By the end of this module, you will be able to:
✅ Define Copyright and Plagiarism and its different types.
✅ Understand why plagiarism is a serious issue in academia.
✅ Identify strategies to avoid plagiarism in your writing.
✅ Learn the importance of giving credit to original sources.
Plagiarism can have serious consequences, including failing an assignment or facing disciplinary action.
By developing good research and writing habits, you can ensure that your work is ethical, credible, and truly your own. 🚀📚
"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.
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.
Image courtesy of Bookworm translations
Copyright is a form of intellectual property. A ‘bundle’ of exclusive rights that the law gives to authors and creators, to protect their original works for their entire life PLUS 50 years afterwards (i.e. for the benefit of their heirs). When this period expires, works go into the public domain (“copyright free”).
Only they can publish their works or copy, modify, translate, broadcast or perform it, etc.
Copyright protection encourages creativity, innovations and provides some income.
Authors/creators deserve acknowledgement
How much may you copy?
• 10% or 1 chapter of a book
• 1 article from a journal issue;
• A full case study or law report (not only 10% of it)
More on Copyright.
# 1 Clone
Submitting another's work, word-for-word, as one's own.
#2 CTRL+C
#3 Find – Replace
#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
#8 404 Error
#9 Aggregator
#10 Re-Tweet
Includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text's original wording and/or structure
