Column: This Side of The Fence
Well, it’s that time of year again. Finals and everyone is hurrying to study things they never before cared about. Papers are being written, books are being cracked and professors are globbing on their last pieces of vital information before the big test comes and Christmas break washes it all away.
It’s a busy time; one that causes loads of stress and anxiety. There are sleepless nights of studying and long days of homework. We’re overloaded, sometimes to the point where you feel like you can’t fit it all in. I think a situation much like this must be where cheating and plagiarism were discovered.
I have a vivid picture in my head: a boy sitting quietly in a testing room, staring blanking at his paper waiting for the right words to come, but they never do. So, he leans over, innocently at first, to check on his neighbor’s progress. But, instead, spots a brilliant idea that sends him thinking. Suddenly, the words appear and he writes. Cheating is born!
It all went downhill from there. Now there are a million ways to cheat. Term papers can be purchased online these days. Anybody can be brilliant; all you need is a crisp $50 and you’re in.
It’s sad, really. Society doesn’t even blink when teachers have to talk about cheating. For the past three years of college, every one of my professors has felt the need to express opinions on cheating and plagiarism. Some even try to put the fear of God into you, swapping horror stories that display the ugliest of consequences for students who tried to get away with cheating.
Every student, at least in part, can understand the temptation, though. It’s easy to get lost in all of your studies and social activities, forget something important and get yourself in a pinch, even easier with this generation’s dedication to the practice of procrastination. The 10-page research papers get put off until the day before it’s due and suddenly, you discover you can’t do 15 hours worth of work in fours hours’ time.
We’ve all been there. But we are not all plagiarists and cheaters. How could that happen? Surely, there is no other way out of those kinds of pickles.
I was talking with a friend of mine about plagiarism a while back. He said that several of the professors in the JCOM department, most of which where from the print section, had come into one of his classes and done a panel about plagiarism. He said he was very impressed with me because I had chosen a major where plagiarism is always an issue and hard to avoid.
Yes, plagiarism is an issue. It’s always an issue for anyone who writes anything, me included. But plagiarism is not a hard thing to avoid. All you have to do is some thinking for yourself, some honest thinking.
I start by asking myself two important questions: what do I know and what did I learn. Clearly, anything I learned needs to be attributed to someone else because it didn’t come from me. It’s a simple process. But it separates my thoughts from someone else’s-which is the basic point.
The other thing that needs to be done to avoid plagiarism and cheating is a little preparation. This is the hard part. It can take some work, some studying, researching, maybe even a little time in a library – all the things that go against the procrastinator’s creed. This is the place where students run into problems.
I would imagine most students who plagiarize or cheat don’t do so by accident. They intentionally forfeit part of their moral code in hopes of appearing to be a better student. Obviously, this is only an illusion, one often seen through. You can’t fake genius.
Cheating and plagiarism: it’s a choice, certainly a bad one, but a choice none the less. And that makes it one of the most avoidable things in the word. It’s your choice. You simply have to make the right one.
Mikaylie Kartchner is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.