Plagiarism Definition and Approach

Plagiarism

When a student begins a course of study, they are often warned at the outset of the academic year not to plagiarise the work of other individuals. Typically, the student will receive guidelines on how to ensure they avoid plagiarising content in the module handbooks distributed at the beginning of the course. This section provides a concise and practical guide to avoiding plagiarism, highlighting the common traps students can easily fall into if they do not use and reference material correctly.


Definition of Plagiarism

In short, plagiarism is the act of using another individuals work without giving them due credit. In an academic context, plagiarism refers to the process of students attempting to pass off another authors work as their own. An alternative definition of plagiarism is proffered by the University of Oxford who instead suggest that plagiarism is the practice of presenting someone else’s work as one’s own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your own work without full acknowledgement. 

Plagiarism can be intentional and/or accidental/reckless but in any event, it is a serious offence and can significantly detract from the value of a students work. As well as these definitions, plagiarism can also be defined as the act of deceitfully misleading academic tutors by overstating the level of revision and reading the student has carried out in preparation for an essay or report.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the act of plagiarism as; “to steal and pass off ideas or words of another as one’s own”. Simply put, plagiarism is the process of taking other people’s words and/or ideas and pretending that they are your own. An alternative definition of plagiarism is forwarded by the Collins Dictionary which explains that plagiarism is the practice of using someone else’s work and pretending that it is your own. Plagiarism can also be defined as the act of deliberately trying to deceive your academic tutor by submitting content which is not your own work.

Has Plagiarism Been Getting Worse in Recent Years?

In recent years, chiefly due to the popularity of over the internet assignment purchases, plagiarism has gotten worse. There has been a spike in plagiarism across much of the academic institutions based in the UK. Indeed in the last 3 years alone, 50,000 students have been caught plagiarising. This figure does not allow for those students who have plagiarised and not been caught, thus illustrating the scale of the problem.

Why does it matter?

Plagiarism is a serious problem. If you as a student are caught plagiarising it can have serious consequences for your future academic and work career. Aside from the disciplinary perspective, plagiarism also harms the extent to which you as a student can learn whilst in years of academic study. When you cheat through plagiarism you are ultimately cheating yourself as you have spoiled the chance to learn and develop your knowledge on a specific subject. This learning and development skillset could stand you in good stead for later life so from all perspectives, plagiarism is something which should be avoided at all costs.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Types Of Plagiarism

  Types Of Plagiarism Now that the severity of plagiarism has been covered, it is important to outline and detail the various types of plagiarism there are; after all research suggests that students mostly plagiarise out of carelessness rather than actual intent. As we have discovered from the previous section, this in no way mitigates the after effects and consequences of being caught plagiarising. Whether it is accidental or deliberate, plagiarism is still something which should be avoided at all costs by modern students. Plagiarism is also a hugely complex issue with multiple factors involved – indeed there are also several different types of plagiarism which a student must remain fully aware of. Different Types of Plagiarism: Deliberate Plagiarism Deliberate plagiarism is the most common form of plagiarism and is the act of attempting to pass off someone else’s work as one’s own. An alternative definition of deliberate plagiarism is that it is the process of actively trying to ...
Read more

Plagiarism Indian Scenario, Laws and Detecting Tools

  Plagiarism in India for Art Forms In the case of art forms, plagiarism in India works differently. For the stories, music, paintings, and videos, other people can sue them if not copyrighted. If the artwork is with copyright, then nobody can use it without the permission of the artist. However, the artist can copy his work or use the same work with some alterations. Though this is somewhat similar to self-plagiarism, in India, this is regarded as a modification as the artist is considered the owner of his/her works. Know About Varied Types of Plagiarism in India Potluck plagiarism:   On occasions, the content creators take parts from different sources. After that, they form their content out of it. For this type of plagiarism, most of the content remains the same. The style may seem incoherent. The photocopy:  It is a kind of  mosaic plagiarism . The content creator may copy portions of the original writing to use. In this case, the writer does not change the ...
Read more

Consequences Of Plagiarism

Consequences Of Plagiarism In short, there are many consequences of plagiarism and all are severe with the potential to have a sustained negative affect on the academic and career future of the student who has been found guilty of committing it. What is often overlooked is that the consequences of plagiarism extend far beyond the individual student who has been caught cheating in their essay and/or report submission. This section will outline that as well as the student, the consequences of plagiarism can also be felt by other groups including; other students, academic institutions and the UK economy. In brief, students can be affected as their degree can be valued by the tag of cheating, the same is the case with the brand of the academic institution. In reference to the UK economy, the key consequence of plagiarism is that it invariably leads to a skills shortage in private sector organisations which recruit university graduates who have not gained the critical thinking skills needed...
Read more