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How to Avoid Academic Cheating?

High school students are given academic exercises or assignments to gauge their critical thinking ability and creativity. Writing meaningful content requires knowledge, research, and a sound writing style.

Academic cheating is employing a dishonest method for completing academic work. It is unethical, and students receive severe penalties for academic dishonesty depending on the severity of the type of malpractice employed for completing the assignment.

Students and research scholars have to adhere to a code of conduct while working on academic research. The pupils who flout the rules of an institute are held guilty of committing academic dishonesty.

From cheating from a fellow student to wilfully jeopardizing the research work of other researchers, everything falls under the category of educational malpractice. As a law-abiding student and ethical academician, it is necessary to be aware of the rules of an institute and follow those diligently.

Instructors frequently set academic assignments to assess the students’ progress. Taking undue advantage of other students by copying their work is academic cheating. Similarly, using lame excuses for not completing the assignment also falls under the purview of cheating. Hence, it is necessary to avoid every form of malpractice while doing academic work.

Factors Leading to Academic Cheating

Academic cheating is malpractice, but that does not make it uncommon in high school and colleges. Plagiarism occurs, often in a piece of writing, and it is becoming a rampant issue. Students often resort to unhealthy practices for completing their academic exercise.

Multiple reasons are causing a surge in cheating. Some of the prominent factors responsible for the exponential surge in the number of instances involving academic dishonesty are there below:

Lack of Awareness Regarding Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is the misuse of resources by not crediting the referenced resource. In a research assignment, students/researchers can use multiple relevant resources, but each resource requires a citation. Both in-text and work cited references are significant.

Students often confuse resource material with common knowledge or forget to credit the idea taken from a resource. A complete understanding of plagiarism is necessary for avoiding all loopholes that can result in plagiarism. High school students have to be acquainted with plagiarism and how it can occur in a paper.

Understanding plagiarism needs to include minor errors like not putting quotation marks or forgetting to cite an author. These errors are responsible for having plagiarized content in a text.

Little Knowledge About the Writing Format:

Personal writing is very different from academic writing. There are different types of writing styles, but all styles are not suitable for academic work. Students need to understand the format and the style necessary for drafting the academic exercise.

A specific format is there for an academic paper. The instructor mentions it. While wiring the dissertation, the student needs to follow that format. Mistakes in it or callous formatting are also a form of academic cheating because an academic assignment is not a haphazard piece of writing.

Complete knowledge about the format should be there for formatting the paper. It is necessary to avoid academic dishonesty.

Not Taking Academic Exercise Seriously:

The most common reason for academic cheating is procrastination. Some students tend to consider academic work very lightly. They keep putting off the assignment until the deadline starts knocking on their door.

Doing anything at the eleventh hour not only results in mistakes but also increases student’s chances of copying information from the internet or other fellow students.

Lack of Belief in Individual Writing Style:

Some new learners are not confident about articulating their inferences in their language. They do not have faith in their perspective or suffer from poor word choice while framing arguments.

  • Steps to curb academic cheating

In the present scenario, it is vital to have a strategy for curbing academic dishonesty. The implementation of penal measures is not enough to dissuade students from committing it.

The negative aspects of cheating and plagiarism require frequent revision throughout the academic course. Young learners need to understand the meaning and implication of dishonesty from the initiation of academic learning.

The vital steps that can help in decreasing the propensity to take unethical steps among students are there below:

  • Educate students about academic cheating:

Instead of stating the penal actions present for students found guilty of plagiarism, it is necessary to have a broader discussion about the effect of plagiarism on a document.

The debilitating influence of the habit of academic cheating is an important aspect. Students should know about the punishment, and the effect plagiarism or academic dishonesty has on their career and writing ability.

  • Explain the rules for academic writing:

Rules regarding citation and format are to be discussed before setting the assignment. Students should have time to complete the paper so that students do not have to rush with the project work.

  • Instruct students to check for plagiarism:

Students should take responsibility for their submissions by checking their academic work for plagiarism. Besides, manual checking students can also use a plagiarism checker that provides users with a plagiarism report.

  • Help students develop their writing style:

Students who are not confident about their point of view need encouragement and help. The teachers need to help them so that they can articulate their opinions correctly in a written format. People who struggle with writing need to practice doing writing exercises daily to improve their writing style.

Conclusion:

In the present era, it is effortless to check for plagiarism. Advanced anti-plagiarism software quickly detects plagiarism in academic writing. Hence, as an academic writer, it is best to avoid malpractices and double-check the research paper with a plagiarism detector to check for unintentional plagiarism and cheating that is unacceptable in an academic document. It eventually is responsible for damaging the career of the students and the writers for the same.

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