Introduction
One of the worst problems facing accounting students today is the problem of plagiarism that is a major concern not only in the business field but to all academic fields. This has been a major concern and a problem to several universities throughout the world (Dey & Sobhan, 2006; Roberts 2008). Many students do not clearly understand ways on which to get rid of plagiarism and the measures they need to take in order not to encounter it. This has mostly been due to the ever changing nature of accounting that keeps changing from time to time (Sundem and Williams, 1992). There is need to teach students on ways they can use to get rid of unintentional plagiarism cases in their works. They should be taught how to ensure their work is plagiarism free and this should be applied in the accounting field with a great level of seriousness (Biggs, 2003). It is advisable that tough measures be taken to curb this menace and this involves serious punishments to those involved to help reduce such cases (Nadelson, 2007). The entire accounting field ought to come up with ways in which plagiarism should be dealt with and this should involve tough measures to curb it as well as offering guidance on how it should be avoided.
Gou, X.(2011) “ Understanding Student Plagiarism: An Empirical study in Accounting Education” 2011, vol. 20, issue 1, pages 17-37
This journal talks about several factors in the accounting field that enable students to clearly understand plagiarism. It helps us in the identification of several factors that are likely to affect student plagiarism in accounting education field. These factors are the ones that should be considered while making an effort to get rid of plagiarism. The other main issue in this journal is how to come up with a model that will empirically influence the plagiaristic manners of students. This model will go a long way in to determining the behaviors of students and help in changing it to the better. Xin Gou (2011) through this journal has come up with certain recommendations to be forwarded to the accounting teachers to allow for the help in the reduction of cases of plagiarism among their students. The journal talks about several researches done among accounting students and the information received from such findings which are very important in determining the approach to use while motivating students to abolish their plagiaristic behaviors and adopt proper consistent and ethical behavior regarding their academic works. The journal educates us that the surface learning technique being used by students is directly linked to the pressures students go through during their course of seeking education. This is mainly witnessed when students are under time pressure or when they face the fear for failing in their studies. The journal gives us several positive ways of dealing with students to avoid doing plagiarized work and it also educates tutors on how best to get rid of student’s unethical behaviors’.
This journal has talked about several important points that mark its strengths. According to the questionnaire that was overseen in the UK to students taking accounting a good structural equation model was applied. This equation model was helpful in the part of analyzing the data that was acquired from the questionnaire that was conducted to well over 380 students in the UK according to Xin Gou (2011). The result from the questionnaire indicated four antecedents of student plagiarism that includes academic integration which is very important in determining the success of student. There are also cultural influences which have greatly affected the attitudes of students towards their academic works whereby positive influences from the society helps in shaping a student to having a good attitude towards his work. There is also the question of moral capability of the students and also the gender of the student matters a lot. It is highly recommended in the journal that teachers should use a helpful way in order to motivate their student to enable them to carry out themselves in consistent and ethical ways.
On the methodology used by Gou (2011), it is important that the author uses an all-out and clear method while discussing plagiarism. He discusses several factors that are either directly or indirectly affecting student plagiarism in accounting education. He first identifies these factors and how much they influence the behaviors of students when talking about plagiarism. He also strives to come up with methods that teachers should apply to get rid of the plagiaristic behaviors of students studying accounting. The methodology used by the author is suitable in that it ensures proper research is used to gain information on the key aspects of accounting education. Several questions in this article are mainly directed to the problem of plagiarism and the methods in which we can use to manage it. The questions on how academic integration and cultural influences from the society affects student plagiarism are clearly answered by Gou (2011) in this article. The moral capability of the students is greatly questioned and how best it can be influenced positively to ensure students behave in ethical manners. The views expressed in this article are very much applicable today to help in curbing plagiarism. The thinking of the author is similar to that of several thinkers who have contributed to this topic.
Several resources have been developed with an aim of guiding teachers and students to avoid plagiarism and this is evidenced by various soft wares that students use all over the world to detect plagiarism on their assignments. (Gibson 2009) Technological advancements have led to development of soft wares such as Turnitin that helps students avoid handing over their work if it has traces of plagiarism (Sohrabi, Gholipour and Mohammadesmaeli, 2011, p. 372). It is common knowledge that integrity desecrations in the academic sector may precipitate teachable instances according to Egege and Kutielah (2004) in their book critical thinking. Turnitin has helped students and lecturers to be able to get excerpts taken from papers with plagiarism and inappropriate paraphrases. They are also able to obtain wrong quotations, invalid referencing and many more (Hofstede, 2001). On the issue of plagiarism Guo (2001 p 34.) makes it clear that it should be avoided at all costs. Surveys show that most students lack the understanding of the importance of referencing and most of them only cite their references only when requested to by their tutors (Egana 2012). It is known that the most common reasons that make students do plagiarized work is lack of proper understanding of the guidelines relating to referencing and lack of proper time management according to Wilkinson (2009).
Conclusion
This topic of plagiarism is of very boundless concern in the entire education sector around the world. Students are always looking for easier and shorter ways to clear their assignments and this has led to them producing plagiarized assignments and so there need to be taken action to reduce this trend. Many universities have come up with tough penalties to students whose works have any elements of plagiarism and this has greatly reduced cases of plagiarism in universities. With the tough penalties being applied in most learning institutions lesser cases are being reported though a few cases are still there but it is a great improvement from a few years back. This is mainly as a result of the advancements in technology that has created soft wares that are used to detect plagiarism and this has gone a long way in to ensuring accounting students handle their assignments plagiarism free for example the work by Potthast, Eiselt, Barron-Cedeno, Stein and Rosso (2011). This has also made students more creative in their works and making them spend more time on their papers in order to hand in quality assignments.
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