ROCKVIEW UNIVERSITY

Student Name: Natasha Chewe

Student Number: 202109788

Year: One (1)

Term: One(1)

Assigment No.: Two (2)

Course Name: COM III

Lecturer’s Name: Prof. L Chitondo

Question: Plagiarism is usually referred to as academic theft. Show why it

is important for any institution of higher learning to discourage
students from plagiarism.

Due Date: 19th February 2021

Plagiarism is a common problem among higher learning institutions around the world.
According to Gullifer and Tyson (2010) (cited by Anney and Mosha, 2015) “Plagiarism is
perceived to be a growing problem and universities are being required to devote increasing time
and resources to combating it” (p. 463). Arguably, the use of technologies such as the world
wide web in obtaining information resources, has led to the growth of rate of plagiarism. This
fraud behaviour of students in tertiary higher learning institutions and universities is great
concern today in the era of the internet (Eret & Ok, 2014 cited by Anney and Mosha, 2015). As
result of explosion of plagiarism among university students, many universities in developed
countries have been using technologies to combating deceitful plagiarism behaviour of students
(Thompsett & Ahluwalia, 2010). This paper defines plagiarism, and shows why higher
institutions of learning should discourage the scourge.

Plagiarism can be defined as the use of text, or any other information without acknowledging the
source or author. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the verb “plagiarize” as “to steal
and use the ideas or writings of another as one’s own.” Moulton and Robison (2002) observes
that, plagiarism can be understood as “depriving authors of profit that is rightfully theirs [,
which] is theft. Depriving authors of credit might also be a form of theft.” According to the
Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) (2003), plagiarism occurs when a writer
"deliberately uses someone else's language, ideas, or other original (not common knowledge)
material without acknowledging its source" (p. 1). Oxford Dictionary defines the verb Plagiarize
as “take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one’s own” (Pearsall, 2002, p.
962).

The University of Sussex (2005), states that plagiarism is “using or copying the work of others
(whether written, printed or in any other form) without proper acknowledgement in any
coursework” (p. 5). According to Anney and Mosha (2015), these definitions suggest that
plagiarism is stealing someone else work and depriving the owner the right of ownership or
without acknowledging the authorship. Anney and Mosha (2015) states various authors (Borg,
2009; Eret & Ok, 2014; Sutton, Taylor, & Johnston, 2014) consider this as “academic dishonest
or collusion for purpose of deceiving and receiving credit or reward for work which is not
yours.” As cited by Anney and Mosha (2015), plagiarism is also described as “type of academic

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dishonesty, is often conceived as fraudulent behaviour that diminishes the intellectual property of
the original author and rewards plagiarists for their work” (Gullifer & Tyson, 2010, p. 463).

Plagiarism is one of the challenges faced by the academia around the world. Various journal
publishers and researchers have discovered and reported cases of plagiarism from published and
unpublished academic papers. Guterman (2008) revealed that “More than 70,000 article abstracts
appeared disturbingly similar to other published work when scanned by a new search program.
The researchers examined 2,600 of these abstracts by hand and found 3 instances of what
appears to be outright plagiarism.” According to Cicutto (2008), “The Office of Research
Integrity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reports that approximately 25 percent
of the total allegations received concern plagiarism, and that these allegations typically represent
misunderstandings of what exactly constitute plagiarism and accurate citation procedures.”
When plagiarism is left unchecked, there is lack of originality and new perspectives. This hinders
the sharing of new knowledge and discoveries. Clarke (2006) reported that, “During the review
process for this paper, a paper submitted to AIS sponsored major conference was found to be
highly plagiarized. About 70 percent of the paper was copied almost exactly, without quotation
marks.” According to Schulz (2008), “A chemist in India has been found guilty of plagiarism
and/or falsifying more than 70 research papers published in a wide variety of Western Scientific
journals between 2004 and 2007.”

Shahabuddin (2009) argues that plagiarism is not only unethical but also creates a problem for
the original author once he/she locates his/her work in another article. Shahabuddin futher cites
Armstrong (1993) who recalled that “A young university radiologist recognized his own writing
in a professional journal under another’s authorship, with attribution to himself.” He wrote the
author of the article, who responded, “What a remarkable coincidence, great minds think alike.”
The young radiologist decided not to pursue. At times, the consequences of plagiarism can be
permanently damaging not only to the plagiarist but the original author as well. Shahabuddin
(2009) gives an account of a case reported by famousplagiarists.com. In this example, an
allegation directed against a member of Argosy University's faculty resulted in what appears to
be an attempted institutional cover-up on behalf of a plagiarist. After the student made
allegations against Bindu Ganga, “confid[ed] to a professor that she believed Ganga's thesis
might have been plagiarized,” she herself was accused of ethics violations involving “a pattern of

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unprofessional comportment…including disrespect toward those in authority!” The Argosy
University student, Marla Decker, did end up receiving her degree after the university tried to
have her dismissed, and her “ethics violations” ended up as a “part of her permanent academic
record” (D. Newbart, “Student Scolded Over Plagiarism Accusation”).

Consequently, Shahabuddin (2009) reports that as of March 3, 2006, Argosy University had
reversed its earlier position and decided to fire Bindu Ganga over the plagiarism allegations
raised by Marla Decker. As reported in the Sun-Times, Argosy “also took away Ganga's
doctorate in clinical psychology.” (Newbart, D. “University fires official accused of
plagiarism”). This was after the allegations by Argosy University student Marla Decker were
substantiated (“a 45% match” as revealed by the “originality report”), and the unethical attempts
to silence this student were exposed.

For plagiarism to be curbed, authors have to exercise self-discipline and be ethical. It is supposed
to be undertaken as personal responsibility. Grossberg (2004) concluded that, like other ethical
issues, plagiarism has no simple solution. He states, “It can never be addressed effectively by
simply turning journal editors and book and manuscript reviews into a disciplinary police force.”
He suggests that all of us must “make a commitment to the basic standards of ethical conduct in
our discipline, which includes preventing the misappropriation of other people’s words and
ideas.”

The world wide web has created space for easy publishing of information and improved access.
This has however has a negative side as easy access to information has catalyzed plagiarism.
Publishing on the world wide web has also made it difficult for intellectual property laws to be
effectively enforced. Reid (1999) reported that “A case involving a freelance writer reveals U.S.
copyright law does not provide a way to unequivocally determine rights on material published
electronically.” Therefore, authors and editors believing that their published work could receive
wide exposure on the Internet are prone to being plagiarized without any recourse, observes
Shahabuddin (2009). However, Kock (1999) has suggested that while having one’s work on the
Internet makes plagiarism possible, it also allows for plagiarists to be caught for two reasons: 1)
downloaded files or text can easily be traced to the sources, and 2) searches can be easily made

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with less time and expense. Kock (1999) suggested that the best way to prevent plagiarists is “to
publicize and discuss them as widely as possible.” Kock believed that the publicity should
involve how to develop ethical standards in publication and how to deal with plagiarists when
caught (cited by Shahabuddin, 2009).

Plagiarism is a serious problem for the academic community in particular and society in general.
Plagiarism frequently leads to rewards for those who cheat and take credit for someone else’s
work. It sets a bad example for students and society. Fortunately, there are many methods
available to prevent or at least curtail the problem. However, to accomplish this goal, the
academic community must make a concerted effort to be vigilant in all the work it creates, sees,
and uncovers. The academic community must realize that as educators of society’s
children, we must set an example of ethical, moral, and legal standards for students, for the
public, and for society Shahabuddin (2009).

Shahabuddin (2009 suggests that, “we must understand that failing this serious obligation will
have dire consequences for the future social and the economic well-being of the world.”

Institutions of Higher Learning should take a front row in discouraging plagiarism. They should
put in place various mechanisms which can help students to avoid plagiarism. Given the
difficulty of defining, catching, and prosecuting plagiarists, Rosamond (2002) has suggested that
“a more effective route toward the prevention of plagiaristic activity in academia involves
thinking about effective ways of reinforcing academic good practices that do not rely solely on
the coercive apparatuses of university and public statutes.” Therefore, he suggests moral
persuasion rather than the threat of sanction. He further concludes that the institution, as a result,
does not have to be a vigilante (cited by Shahabuddin, 2009). Shahabuddin (2009) cites
Gotterbarn et al (2006) who suggests that an organization with clearly stated policies must
“detect, deter, and discourage plagiarism.” They also suggest that the severity of punishment
should be related to the extent (intentional, wholesale copying without citation, and
unintentional, not citing because of a judgment call that it is a common knowledge) of
plagiarism. Gotterbarn et al (2006) also suggest encouraging editors and reviewers to use

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software “to detect plagiarism.” They further suggest encouraging authors to use the same tools
“to avoid intentional plagiarism.” They suggest that professional organizations should make
available “open source anti-plagiarism instruments available to all authors.”

Another reason why higher learning institutions should discourage plagiarism is that doing so
does not only help reduce it but also improve student’s academic writing skills. This can be done
by identifying plagiarism in student’s academic writing and putting up measures to help them
avoid the practice. Anney and Mosha (2015) observes that despite the immense work involved in
looking for where students extract their assignment, these manual searches of plagiarism gives
instructors at higher institutions of learning enthusiasms to investigate what motivate students to
plagiarise in the resource constrained higher learning institutions. According to (Gullifer &
Tyson, 2010 cited by Anney and Mosha, 2015) , although identifying plagiarism is time
consuming doing it is more worth because checking student plagiarism helps students to acquire
good academic writings such as paraphrasing, note taking, how to quote and acknowledge
resources. Gullifer & Tyson, 2010) observes that failure of academia to fight plagiarism deny
students opportunity to master these academic writing skills, making academic writing
increasingly difficult as they progress through their degree (cited by Anney and Mosha, 2015, p.
204). “Therefore, it is important for any lecturers to take the leading role of managing plagiarism
in higher education institutions” (Anney and Mosha, 2015).

A number of measures are supposed to be put in place by higher learning institutions to ensure
plagiarism is discouraged and curbed. When these measures are put in place, students improve
their academic writing skills, devote more time to research and improve the quality of their
academic papers, further contributing to knowledge output and sharing from these institutions.
Besides that, it contributes to increased competence in students, leading to well-equipped
graduates.

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REFERENCES

Anney, N. V. & Mosha, A. M. (2015). Student’s Plagiarisms in Higher Learning Institutions in

the Era of Improved Internet Access: Case Study of Developing Countries. Journal of Education
and Practice. Vol.6, No.13.

Cicutto, L. (2008). Avoiding the peril in scientific writing. Chest, 133, 579-581.

Guterman, L. (2008), Plagiarism and other sins seam rifein science journals: Digital sleuth
trends. The Chronicle of Higher Education, A9.

Moulton, J., & Robinson, G. (2002). Plagiarism. In L. Becker & C. Becker (Eds.), Encyclopedia
of Ethics. New York, NY: Garland Publishing.

Pearsall, J. (2002). The Concise Oxford English Dictionary. London, England: Oxford
University Press.