1.

0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The word of plagiarism origins from Latin word: plagiaries refers to an abductor and
plagiaries refers to the action of stealing. Briefly, plagiarism is defined as the act of taking, using or
close imitation of the language, ideas, and thought of another author and the representation of them as
one’s own original work. This academic phenomenon is the major challenge that many higher
education institutions have to face. The current trend indicates that this issue is serious, prevalent and
chronic that needs to be treated immediately. The revolution of rapid development in technology
especially the availability of the internet has contributed to the plagiarism. The electronic text that
enormously found in the World Wide Web has made plagiarism much easier for the students.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Plagiarism issue is not something new among university students. Although displinary actions
have been introduced to prevent plagiarism such as losing marks, failing students’ grades and even
expulsion from the university to some extent for heavy plagiarism, but still plagiarism happens among
students. The purpose of this study being carried out is to identify the causes of plagiarism among
UiTM Shah Alam students. The respondents of the study are students from Faculty of Electrical
Engineering particularly. There are various reasons for plagiarizing someone’s work, some students
do not realize they are plagiarizing but most of them are intentionally plagiarized. What actually the
reasons and the causes that keep plagiarism among university students increasing and become worse?

1.3 Objective of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to identify the causes of plagiarism among students
of Faculty of Electrical Engineering in UiTM Shah Alam. Besides that, this study also
evaluates the behaviour of students who tend to plagiarize and the ways they do it.
Furthermore, through this study, the source of plagiarism and the ways of plagiarism also will
be investigated.

1.4 Scope and the Limitation of the Study

This report is focus on the factors of the plagiarism activity among the student in
UiTM. This investigate has been done among student in Faculty Electrical Engineering in
UiTM Shah Alam. 30 respondents have been involved in this investigation. Questionnaires
have been given to the students to get the information about the plagiarism activity. Many
journals were referred to get much information about the factor of the plagiarism.

1.5 Method of Investigation

From this section, questionaire method was applied to get the feedback and
suggestion from other student or repondents about the plagiarism. For the questionaire, the
student from the faculty of electrical engineering is selected as respondents. Having 4 major
program students can be selected about 10 students for each program. The program are
selected is from Instrument, Power, Communication and Computer major. The respondents
will be tested with the level of knowledge about the plagiarism that is whether they know
about plagiarism or not. This method was preferred to know how the students get the source
for plagiarizing. From that, the most popular source can be analyzed that always student use
for plagiarizing.