Academic Integrity and Plagiarism in Professionalism

This essay discusses the importance of academic integrity and the negative impact of academic plagiarism. It defines plagiarism and its types, and explains the reasons to avoid it. The essay also highlights the relevance of academic integrity to professionalism in the business environment.

Assessment
One

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Dedication, integrity and responsibility are three components of professionalism
which make an individual successful in their field (Hargreaves and O'Connor, 2018).
Business professionalism is important as it leads to high level of work ethic and
excellence. This essay looks at the topic of academic integrity and academic plagiarism.
This essay focuses on understand the relation between academic integrity and
academic plagiarism along with determining the importance of academic integrity ion
professionalism. The essay provides a definition of plagiarism and the reason why
academic integrity is relevant to professionalism in the business environment.
MAIN BODY
Academic plagiarism refers to the practice of presenting work of others as
original work done by an individual without taking the permission of the actual author
(Olivia-Dumitrina, Casanovas and Capdevila, 2019). This can be done by incorporating
work of others into own work without acknowledging the actual author. Every published
and unpublished material in electrical, manuscript or printed form is included in the
definition of plagiarism (Eaton, 2021). Academic plagiarism can be intentional,
unintentional and reckless. Intentional and reckless plagiarism is considered a
disciplinary offence in context of higher education examinations (Elufiede and Barker
Stucky, 2021). Higher educational institutions take strict action against academic
plagiarism in order to instil academic integrity in their students and ensure ethical
academic practices are followed at the institution.
There are different types of plagiarism such as verbatim quotation without
acknowledgement, copying from internet without acknowledgement, paraphrasing,
collusion, and mosaic plagiarism (Khathayut and Walker-Gleaves, 2021). Verbatim
quotation without acknowledgement involves submitting work of others word for word as
ones own. Paraphrasing refers to the practice of taking central idea of others work and
restructuring the sentences with some additional material and present it as own work
without proper attribution (Fatemi and Saito, 2020). Collusion involves co-operating with
other students with intention to deceive the examiner and submitting work of other
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students as own. Mosaic plagiarism includes taking central idea in others work and
presenting it as one's own.
One of the primary reasons to avoid academic plagiarism is to avert any strict
action taken by the University. Students are expected to develop their own views in the
University and not just reproduce ideas of others. This is another reason for avoiding
academic plagiarism as it helps students become independent thinker and gain deeper
understanding of their University subjects. Avoidance of academic plagiarism enables
students to produce work of highest quality and write academic content with more
lucidity. It helps students build mastery of academic writing and increases credibility and
authority of their work. The most effective way of avoiding academic plagiarism is by
gaining complete understanding of correctly citing sources.
Students are informed to avoid academic plagiarism during their education
because it is breach of academic integrity (Sheeba and et. al., 2019). Acknowledging
original authors for their words, data, and ideas which support own work of an individual
is a principle of intellectual honesty which is followed by every member of the academic
community. In addition to this engaging in plagiarism showcases failure of scholarship
of an individual. Students who plagiarize work of others depict that they have failed in
effectively participating in the learning process. It is important to ensure that plagiarism
does not occur in any of their academic content as it compromises standards of the
institution and degree gained by the student.
Academic integrity is defined as the dedication of students of participating
intellectual honesty and showcasing moral behaviour in an academic setting. The ways
in which students ensure that their academic integrity is maintains is by appropriately
using information, complying to copyright and privacy laws, acknowledging authorship
accurately, conducting ethical research, reporting truthfully on the research and
showcasing ethical behaviour in every academic endeavour (Quick and Blue, 2019).
Avoidance of academic plagiarism is an important pat of maintaining academic integrity.
This is because it helps students develop own ideas and acknowledge ideas of others
accurately. This facilitates ethical academic progress of the student.
Academic integrity is relevant to professionalism because it helps uphold the
three elements of professionalism and gain ethical success in the business
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environment. Maintaining academic integrity supports students in improving their
independent thinking from University level. This helps build competence and knowledge
of the students from an early stage of their academic journey. Competence and
knowledge are two primary characteristic of professionalism and maintaining academic
integrity helps build professionalism in individuals. Students are able to able to make
quick academic progress and gain profound understanding of various educational ideas
as they are not simply reproducing ideas of others. This helps students build
competence in their educational field and use that knowledge effectively in their
professional carer. In this way academic integrity contributes to building
professionalism.
Academic integrity helps students understand the importance of accurately citing
and using sources in their work by giving full acknowledgement to the original author.
This helps them understand the importance of respecting ideas of others and improves
their emotional intelligence. Professionalisms is also characterised by respect given by
individual to their employers, co-workers and seniors. Academic integrity instils the
value of respecting content written by of other and the regulations of their educational
institution (Eaton,, 2021). This supports improvement in respectful nature of students
which is an important attribute of professionalism. Emotional intelligence of students is
also improved because of academic integrity as they students understand the value of
respecting and understanding rules and personal opinions. This is another attribute of
professionalism which is enhanced because of following academic integrity.
Appropriateness and confidence are attributes of professionalism in business
which are also instilled in students because of academic integrity. Students are able to
develop independent thinking which improves their confidence in their level of
knowledge and ability to face various problems in an academic and professional
context. Apart from this academic integrity facilitates moral behaviour by students at all
times. This supports appropriate professional behaviour as individuals are able to
distinguish between inappropriate actions and appropriate actions by moral thinking.
Academic integrity ensures development of characteristics of professionalism and
facilitates professionalism in business.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that it is important for students to avoid
academic plagiarism in order to maintain academic integrity and complete academic
work with honesty. Students have to ensure that they do not engage in different kinds of
academic integrity so that their academic works showcase honesty. This refers to
honest and moral behaviour in academic context. Academic integrity is relevant to
professionalism in business as it helps instil various characteristics of professionalism in
students such as competence knowledge, appropriateness confidence, respect and
emotional intelligence.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Eaton, S. E., 2021. Plagiarism in higher education: Tackling tough topics in academic
integrity. ABC-CLIO.
Eaton, S. E., 2021. Plagiarism in higher education: Tackling tough topics in academic
integrity. ABC-CLIO.
Fatemi, G. and Saito, E., 2020. Unintentional plagiarism and academic integrity: The
challenges and needs of postgraduate international students in
Australia. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(10). pp.1305-1319.
Hargreaves, A. and O'Connor, M. T., 2018. Collaborative professionalism: When
teaching together means learning for all. Corwin Press.
Khathayut, P. and Walker-Gleaves, C., 2021. Academic faculty conceptualisation and
understanding of plagiarism–a Thai university exploratory study. Journal of
Further and Higher Education, 45(4). pp.558-572.
Olivia-Dumitrina, N., Casanovas, M. and Capdevila, Y., 2019. Academic writing and the
internet: Cyber-plagiarism amongst university students. Journal of New
Approaches in Educational Research (NAER Journal), 8(2). pp.112-125.
Quick, K. K. and Blue, C. M., 2019. Using situated learning theory to build an interactive
learning environment to foster dental students' professionalism: an ignite
project. Journal of dental education, 83(3). pp.334-341.
Sheeba and et. al., 2019. Nursing Students' Perception and Practices Related to
Academic Integrity. International Journal of Nursing Education, 11(3).
Elufiede, K. and Barker Stucky, C. eds., 2021. Strategies and Tactics for
Multidisciplinary Writing. IGI Global.
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