QUESTION 3

Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or

"purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions,"
and the representation of them as one's own original work. The factors that aided in this crime
are the expansion of the World Wide Web. Search engines such us Google and Yahoo are
one of the tools that helped to enhance the rate of plagiarism.
Plagiarism has become an issue of growing concern across universities in Malaysia and
internationally. One of the primary reasons for the rapid growth in plagiarism as an issue is
that students have increasingly ready access to downloadable information from the Internet.
At the same time, students' time in class and on campus has tended to decline and they are
constantly searching for efficient ways to complete assignments and assessment tasks.
The biological science discipline is not immune from the challenge of plagiarism, particularly
in view of the large classes that typify the undergraduate years of study.
Plagiarism in higher education can take many forms. Some of the more common forms are
listed below, however it should be noted that definitions of plagiarism vary somewhat across
the disciplines in accordance with differences in knowledge, authorship conventions and
traditions.

Cheating in an exam either by copying from other students or using unauthorised

notes or other aids.

Downloading information, text, computer code, artwork, graphics or other material

from the Internet and presenting it as one's own without acknowledgment.

Quoting or paraphrasing material from a source without acknowledgment.

Preparing a correctly cited and referenced assignment from individual research and
then handing part or all of that work in twice for separate subjects/marks.

Submitting, as one's own, an assignment that another person has completed.

Plagiarism in other words is copying, aids students not to use their intelligence and distort
their mental capabilities. A humans brain power and ability to think, reasons, and other
intellectual capabilities will only be enhanced if a person takes initiative to study, and think
when doing a task. Narrowing the scope to the main topic, if a student keeps on copying
assignments from other sources in the internet, their thinking skills will not be sharpened or
even used. This act wills cause them to not benefit from what they studies. The implication of
plagiarism will results in education at university level to run out of its track and motive.
What can I see is, in this millennium new era many students enter universities just for only
one motive, which would be to obtain a degree scroll not for knowledge.
Besides spoiling the main motive of studies in a university, the plagiarism has also become a
root for distortion of new ideas and innovation by mankind. If the students do not sharpen
their ability to think and study, they will not be able to face the challenges when entering the
working life. Let us take engineering course for an example, if a students copies projects
from the internet, and did not apply the skills taught in classes to reason out solutions for a
better project.

REFERENCES
Gary K. Clabaugh, Edward G. Rozycki (2001). The Plagiarism Book, NewFoundations

Ann Lathrop, Kathleen Foss; Publisher (2000) . Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the
Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call, Libraries Unlimited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
http://www.bioassess.edu.au/key-issues/addressing-plagiarism-issues