“What values are academics promoting in the enforcement of a referencing system?

How
relevant are these values in contemporary society?”

The tutorial explained that academics have identified Plagiarism as one of major obstacles that
prevent genuine learning because it promotes amongst other things:

Academic dishonesty: From a moral standpoint, we can liken plagiarism to stealing because
whoever commits the act takes credit for the hard work of another person ranging from write-
ups to material inventions. This discourages innovation and sharing of knowledge as genuine
inventors would resort to concealing of information to safeguard their work and ensure
adequate reward.
Robert Vaux, ehow Contributing Editor: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5137490_reasons-plagiarism-
bad.html , Reasons why plagiarism is bad. (30th May, 2010)

Personal and professional underdevelopment: It is expected that during your program you would have
undertaken certain assignments independently as it is believed they would better prepare you to handle
certain career situations in future. While it is possible to fulfil one’s academic requirements through any
of the various forms of plagiarism highlighted in the tutorial, the student would have failed to meet the
most important objective of learning- self growth and this would be evident in future as he/ she would
encounter challenges at work.

Stigmatising of offenders:
“Plagiarism harms the reputation of the plagiarist, and also any publisher or academic institution that
permits it. In such fields as journalism, book publishing, and scholarly publishing, plagiarism can be
grounds for severe punishment, including being fired from one's job and being "cast out" of
professions.”(ibid: 1)
In the case of students who commit this crime unintentionally (for instance, students like this writer who
is being introduced to the referencing system for the first time), academics enforce the reference system to
protect them from the grave implications as ignorance would not be an excuse and their academic /
professional dreams could be jeopardised.

Bad Habit: To avoid plagiarism, the tutorial suggested the following actions:

 Proper time management

 Recording of all sources of information
 Consistent note-taking
 Correct Referencing
 Critical Thinking
These habits are the key to academic success and usually form a part of your everyday life and approach
to problem-solving even upon completion of your program. However once students start to plagiarise, it
becomes impossible to stop and their approach to problem solving would consist of deceitful means and
cutting corners.

References

Robert Vaux, ehow Contributing Editor: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5137490_reasons-plagiarism-

bad.html , Reasons why plagiarism is bad. (30th May, 2010)

Stuart Johnson, Student Development. ‘Don’t cheat yourself’ University of Leicester