In this dissertation, the notion of plagiarism is examined in the context of academic
writing. The development of the notion of plagiarism is first of all put in historical
perspective, because the problems revolving around the notion emerged with the first
etymological reference to it as plagiarius (âkidnapperâ). One of the factors that complicate
plagiarism is that it is confused with copyright in the wake of copyright legislation. Other
extrinsic and complicating factors include unreliable statistics on plagiarism, the
phenomenon of intertextuality as opposed to plagiarism, the Internet, varying cultural
views on plagiarism and the influence of second language issues. Although the existence
of plagiarism in academic writing is undisputable, its nature and management vary.
Approaches to plagiarism in academic writing are as complex as the phenomenon of
plagiarism itself. The approaches to plagiarism discussed here represent the general trends
over the past decade. The sequence of discussion corresponds with the development of the
approaches to plagiarism during the given period: first the ethical, then the policing,
followed by the intentional, the developmental and learning, the textual, and the
contextual approaches.
With this complex situation in mind, definitions of plagiarism in 13 institutional policy
documents are discussed in terms of six elements: the corpus, appropriation, source,
reference, intention and scope. The vision and mission, values, academic and/or integrity
issues and prescribed approach of each university are accounted for in the respective
policies.
This study prioritises the educational approach. Acts of plagiarism are often committed
through lack of writing skills, especially in the case of inexperienced students that are still
apprentices in the craft of academic writing. Basic writing techniques and
transformational writing strategies are demonstrated with reference to Van Dijkâs (1971)
transformation theory. The transformation types addition, deletion, repetition, structuring
and argumentation are illustrated by means of examples. There is no simple solution to the complex dilemma of plagiarism. This dissertation
indicates that an implementation plan for the prevention of plagiarism in academic writing
comprises three aspects: a transparent policy, the didactic use of detection mechanisms,
and the specific teaching of academic writing skills. The emphasis on the educational
approach and proactive writing instruction entails that the focus in combating plagiarism is
on education. Plagiarism as an unacceptable form of academic writing can be remedied
by the teaching of acceptable writing techniques and strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-03222011-154519 |
| Date | 22 March 2011 |
| Creators | Olivier, Aletta Petronella |
| Contributors | Prof LS Venter, Prof JS du Toit |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-03222011-154519/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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