Plagiarism

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Contents

[edit] Students and Avoiding Plagiarism

[edit] What is Plagiarism?

According to Kennedy (2006), "Plagiarism is the illegal practice of taking someone else's ideas, data, findings, the language, illustrative material, images, or writing, and presenting them as if they were your own."

[edit] Why the Concern about Plagiarism?

Today's students are blessed with fast access to much material. Sadly, our joy about this fast access is tempered by knowledge that plagiarism is on the rise. The Web has increased the number of potential sources of plagiarism.

[edit] Is Plagiarism by students on the increase?

Yes. It is of grave concern that plagiarism is in the increase. For example, on a large campus there is often a legal person tasked only with the handling of cases arising on the campus.

[edit] How Widespread is Student Plagiarism?

It is a global cancer.

[edit] How are Students Caught?

Just as students can use search engines to quickly find material to cut-and-paste without attribution, so too can lecturers use the same search engines to check sources and catch plagiarists. The ease with which the plagiarist finds information applies also to lecturers in detecting plagiarism. Student laziness in obtaining the plagiarized information results in lack of proofreading, sudden context changes, missing footnotes, false references, poor structure and out of context paragraphs, which are typical methods used in material which hides the real source.

[edit] What are the Consequences of Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a serious offence and no institution can turn a blind eye to it. It undermines the rights of honest students; can seriously affect the moral rights of authors and it denigrates grades, degrees and even the institution itself. Students cannot accept their degrees honestly, if they know they have plagiarized others' works. How will they perform and succeed in their future careers, if they have not assimilated the knowledge themselves?

[edit] Why is Plagiarism Misconduct?

At the University of the Witwatersrand, a case of plagiarism is treated as misconduct according to parts of Rule 1 in the general rules for student conduct as it: constitutes a breach of a ... rule of the University; and constitutes conduct that tends to bring the University or any part of it ... into contempt or disrepute; and interferes with the governance and proper administration of the University; and interferes with the conditions necessary for teaching, learning or research.

[edit] What is the Punishment for Plagiarism at Wikiversity?

To be discussed and written

[edit] Towards an International Plagiarism Policy

  • Education at school (may take long)
  • Interventions in First Year especially during orientation week
  • Interventions before honours year and final year
  • Interventions for postgraduates.

[edit] How does one avoid Plagiarism?

According to Kennedy (2006), "To avoid plagiarism, reference the source and put quotation marks around all of the quoted words, or paraphrase and reference."

[edit] References

Kennedy, I.G., (2006) How can I be original? in How to do Research. CD-ROM. Published privately by the author. ISBN 0-620-27218-X.

[edit] Useful Websites

[edit] Plagiarism is not copyright infringement

We must not confuse plagiarism with copyright infringement. It is all too easy to plagiarize: just cut and paste (from copyright or non-copyright) material without citation and referencing.

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Plagiarism"
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