CHIA-HUA, LIN

Introduction
Of all the academic problems that international students are facing, one of the most profound, hard to avoid, and not familiar to students, is plagiarism. Plagiarism happens in many different forms. Since there are different kinds of plagiarism, without knowing the definition, plagiarism may occur easily. The general idea of plagiarism is described as “the act of using someone else’s words, ideas, organization, drawings, designs, illustrations, statistical data, computer programs, inventions or any creative work as if it were new and original to you; this includes real and intellectual property and public domain material.”[1] However, for the specific definition of plagiarism can be very ambiguous, since plagiarism “is a confusing concept because of its many definitions and uses.”[2] Some research even suggest that “different disciplines may have different norms for what constitutes plagiarism.”[3], which makes plagiarism become a complex and multifaceted topic.

Culture differences reflect Plagiarism rate
Plagiarism occurs on different groups of student body. For example, students in different genders may have a different rate of involving plagiarism. Studies indicates that “male students were more likely to self-report plagiarizing than female students.”[4] Thus, Plagiarism are influenced not only by the definition itself, but also influenced by the characteristic of different student body. International students are a good reflection of how culture differences influence plagiarism. In Western cultures, academic integrity is defined as “understanding what it means to be honest in the particular culture of the academic world, and being able to apply the scholarly conventions of acknowledgment.”[5] In other words, academic integrity is an important ethos of Western academic field. But this value doesn’t completely share with international students from their past experience. With different culture backgrounds, the concept of plagiarism will be very different. For instance, Japan and Spain have some intellectual property and copyright right laws which is very similar to North America [6], which makes their students have a basic understanding and conception of plagiarism; but for countries that doesn’t have such laws or culture background, plagiarism then happens easily for international students during their academic years in the U.S.

Ways to avoid Plagiarism
Form the book “Transition to College Writing”[7] the author indicates that writing academic papers is a process that we are trying to have a conversation with other authors. In this invisible conversation, exchanging ideas are necessary process, which means it is nearly impossible to have this discussion without others’ ideas. Thus, learning to avoid plagiarism become an important topic. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to understand what Plagiarism is, and using right way to cite the reference. There is a study that points out five basic principles to avoid plagiarism [8], they are:
1. Do not copy
2. Write in one’s own words.
3. When there is in doubt, cite.
4. Do not recycle images, figures, tables or text from one’s own previously published papers without citing.
5. Ask for permissions.

Each principle provides a good way to avoid certain type of plagiarism. For example, principle 4 is a way to avoid self-plagiarism. By giving credits to others and using the right way to address reference, we can not only enrich our own essay and give credit to other author, but can also provide readers with a better view of extension reading for certain topics.

Reference
[1][2] Liddell, Jean A Comprehensive Definition of Plagiarism. Community & junior college libraries. (03/2003) , 11 (3), p. 43 – 52.

[3][4]Hu, Guangwei Chinese University Students’ Perceptions of Plagiarism. Ethics & behavior. (05/2015) , 25 (3), p. 233 – 255.
[5]Löfström, Erika Who teaches academic integrity and how do they teach it?. Higher education. (03/2015) , 69 (3), p. 435 – 448.

[6]Abasi, Ali R. Academic literacy and plagiarism: Conversations with international graduate students and disciplinary professors. Journal of English for academic purposes. (10/2008) , 7 (4), p. 221 – 233.

[7]The Transition to College Writing, Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers, Keith Hjortshoj, Seventh Edition edition (June 5, 2012)

[8] Ober, Holly Five Simple Rules to Avoid Plagiarism. Annals of biomedical engineering. (01/2013) , 41 (1), p. 1 – 2.