Merajut Mimpi

[A speech text.]

Good morning, ladies and gentleman! My name is Ellys Dwi Setyowati, and I am a creative writer. Most of my days are spent in article writing, various topics’ research, and making sure my articles are ready for publishing. But most importantly, appropriate. Beside that profession, I’m also pursuing my master degree in New York University and is currently in my second year. So yea, it’s recently becoming harder to breathe and switch between work and college.

First of all, I would like to thank God for all His blessings so we can all be here on such a good opportunity. And today’s skies are pretty. Did everyone see it? It was sunny and so clear, the sun’s shining brightly... What a perfect day to begin with!

Today, I am feeling truly honored for being invited to stand on this stage and let you guys know about what I have in mind. When I was first reading the invitation letter, I was incredibly surprised. I have yet to be a great writer, but surprisingly my writings are enjoyed by many and they often come to me, saying how they sometimes seek solace from my writings. That itself already feels like a big accomplishment to me.

My dream has always been becoming an author whose books are not only becoming best-sellers, but also inspire people. While I haven’t officially debuted a single book yet—well I’ve got some drafts at home, but when you’re telling me you read my blog post and say how much you can relate to it or simply enjoy the whole writing, I’m already grateful. That kind of action always brings me this overwhelming satisfaction. One that I can’t really describe.

So when the letter came, you can imagine how’s my reaction. I was literally screaming and jumping onto the couch and went like, “Oh my God I am such a blessed woman today!”.

I have known this Worldwide Writing Summit for years and is a huge fan of the amazing stories shared by the speakers. And to finally be standing here on the stage, talking to the audience... Wow! It just feels too good to be true!

Okay, enough with the introduction. Let’s move on with the core topic today. This one may sound boring for you, but in the creative universe you desperately want to jump in, it is something you should get a firm grip on. It is plagiarism.

First of all, I’m not going to teach you about it. I won’t give definitions from the experts or mentioning the kinds, because that’s gonna make me sound like a textbook and this isn’t obviously a class you take at the university either. Instead, I want to discuss this important matter—which people often taking it lightly—and open our eyes, being more aware that even the smallest kind of plagiarism is still plagiarism. And it’s definitely bad. It’s never the best shortcut. In fact, it could mess up with your future.

But since you’d still need to know the basics, here’s the definition I know. The rest of it can be found on Google. Technology makes life easier, right? So plagiarism is an act of copying someone’s idea or work without permission and claim it as their own. There are several classifications of plagiarism out there, among them are ones that are done intentionally and unintentionally.

In real life, you might’ve seen a lot of plagiarism examples. Most of the time, you may not realize or merely take it as something normal. But when the second mindset is how you often deal with plagiarism, that could only mean two things. First, you have no idea about the plagiarism itself. Second, there’s a chance you might’ve involved in it. You’ve probably done it a couple of times and think it’s okay to do so.

But no need to blame yourself! This is exactly why I’m bringing up this topic today, so we all can educate ourselves more about the importance of preventing plagiarism, especially for the millennials out there.

Frankly said, the generation today, the younger ones to be exact, has developed this habit of obtaining anything in life in much easier ways. Thanks to the sophisticated technology. Today’s culture unknowingly pushes them into this tendency of thinking that since you can get everything on the internet for free, that means you may take what’s there for free, too. And that’s such a misleading mindset.

As time goes by, the love for shortcuts will grow bigger. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Who hasn’t done plagiarism? I believe everyone does, unintentionally and sometimes deliberately. Quoting someone then put it in your blog post without providing credits is also plagiarism.

So while some of us are not aware of this crime, let’s take a look at it from a different perspective. Each of us can volunteer to stop this mess. We can grow our awareness of plagiarism in our environment, be it in family, college or school, and take action. Which can be done by telling the person what’s wrong with that behavior and what can they do about it.

I have become a witness of lots of plagiarism happening around me. There have been countless songwriters claiming their song was copied by fellow singers, music video directors are demanding clarifications for the huge similarity in concept used by their own director friends, and some authors are enraged because their idea was stolen by their editors or the publishing company to make their own books.

For bloggers, sometimes you find your story or your entire writing present on some irresponsible bloggers’ blog post where you can’t find any credits directed to you. In another story, you may discover a piece of your writing—with the exact same sentences—being used by others. That’s clearly not a pure coincidence, right?

In social media platforms, there are actually hundreds, if not thousands of plagiarism happening. In Instagram, often you stumble upon someone posting photos taken by somebody else and not crediting that particular person properly. Other times, some people directly copy someone else’s caption and again, no credits at all.

What happens on Twitter is a bit different. Sometimes I stop by a tweet that I think is just huge. It’s funny but accurate. It gets lots of retweets. A few moments later, I’ll found two or three tweets with the exact same content as I previously saw, tweeted by different accounts. Believe me or not, that happens frequently.

In my working field, making an article should also be free from plagiarism. You shouldn’t copy someone else’s writing. Even if you’ve done research on a certain topic, your writing should be unique, where it has absolutely no sentences that look like others’.

Google has been taking part in minimalizing plagiarism. So in the SEO world, if you want to rank high, no plagiarism is allowed. Google has its own algorithm to detect someone’s plagiarism. If the article is detected as plagiarizing, there’s a low chance it can rank on the top of your search engine.

Thus, every time my article is in the queue for editing, we always get them checked by an Online Plagiarism Checker to see if any of the articles match other sentences on the internet. Because well, the internet is a super wide community.

This time, I want to emphasize the plagiarism happening in scientific writings. When you’re in college, you can’t help but get familiar with this paper. This writing consists of a long and complicated process. And that’s what makes most people side with plagiarism. Obviously, it’s been widely banned. The law that rules this irresponsible behavior is stated in Number 20 Year 2003 in article 70. If you’re plagiarizing other’s scientific writing, you either go to jail or pay a huge fine.

I know, making your own scientific writing is hard and you may struggle a lot. I do, too. And everyone else does. But we’re doing fine. That itself already proves a lot.

There’s a list of relatable reasons why someone plagiarizes others, but at any cost, plagiarizing is a crime. If you want to quote someone and put it into your paper, there’re several ways to do that. Technically, you can paraphrase the explanation or quoting it according to the rules. But most importantly, provide credits. That’s what differs you from the plagiarist.

Of course, those aren’t the only solutions. The real enemy of plagiarism lies within yourself. Nobody will plagiarize unless they have a strong will. So when it comes to scientific writings, your laziness and self-doubts are your true enemies.

Laziness will creep in once in a while, but it’s your choice to let the devils lure you or instead, ignore them. Sometimes it’s fine to have a lazy Sunday and sleep all day long, but it shouldn’t be done every day. To ignite your writing spirit, you can spare one to two hours per day for your paper. The key is being persistent. The fact that you’ve invested your time to write is a sign that you’re fighting over your laziness.

As for the self-doubts, first, you have to believe in yourself. Be confident. Don’t let your insecurities drown you. Stop listening to your other self saying you’re lacking somewhere or you won’t be able to do it. Shove ‘em away!

Everyone has this insecure side, but it should be what makes you stand up and grow stronger. If you have no idea about something, don’t know how to do it, then do some research. Technology brings us an easier life, so make it beneficial for your future.

If you still don’t understand, don’t immediately lose hope. Read more, carefully, and put your mind at ease. And you’ll focus better. If the internet gives you nothing, then visit a library or a bookstore. You can even borrow from a friend.

At any rate, reading is the key. You want to understand something? Read. Want an increase in knowledge? Read. What you read is what you write. The way you think is reflected in your writing. If you’re keen reading philosophy books, your writing will obliviously form into something similar. Same goes to how you look at things. Since scientific writings require a higher quality of sentence & diction, reading books related to the topic you’re bringing up will help a lot with the process.

Besides, reading won’t only help with insight. It will also evoke your inner creativity. Here’s where it becomes very important. Everybody has inner creativity. The difference is whether it’s well-preserved or left abandoned. Those who are keeping a distance from learning something new is actually limiting their inner creativity’s growth. In fact, blending with nature, cope up with your surroundings help unlock that creativity. However, building your self-confidence comes first.

You can unleash your inner creativity in many ways, but putting trust in yourself will unlock the door. Believe that you can do it. That no matter how many imperfections you have, you can handle your scientific writing. Might as well with something else. This mindset is what you should fire up within yourself. You have to press down your insecurities, tell them that you’ll nail the thing. Once the spirit is sparking inside, I believe it’d be easier to face what comes after.

If you stay true to yourself, put more effort in doing research and reading books, you’ll gain your confidence little by little. When you understand the topic you’re bringing up well enough, that makes you easier to come up with ideas and cope up with any difficulties during the process. And voila! Your genuine, wonderful scientific writing is born!

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.

References:

ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism?wssl=1
business-law.binus.ac.id/2015/04/01/plagiarisme-jenis-jenisnya-bagian-2-dari-3-tulisan/
hukumonline.com/klinik/detail/ulasan/cl2503/sanksi-hukum-bagi-lulusan-yang-skripsinya-hasil-plagiat/

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