The Plague Of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the inclusion of any idea or any language from someone else without giving due credit by citing and referencing that source in your work. This applies if the source is print or electronic, published or unpublished, another student’s work, or any other person.
Plagiarism can occur for a number of reasons:
1. Simply not understanding what plagiarism is.
2. Not citing or referencing properly within your work. The Library Services referencing pages offer help and advice on how to cite and reference.
3. Pressure from deadlines and/or poor time-management leading to a ‘cut and paste’ approach to research.
4. Disorganised research and note-taking leading to confusion between your own thoughts and ideas taken from other sources.
5. A lack of confidence in putting things into your own words.

Plagiarism can take many forms. Here are some examples:
1. Quoting another’s work ‘word for word’ (verbatim) without placing the phrase(s), sentence(s) or paragraph(s) in quotation marks and providing a clear citation and reference.
2. Summarising or paraphrasing the work or ideas of another without citing and referencing the original source.

3. If the language and sentence structure you use is too close to that in the original then you are plagiarising, even if you provide a citation. Summarising/paraphrasing is putting across the source’s ideas in your own words; restating the ideas in your own way.
4. Using statistics, tables, figures, formulae, diagrams, questionnaires, images, musical notation, computer code etc. created by others without citing and referencing the original source.
5.  Copying the work of another student, with or without their consent.
6.  Collaborating with another student and then presenting the resulting work as one’s own
7.  Buying or commissioning an essay or other piece of work and presenting it as your own.

Why does it matter?
In academic writing a high premium is placed on original thought which utilises and builds on the knowledge and ideas of others. You are expected to do your own thinking, and will be assigned work by your lecturers in order to analyse the ideas you have read about and to develop your own thoughts in reply to them.
When you conduct research for your own assignments, you will be relying on the citations and references provided by other authors in order to find material relevant to your topic. In the exact same way, when you are writing your own work, when you are the author, you will be responsible for providing your readers with a route back to the sources you used so that they can also follow the progression of ideas. Your work needs to be placed within the context of other related work; if you plagiarise this context will be lost.
Whenever you directly quote, paraphrase, or summarise someone else’s ideas, you have a responsibility to give due credit to that person for their work. And by crediting that person, through proper citing and referencing, you will enable your lecturer, and whoever else may read your work, to understand what led you to your conclusions and to see that you have researched both widely and thoroughly.

How to avoid plagiarism?
There are two main types of plagiarism, intentional and unintentional. The easiest to avoid is intentional plagiarism. If you are tempted to ‘borrow’ someone else’s ideas without citing the author because you are short on time, stressed, or you do not fully understand the topic you are writing about, simply don’t do it. The consequences of plagiarism are much worse than handing in an assignment late or handing in a piece of work you are not 100% satisfied with.
In many cases, plagiarism is unintentional and caused by a lack of organisation, carelessness, confusion, or a mix of all three. The bad news is that regardless of whether you intended to plagiarise or not you will still be held responsible for the work you hand in and the consequences will be the same. The good news is that there are two easy steps you can take to avoid unintentionally plagiarising: (a) understand what question you are trying to answer and what process you are entering into when you write an assignment and (b) use a methodical approach when planning and writing your assignments.
With this in mind, below is a checklist of tips to help you avoid plagiarising:
1.  Plan ahead – allow enough time to plan and write up your work.
2. Keep track of your sources. When doing research keep a record of everything you read, including author, title,publication place and date. If you are reading online material, keep a note of the author, title, date, URL, and the date that you viewed the page.
3. Paraphrase carefully in your note-taking and use notation in your notes to indicate what you have paraphrased so that when you come to writing up, your own thoughts and those of others will not be confused.
4. Quote your sources correctly. If you copy pieces of text directly into your notes, make sure you mark them in some way, e.g. by enclosing in quotation marks, so you will know at a later point that they are direct quotations.
5. Never paraphrase or quote from a source without immediately adding a citation to your notes. You could end up forgetting to add a citation and then inadvertently taking credit for work that is not yours.

In a world where information and data is accessible to all, many struggling students are able to access readily available content that pertains to their education. However, the plight of the individuals who work for countless hours to publish a research paper or develop scholarly reports are often victims of intellectual theft through plagiarism. It’s an academic atrocity to take someone else’s work or ideas and pass them off as one’s own. In most universities, plagiarism results in an automatic expulsion. Such is the harsh nature of this crime that it is frowned upon across many institutions around the world. The consequences are so severe that it’s not worth it for anyone to attempt.
That being said, many famous individuals have been accused of copying someone else’s work, a prime example being the great Martin Luther King Jr., who was found guilty of plagiarising a dissertation submitted in university decades after his death. Nevertheless, due to his stature in American society, his PhD was not revoked. Despite this controversy, he went on to play a major role in equality within America, and his name is etched into Western folklore.
In the current age where resources are available to counter plagiarism, many consider it preposterous that one would attempt to claim someone else’s work as their own. The thought of an individual who is well established in society to commit a crime like this in our times would be branded as ludicrous. However, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in the US, was wound up in a calamity when his wife, Melania Trump, was accused of plagiarising a speech by Michelle Obama from the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Freelance journalist Jarrett Hill immediately spotted similarities between both speeches and proceeded to tweet his findings. Since then, the subject has become the leading topic between major newsfeeds around the world and the scandal highlights the fragility of Trump’s campaign. With millions of eyes watching over her, Melania produced a glaring mistake. While her acts may not be intentional, they spark questions amongst viewers regarding Trump’s credibility.

The prospect of plagiarism may seem tempting to the lazy individual, but they should bear in mind that the risk outweighs the reward. If students find information online or in a book that they wish to use, they should remember to cite the text to avoid being accused of academic dishonesty. In the age of technology, where countless resources cease to exist, teachers and parents must be aware of the consequences of plagiarism. We all need to take necessary steps to ensure that students learn to use the readily available knowledge properly for the betterment of society.

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