Africa-Press – Malawi. Plagiarism is defined as the unlawful use of ideas, methods, data, language and figures of another author without acknowledging the source. Of course, there are a lot more definitions for the term.
Any student who fails to properly credit ideas or materials taken from another has committed plagiarism. There are several reasons why students plagiarise. Students may think that using several sources, quotes and citations is the primary goal of writing while their original ideas are secondary.
They may fail to cite the source since they cannot differentiate between common knowledge and information that merits citation. They may be confused about the nature and legitimate way of paraphrasing.
They may plagiarise because of time pressure. They may plagiarise because their teachers urge them to come up with original ideas and they find their own ideas invaluable.
Finally, they may not critically analyse all the information, particularly web-based sources, which leads them to thinking that all information is equal, truthful, free and accessible.
According to some experts, personal characteristics such as gender, age, academic achievement, parents’ education and participation in extracurricular activities have been identified as having an important influence on academic dishonesty.
However, grade point average and admissions test scores were found to have no relationship to cheating. Conversely, others believe that lack of knowledge among students has encouraged them to plagiarise rather than be influenced by cultural factors like codes of manner, dress, language, rituals, norms of behaviour and systems of belief.
Additionally, the world has evolved and is evolving at a faster pace; as such, the use of information and communications technology tools and the internet has made unethical behaviours easier in several ways.
First, students’ use of internet information, which is unavailable in traditional documents, makes documenting academic dishonesty difficult for instructors.
Second, word processing programmes make it easier for students to cut and paste information from electronic resources into their papers without attributing the work. Third, students can easily get access to term paper databases where they can download or purchase original research papers.
Forth, they can participate in online discussion forums, ask for assistance from more proficient learners and cut and paste those learners’ responses to their assignments without acknowledging that they received assistance.
However, fears about the issue of plagiarism do not seem to be lessening, despite all the discussion and reasonable advice. It is believed that the issue of plagiarism may affect the corporate image of an institution of higher education.
It is very worthwhile to study the relationship and impact of plagiarism issues on a university’s reputation in order to sustain organisational performance and to generate high-quality outcomes.
It is necessary to start investigating whether the corporate image can be affected by plagiarism issues as institutions of higher education are now struggling to improve their qualities and productivity.
They are major players in the world economy and their students play effective roles in the workforce. Their ethical behaviours and performance during their studies can continue to their future careers.
Although these effects are hard to quantify, they determine a decrease in education performance and economic competitiveness in the medium and long terms in countries where corruption is obviously present.
Therefore, the concept of plagiarism has to be looked at holistically and all players in the education sector must be involved and play their roles to deal with the vice.
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