During the period when I am rushing for assignment’s deadline, I am tempted to copy the whole chunk of article which I find relevant to my field of my study and submit as my assignment but, it is correct to take people’s hard work and claiming that it belongs to me? At this point of time, it is not only students plagiarizing but teachers or university lecturers are even found plagiarizing other people’s work (Daniadon, A 2009). This case once happened in Malaysia involving 2 lecturers from UPM when they are caught plagiarizing materials from the internet to produce a guide book.
With so much information that is available on the internet, it is not surprising for students to copy and paste the information that are relevant for their assignment. An extensive research that was carried out back then has proven that a minority group of students reported they use the Internet to copy and paste text into their papers without referencing them (Scanlon, P & Neumann, D, 2002).
However, plagiarism is not only practiced among college students for academic purposes but it is also done by journalists and media personnel who work for certain media organizations. Back in the year 2006, Malaysian editor Brenda Pereira was found plagiarizing an article by award-winning Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. Holding such a high post in media cooperation, it is obvious that the editor is aware that plagiarism is totally wrong as it can be seen in the NUJ code of ethics, clause 12, a journalist have to avoid plagiarism. I think it does not apply only to journalists but to all the people who works under a newspaper or media cooperation. Is it ethical to steal people’s idea and publish? I personally think that a person’s work or piece should be cited properly to show respect and protect the author’s work.
Reference
Kent, J, 2006, “Malaysia editor in plagiarism row”, BBC news, viewed 12th June 2011 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6108666.stm
Scanlon, P,M, & Neumann, D,R, 2002, “Internet Plagiarism Among College Students”, Journal of college student development, viewed 12th June 2011 http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:L9dQeUsguRgJ:scholar.google.com/+plagiarism+among+university+students&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_vis=1
Warner, J & Porter, M, 2004, “Cut and Paste Plagiarism:How to Detect It and How to Prevent It”, Plagiarism case studies”, viewed 12th June 2011 http://www.library.nd.edu/instruction/svcsteaching/casestudy.shtml
Chapman, K, 2009, “Malaysia lecturers hauled up over plagiarism”, asia one education, viewed 12th June 2011 http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090915-167896.html
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