2 SMU
Publication: The Straits Times, p 4
Date: 20 June 2010
Headline: The 'cut and paste' school of thought
The 'cut and paste'
school of thought
Some students, even
those at PhD level, do
not realise plagiarism
is wrong and unethical
You won't catch undergraduate
Stanley Tang passing off someone
else's work as h a own when it
comes to her assignments.
The fourth-year student at Nanyang Technological University's
(NTU)Wee Kim Wee School of
Communication and Wonnation
feels that there is no point cribbing
ideasorwords,ewnifit isnewrdiscovered
"It's not ywzwork. There's nothing to be proud of," declared the
24-yw-old.
She couId well be in the minori-
tv-
In a letter to The Smts Times Forum page last week, an academic lamented how plagiarism was a common ocamnce among students.
Professor Mark Featherstone, Interimdean at Nanyang Technological University's College of Science,
said that students in Singapore as
well as in his native Canada do not
seem to realise how it is a "serious
ethical breach to pass off someone
else's words or Ideas as one's own".
s
l"In both countries, I haw seen how
students ,canmake it all the wav to
university, wen postgraduate &ucation, without understanding
what plis or how to avoid
it," said Prof Feathentone<
"In the case of two universities
in Canada and two more In Ingapore, I haw been appalled to discover written work submitted by
undergraduate and Phn students
that is, to a very large extent, plagiaxised*"
The problem is not unique to
While some were consciously lack of understadng
Singapore schools.
trying to deceive, others did not "I have seen how
seem to know what constituted pla- students can make it all
Professor Hao Xiaoming, assodgirtrism and were unaware how to the way to university,
ate chair (academic) at the Wee
aedit sources.
Kim Wee School of CommunicaHe felt that students and sodety even postgraduate
tion and Information, said that, bemust be educated on how to avoid education, without
sides students, many professors in
understanding what
China- where he comesfrom-phplagiarism.
giarise too.
Hfs letter came on the he& of plagiarism is or how to
media reports of how City Harvest avo~dit. I have been
In his 17 years h &gapore, he
pastor Kong Hee hadLbeen
accused
Itas obserwd that schools here, inof phgiartsing the work of two ap alled tu discover
cluding junior colleges, value presen work submitted entation more than originality or
AmerIEan authm of a ChrlJtian w
study book in his books and web- b undergraduate and
attribution. This is also the case in
site.
students
that is, to china.
Pastor Kong Pter said he could
"Many assignments are graded
have been more careful to d t a vey large extent,
on
how well the students present
any suurce of inspiration used and plag~arised."
ideas, not attributethem," he said.
there was never any intention to pnorrssoR MARK FEATHERSTONE,
He dted the example of his own
give readers the impremion that the hterim dean at
son, now 27. When he was in sec~
s
nCollege of
entire contents were HtIltten by Techndogkal
Sdence
ondary dm01£nSingapore, he was
him.
allowed to copy and use text from
Prof F&therstom told The Sunbooks
without attributingthe o m Teachers
are
expected
to
pass
on
day Times that in his four years what they have learnt, including nd authors
for his assignments.
here,hehasdetectedplagMsmin how to avoid plaghim, to stu'This attitude tends to carry on
one PhD thesis a year on average.
dents when they enter the &aching b t o junior college and university,''
"These were PhD theses in the servie.
Prof Hiio said.
sciences in which theexperlmentaAn MOB spokesman said that
tion is original,but the intmduckb theissueofplaglarismisinco
ry chapter was phgbrhl," he said. din hgwtge}civic and ma=
CheckswiththeMinlstryofEdu- cation and cyber welhess classes,
cation W E ) revealed that topics which are partof the schook'mafn
on copyright laws and the Implfca- CUTTc
ium
l.
tions of academic dishonesty
The spokesman added that
suchascheatingdudngexam~and schoolshave the autonomy to h m plagWsm are cavered as part of dIe cases of plagiarism. The ministeachers*p m c e ttaMng at the trydoesnottradcp~arismcases
In schools.
National Institute of Education.
..
&
PKD
-
-
E w n in examinations, students
Professor Davin Chor of the Singapore Management University's
School of Economics pointed out
how Singaporean students also often study for exams by memorising. They will then regurgitate
what they read in textbooks in
their exam papers.
"So students may have the mistaken impression that wholesale regurgitation is acceptable on a tenn
paper or report that they are submit-," he sald.
In fact, in a country We Vietnam,the ability to regurgitatematerial from textbaoks is rewarded by
its education system.
*The closer you are to the textbooks, the more marks you will
earn," said Miss Nguyen Thi Kim
Thu, 23, who is studying at the
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.
"Originality is not demanded."
Cutting and pasting has never
been easier, thanks to the Inmet
and Wikipedia. Conversely, it has
also become easier to spot plagiadsed works.
Online resources like Tumitin.
corn are widely used by universities
such as the Singapore Management
Uniwrsity and theNational Unlversity of Singapore to identify plagiarised project work or theses.
can be guilty of plagfarism if they
do not attribute their sources.
"In the humanities, one may be
asked to formulate originalideas. If
the student instead used We ideas
of someone else without attribution, the student should be penalised," said Prof Featherstone.
A second-yearscience student at
a local junior college, who wanted
to be known only as Pun, admitted
he has plagia&ed from sources for
his project work ~
atimes.l
The 19-year-oldsaid he has been
memorising and reproducing informa- from textbooks for his exams,and thought it was all right to
do so for projefts.
When told that plagiarism was
wrong, he said: T wfll attribute my
sources in future"
Source: The Straits Times O Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.