Elizabeth High
English 111-A02
September 28, 2016
The Problem with Plagiarism
The growing epidemic of students cheating has become a major issue across college campuses and high schools. In fact (about three-fifths admit to having cheated in the previous year) (Perez-Pena 3). In his article “Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No Exception” Richard Perez-Pena argues that parents and students are to blame for the wide spread problem of academic dishonesty. In Susan D. Blum’s article “Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: A Question of Education, Not Ethics” she believes that students need to be educated properly about citation and what it means to be academically honest. She places the blame in the hands …show more content…
The authors strongly agree that the student’s attitude towards succeeding is the same even if it requires them to cheat in order to thrive in school. Another similarity that the two authors share in their ideas are that rules are confusing to students and this is because either no time is allotted for teaching rules about plagiarism or the rules are not emphasized enough so the students catch on. Also, their views correlate in that the schools aren’t doing enough to educate students the right way to use citation, and agree that it is a set of skills to be taught over time not something that is going to be automatically known. Both authors show similarities in their articles relating to students not having a strong concept of integrity or honor. They discuss how students do not value the work they do as being their own, and this can relate to how they have been brought up in a culture of sharing where they value friendships over being academically honest. The authors also strongly agree that academic honesty is a growing problem that is only getting worse and students see no wrong in doing it because there haven’t been any strict rules that have been enforced. Although these two authors share many of the same ideas about academic dishonesty, Blum and Perez-Pena have opposing views on who to blame for this problem. Blum believes that the blame should be placed on faculty and administrators for failing to teach students about plagiarism. On the other hand, Perez-Pena does not let students off so easily. He believes that students, parents, and schools have failed to enforce ethical behavior. Another way that the author’s opinions differ is the overall tone of the articles. Blum offers a more understanding approach and suggests that the system should come together as a whole and build a