
Why do students plagiarise?
If we understand this, we may be able to help prevent plagiarism. Students tend to plagiarise either deliberately or because they have poor academic skills. Franklyn-Stokes and Newstead (1995) argue that those students who plagiarise deliberately, do so because they have either run out of time, have a desire for high marks and / or the knowledge that others had cheated but had not been caught.
Crace (2002) suggests that A level students have often been taught 'to cut and paste material into essays' and 'thinly paraphrase secondary sources' so they arrive at university with no real understanding of plagiarism. This is supported by Wilhoit (1994), Parlour (1995) and Roig (1999) who argue that most students plagiarise unintentionally because they are unsure of academic practices and have poor referencing skills. This includes time management, understanding the assignment question, reading and note taking, writing skills, as well as an understanding of plagiarism and the rules of citation.
The situation is exacerbated for international students, for as well as a lack of English language skills, and a fear of failure, many come from academic traditions that positively encourage the learning and reproduction of secondary research.
References
Crace, J., 2002. Cut and paste job: As plagiarism engulfs the US and threatens the UK , a new advisory service has been launched to track down our own academic cheats. The Guardian, Education Section, pp. 10.
Franklyn-Stokes, A. and Newstead, S.E., 1995. Undergraduate cheating: who does what and why? Studies in Higher Education, 20 (2), pp. 159-172.
Parlour, J., 1995. Thou shalt honour thy sources. The Times Higher Educational Supplement. April 14, Issue 1171, p. 19.
Roig, M., 1999. When college students' attempts at paraphrasing become instances of potential plagiarism. Psychological reports, 84 (1), pp. 973-982.
Wilhoit, S., 1994. Helping students avoid plagiarism. College Teaching, 42 (4), pp. 161-164.