Plagiarism: Ethical Dilemma By Sharon White At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The Bible is a great source of the rules of life. And it is apparent in the book that cheating is considered to be something bad and forbidden. However, not everyone considers plagiarism a cheating. Let’s assume it is, and look at the following situation. I’ll take as an example the simplest form of plagiarism case-cheating on an exam.

Two best friends are taking an exam, but one of them is not prepared. To bring up the argument better, allow me to exaggerate. The one who is not prepared is a single mother and a student in college. Her child had pneumonia and the caring mother had to spend the night before exam in the hospital. During the exam, the woman’s best friend allows her to copy his work. The woman doesn’t get caught and passes the class. Now, if she did get caught whose fault would it be? A woman’s or her friend’s? When a person allows copying his work, is it still a plagiarism? Yes, if there is no references to the original work. However, is it an unethical behavior for both sides: for the one who cheats and the one who allows it? In most colleges any cheating case is considered inappropriate. But lets review the results in our case. The friend didn’t lose anything and received a good grade. The single mother passed the class and later received a diploma, which helped her to find a higher paid job so that she could take a good care of her child. It seems to be a win-win situation. No one loses. To conclude, innocent form of plagiarism in some cases can be helpful and result in achieving higher goals. Regarding the material the woman didn’t study. She learned all the material, when her child got better.

To conclude, I’d like to say that plagiarism itself is bad. But not every case of plagiarism is unethical. I hope the example above was a good illustration of this. Each case has to be looked at individually and very closely. Creative plagiarism, such as development of someone else’s ideas, is not only harmless but actually quite useful and necessary. After all, we are only human.

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