On the Technical Meaning of Plagiarism
Sa Bawat Pahina ng Literatura
by aLfie vera mella
by aLfie vera mella
It's Just a Matter of
Quote-and-Quote
(On the Technical Meaning of Plagiarism)
In light of the controversial issue of plagiarism that is on the
limelight in the Philippines these days--sometimes, the real problem is not the
intentional copying of other writer's works but the ignorance of many writers
concerning the proper way of referencing, quoting, and using other people's
works.
For instance, many writers think that just because a particular issue
is common, they could already copy whatever another writer has written about
this without the need to credit or acknowledge the source or the writer.
Plagiarism—whether the copying was intentional or not—remains
plagiarism—and this is the greatest sin a writer could commit—the second, being
incorrect grammar, and this is a separate issue.
So, two tips that I may suggest is—every time a writer copies a
paragraph or even a sentence word-for-word (verbatim) from another writer's
work, an encyclopedia, a book, or any reference at all, the writer must ensure
that she encloses the copied portion within quotation marks. And most
importantly, use as an opening phrase "According to..." or "In
the book... [title of book by name of author]...."
Those are all it takes to avoid the pitfall of plagiarism.
The Importance of Honesty
For example, I will write an article about The Importance of Honesty,
and I wanted to define 'honesty' in the article. I can either define honesty in
my own words (based on my correct knowledge about it) so I don't need to use
quotations or references; as in the following sentence, which is my own:
Honesty is the virtue of not
telling a lie.
However, if I wanted to give the definition of 'honesty' word-for-word
as it is defined in a respectable source such as a dictionary or an
encyclopedia, then I need to give citation and to enclose the definition in
quotation marks; for example:
Or
According to Wikipedia, honesty is "a facet of moral character and
denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and
straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft."
The Last Leaf
Many writers—bloggers or even professional ones—think that they could
copy portions from sources and from other people's works just like that,
without citing their sources or references and without using quotation marks
whenever they copy excerpts word-for-word. Maybe they do this to appear smart
and authoritative and to impress others, failing to realize that presenting a
well-referenced piece of written work makes them more impressive, more
authoritative, and more credible.
According to Wikipedia, "plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as
the 'wrongful appropriation,' 'close imitation,' or 'purloining and
publication' of another author's 'language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions,'
and the representation of them as one's own original work."
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