A Plagiarism Essay

Plagiarism is a word that crosses our paths once in a while. You see it on articles, TV, or you may overhear it from a conversation. Regardless of how often we bump into it, some of us understand the meaning well, but some don’t. According to Oxford, plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgment.

The definition itself varies, depending on which perspective the person is looking through, but the essential meaning is the same. It is when you copy or take someone else’s work, ideas, or whatever it is without crediting them and claim it as yours. In other words, you’re stealing from the original source.

Basically, children are given this piece of information at school. They learn the definition, the kinds, the motives, and anything revolves around it. All with hopes that they won’t plagiarize others, that they know where’s the line between being inspired, quoting, and plagiarizing. Ironically, as they grow up to their adult self, the world is pushing them with one thing or two that leads them into plagiarism. This time, not as a learner, but the one taking the action.

Though plagiarism is widely classified as ones done recklessly and unintentionally, according to Elisabeth H. Oakes and Mehrdad Kia, there are three specific forms of the action itself. The first one is Verbatim, where the plagiarist is stealing someone’s work entirely without a clear acknowledgment, as if it’s their own work from the beginning. In our country, this type of plagiarism has the biggest penalty.

The second form is the Patchwork plagiarism. It is when you take pieces of other’s work from various sources and combine it into one, making it like your own. Of course, no proper credit is provided. And the last one is the Paraphrase. Sure, it’s actually one of the methods you can use to quote someone properly. But the emphasis is whether the one taking that piece of information gives a clear acknowledgment or not.

When you paraphrase somebody else’s work by changing the sentence or adjusting some parts, make sure to credit the author properly. If you don’t mention the source you use as a reference, that’s when it becomes plagiarism. Make sure the sentence you have paraphrased doesn’t look like it is in your own opinion that it becomes misleading. In another story, paraphrasing a chunk of other’s work by translating it from one language to another is considered plagiarizing as well.

In Indonesia, the government has made UU Sidiknas to specifically control plagiarism happening in scientific writing. The rule is stated in Number 20 Year 2003, particularly in article 25:

“Setiap perguruan tinggi menetapkan syarat kelulusan untuk mendapatkan gelar akademik, profesi, atau vokasi (Pasal 25 ayat [1] UU Sisdiknas). Jika karya ilmiah yang digunakan untuk mendapatkan gelar akademik, profesi, atau vokasi terbukti hasil jiplakan, maka gelarnya akan dicabut (Pasal 25 ayat [2] UU Sisdiknas).”

While in article 70, it is said that those who are proven guilty may go to jail or pay a fine, approximately 200 million rupiahs.

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