time among

students mostly giving them more free time and it helps them score high marks easily. Therefore,

cheating is considered an easy way out but not right. It just shows the pre-existence of

knowledge and that one could borrow it and cite properly to avoid it being deemed plagiarized.
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Plagiarism is considered an academic dishonesty with serious repercussions which may

lead to failure in assignments, suspension and possible dismissal. Individuals involved in

plagiarism are considered not genuine hence develop less genuine relationships and they become

outcasts in peer groups. This could be avoided by many ways like avoiding procrastination,

committing to one’s own work, proper citation of sources and knowing proper paraphrasing. The

knowledge of different types of plagiarism exhibited above could help in detection of any

misconduct in any writing hence easy to prevent it and abstinence from it. Knowledge on

plagiarism create room for more self-dependency on thinking and more self-built thoughts and

ideas rather than stealing someone’s ideas and making it your own. The act compromises the

integrity and genuineness of the whole work, hence putting in question the whole process and the

involved parties. I recommend use of plagiarism software to minimize incidents of plagiarism

and lastly, the formation of programme that promote academic integrity.

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Reference

Awasthi, S. (2019). Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct: A Systematic Review. DESIDOC

Journal of Library & Information Technology, 39(2).

Husain, F. M., Kamel, G., Al-shaibani, S., Hassan, O., & Mahfoodh, A. (2017). Perceptions of

and attitudes toward plagiarism and factors contributing to plagiarism: A review of

studies. Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(2), 167.

Korali, K. C., Dadawala, A. I., & Deshpande, S. B. (2019). Copyright and Plagiarism

Issues. Indian Journal of Agricultural Library and Information Services, 35(3).