Schools and Education - Understanding the Rise in Apathy,...

The Rise in Apathy, Cheating and Plagiarism – Understanding the Problem Over the past ten years teachers have witnessed a drop in student preparation and a rise in apathy and cheating. Students who cheat do so from a variety of motives. Making this situation even more difficult is that faculty members do not even define plagiarism the same or punish it consistently (Howard, â€Å"Sexuality† 473). Some surveys even show that teachers simply ignore the problem or do not report plagiarism because: â€Å"they do not want to be bothered, because they think only the student who cheated is actually harmed, or because of the unpleasant bureaucracy and documentation ramifications† (Moeck 484). Alschuler and Blimling add to this list the fear†¦show more content†¦Conventional wisdom of the time believed that students learned to write well and think better by becoming acquainted with the works of great writers and thinkers. Only by showing a mastery of the masters could one establish authorial authority, and because the author’s a udience knew the masters too, the student had no need to cite sources (Howard, â€Å"Plagiarisms† 788). It isn’t until the late 17th Century that British authors begin hurling the accusation of plagiarist at each other. Ideologically this makes sense because after the fall of Rome, Western Europe fell into a dark age. Not until the Renaissance do we see another spurt of humanism that marked the great classic periods of Greece and Rome. Before the invention of the printing press, the rise in literacy, and the focus on humans as perfectible creations who can create important works by themselves, there was very little need for authorial ownership. In the Renaissance, associating an author’s name with a work was generally tied to prosecution for blasphemy and libel (Hammond 23). â€Å"Authorship could only develop as a profession when it became respectable for individuals to live off their wits† (23). Not until 1709 do we find the first copyright law protecting ownership rights, and this did not solve the thorny problem of intellectual property and how to protect an idea (36-37). In the Romantic Period, a major shift in thought occurred. The Romantics prized individuality andShow MoreRelatedAnnotated Bibliography: Plagiarism39529 Words   |  158 Pagesï » ¿Plagiarism Bibliography Buckwalter, J. A., Wright, T., Mogoanta, L. and Alman, B. (2012), Plagiarism: An assault on the integrity of scientific research. J. Orthop. Res., 30:  1867 1868. Granitz, N. and Loewy, D. (2007). Applying Ethical Theories: Interpreting and Responding to Student Plagiarism. Journal of Business Ethics, 72(3), 293-306. Luke, B. and Kearins, K. (2012), Attribution of words versus attribution of responsibilities: Academic plagiarism and university practice. Vaccine, 30(50):