Academic cheating is defined as representing someone else's work as your own. It can take many forms, including sharing another's work, purchasing a term paper or test questions in advance, paying another to do the work for you. The most popular form of this kind of cheating is plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as ‘the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work’
Have you ever done it? Quite possibly, the answer is ‘Yes’. Remember the last time you used your old essays to write a new one for a different publication or purpose? Yes, that is plagiarism; it is called self plagiarism or more colloquially known as recycling fraud. The most common example of that is seen when students write their college essays or work on their college projects. Many of us would remember our friends recycling the essays written for their SOP after GRE from one college to another. Many go a step further and stick to essays provided by institutes or provided on Internet forums, but for anyone who did this or is planning to do this: Beware! Colleges are watching you now; they use sophisticated softwares which index through millions of articles on the web to find out cases of plagiarism. Many b-schools and other colleges now openly admit to using anti-plagiarism softwares to scan their student application forms. Harvard is one famous name of the lot.
“Many student applications we receive are plagiarized in some form or the other, the problem is seen also mainly due to lack of education to the students on Intellectual property rights issues", says Dean of admissions office of a well known university.
We also need to look at the problem in the cultural context I feel. Having published an article in a prominent scientific magazine, I had to learn about intellectual property rights issues. At times one doesn't even know or deliberately intend to pick something up from others work. At times it is as minor a mistake of someone lifting a sentence or two from someone else's work and forgetting to credit the author. While it might appear to us to be a very minor mistake, it might have huge implications for the original author. What if your work gets famous and those specific lines which you forgot to credit the original author for are taken into note and the credit goes wrongfully to you? Can’t you still fathom the original authors predicament? Now imagine yourself to be in the original authors’ shoes that didn't get the due credit?
Now looking at the cultural context of plagiarism, these rules were first implemented in early eighteens century in Europe. Before that, artists were openly expected to imitate their masters or peers. Intellectual property laws are also subject to society. While we always hear about the super-secret recipe for coke or McDonald's burgers, we never heard of super secret formula for any Indian recipes. While many authors both scholarly and literary ask for due compensation when their work is used without permission, it was not the case in India. People who wrote Ayurveda, or any of the Vedas for that matter, never asked for a patent on their medicinal discoveries. Kautilya never asked for rights on Arthashastra being used and taught in Universities to students. Ved Vyas never asked for royalty on his epic Mahabharata. Ancient Indians or Asians for that matter never considered their inventions or discoveries as their property. They intended their discoveries and work to be used by all for the benefit of all. They were the modern day equivalent of Unix/Linux enthusiasts. The reason why Intellectual Property laws are difficult to implement in Asian countries might not be due to their lackadaisical governments but due to the inability of most people to understand that knowledge can be some one’s property and not free for all to use. And students/youth are mirror of the society and its beliefs, too.
Whether academic cheating is real? To conclude, I would say - yes it is, regardless of the considerations that it is amoral or that there should be free knowledge for all. I believe the answer is that we should follow the law. If the law states such cheating is wrong, then it is. And if you are caught doing it, you will be branded as an academic cheater.
Have you ever done it? Quite possibly, the answer is ‘Yes’. Remember the last time you used your old essays to write a new one for a different publication or purpose? Yes, that is plagiarism; it is called self plagiarism or more colloquially known as recycling fraud. The most common example of that is seen when students write their college essays or work on their college projects. Many of us would remember our friends recycling the essays written for their SOP after GRE from one college to another. Many go a step further and stick to essays provided by institutes or provided on Internet forums, but for anyone who did this or is planning to do this: Beware! Colleges are watching you now; they use sophisticated softwares which index through millions of articles on the web to find out cases of plagiarism. Many b-schools and other colleges now openly admit to using anti-plagiarism softwares to scan their student application forms. Harvard is one famous name of the lot.
“Many student applications we receive are plagiarized in some form or the other, the problem is seen also mainly due to lack of education to the students on Intellectual property rights issues", says Dean of admissions office of a well known university.
We also need to look at the problem in the cultural context I feel. Having published an article in a prominent scientific magazine, I had to learn about intellectual property rights issues. At times one doesn't even know or deliberately intend to pick something up from others work. At times it is as minor a mistake of someone lifting a sentence or two from someone else's work and forgetting to credit the author. While it might appear to us to be a very minor mistake, it might have huge implications for the original author. What if your work gets famous and those specific lines which you forgot to credit the original author for are taken into note and the credit goes wrongfully to you? Can’t you still fathom the original authors predicament? Now imagine yourself to be in the original authors’ shoes that didn't get the due credit?
Now looking at the cultural context of plagiarism, these rules were first implemented in early eighteens century in Europe. Before that, artists were openly expected to imitate their masters or peers. Intellectual property laws are also subject to society. While we always hear about the super-secret recipe for coke or McDonald's burgers, we never heard of super secret formula for any Indian recipes. While many authors both scholarly and literary ask for due compensation when their work is used without permission, it was not the case in India. People who wrote Ayurveda, or any of the Vedas for that matter, never asked for a patent on their medicinal discoveries. Kautilya never asked for rights on Arthashastra being used and taught in Universities to students. Ved Vyas never asked for royalty on his epic Mahabharata. Ancient Indians or Asians for that matter never considered their inventions or discoveries as their property. They intended their discoveries and work to be used by all for the benefit of all. They were the modern day equivalent of Unix/Linux enthusiasts. The reason why Intellectual Property laws are difficult to implement in Asian countries might not be due to their lackadaisical governments but due to the inability of most people to understand that knowledge can be some one’s property and not free for all to use. And students/youth are mirror of the society and its beliefs, too.
Whether academic cheating is real? To conclude, I would say - yes it is, regardless of the considerations that it is amoral or that there should be free knowledge for all. I believe the answer is that we should follow the law. If the law states such cheating is wrong, then it is. And if you are caught doing it, you will be branded as an academic cheater.
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