The slides for the talk delivered at Bunga Raya Residential College (BRC) on 18 May 2012. Full details or references are available by request. Do email me.

1. Copy
Cheat
*
Academic Cheater
To be or not to be?
Sharing Session at BRC, UNIMAS
18 May 2012 (8.00 – 10.00p.m.)
By Mr. Chuah Kee Man, Centre for Language Studies
kmchuah@cls.unimas.my

2. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Academic Dishonesty
What is it?
Why is this important?
Why do students do it?
How to avoid it?

3. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Ponder:
Have you
ever
cheated?
Several studies (Bushweller 1999; Graves, 2011; Vinski &
Bushweller,
Tryon, 2009) stated that more than 75% of students who
cheated would never admit their wrongdoings.

4. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from stockphotos)
Academic Dishonesty:
//What is it?

5. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Academic Dishonesty
…the theft of ideas and other
forms of intellectual property
property—
whether they are published or not
(Sandy, 1999, p. 75).

6. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Academic Dishonesty
Originality is
undetected
plagiarism
- William Ralph Inge

7. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Academic Dishonesty
He who does not cheat
in exam is stupid. He
who cheats and gets
caught is twice as
stupid! - Anonymous

8. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Major Types of Academic Dishonesty
Plagiarism Fabrication Cheating
The adoption or The falsification of data, Any attempt to give or
reproduction of information, or citations. obtain assistance in a
original creations of (Simmons, 1999). formal academic
another author Creating false facts or exercise such as exam or
without due citations to create “hiring” others to
acknowledgment “artificial complete your
(Simmons, 1999). acknowledgement”. assignments (Simmons,
1999).

9. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from stockphotos)
Academic Dishonesty:
// Why is it important?

10. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Academic Dishonesty: Importance
 Ensure academic integrity
 Ensure fairness
 Ensure credibility of your
degree/learning process
 Avoid being penalised
 Reflect your own values

11. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
You Try!
Which statement is considered as plagiarised?
Original: “The key reason of plagiarism among students is their
lack of efforts to ensure academic integrity” (Simon, 2002, p.5).
1. The key reason for plagiarism among students is lack of
efforts to ensure academic integrity.
2. The key reason for plagiarism among students is lack of
efforts to ensure academic integrity (Simon, 2002).
3. The main factor for plagiarism among students is insufficient
efforts to make sure academic integrity.
4. No apparent attempt to make sure academic integrity has
been identified as the chief factor of plagiarism among
students (Simon, 2002).

12. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Academic Dishonesty: Importance
 UNIMAS Academic Regulation
 Undergraduates –
“Pelajar yang meniru hasil kerja orang lain
atau tidak mengiktiraf kerja orang lain
(plagiat) untuk tujuan tugasan atau ujian
akan dikenakan tindakan tatatertib”
(Peraturan Akademik Pengajian Ijazah Sarjana Muda, 2011, p. 22)

13. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from stockphotos)
Academic Dishonesty:
// Why do students do it?

14. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Ponder:
Why do
you cheat?
Possible reasons – lazy to read/research, deadline
rushing, lack of time management, lack of knowledge on
how to avoid academic cheating.

15. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Reasons for cheating in assignments
40
35
30
25
20
35%
Last minute work
15
10
5
0
Laziness Last-minute Ignorance
work
Nevet get
caught
others 25%
Never get caught/
(Source: Chuah, 2011)
No big deal

16. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Reasons for cheating in exam
50
45
40
35
30
25
45%
To get good grades
20
15
10
5
0
Get good
grades
To pass Peer pressure Others
35%
To pass – difficult
(Source: Chuah, 2011)
courses

17. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from stockphotos)
My friend plagiarise not
plagiarise,
caught, and scored higher
than me. So, I follow…
(Student F121- 2011)

18. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from stockphotos)
Academic Dishonesty:
// How to avoid it?

19. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
How to avoid plagiarism?
1. Set the mentality right.
2. Use proper citations and
referencing.
3. Practise paraphrasing and
summarising techniques
4. Use plagiarism checker to help.

20. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from MercedesBenz)
How to avoid plagiarism? #1
MENTALITY
Don’t even think of copying other’s work. Set in your mind that you
need to acknowledge things/info/ideas that you get from others.

21. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from MercedesBenz)
How to avoid plagiarism? #2
CITATION & REFERENCING
Learn and master the correct citation and referencing styles. When
in doubt, consult the lecturers or make use of the manual/guide.

22. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Citation and Referencing
Different styles available. The common
ones are:
Author-Date format
APA (American Psychology Association)
APA
 Harvard Referencing Style
Author-Title format
 MLA (Modern Language Association)

23. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
APA – Quick Overview
Citations (Acknowledge in your essay):
-Use lastname/surname only.
/surname
In-text (author-focus)
According to Adams (2010), …..
Adams and Alice (2010) stated that…
Adams (2010) mentions ““abcdef” (p. 4)
end-text (info-focus)
……. (Adams, 2010).
……..(Adams & Alice, 2010).
“abcdef” (Adams, 2010, p.4).
”

24. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
APA – Quick Overview
References (listing of sources cited)
-Appear at the end of the essay. Sources
Appear
used/cited in the essay must be listed in the
reference list.
Adams, M. (2010). How to be a rich student London,
student.
UK: McGraw-Hill.
Adams, M., & Alice, K. (2010). The student who sold
his Mercedes Benz. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: MPH
.
Publishing.

25. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
APA – Quick Overview
References (Common Format)
Books:
Lastname, F. (Year). Title of the book Place: Publisher.
book.
Lastname1, A., & Lastname2, B. (Year). Title of the
book. Place: Publisher.

26. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
APA – Quick Overview
References (Common Format)
Journal Articles:
Lastname, F. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name,
,
Volume(Number), pages
(Number), pages.
Jason, M., & Simon, B. (2011). How to do referencing.
Journal of Academic Writing 19(1), 1-14.
Writing,

27. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
APA – Quick Overview
References (Common Format)
Web Pages:
Valerie, H. (2011). Introduction to marketing Retrieved
marketing.
from http://www.marketing.com/article123.html.
Valerie, H. (n.d.). Introduction to marketing Retrieved
marketing.
October 21, 2012, from http://www.marketing.
,
com/article123.html.

28. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
APA – Quick Overview
References
Note: References should be listed in alphabetical order.

29. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from stockphotos)
Almost 90% of the essay is
from others’ idea, should I
cite everything??

30. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
When is citation required?
 When you borrow someone else’s ideas
 When you refer to the work of others
 When someone else’s work has been critical
in developing your own ideas.
 When there is a clear indicator of specific
information/facts taken from a source (e.g.
statistical results).

31. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
When is citation NOT required?
 When expressing common knowledge
 When expressing your own thoughts,
opinions and ideas in your own words
 When analyzing or synthesizing the
material you have researched
 When drawing your own conclusions

32. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
How “Common” is Common?
 Examples
• Malaysia is a country located in Southeast Asia
with two similarly sized regions. Common!
• Malaysia is a country located in Southeast Asia
with a total landmass of 329,847 square
kilometres separated by the South China Sea
into two similarly sized regions.Citation Needed!

33. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from MercedesBenz)
How to avoid plagiarism? #3
PARAPHRASE & SUMMARISE
Learn to paraphrase ideas/info/statement obtained from the
sources. When necessary, summarise and write in your own words.

34. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Paraphrase Summary
Can be shorter or The shorter
longer than the version of the
original text. original text.
Does not
Eliminate details
eliminate details
and retain only
but try to describe
the main ideas.
the original text in
a different way.

35. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Paraphrasing
5C’s Guide:
 Comprehend – understand the text
 Change – change structure and words
 Combine – combine ideas if possible
 Check– check if the meaning is the same
 Cite – cite the external sources
(Source: Chuah, 2009)

36. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
(Image taken from MercedesBenz)
How to avoid plagiarism? #4
PLAGIARISM CHECKER
When in doubt, please use plagiarism checkers to help you in
identifying parts which are copied.

37. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Plagiarism Checker
Some tools….
 Google – good for instant checking
especially online materials.
Plagiarisma.net – free but not as good as
Turnitin
 Turnitin.com – One of the best tools, and
integrated as a tool in Morpheus.
 EHJ = Expert Human Judgments

38. Academic Cheater – BRC Talk
Plagiarism Checker
Turn-It-In
- The leading checker so
far
- Rapid reporting
- Cross-checking with
vast resources.
- Capable of identifying
the use of quotations.