Plagiarism Practices As Conducted By Higher Education Students In Academic Writing: Lecturers’ Perception

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the lecturers’ perception toward plagiarism practices as conducted by higher education students in Academic Writing. This research used thematic analysis to analyze the data. Park (2003) frames were used to investigate the lecturers’ perception about students’ plagiarism practices. The data were collected through interviews with the lecturers who experienced teaching Academic Writing for more than three years, which means they met more higher education students and their writing. The researcher found that both of the lecturers perceived that students' plagiarism practices in Academic Writing should not be the single factor of assessing their students’ works. The misconduct tends to be affected by several factors such as the limited knowledge of what plagiarism is and an undisciplined task completion. The forms of plagiarism, such as copying the text without proper acknowledgment and paraphrasing without crediting the sources should be treated as a learning process, by which the lecturers should create an assessment system that makes students aware of plagiarism practices and the risks of plagiarism itself. Both lecturers, who have notable experiences in teaching and practicing academic writing, perceived that learning design matters.