Plagiarism and integrity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Plagiarism and integrity - Essay Example In short, the education that they are paying for and the years of their life that they are sacrificing are ultimately wasted if this is a habitual trait that will be exhibited again and again. Yet, there are many reasons for why low academic integrity are noted within various individuals. As such, the following analysis will briefly present some of these reasons and causes and help the reader to come to a more informed understanding for why academic integrity is so vitally important and what motivates individuals to cheat the system and to cheat their own education. One of the core reasons for why individuals display a low level of academic integrity has to do with the fact that they are simply lazy to learn the required material or perform the required task (East and Donnelly 3). Although it is true that laziness is not a vital or fundamental flaw, allowing it to dictate how one displays levels of honesty or academic integrity is most certainly a core flaw. Another reason for why low levels of academic integrity are exhibited has to do with an individual that might have a very low level of familiarity or comfort with a given subject. For instance, an international student that struggles with English as a second language may be tempted to plagiarize as a means of performing a very difficult task easily (Mahmud and Bretig 438). Last but not least, an individual may be tempted to exhibit a low level of academic integrity in the eventuality that they have put an assignment off to the very last minute; so much so that the only recourse for accompli shing it within the time period in question is to cheat and present someone else’s work as their own (Spain 154). In essence, there are many reasons for why students cheat; however, none of them are more noble than another and none of them can be excused. As such, it is necessary to ensure that all