167 Plagiarism

PLAGIARISM (early draft) C.M. Heydenrych In this article an attempt will be made to define what plagiarism is, why it should be avoided and what a learner should do to ensure that his/her work is authentic and reflects his/her own thinking on a particular subject. So, what is plagiarism and how does one avoid falling into the trap? It is “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.” Where did I get those words from? I copied it from the Google research results – they, I assume, lifted it from the Wikipedia page and the contributor of that page sourced it from elsewhere – either from a referenced source or not. This is where the problem starts – it is not easy to determine the source and give due credit – but the last thing that should be done is to make as if you have dreamt up that particular concept and even more important, have used that particular sequence of words to convey the idea. Let us take the following as a further example of how to deal with information taken from sources such as the Wikipedia article on plagiarism: Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work.[1][2]. The key in using the information is by referencing the definition in a similar way that the person that placed the definition there in the first place - the two numbers after the quote ensures that no accusation of plagiarism can be made. Some students deem it sufficient to use Wikipedia as the reference. This however would be wrong because Wikipedia is not regarded as a credible peer referenced source and though the information appearing there is of a high quality, it is really an aggregator of information (that is available elsewhere); and it is these original sources that need to be referenced. Rogeting "if you did not write it yourself, you must give credit" Gabriel, Trip (1 August 2010). "Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html (accessed 6 Sept 2016).