YASOTHAA A/P KALAI CHELVAM (14915) ICT REVATHI A/P S.N.

PATTU (14981) BIS

Plagiarism, Infringement of Copyright in Academia The overwhelming emphasis on use of the internet as the information resource has lead to lack of originality in students work nowadays. The worst case scenario here is plagiarism where students do not attribute to their source. The Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory (VAIL) Faculty Administrator (1996 2003) defines plagiarism as the failure of proper documentation and attribution to the source of data and texts in the students work. The word plagiarism originates from the Latin word plagiarius, indicating thefts of works. Several studies were done to inspect the violation of this literary theft as well as the importance of referencing. According to Ellery (2008), the frequent reasons that students provide for this piracy is unawareness and misunderstanding rather than fraudulent purpose. Some involve in plagiarism instinctively due to poor referencing practice. On the contrary, Pennycook (1996), denies Ellery by asserting careless study habits as reason that leads to plagiarism. Pennycook states that bombardment of heavy load of work in short period with small incentives causes students to be careless and unable to paraphrase accurately. This leads to plagiarism. He also added that some students feel that rephrasing authors ideas and language probably bring more mistakes and less effective message compared to using the authors own words. As a consequence, plagiarism hinders the learning process. Infringement of others work without proper acknowledgement also thwarts the students intellectual growth. Exposure to new information from various sources which will

YASOTHAA A/P KALAI CHELVAM (14915) ICT REVATHI A/P S.N.PATTU (14981) BIS

be integrated into a new work requires students to differentiate clearly their original work from their sources. (Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory (VAIL) Faculty Administrator, 1996 2003). Therefore, referencing is essential to show respect for intellectual property rights. Students should understand that having good referencing practices are crucial to avoid plagiarism. By acknowledging their sources, students actually indicate that they are quoting reputable sources and at the same time displaying related works. This in turn, allows them to bring to light the similarities and differences hence distinct their work from works of others. (Ellery). According to Gabriel (2010), professors used to deal with plagiarism by admonishing students to give credit to others and to follow the style guide for citations. However, many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed. In conclusion, plagiarism ultimately violates the academic integrity (Ellery). Thus, good referencing practice is required to instil the habit of acknowledging the sources intellectual property rights. To overcome the infringement of copyright students should resist the temptation of copying and pasting any material from someone else's work and changing a few verbs around, and replacing a few other words. Besides, the students and researchers should have awareness of integrity and ingenuity of academic paper writing. They should be able to express other people's views more understandably by referring the proper sources of information. These proactive steps should be taken to educate and monitor students from being influenced into plagiarism.

YASOTHAA A/P KALAI CHELVAM (14915) ICT REVATHI A/P S.N.PATTU (14981) BIS

References Ellery, K. (2008). An investigation into electronic-source plagiarism in a first-year essay assignment (abridged). Assessment and Evaluation in High Education, 33 (6), 607 -617. Gabriel, T. (2010, August 2). Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age. Retrieved 11 June 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02. Pennycook, A. (1996). Borrowing Others Words: Text, Ownership, Memory, and Plagiarism (abridged). TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 201 230. Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory (VAIL) Faculty Administrator. (19962003). Center for Intellectual Property at University of Maryland University College . Retrieved September 30, 2010,from http://www.umuc.edu/distance/ordell/cip.