Plagiarism is a term used is research and
academic writing. It is considered a sin which any writer must avoid.
Universities and schools try to educate young scholars how to avoid plagiarism
during their assignments, and academic writing.Plagiarism, in
simple words, is theft of ideas. If researcher employs others’ ideas or statements and
making it his, it is plagiarism. But if researcher produces due acknowledgement
to the true owner of the idea by quoting his name and work then it becomes reference
which is not plagiarism.
One should not
be afraid. There are ways to save your skin. When you have found some work of
other writer which is relevant to yours objective, then do not copy/paste it in your
thesis. Read it thoroughly, understand writer’s point of view
and then explain it in your own words. While doing so you must not forget to
mention the name of the writer whose idea has been discussed in your work. And
believe me it will reflect positive impression of yours.
Sometimes it is
necessary to bring original text of other writers. In that case researcher should know
how to produce proper reference or citation. Original text is normally written in
quotation marks or in away as it looks different than your text. Some writers
change text format and others bring it in rectangular boxes or use different shades in order to avoid plagiarism.This is often required when researcher has to bring small text material in his work.
Students also face a situation when they find some information which was already in their mind. What should they do?
Here we must
distinguish between two types of information. There is some knowledge
which is common. For example, all knows that South Korea and North Korea are
two separate states. If someone has mentioned this information in his work, then it does not come under the plagiarism. Because it is a common knowledge and all knows it as a
fact. Similar situations come when you find some thing in text books. Most of
the material in text books is in the domain of common knowledge, e.g laws of motion, Laws of demand and supply, Central limit theorem, etc. When any fact or
information was already cited by numerous authors and it is a fact known by all-is
a common knowledge.
Many times,
researcher is dealing with knowledge which is not common and only it relates to
specific Jargon or by an individual. Whether it is published or unpublished,
rule of thumb is that be sincere in your efforts and give due respect to the
owner of idea and material. Giving credit to original source is a service to
original owner of information, and to the knowledge as a whole. Giving credit
to source is called citation in academic writing. It is a formal way to
acknowledging the original source.
Nowadays, variety
of software and sites are available which can test your material and indicate
whether it is original work of the author or any form of plagiarism. You can
Google for plagiarism and find valuable resources explaining about the
plagiarism and citation.
(Author: Muhammad Azeem)
(Author: Muhammad Azeem)
