Plagiarism

Plagiarism

Introduction

According to Gilmore (2008), plagiarism is a severe academic misdemeanor. Every year several cases of plagiarism are bring into consideration of the faculty. Thus, the students who are found culpable of plagiarism may fail that assignment, or can be awarded a zero mark in the course, or at times encounter suspension from their college or university (Gilmore, 2008). According to LaFollette (1992), “Plagiarism” is a word derived from the Latin language meaning kidnapping, and therefore carries implications of literary theft. In broadly accepted terminologies, plagiarism is the deliberate use of the ideas or words of other people devoid of giving acknowledgments (LaFollette, 1992). Thus, in this paper, we will discuss all the major aspects of plagiarism in detail.

Discussion

History of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas ... of another (McLemee, 2004). According to McLemee (2004), Plagiarism is a Latin word which means "one who abducts the child or slave of another".

According to the historians, the term plagiarism is originated in its present sense from the well known poet Martial, who declared that it was disgraceful and dishonorable for some other poet to openly read the poems of Martial showing as if they were his own work (Buranen & Roy, 1999). The setting in of the belief into the contemporary Western thinking that a person may own words and ideas may originate from the Enlightenment and the growth of individualism (McLemee, 2004). The division of the creature from the creator allowed the attributing of ideas to the person rather than the divine. Then the printing press allowed the greater distribution of these ideas, which had both reputational and economic effects (McLemee, 2004).

Ethical Issues of Plagiarism

According to Buranen & Roy (1999), there are legal, moral, and ethical grounds why plagiarism cannot be accepted. Plagiarism is a sort of literary stealing, and therefore the individual who plagiarizes is considered guilty of theft (Buranen & Roy, 1999). Moreover, there are certain arguments; however the ethical argument relating to professional truthfulness and honesty prevails over the others. However, according to McLemee (2004), the most important thing to note is that even when a wrongdoer is caught red-handed, this wrong deed cannot take him to the courts. In other words, plagiarism is not against the law even though copyright violation is. There are certain forms of plagiarism that fall under the category of copyright violation. However, the terms are far-off from the same (McLemee, 2004).

Contemporary Forms of Plagiarism

In accordance with Williams (2008), the problematical nature of plagiarism rests on the possibility that each case is an on purpose act of dishonesty. Thus, there are three major contemporary forms of plagiarism; which are:

Writer is Aware of Deception

This is the case when the original writer sells or gives his work to some other writer who takes acknowledgment for it by affixing his/her own name (Williams, 2008).

Collusion

Collusion takes place when the writer of the intellectual work and at ...