The Plague

Autumn leaves fell from the trees, a thousand thoughts ran through my mind as I scurried down the road to college. It was September 2008. Beep beep. . I heard the familiar message tone of my Nokia mobile. I wasted no time in opening the inbox. It said,

“Start the vehicle, pull up the gear with prayer

Turn your steering wheel with faith

Frighten the devil with loud praising horns

Stop at God’s petrol bunk to drink of His Word . . .

Wow….That sounded familiar. It was a poem that I had written in 2003. I wondered how it had gotten into my inbox with another author’s name. . . THAT WAS PLAGIARISM.

Plagiarism is the stealth of intellectual property. It is quoting someone else’ words or phrases without crediting them as the source. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence attempting to violate academic integrity. It demonstrates disrespect for the original, hardworking author.

Students and Plagiarism

A recent article published by “The Centre For Academic Integrity” (CAI), Prof. Don claims that, “On most campuses, 70% of students
admit to some cheating, while internet plagiarism is a growing concern.” Plagiarism has become so rampant in college campuses today that every student seems to plagiarize either intentionally or unintentionally. It violates students conduct rules.

The two types of plagiarism are

Blatant Plagiarism: The writer deceives the teacher trying to prove that it is his/her own work.

Technical Plagiarism: The writer fails to follow the accepted norms of using and revealing sources (Eg: Writing bibliography).

Blatant Plagiarism among Students

~~ Copy, paste from Google, Yahoo and other websites without citing the author’s name.

~~Plagiarize PPT’s and add their own names at the bottom

~~Plagiarizing project materials from college seniors

~~One intelligent student’s assignment get plagiarized by 50 others in a class

~~Publishing plagiarized articles in college magazines and elsewhere proving it to be their own

~~Sending quotations, sms citing it to be their own and not crediting it to the original author

~~Copying tunes of other  composers without informing them.

Christian Ethics

Plagiarism exhibits no moral ethics, shows little integrity. The hardcore truth, that plagiarism is a SIN, has to sink into every student’s mind. The Bible says, You shall not steal, Ex. 20:15. If you have got an idea or an article, say where it came from. Quote the website and the author’s name. Make your work original. Do not deceive people trying to prove that it is your own work. Deception is unchristian and surely contrary to God’s Character. Be truthful and honest in accepting that it was quoted from elsewhere. Don’t just copy PPT’s from the internet or seniors, be a hard working student. Nothing can be gotten the easy way.

The way to  God’s kingdom is narrow. Follow it- your reward awaits in heaven. The Plagiarism Checker Software will find you out some day. Deut. 32:23 says, “Your sin will find you out”. Work hard at doing your own assignments. Do not copy from others. Don’t give yours to others for copying too. Helping others sin , adds to your own. The rising influx of googling for every project makes it hard for any student to avoid plagiarism. Ignorance can never be an excuse for plagiarism. An ounce of prevention can be worth a reward in later years, if not by man, certainly by God. The Lord expects us to stand apart from the world in evil practices. John 15:19, Rom:12:2. But you, man of God, flee from all this,  and pursue righteousness, godliness. 1 Tim. 6:11. As students of the Lord ,run after integrity pursue it with all your might. Strive to work honestly with utmost integrity for the God who said, “I am the Truth.” Jn 14:6 .

 

sarahAbout the Author

Sarah along with her  husband Anji serves as UESI Staff- in Uttarakhand.

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