.Tuesday, June 1, 2010 ' 10:51 PM Y
Plagiarism has always been a problematic issue in literature circle. Many writers have been facing criticisms or accusations over the years. Now, such problem also arose in education system, including the primary education. With advanced technology, many model essays and quotes had been posted online to share with the mass. However, with the similar technology, these became very easily accessible and targets for plagiarist. Thus, from the articles, it is not unusual to spot students doing plagiarism. However, it seems to increase its severity since this has occurred also to primary students.
Several measures should be taken to control even to primary school students, such as implementing a policy for the entire education system. A fail grade that had already been used in tertiary institutions is one of the model solutions. On top of that, this issue can be used as a topic in moral education in primary and secondary education.
To further discuss on local education, primary education should remove the spelling and dictation test as much as possible. Such citation of words and letters to a certain extent distracted the focus of students to attain understanding and correct usage of words and phrases they had learnt.
Bringing matter to the adult world, local City Harvest Church’s senior pastor, Reverend Kong Hee, has recently received critics on a few books that he authored. He, too, was accused of plagiarism of other preachers’ doctrines. After that, the publisher commented in rebuttal that Reverend Kong was quoting instead of plagiarizing. In addition, he had also sought permissions from various original authors before doing those quotations. However, it is clearly that the publisher's omissions in indication brought forth this misunderstanding. Thus, from this example, it can also plainly explain the real difference between approved quotation and unauthorized plagiarism. More importantly, it highlighted the importance to verify any quotations before the accusations arose.
Initially, quotations were meant to bring support for new concept in presentations. Appropriate volume and content of them could increase the level of acceptance and recognition of these new ideas, however, will over-reliance on quotations lead to plagiarism, or even to the end of creativity?
Edward
Labels: Plagiarism
