"Plagiarism is the failure to acknowledge the ideas and writings of others and/or the presentation of others' ideas or writings as one's own" (Wits Plagiarism Policy 2020)

❌ Copying and pasting from the internet without acknowledging the source.
❌ Submitting someone else’s assignment as your own.
❌ Rewording someone’s ideas without crediting them.

                                                                                                                                                                                               Image courtesy of Blaugh.com - Fitz & Pirollo

👉 Plagiarism is not just about copying—it's about failing to acknowledge original ideas!

Check out this video for an explanation of plagiarism.

Source: Plagiarism by Shmoop

 

 

Turnitin recognizes twelve types of unoriginal work. Understanding both traditional plagiarism and emerging trends helps students enhance their original thinking skills and produce their best authentic work.

By Mcdonald Publishing

1. University of Johannesburg PhD candidate found guilty of plagiarism (2025) 

A University of Johannesburg PhD candidate, who has been in limbo for four years, has been found guilty of plagiarism and slapped with a three-year expulsion.

2. Chippy Shaik was stripped of his degree by UKZN (2008)

Shamim ”Chippy” Shaik has been stripped of his doctorate degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal without reason, his brother and lawyer Yunis Shaik said on Sunday.

Quoting a statement from Shamim, Yunis said: ”The senate passed a resolution on the 28th February to withdraw the degree awarded to Dr Shamim Shaik.

3. Pamela Jooste, multiple award-winning SA author, admitted in Jan 2005 to plagiarising paragraphs from an article by WITS academic Lindsay Bremner, published in the Lifestyle section of the Sunday Times. 

 

                                                        

                                                Image courtesy of Bookworm translations

Copyright is the legal right to reproduce a work. It grants creators of artistic, literary, informational, or intellectual works the authority to determine how their work is used. As a form of property right, copyright enables authors or creators of various works—including literature, art, music, sound recordings, films, broadcasts, and computer programs—to regulate the reproduction and distribution of their creations (Publishers' Association of South Africa, 2007).

Plagiarism comes in different forms, and all of them can have serious academic consequences. Here’s what you need to watch out for:

 # 1 Clone

 Submitting another's work, word-for-word, as one's own.

 

 

 #2 CTRL+C

 Contains significant portions of text from a single source without alterations

 

 #3 Find – Replace

 Changing key words and phrases but retaining the essential content of the source

 

 #4 Remix

 Paraphrases from multiple sources, made to fit together

 

 

 #5 Recycle

 Borrows generously from the writer's previous work without citation

 

 

 #6 Hybrid

 Combines perfectly cited sources with copied passages without citation

 

 

 #7 Mashup

 Mixes copied material from multiple sources

 

 #8 404 Error

 Includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources

 

 #9 Aggregator

 Includes proper citation to sources but the paper contains almost no original work

 

 #10 Re-Tweet

 Includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text's original wording and/or structure

 

https://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism-spectrum/