Essay On Plagiarism And Cheating

Penelope was a freshman honor student at a state university and having a hard time transitioning into college life. High school had been an easy task for her; she never needed to study and always made the best grades. When she had failed her first college test, her parents began breathing down her neck. However, she still wanted to use her new found freedom to have some fun before all the adult responsibilities became her everyday life. Penelope was growing frustrated. She believed the required general education classes were irrelevant to what she wanted to do in life. Everywhere she looked it seemed as though her fellow classmates were cheating. Penelope had never in her life cheated because she believed it was the work of a lazy student. However, if other students where cheating and getting ahead, then she was getting left behind. She wanted to do the right thing, but she felt as though she were in a situation where she had to “cheat or be cheated” (Pope 1). Many, like Penelope, …show more content…
In this context, to cheat is to get unauthorized help on an assignment, quiz, or test, and to plagiarize is to present someone else’s work or idea as one’s own. Cheating and intentional plagiarism are deliberate attempts to deceive. However, there is a second form of plagiarize that many are not knowledge of unintentional plagiarism. When a student intentionally plagiarizes, they are cheating, but unintentional plagiarism occurs when a student does not cite their sources properly or does not cite paraphrased information. “Given the nuances of citation and their entanglement with issues of educational goals, originality, intertextuality, selfhood, and individuality, it is clear that students cannot simply be handed a brochure and be expected to get it” (Blum 3). When students are confused and intimidated by citations and their complex rules, they may unintentionally plagiarize without knowing they have done