Persuasive Essay: The Consequences Of Plagiarism

Plagiarism; the act of using another person 's words or ideas without giving credit to that person (Merriam-Webster), or in a simpler sense, “Todd I forgot to do the math assignment last night because I was watching Game of Thrones, now let me copy your homework, or else I’m not inviting you to my Halloween Party.” These acts include passing off someone’s work as your own, not citing properly, or turning your own previous work in for another teacher. There is even accidental plagiarism where you share the similar ideas of a person, but unknowingly do not cite them, so I guess we can throw the phrase “great minds think alike” out of the window. Plagiarism has become a very huge problem throughout time as many institutions are developing harsh repercussions for the unlawful practice. The consequences for the offense can be legal or monetary and tarnishing of a professional, academic, and student career. With consequences covering a wide range of situations, can plagiarism be eliminated once and for all? The answer is no, but there are ways to greatly …show more content…
Don McCabe, a professor at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey conducted a survey of 24,000 students from 70 different high schools. From the survey, he discovered “64 percent of students admitted to cheating on a test, 58 percent admitted to plagiarism and 95 percent said they participated in some form of cheating, whether it was on a test, plagiarism or copying homework” (J Meyer). 95 percent is clearly a lot, and there should be solutions to this problem rather than passing students through school as “cheater, cheater pumpkin-eaters.” Well, there is one solution in which institutions such as the University of Maryland have been cracking down on academic dishonesty. For one, the University of Maryland makes its students sign an honors code before each exam or assignment