Plagiarism: An Ounce of Prevention by Miquel Roig

In regards to the article “Plagiarism: An Ounce of Prevention …” by Miquel Roig, Roig focuses on problem of plagiarism including the necessary actions institutions need to do to prevent academic dishonesty. Firstly, higher learning institutions should be providing students with instruction and counseling on academic integrity before students enter the institution. Secondly, every syllabus should contain a clear explanation of what accounts for plagiarism or cheating and its consequences. Though, the plagiarism part of the syllabus is often overlooked, instructors should periodically revisit such policies, for example before exams or written assignments. Also, sometimes these guidance and policies are ineffective because of the difference in opinion of what accounts to be plagiarizing. An example would be paraphrasing, one of the bigger concerns. Many students have poor paraphrasing strategies such as copy-and-pasting vast amount texts with citations and thinking it is appropriate. Lastly, statistics of a survey conveyed show that about 62% of undergraduate and 59% of grad-student respondents admitted to involvement of cut-and-paste plagiarism from online sources. The actual percentage is believed to be much higher as many students might be reluctant to admit to academic dishonesty.

As a --- student, I am aware of the issue of academic dishonesty and the ongoing problems it is causing. Not only does plagiarism and cheating allow cheaters to achieve without actually working, it is also very unfair to others that have worked hard for their grade/achievements. An issue that students I know and myself have is witnessing such unfairness and feeling reluctant to inform the instructor. I support the gesture of frequently reminding students the importance of academic integrity and the consequences of such wrongful doings because I believe that when the instructor display a larger amount of attention to a matter, students are likely to take it more