Plagiarism

As it is said, “There is nothing new under the sun” it is very common for the re-use of other
peoples work especially in the current world where everything is easily accessible in the internet.
This has made plagiarism an inevitable crime for many especially the students who tend to
source information on their academic work on the internet without citing the authors or sources
of the information. Some do it intentionally while others plagiarize accidentally as some
information in the internet might be wrongly referenced or not referenced at all.
According to Roberts (2008) plagiarism is the copying or paraphrasing of other people’s work or
ideas into your own work without full acknowledgement. It is also defined as the act of
representing as one’s own original work the creative works of another, without appropriate
acknowledgement of the author or source University of Melbourne (2007).
There are two types of plagiarism which include accidental and deliberate or intentional
plagiarism. Accidental plagiarism is when one forgets to put quotation marks around a quote or
neglect to give credit to the source. Deliberate plagiarism is committed when a person
intentionally does not quote or cite the sources of their work.
According to Marsh (2007) plagiarism like authorship, more broadly makes sense only when
charted against a broader set of signifying forms pertaining to literacy, legal, pedagogical and
religious institution. It is considered as an offence but it is not usually punished by the law but by
institutions such as learning institutions and publishing companies.

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Plagiarism can occur in academics, journalism and any form of writing. In academics it is termed
as academic dishonest when it is conducted by the students, professors or researchers. Once a
person commits the offence, one a can face consequences such as suspension, expulsion or
failing of the given unit. A person is said to have committed this offence when they fail to give
appropriate citation once they use other author’s work. Sanctions and loss of credibility and
perceived integrity are the consequences faced by the professors and the researchers once they
are guilty of plagiarizing. For the students, cases are usually heard by internal disciplinary
committees.
In journalism it is considered as a breach of journalistic ethics. Reporters or news anchors
plagiarize unintentionally once they fail to include quotations as they report. Journalists are
usually at a risk of getting suspension from work or termination of employment, while the
newspaper or the television shows integrity and credibility is undermined.
There is also a form of plagiarism known as self-plagiarism. It involves the use of important
sections that you had once used in work you had done earlier and failing to cite the original
work.
The existence of software that is used to detect plagiarism has come to the aid of many
institutions as they use it to detect plagiarism. This system helps significantly, though some
students substitute words to ensure the software does not detect any cases of plagiarism, this is
known as rogeting. Due to this, many institutions do not rely on the software alone.
There are various ways in which one can use to avoid plagiarizing such as, use of direct
quotation, paraphrasing and citing through summary. In paraphrasing you should also include the
source of your information. For students there are various methods of preventing plagiarism such

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as planning your paper and writing it in your own whereby you cite sources especially when in
doubt and make it clear who said what.

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References

Marsh, B 2007, Alchemy and Remedy in Higher Education, State University of New York press,
Albany.
Roberts, T.S 2008, Student Plagiarism In An Online World, information science reference,
USA, UK