I recently overheard a conversation between two final year students and the subject of their discussion left me thinking of how one can do something right when doing a research project. Back to their conversation, the students were worried that their lecture would detect plagiarism in their papers.
Plagiarism is a serious offence not only in learning institutions but even the media industry. Just recently Times magazine and CNN suspended journalist Fareed Zakaria after he apologised for plagiarizing a New Yorker article. Mr Zakaria was a writer and television host. Although the media houses later reinstated him the incident hurt his reputation and credibility as a journalist which is very essential.
Although plagiarism is spelt out as an academic crime in the university's student handbooks in Kenya not so many students understand what it is.
What it is?
Schools catalogue information services defines plagiarism as using other people's words or ideas without clearly acknowledging the source of the information. It also mentions the previous forms plagiarism can happen.
Change the writers material to your own language and style. Remember also to refer the source in your work. This is known as paraphrasing. aresearchguide.com summarizes it all, "To avoid plagiarism, all students must document sources properly using Footnotes, Endnotes, or Parenthetical References, and must write a Bibliography, References, or Works Cited page and place it at the end of the research paper to list the sources used. Of the three ways to document sources - Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parenthetical References, the simplest is using Parenthetical References, sometimes referred to as Parenthetical Documentation or Parenthetical Citations."
To be continued....................................................
Plagiarism is a serious offence not only in learning institutions but even the media industry. Just recently Times magazine and CNN suspended journalist Fareed Zakaria after he apologised for plagiarizing a New Yorker article. Mr Zakaria was a writer and television host. Although the media houses later reinstated him the incident hurt his reputation and credibility as a journalist which is very essential.
Although plagiarism is spelt out as an academic crime in the university's student handbooks in Kenya not so many students understand what it is.
What it is?
Schools catalogue information services defines plagiarism as using other people's words or ideas without clearly acknowledging the source of the information. It also mentions the previous forms plagiarism can happen.
- copying an entire source and presenting it as your own
- copying sections from a source without proper acknowledgement
- paraphrasing material from a source without proper acknowledgement
- presenting another person's work with or without the creator's knowledge
- Buying an essay/paper from a student from a research firm,student or online
Students might have difficult citing their sources or even forget to cite them. Some decide to out-rightly pass the plagiarized work as theirs. As I mentioned early plagiarism as an academic crime. It can result to you being expelled if caught.
How to avoid plagiarism.
Knowing how to avoid plagiarism will save you from so many things. Imagine the disgrace and suffering you will get if you were expelled for plagiarism.You need to do the following in order to ensure your work is far from a plagiarised piece.
Change the writers material to your own language and style. Remember also to refer the source in your work. This is known as paraphrasing. aresearchguide.com summarizes it all, "To avoid plagiarism, all students must document sources properly using Footnotes, Endnotes, or Parenthetical References, and must write a Bibliography, References, or Works Cited page and place it at the end of the research paper to list the sources used. Of the three ways to document sources - Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parenthetical References, the simplest is using Parenthetical References, sometimes referred to as Parenthetical Documentation or Parenthetical Citations."
To be continued....................................................
