Reasons That Persons May Plagiarize

367 Words2 Pages
O’Brien (2009) describes plagiarism as “when someone uses another person's words or ideas without giving the other person credit” (p.1). Persons may plagiarise because they lack confidence in their writing skill, because they lack proper time management, or simply because they are not well educated on what plagiarism is. However the problems aforementioned can be easily avoided. It has been observed that one of the root causes of plagiarism is the mere fact that persons are insecure about the quality of their own work. Some persons may find writing tasks to be challenging and others may simply believe that their writing is not up to the standard required of them. This lack of confidence in their writing ability may cause them to turn to plagiarism instead of using their own work. In order to avoid such persons from plagiarising, their issues regarding their uncertainty in their writing ability needs to be addressed. If necessary, they may even have to seek help in order to improve their writing. Another one of the main causes of plagiarism is due to a lack of proper time management. Many students have to balance their academic responsibilities with those at work, at home, and even their social life. As a result of this, proper time management is required of them so that they can meet deadlines on time. Failure to do so may result in the student resorting to the “easy way out” of completing assignments on time, that is, through plagiarism. It is suggested that students manage their time wisely, and give precedence to their university assignments over less important tasks. It is also recommended that they choose enough workload that they can handle. It has been found that many persons studying at university lack knowledge on the topic of plagiarism. This lack of knowledge may result in many students may be committing plagiarism without even recognizing it. It is
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