Plagiarism and Cheating
Plagiarism and cheating always confuse in the way different people define them. Even though both of them are acts of dishonesty in any academic work, plagiarism involves presenting other people’s work without proper recognition while cheating is based on the rules governing the presentation of academic work. In a simple sense, plagiarism can be viewed as a form of cheating although the large part of cheating cannot be considered to be plagiarism. The difference between cheating and plagiarism can be said to be the fact that cheating involves an attempt to mislead an academic authority deliberately whereas plagiarism can be caused by ignorance or lack of knowledge on proper referencing of sources.
Both plagiarism and cheating are dishonest ways of handling academic work. The circumstances under which plagiarism and cheating occur are almost similar. First, plagiarism happens where an individual is forced by the requirement to complete an assignment within a given time-span. The individual decides to employ what could be termed as shortcuts to beat the deadlines set for the tasks. In quite an unfortunate situation, a writer may fail to cite the used sources correctly either deliberately or by mistake. On the other hand, cheating happens when an individual is forced by the desire to pass a given test. The individual decides to use dishonest ways such as seeking help from unaccepted sources. For example, a student who illegally enters an exam room with an electronic gadget can be said to be cheating. Also, the possession of illegal material in an exam period is a form of cheating. The penalties that are applied for individuals involved in plagiarism and cheating are based on dishonesty. In addition to being identified as academic dishonesty, plagiarism and cheating can also be termed as fraud.
Plagiarism and cheating are acts of fraud that should be avoided in any academic work. Plagiarism has been commonly dubbed ‘literal theft’ since writers are involved in stealing other people’s ideas and failing to give credit where it is deserved. Also, cheating is mainly done to help an individual to get credit from tests that are higher than their intellectual capacity (Kong et al. 176). The results obtained after plagiarism and cheating are allowed in an exam situation do not reflect the true capability of the students being examined. Sometimes, plagiarized work could be of lower quality than the writer’s capability, or of higher quality than the writer could manage under nssormal circumstances. In events where citations are not put due to a writer’s forgetfulness, the credit that should have gone to the original writer goes to a second party. Benefitting from other people’s work without their consent is a form of fraud and in severe cases should be referred to as stealing. Plagiarism is a form of cheating that can be corrected by including the necessary citations and references whenever ideas are borrowed from outside sources. Cheating, on the other hand, is used by individuals as a way to inflate their grades above their capabilities. The results that are obtained by cheating individuals also do not reflect their academic capability, and thus it becomes a form of fraud. Cheating, however, cannot be corrected in an exams situation unless an individual appeals the ruling made concerning the cheating. In general, cheating and plagiarism are treated like any other forms of fraud. Fraud makes a significant contribution towards lowering the ethical and professional standards of an individual.
Moral and professional standards always discourage individuals from engaging in cheating and plagiarism. Individuals who involve themselves in plagiarism and cheating always affect the reputation of the companies in which they work (Bruton, Samuel, and Dan Childers, 317). For example, consider a company that provides research services for clients who are always busy with their research work. The trust of such companies lies in the quality of work provided. An individual who pays a company to research on their behalf trusts that the research will be of high quality and free from plagiarism and cheating. However, such cases might occur, and the reputation of such a company gets destroyed among its clients. The penalties for plagiarism and cheating are always tough, and thus academicians should try as much as possible to always be on the safe side of the crisis. Additionally, plagiarism and cheating represent a professional’s inability to follow guidelines on academic honesty correctly. A professional who cannot follow simple guidelines should not be trusted with an office since their intelligence levels also become questionable.
In sum, plagiarism involves presenting other people’s work without proper recognition while cheating is based on the rules governing the presentation of academic work. However, both plagiarism and cheating are treated as acts of academic dishonesty. Also, plagiarism and cheating are fraudulent acts that should be treated like any other fraud case. On the professional field, plagiarism and cheating present an individual as having a less intelligence level and unfit to hold any professional office. Generally, plagiarism is a form of cheating.
Works Cited
Bruton, Samuel, and Dan Childers. “The ethics and politics of policing plagiarism: a qualitative study of faculty views on student plagiarism and Turnitin®.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 41.2 (2016): 316-330.
Kong, Eric, et al. “Strategies on Addressing Contract Cheating.” Scholarly Ethics and Publishing: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (2019): 176.