Essay About Plagiarism

2.6 SUMMARY

With all the above said from the reviewed body of the literature on studies conducted at different institutions and countries, it is evident that plagiarism is a common challenge in many countries it is not just a challenge for South Africa and it is a threat to providing quality academic work. The researcher will undertook a study to a number of students in distance education to try and really understand what students really think about plagiarism, how serious they think plagiarism is, the difficulties that they face when completing assignment that lead them to plagiarise and how lecturers should handle students caught for the act. Devlin and Gray (2007, p.184) in Sentleng and King (2012, p.59) states that “there is a wide range of reasons contributing to plagiarism, such as higher education institutions not having adequate admission criteria whereby students with no background for the courses they are doing are admitted”. Most of the students really don’t know what plagiarism is. According to Logue (2004, p.42) “plagiarism comes a long way back from high school, where students have received good grades because their teachers have approved their work that they copied from the internet and other reference books”.

An interview will be conducted to a number of students in different institutions and a questionnaire will be

The study will further look at the types of plagiarism in place that students utilise. Reasons for plagiarism will also be looked at as this is the root cause of the problem and if the reasons for this act are known and are clear then it will assist policy makers in higher institutions to create policies and have solid measures in place to address the problem we facing and it will also assist students to learn how to do their own original work and not depend on other people’s work