Plagiarism at English-speaking tertiary institution is not a crime that students intentionally commit; instead it is merely inappropriate behavior that occurs as a result of imperfect understandings of academic cultural conventions. Discuss the ab

“Plagiarism at English-speaking tertiary institution is not a crime that students intentionally commit; instead it is merely inappropriate behavior that occurs as a result of imperfect understandings of academic cultural conventions”.

Discuss the above assertion, and suggest how plagiarism can best be minimized.

Recently, in the generation of high technology and science, particularly internet and its obtainable data, plagiarism has become a frequent feature in student writing and academics need a strong set of plans and methods for dealing with this problem (Nelson 2002:1). Plagiarism is dishonest use or copying from someone else’s ideas, language or thoughts as if they were your own, without acknowledging the source (Wikipedia, April 2007). According to Hubbuch (1982:161) much plagiarism is unintentional and most of students do not plagiarize cautiously, actually the main reason is the students do not know how to use source properly or they do not know anything about proper acknowledgement of the source. This essay will argue about how plagiarism can be minimized.

The following items are examples of plagiarism, considered as a crime from the lowest to serious offences: “Sham paraphrasing”: Substance and material copied word for word from the text and source acknowledged but represented as restated and paraphrased. “Illicit paraphrasing”: Substance and material restated from text but without acknowledgement or act of recognizing.”Other plagiarism”: Material copied from assignment of other students with awareness of the other student.”Verbatim copying”: Substance and material copied word for word from the text without acknowledgement of the origin.”Self-plagiarism” or “recycling”: Use of same assignment for different course which is submitted more than once.”Ghostwriting”: task and assignment written by third person and represented by student as own labor. “Purloining”: Act of copying word for word from another student’s assignment or other person’s paper without any permission or person’s awareness (Walker 1985:89; Macquarie University 2006:2).

Deckert (1993:131) states that after an investigation among Chinese ESL students in Hong Kong, the results shown that these students did not have enough information about how to avoid plagiarism or ability to recognize it and they had little familiarity with western concept of this subject. Plagiarism can be avoided by having adequate knowledge about the definition of plagiarism and increasing students’ awareness about this issue.

However it is very difficult to distinguish between intentional or unintentional plagiarism but anyway it is that the students are doing and it is very hard to claim that they are not doing ...

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However it is very difficult to distinguish between intentional or unintentional plagiarism but anyway it is that the students are doing and it is very hard to claim that they are not doing it intentionally (nelson 2002:1) and it is necessary to solve this problem and think about how to avoid plagiarism.

As Hubbuch (1982:163) states, in many cases most of students disregard to “giving credit where credit is due”: Lack of cautious in the research procedure is one routine source of unintentional plagiarism which usually can lead to negligent plagiarism. Slovenliness while writing your paper is one of another usual source of unintended plagiarism. By developing a system of tidy noting you can easily avoid to fall into plagiarism. You can also fall into unintentional plagiarism by ignorance of the “giving-credit-where-credit-is-due” rule, because they do not know that they are compelled to give credit where credit is due. “passive-sponge”: Gathering great amount of data and information without digesting, estimating and thinking about is the most common source of unintentional plagiarism and . In this situation, student may easily think that everything in his or her mind is truth or common knowledge (Hubbuch 1982:163-164).

According to Doherty (2003) states, it is very good to have guidelines for students such as making them do oral presentation in addition to written work, instigate them to work diaries and checking their original drafts. If the judgment is made that in a task there is proof of serious plagiarism then principal can use these guidelines to recording a zero mark for it. However there are another ways for avoiding plagiarism.

Students should use system of referencing in the appropriate form and the people whose thoughts, researches they have advanced or summarized, should be acknowledged. Students should also keep away from extreme copying of passages by another author (Macquarie University 2006:1). Paraphrasing or grammatically change of the passage is another ways of not falling into plagiarism.

In conclusion, deficiency of knowledge about the definition of plagiarism and western notion about this subject, lack of caution, not giving any credit where credit is due and gathering information without thinking and digesting are four main reasons for the unintentional plagiarism. Unintentional plagiarism can be minimized by paying more attention to system of reference and proper acknowledgement of the source.

References:

Deckert, G. (1993). Second language writing. Perspectives on Plagiarism

From ESL Students in Hong Kong, 2(2),131-148.

Doherty, L. (2003, October 23). School students to be given lessons on

cheating. Sydney Morning Herald,p.1.

Hubbuch S. (1982). Writing Research Papers Across the Curriculum.

Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Researching.

Nelson P. (2002). Unintentional Plagiarism . 66.102.9.104 website:

Macquarie University. (2006). What is Plagiarism . Retrieved April 19,2007,

from http://www.student.mq.edu.au/plagiarism/