How to Put an End to Plagiarism
Importance of Cutting the Roots of Plagiarism
When people know the hard facts about plagiarism and how it would affect the people involved in the act, more and more people might stop doing it. It should be duly noted that there is a thin line between good and bad. Thus, more awareness about the act will help people tread on the thin line of crossing between plagiarism and strictly allowable paraphrasing. When plagiarism is stifled even before it has taken roots, then there would be more chance of succeeding effort to cut off plagiarism permanently. Another reason would be to have a compact view of what plagiarism is because there are multiple views and descriptions of what it really is.
Downside of Plagiarism
Plagiarism might be suitably described as a subtle way of cheating, especially when the one reviewing the piece cannot anymore spare more time to work on verifying the contents of a newly-submitted article. Subtlety mostly results to a piled up work of more and more plagiarism. When this ill behaviour remains unnoticed, the doer of the cheating might think that plagiarism is really a helper to make his submissions easier. However, the moment one is get caught committing plagiarism, he would be duly punished for him to bear in his mind that plagiarism can hurt and that stopping one’s self from doing the crime is an easier way out. Another thing is that when the disobedient citizen gets caught red-handed, there might be serious legal repercussions like paying for the damages that you might have brought upon the name, company, or any employer when you used their name. You may also be brought to court and thus, you would have to spend for a lawyer in your defence. This would besmear your name and reputation. You may also be asked to pay the value of how you have bothered other people. Thus, plagiarism is a quite an expensive mistake to commit and to be caught with.
Alternative Attitude for Plagiarism
Instead of thinking of how to get out of the hook easily, authoritative figures should able to point out to the people, like the students, how sweet the fruit of labor and sweat is. People should be taught that the more they would struggle to get out without lifting as much as a finger, the more that they would be lifted back to the starting line. Anyhow, creative and active thinking are fun. People should also be given the taste of how it would be when you get to see what you have conceptualized slowly come to life. By then, everyone would hopefully get more cooperative to fight against plagiarism.
Role of Authoritative Figures
One of these authoritative figures which can help shape people’s disposition towards plagiarism is the teacher. The teacher can help the students make the program of his course in a way that would eliminate some of the temptations of plagiarism. This can be done by providing the students a reliable research site that would give almost everything that he would need for his paper. The teacher can also help stifle plagiarism by carefully instructing the students as to how to write citation pages, particularly the bibliography. Even if some people might be disobedient, it would not be easy to break the authority vested on these powerful teachers. Another authoritative figure would be the parents. The reward and punishment psychology may get an impact on the child who would grow up to be a conscientious citizen.
