CARS outline

Lauren Leasure

CARS outline

ENC 1102 Section 105

4/ 13/09

How has the use of online databases affected the use of plagiarism in college students?

Move One:

This subject has an obvious importance to college students and teachers. Since the internet has come into play more and more, some college students turn to cheating more often. Teachers jobs now have added difficulty trying to make sure their students work is actually their own. Plagiarism is unacceptable in college students. But since the internet has become such a phenomena plagiarism has risen to new levels and become more difficult to detect. In the research I have found, a large percent of college students admit they have plagiarized off the internet.

Move Two:

Continuing on with the traditional studies, I have continued looking into the perspective of college students who turn to plagiarism. Studies have taken on this subject before and provided me with a lot of information. I am also looking into teachers perspectives of how they learn to detect plagiarism. Websites like Turnitin.com has really become a huge help and many teachers are now using this to help stop the use of plagiarism. I am going to look into previous studies done in college atmospheres and use those studies to help back up my thoughts.

Move Three:

The purpose of this essay is to determine how the internet has affected plagiarism, why college students plagiarize, and what teachers are doing to stop it. I have found many studies online to help me determine the answer to all these questions. I have found reasons, consequences, and new ways to detect. In my essay I will have statistics of the surveys taken by college students, opinions of students and teachers, and reasons students turn to plagiarism. Its obvious students feel its easier to just copy and paste from the internet but as more college students are getting expelled and kicked out of school, they are realizing some times it’s just not worth the risk.

Quiz Ch 7&8

My research for Core 4 is more of fact. When it comes to researching how the internet has effected plagiarism in college students, most of my research came from facts. I used many online journals, books, blogs, and reports. Reports done by graduate students where often very helpful when figuring out the core audience and statistics of plagiarism. It’s been proven that since the internet, college students use of plagiarism has risen. Also much of my research has come from educational websites that list the consequences that students can face for plagiarism. In chapter 7, it says serious factual arguments always have consequences, especially those that touch on public issues. Plagiarism obviously has consequences if students are caught they can face such serious consequences such as getting kicked out of school.

In chapter 7, they also point out that we need arguments that correct or challenge beliefs and assumptions help widely within a society on the basis of incomplete information. Many students find it unfair that they can get in so much trouble if they are caught. But their argument doesn’t stand up to well against university officials since in their society, they know plagiarism is wrong. The argument that occurs is between students who feel the punishment is too harsh, and teachers and deans who know its part of the universities academic policy. Obviously since students sign the academic policy before entering college, they are responsible for their actions, but some will still fight to win their argument.

The book also says, factual arguments also routinely address broader questions. I think this also helps support this topic, because even when students are caught, they will argue that two students can have the same train of thought. The broader question becomes is it really possible for students who are in the same class, learning the same thing, could they create a similar paper on the same topic? In an online blog I read a student was blamed for plagiarizing a paper from someone who had graduated 5 years before him who he had never met in his life. He said he had never seen the other students report before, but was still failed.

Like I said before, all college students sign an academic policy wavier before starting. This waiver states that if you are caught cheating of any sort, you are responsible and will face the consequences. In chapter 7, it says for factual arguments it is especially important that they “flesh out or correct what’s narrowly mistakenly reported.” I feel that most students read reports where students plagiarize and get away with it. There are even websites where students can purchase previously written papers. So with all this public acknowledgement some younger students get the wrong perception of what is right and wrong, but I think the universities website that acknowledges the very strict rules filters the wrong reports out.

Lastly in Lunsford, the book says factual arguments have a way of adding interest or complexity to our lives. I connect this to my research not so much about the plagiarizing, but more focused on the internet part of my research. Since the internet has become such a global phenomenon, everyone seems to be more interested of online resources. Since my research is more how the internet has affected plagiarism, its obvious since the internet has come out, it has added complexity to students lives. There is always that temptation for students to look up and copy and paste from the internet to save time, but they just have to decide if their willing to take the risks. This topic is a very widely known topic and there are many sources out there to back up my research.

Plagiarism in College Students

My topic is a pretty well known subject to most students. We've learned about plagiarism since we were little kids, so to most of us its almost common sense. Getting into the deeper meaning of why students turn to plagiarism and what the consequences are does raise some controversy though. Most conversations turn to the reasons behind plagiarism. Most student's know its the wrong thing to do, but almost all admit to slightly doing it once or twice. It's easy to get reactions and opinions on such a well known topic. The consequences of plagiarism are also widely known, so students can freely talk about their opinion if they feel the rules are fair or not. Most students comply that the rules are fair since we must agree with them, but some feel otherwise.

My only concern with my research process is when I create a survey, I can not be 100% sure students will be honest. Although students know they have plagiarized, many will not admit or want others to know they have. The survey will be anonymous, but some still are skeptical. So my only concern if getting the true statistics in.