by Shehryar Shaukat

Created on: June 19, 2008

Plagiarism; Lets fight it by Educating ourselves!

What is plagiarism?

A brief look into the meaning of plagiarism will reveal that it means to take the work of another person and put it forward as one's own. This taking or copying could be of another person's writings, thoughts and ideas, literary work, inventions and even artistic work. This is a dishonest practice and it is to be condemned. This is because the plagiarizer seeks to deceive the others into believing that the content is original and wholly produced by the person himself. The acts of theft and cheating fall under the umbrella of plagiarism.

Amongst the different kinds of plagiarisms there is academic plagiarism which is becoming a major problem in educational institutes all over the world today. Academic plagiarism is said to have occurred when one finds that the phrasing of words has been taken from another piece of work belonging to someone else or different paragraphs from different sources have been composed together to create a new work. This clearly reveals that the content has been copied and not produced by the person himself. The sad thing to notice is that academic plagiarism even occurs even on doctorate and M. Phil levels.

What is your attitude towards plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a serious and punishable offense. It is an act of indignity and low self esteem. No self respecting man would ever stoop to the level of taking someone else's hard work and using the different plagiarism techniques to reproduce the work in their own name. There is a fine line between taking inspiration from another persons work and taking the other persons work to manipulate it in a way so as to make it your own. The latter is a case that is as bad as stealing; in fact that is what it is.

The act of academic plagiarism is a threat to the foundations of scholastic studies. If plagiarism is left unchecked then society as a whole will suffer because people will have doctorate degrees without having the knowledge or skills that makes them eligible to hold the degree. What future does a society hope for with a generation of plagiarized professionals occupying its important posts? Not a bright one to say the least. Our attitude towards plagiarism needs to be stern and strict and it should be condemned like theft and robbery is condemned because it is one and the same thing.

What are the penalties for plagiarism in US academic institutions?

The most US academic institutes do in cases where plagiarism is identified is to expel

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