Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal

The study examined the seriousness of plagiarism in university students’ written assignments. The specific objectives of the study were to: (1) identify the plagiarism behaviours used by students to complete their written assignments; (2) determine students’ attitudes towards penalties of plagiarism...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ting, Su Hie
Format: Proceeding
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, UNIMAS 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/717/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/717/1/Academic%2Bwriting%2Bcitation%2B%2528abstract%2529.pdf
_version_ 1848834602526834688
author Ting, Su Hie
author_facet Ting, Su Hie
author_sort Ting, Su Hie
building UNIMAS Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The study examined the seriousness of plagiarism in university students’ written assignments. The specific objectives of the study were to: (1) identify the plagiarism behaviours used by students to complete their written assignments; (2) determine students’ attitudes towards penalties of plagiarism; and (3) determine reasons for the occurrence of plagiarism. Questionnaires were distributed to students enrolled in an academic reading and writing course at a non-research intensive Malaysian university. Analysis of 169 questionnaires showed all the students had been involved in some plagiarism behaviours to complete their assignments, primarily use of materials without properly acknowledging the source of the information. The students did not treat plagiarism as a serious act of academic dishonesty as shown by their preference for light penalties for students caught for plagiarism. It seems that the students’ lack of awareness on the severity of plagiarism may be due to the lack of emphasis on inclusion of citations in assignments by lecturers. The findings suggest that it is not enough to teach students the conventions of citation and referencing but they need to be educated on the practices of academia, particularly pertaining to research, publications and academic honesty in use of materials.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T05:54:35Z
format Proceeding
id unimas-717
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T05:54:35Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, UNIMAS
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling unimas-7172022-05-12T08:31:17Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/717/ Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal Ting, Su Hie AC Collections. Series. Collected works LB Theory and practice of education The study examined the seriousness of plagiarism in university students’ written assignments. The specific objectives of the study were to: (1) identify the plagiarism behaviours used by students to complete their written assignments; (2) determine students’ attitudes towards penalties of plagiarism; and (3) determine reasons for the occurrence of plagiarism. Questionnaires were distributed to students enrolled in an academic reading and writing course at a non-research intensive Malaysian university. Analysis of 169 questionnaires showed all the students had been involved in some plagiarism behaviours to complete their assignments, primarily use of materials without properly acknowledging the source of the information. The students did not treat plagiarism as a serious act of academic dishonesty as shown by their preference for light penalties for students caught for plagiarism. It seems that the students’ lack of awareness on the severity of plagiarism may be due to the lack of emphasis on inclusion of citations in assignments by lecturers. The findings suggest that it is not enough to teach students the conventions of citation and referencing but they need to be educated on the practices of academia, particularly pertaining to research, publications and academic honesty in use of materials. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, UNIMAS 2013 Proceeding NonPeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/717/1/Academic%2Bwriting%2Bcitation%2B%2528abstract%2529.pdf Ting, Su Hie (2013) Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Social Science Research, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
spellingShingle AC Collections. Series. Collected works
LB Theory and practice of education
Ting, Su Hie
Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
title Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
title_full Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
title_fullStr Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
title_full_unstemmed Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
title_short Academic writing : Citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
title_sort academic writing : citation is troublesome and plagiarism is no big deal
topic AC Collections. Series. Collected works
LB Theory and practice of education
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/717/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/717/1/Academic%2Bwriting%2Bcitation%2B%2528abstract%2529.pdf