Why Do Some Schools Ignore Plagiarism Detection?

Identifying plagiarism has become a common procedure for the majority of schools. The use of software for plagiarism detection is no longer a luxury. Instead, it has turned into a norm of checking the students’ assignments and marking the writing works to make sure that they are not copied from online sources. Comparing students’ writing with both archived and current web pages as well as the databases of previous students’ assignments lets the teachers know the percentage of copied content and scope of their academic honesty and integrity. A question “how to tell if something is plagiarized?” does not baffle anybody any more.

Still, although that sounds as an almost impossible fact, some schools disregard checking papers for plagiarism. Are you surprised? So, are we!

Underreported Plagiarism: 5 Key Reasons for Neglecting Cheaters

Unfortunately, not all schools try to find a solution to the problem “how can students prevent committing plagiarism?” or “how can teachers address plagiarism issues and eliminate stealing ideas?” The tendency of being transparent about copying is not typical of all educational establishments. Moreover, some of the school authorities are tempted to hide the cases of plagiarism by ignoring the procedure of plagiarism detection in students’ works. Thus, they let it go with numerous violations of academic honesty, and that is an outrage! Why do they tend to bury such incidents?

1. They care about the school reputation

Protecting the school, the authorities help actual cheaters escape the deserved punishment. At the same time, they help the school to maintain flawless reputation owing to perfect reports on the percentage of plagiarism in the papers of their students. They do not worry about poor handling of the problem; what they are really worried about is what other people would say if they knew the truth. It is essential to realize that it is much more effective and reasonable for an institution to earn a reputation of the school that takes the problem seriously than the one which has not faced the problem of plagiarism at all.

2. They care about their students

Whatever type of cheating, patchwork plagiarism or self-plagiarizing the students choose, that definitely creates a great threat to their academic future. Sympathetic teachers and indifferent school authorities try their best not to spoil the students’ future with accusations in plagiarism. However, this is a very ambiguous question whether such help is beneficial for the students and the school. Without any responsibility for violations, the students may find it more difficult to deal with life problems later on.

3. They do not want to bother with time-consuming procedures

The question “how should educators deal with plagiarism?” always remains topical, but it is understandable that dealing with cheaters takes a lot of time and patience. Reporting the cases of plagiarism requires a procedure which may last for months. Administrators pretend seeing no cheating in the students’ assignments, and all cases are dragged for a long time.

4. They save their money

How do teachers detect plagiarism? They use reliable software and inform the students about the percentage of copied content. The rate of a good student may go down to a minimal level if there ae some issues with academic integrity. Ignoring detection of plagiarism, schools deal with cheaters off the record and encourage others to take the same approach.

5. Insufficient Knowledge

It is essential to know how to teach students not to plagiarize and how to apply the strategies for preventing plagiarism. If the teachers of the schools lack this knowledge, it will be impossible for them to catch the violations of academic integrity. Improvements in the entire system of education will start when every educator knows everything about the principles of honesty and integrity in the field and how plagiarizing actually begins.

It Is Wrong to Tolerate Plagiarism!

Every school principal should ask the teachers of the school, “How can you prevent plagiarism?”, “What have you already done to let the students study in the environment that favors honesty and fair treatment of original ideas?” It is getting more and more crucial now when technologies let the students find any kinds of resources online and use them directly without much effort. A student who knows that he will surely be not punished is likely to use the papers of his friends, pay for the assignments done by the writers of essay mills, or just cut and paste the passages of online texts which correspond to his topic of the paper. Schools should prevent plagiarism by setting strict limitations and letting the students understand that their cheating will be traced and detected.

Detection measures may vary:

• manual comparison of papers that look suspicious to original sources
• occasional use of online search engines to check on the passages that look suspicious
• systematic detection of plagiarism as a part of the school policy

If plagiarism prevention is not integrated in the school work and students are unaware of the consistent procedures aimed at maintaining academic honesty, there are no correction policies and the entire process of learning and teaching loses its efficiency. Only an institutional approach can create a particular atmosphere or even climate of integrity on school campuses which will enhance the studies and make cheating impossible. It is the responsibility of school administrators to face a special challenge of developing clear procedures and policies which would support the efforts of every teacher in dealing with dishonesty cases and restoring the integrity in academics.

There are numerous ways to prevent plagiarism, but some educators and even schools get tempted with the prospects of not checking papers for copying and reporting cases of dishonesty. However, this attitude brings no good either for the students or the school. For sure, those students who have never disobeyed any rules of academic writing and test taking get harmed. Besides, those students who are involved in cases of cheating lose their chance to develop, grow, and improve in their studies. If the school takes no measures and teachers know nothing about how to prevent plagiarism practically, no one wins.