Plagiarism and the Community College

Plagiarism Confusion

Students and faculty have difficulties with plagiarism on college campuses because the concept of plagiarism is misunderstood (Breen & Maassen, 2005; Ercegovac & Richardson, 2004; Scanlon, 2003). Even though almost every institution’s Web site contains definitions of academic dishonesty and plagiarism, Breen and Maassen (2005) state that it is clear that “the existence of a policy was not sufficient in and of itself to eliminate plagiarism.” Scanlon (2003) says that the “amount of misconception on this topic appears to have grown exponentially in the past few years, as access to the Internet becomes nearly universal.” He cites several studies that suggest that students are not sure what plagiarism is and that they do not think it is as serious an issue as faculty does.