combination: students have computers, credit cards and a desire to avoid having to write their own term papers (Cassino). As a result, many students now equate research paper assignments with a monetary value as opposed to long hours of research. Donald McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who studies cheating, has conducted studies indicating that nearly 70% of students plagiarized in college (Fritz).Cheaters are rarely ever even caught. Professors only catch on if they have seen the paper before or if two students are unlucky enough to hand in the same paper. Unfortunately, most professors rarely take the time to check the credibility of the sources or the uniqueness of the paper (Cassino). They are reluctant to put the effort into researching whether a paper’s been plagiarized. As a result, academically, there is not a lot of plagiarism reported because by nature, academics are nonconfrontational.A 1999 survey of students on 21 campuses nationwide found that of schools with stringent honor codes, 45% had committed at least one of the four serious cheating offenses (plagiarism, falsifying a bibliography, turning in someone else’s work or omitting footnotes and citations). Schools without these honor codes reported 56%, the highest proportion (Karasik).Some states have begun to pass legislation aimed at prohibiting the marketing or sale of prefabricated term papers. In fact, seventeen states, including Texas and Massachusetts, have recently passed laws making it illegal to sell papers that students may pass off as their own work. Colleges and universities are also beginning to fight back, and rightfully so.With greater student reliance on computers in academia, many colleges and universities are challenged to keep pace with the dishonest, who have found new ways to plagiarize their course work. Educators must implement proactive approaches in the teaching and prevention of such behavior. The University of Penns...
