Why Procrastination Mediates Academic Dishonesty
Why Procrastination Mediates Academic Dishonesty
Almost every student has procrastinated at least once in their school life. While it is always
tempting, studies have shown that procrastination often leads to plagiarism. Plagiarism is an act of theft,
by means of using information from a source with no permission or citation. The following text explains
why procrastination is co-related and directly affects attempts of plagiarism.
One, procrastination is defined as the habit of delaying an important task, and students would
often do their task on the final hours before submission. By postponing such task, a student’s mind
focuses on other unimportant things and stops them from bringing up their own creative way of
answering. Because of so little time, the student’s mind goes into a haywire and enters whatever
information he or she could come up with or search from other sources. Repeating this process over and
over clouds the student’s mind and hinders them from thinking outside the box. Also, students have little
time focusing and creating their own answers for they are set in a timed pace, and stress takes over
judgment.
Two, he or she would need to form problems and extricate facts. The student’s work heavily
relies on such. One cannot just write what they see on the internet. It could be wrong, it could be obsolete
and most of all, it is not theirs. They would also need to proofread their work. We make mistakes along
the way, and there is plenty of it. Before submitting, you would need to check for errors and issues.
Three, because procrastinating is done by focusing on less urgent, more enjoyable activities, all
the stress pours into one single moment. All the stress that should’ve been divided in several days of
working on one task becomes saved for that one day the student starts doing it. Additionally, by simply
using sources improperly or not citing, plagiarizing removes the stress. It also removes one of any
restriction from freely entering someone else’s input. The process becomes quick, but also unethical. One
would say it’s wrong, but it’s definitely the route that takes you faster to your destination.
Plagiarism is a crime punishable by law. While students may not be punished as how the law
punishes adults, they develop dishonesty not only in their education. They will take this habit with them
as they grow up, and thus one main solution, among other ones, is to eliminate the cause. Procrastination
will almost always lead to such act, and therefore an action must be done to eradicate the habit. Not only
does this hinder a student from doing a crime, but it also gives them the biggest potential to be the best
version of themselves.
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