1.

0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of the work of others in examination scripts or assessed
assignments as if it were original work. In the context of an examination, this will mean using
the work of others as a candidates own to gain unfair advantage (Augusta University, 2014).
The issue of plagiarism is not new, however increased ease of access to electronic material via
the web is always a concern among the academic community. Although there is no direct
evidence that students electronically cut and paste material into assignments, buying
assignments, or accidental plagiarism, the potential for these kinds of problems really exist.

1.2 Statements of problem

Numerous studies have been conducted on plagiarism. Previous research has found plagiarism
has become major issue in universities worldwide, with the contribution of the internet to the
problem being particularly emphasized (McCabe 2004). A study by Hale (1987) reported
plagiarism between college student and find out that 55% college students report plagiarized
material. Plagiarism in included, along with fabrication and falsification, in the U.S Federal
definition misconduct, which states Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification,
or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results
(Federal register, 2000). Another study, Tanner (2004) describes how students in the USA
plagiarised because of the sheer volume of work and interestingly a lack of understanding of the
task required. Another reason is they fear of asking for help with assignments. Whilst it could be
possible that students unintentionally plagiarise. From this review, the study is aimed to
determine the reasons why UiTM Shah Alam students especially the students of Civil
Engineering Faculty committing plagiarism.

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1.3 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are as follows:

To investigate the reasons why students plagiarize.

To investigate what student did to avoid plagiarism.
To investigate the awareness of plagiarism among the students.

1.4 Significance of the study

This study is conducted for students of UiTM Shah Alam especially in the Civil Engineering
Faculty so that they can avoid themselves from committing plagiarism. The potential benefits
that it would bring are students can enhance their creativity and credibility to produce their own
work. This study is necessary because the respondents can learn to appreciate other people
works. This research is important to students because they need to be aware of the act of
plagiarism and consequences after committing it.

1.5 Scope and Limitations

This study involved the participation of 30 respondents from the faculty of Civil Engineering.
The respondents were aged between 21-23 years old, were randomly selected by the research
team. The questionnaire is distributed from 8th May 2017 to 15th May 2017.

This study has several limitations. The sample size was small so the results cannot be used as the
general view of the entire population of the university. In addition, the time given to complete
the report was about few weeks. As a result, the study may not be as thorough as it should be.
Moreover, due to time constraints, the scope of the report is limited.

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 2.0 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research instrument used

The instrument used to collect the data was questionnaire. This tool was used to make survey
about plagiarism in UiTM Shah Alam especially in the Civil Engineering Facutly. A set of
questionnaire containing 24 questions divides into five sections was developed. Different
question types such as yes no and multiple choice of answer question were used in the
questionnaire. The different sections in the questionnaire were details of respondent, reasons why
students plagiarize, what students do to avoid plagiarism, awareness of plagiarism among
students and effect of the plagiarism.

2.2 Research Respondents

The respondents were 30 UiTM Shah Alam students from faculty of Civil Engineering consist of
both male and female respondents. The respondents were in their 3rd, 4th 5th semester.

2.3 Research Procedure

Thirty questionnaires were distributed to respondents from the faculty of Civil Engineering on
Monday, 8th May 2017 at UiTM Shah Alam. The respondents were given 2 to 3 days to answer
the questionnaire. All the respondents answered the questionnaires.

2.4 Data Analysis

The data were analysed on frequency count into percentages. They were then transferred to
charts.

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 3.0 FINDINGS

3.1 SECTION A: Respondents background.

3.1.1 Gender
The questionnaire was distributed randomly to 30 students. It was found that there were
15 male and female respondents respectively.

3.1.2 Age

Chart 1: Age of respondents.

It was found that 70% of the respondents were between 22 to 23 years old, 17.5% of the
respondents were between 24 to 25 years old, and 12.5% were between 20 to 21 years old. There
was no respondent who was 19 years old and below.

3.1.3 Semester

It was found that out of 30 respondents, 62.5% were currently in their 5th semester, 27.5%
are currently in their 3rd semester, and the remaining respondents were currently in their 4th
semester.

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3.2 SECTION B: Reasons why students commit plagiarism.

3.2.1 Difficult to avoid plagiarism.

It was found that 62.5% respondents thought that it was difficult to avoid plagiarism and
37.5% of the respondents thought that it was not difficult to avoid plagiarism.

3.2.2 Lack of research skill

It was found that 90% of the respondents agreed that lack of research can cause the
student to commit plagiarism and another 10% did not agreed that lack of research skill can
cause the students to commit plagiarism.

3.2.3 Pressure to have good grades

It was found that 85% respondents agreed that pressure for good grades lead to
plagiarism and another 15% of the respondents did not agreed that pressure for good grades can
cause plagiarism.

3.2.4 Reason why students copy answers directly from the internet.

Chart 2: Reasons why students copy answers from the internet.

The survey shows that 67.5% of the respondents want to complete the assignments in a
quick time, 17.5% lack of knowledge, 12.5% lack of language understanding and 2.5% really do
not know the answer. Due to the amount of work, students had less time to spend to complete

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each work but they need to complete the work in time. This resulted in lack of understanding of
the task given. This can be proven by the study done by Tanner (2004).

3.3 SECTION C: Ways to avoid plagiarism.

3.3.1 Ways to avoid plagiarism

It was found that most of the respondents, which were about 72.5% would be referencing
followed by 57.5% would be paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism. Both citing and quoting had 40%
respondents each. Only 20% respondents avoided plagiarism by citing their own work and citing
quotes.

3.3.2 Checking for plagiarism before submitting work.

It was found that 65% respondents did checked their work for plagiarism before turning it
into the class while the rest did not checked for plagiarism before submitting it.

3.3.3 Plagiarism checkers

Graph 1: List of plagiarism checkers.

From the questionnaire, it was found that 40% of the respondents knew about Turnitin,
which is the plagiarism checker that is usually use by lecturers to check for plagiarism in the
works submitted by the students. Unfortunately, 32.5% of the respondents did not know about
any of the plagiarism checkers that had been listed. For a plagiarism checker that can be used by
the students themself, only 22% of the respondents knew about Plagiarism, which is a free online

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plagiarism checker. The rest of the plagiarism checkers were only known by less than 10% of
respondents. This question was a multiple choice question, where the respondents can pick more
than one choice.

3.3.4 Number of sources

It was found that 40% of the respondents relied on to 1 to 3 sources, 35% of the
respondents relied on more than 5 sources, 22.5% of the respondents relied on 3 to 5 sources
while the rest only relied on 1 source. Plagiarism can be avoided if there were a few sources to
be used instead of using 1 source of information. To have a lot of sources of information can
decrease the percentage of plagiarism in the work.

3.4 SECTION D: Students awareness of plagiarism.

3.4.1 Plagiarism
It was found that 100% of the respondents knew what plagiarism is.

3.4.2 Type of plagiarism.

Graph 2: Type of plagiarism.

It was found that most of the respondents did not know about accidental plagiarism which
was about 65%. With a percentage of 30%, the respondents were not familiar about self-
plagiarizing and with a percentage of 27.5% for both direct plagiarizing and buying assignment.

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The least type of plagiarism which was not known by the respondents was the word switching.
This question was a multiple choice question where respondents were allowed to choose more
than one choice.

3.4.3 Copying without indication the sources

It was found that 87.5% respondents agreed that if a student submits an assignment with
text copied from a book or article without indicating the sources, it is considered as plagiarism
and another 12.5% had an opposite thought and did not agreed on copying considered as a
plagiarism.

3.4.3 Citing statistical figures without indicating the source

The survey shows that 55% of the respondents thought that citing graph, data, and
statistical figure without indicating the sources is considered as plagiarism and another 45%
respondents did not agree with that statement.

3.4.4 Copying more than two words in a row

It was found that 72.5% respondents knew that copying more than two words in a row
from the text that is considered as plagiarism, while the other 27.5% did not know that copying
more than two words in a row from the text is considered as plagiarism.

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3.5 SECTION E: Effect of plagiarism on students.

3.5.1 Consequences

Figure 5: Consequences due to plagiarism.

It was found that two consequences which were the low academic performance and
rejected assignment had been experienced by 35% of respondents respectively. The second
highest percentage was getting high rated marks which were about 27.5%, followed by getting
good result which was about 20%. 15% of the respondents experienced being barred from taking
the exam, while both getting suspended and expelled were about 12.5% respectively. 5% of the
respondents ever getting disciplinary action and 7.5% experienced other consequences that were
not included in the list. This was a multiple choice question where the respondents were allowed
to choose more than one option.

3.5.2 Commit plagiarism.

It was found that 72.5% of the respondents had plagiarized before while the other 27.5%
had never plagiarized before. This finding could be related to a study done by Hale in 1987
stated that more than half of the college students have plagiarized before. This showed that there
were a lot of students that commit plagiarism before.

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3.5.3 Feeling after plagiarizing.
It was found that 40% of the respondents wanted to avoid plagiarism after committing it,
followed by 27.5% respondents who felt that they did not care about the plagiarism. 10% of the
respondents were actually feeling happy after committing plagiarism while a total of 10% of the
respondents felt like repeating it and depressed. The remaining 12.5% of the responds were
including responds from those who never commit plagiarism.

3.5.4 Long term effect of plagiarism.

It was found that 47.5% of the respondents thought that plagiarism would destroy work
ethics, 35% of the respondents thought that there would be a creative limitation to those who
plagiarized and the rest think that it would destroy academic reputation. There was no one that
thought that plagiarism would leads to legal repercussion or monetary repercussion.

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 4.0 CONCLUSION

From the study, these are these are the conclusions that have been made:

Majority of the respondents thinks that it is difficult to avoid plagiarism due to the lack of
research skill yet wanting to complete the assignment in a quick time as they are getting the
pressure of having good grade.
The respondents are avoiding the plagiarism majorly by referencing and paraphrasing while
relying onto 3 to more resources and they are able to check for plagiarism of their work on
their own.
The respondents are fully aware of the act and types of plagiarism where everything that
have been taken from someones works should be cited and given credits.
Most of the respondents have negative feelings after plagiarizing, as some of them have
experiences some consequences due to plagiarizing. Some respondents are actually get to
improve their results but majority agreed that plagiarism will affect the work ethics,
academic reputation and limiting the creativity of the students.

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 5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

For this study, these are few recommendations that can the students to avoid plagiarism:
The educational institutes should introduce more plagiarism checkers that can be easily
access by both lecturers and students to check for plagiarism in their work.
Students should spend some time to understand the assignments given and try to generate
some ideas before expressing it with their own words so that there will be less direct
copying from the resources.
Talks or workshops can be organized to help the students to improve their research skill
and how to obtain the information accurately and efficiently.
Lecturers should provide more activities and exercises regarding the paraphrasing
technique to improve the students skill so that they can paraphrase better.
Students could refer to APA citation format or MLA citation guide to learn a proper way
to improve their citation within the accurate format.

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