Towards a More Enduring Prevention of Research Writing Plagiarism Among Office Administration Students

The study aimed to determine the difficulties of the students in writing research papers that caused them to plagiarize, and use the data that will be gathered to develop a program of activities to address their needs. It used the descriptive-survey research method with the survey questionnaire as the main tool used in gathering data from Office Administration students who were selected randomly and purposively. The data were treated statistically using the formulas for percentage and weighted mean. The results of the study show that the respondents had difficulties in writing their research papers with searching for materials, expressing ideas in English, and relationship issues with group members as the top 3, used tactics to ensure that their research papers meet all course requirements such as cited sources and formatted references, developed a rough outline and wrote a draft, and changed some words only from existing research papers as the most pointed out in the top 3, generally low in awareness about the forms of plagiarism, committed accidental, paraphrasing, source based, and direct/verbatim plagiarism as the top 3 most committed by them, aware of the plagiarism tools or software used by their teachers to detect plagiarism such as Grammarly, Turnitin, and Plagiarism Detector as the top 3 most used, employed anti-plagiarism procedures in writing their research papers such as cited sources, paraphrased, and plagiarism checker which topped the list, and in need of assistance in order to write research papers properly and without committing plagiarism such as clear ideas on how to write research papers, improvement in the English language, and well preparation before the actual writing of research papers as the 3 topmost needs. Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that the Office Administration students in RTU are exposed to the temptation of engaging in plagiarism due to inadequate knowledge of plagiarism and how to write a thesis with facility, as they have a very strong determination to comply with the course requirements to pass and to graduate. What is good about them is that they are willing to learn more and be assisted by their professors to avoid plagiarizing. Their professors and RTU authorities play very important roles in preventing them from engaging in plagiarism. To provide remedies or resolutions to curtail plagiarism and enhance the findings of the study, the researchers recommended that all those concerned, especially the professors handling Thesis Writing with Statistics, convene and organize committees to brainstorm on the problems and needs of the Office Administration students to provide them with knowledge in plagiarism and how to write research papers with facility to prevent them from plagiarizing. Professors who are handling Thesis Writing with Statistics be motivated to extend to their students extra miles of efforts to help them write research papers with facility by providing attractive incentives in the form of cash and intangible rewards, and expose them to training and activities to discover better teaching strategies and tips, and shortcuts to write research papers with facility. RTU authorities may provide enough budget to support the activities to be organized for the students and professors. Very specifically, webinar workshops on English grammar and other English-related principles will be organized to enhance the English expressions of the students in order to prepare them well before the actual writing of research papers so as to avoid the temptation of plagiarism.