Plagiarism as a vice

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is an academic malpractice that is causing stirs in the research and education world. The originality of many academic works has been in question because students and researchers have the access of repacked information from the internet related to their areas of profession. In general terms, plagiarism can be defined as the misuse of technology particularly, the internet for academic works. It’s taking and using somebody’s intellectual work without his/her permission and treating the works as yours without acknowledging the owner (Marsh, 1999).

Plagiarism is a vice that is not tolerated nor accepted in any level of education. Many academicians have argued that plagiarism steals other scholars work in addition to denying students and researchers an opportunity to learn and experience the education system (Clarke, 2006). With advance in technology, methods of plagiarism have increased thus distinguishing a genuine work and a plagiarized work is a challenge to lecturers and tutors. Obvious plagiarism has been done through ‘cutting and pasting’. Plagiarism can be broadly categorized into two;

1. Technology/internet plagiarism where people are using the web to attain their personal and professional goals
2. Cyber plagiarism where students and researchers are purely using the internet to beat assignment deadlines through copy pasting (Marsh, 1999).

Clarke (2006) puts all the blame on the internet through the availability of direct links and information that students and researchers need. The internet connects people across the world together with their intellectual works. Although in the past plagiarism was done due to necessity, today, plagiarism a work is a sign of laziness because print and onl.............