Salam Sejahtera dan Salam Ramadan. Minggu Lepas, saya ada bercerita tentang Plagiarism. Kali ini kita bersambung lagi di dalam artikel ilmiah kita yang seterusnya. Mohon maaf kerana terpaksa menulis di dalam bahasa Inggeris. Bukan semua pelajar OUM, tahu cakap Melayu dan bukan semua adalah orang Malaysia. Untuk menfaat bersama, termasuklah mereka yang diluar sana, saya tulis dalam BI.

The Importance of Making Citation
To avoid plagiarism or being accused of plagiarising works of another people, you should always cite ALL the sources you have referred. Whenever you are copying or quoting works of another person or even restructuring another persons’ idea into your own words, you will always have to cite its source.

Generally speaking, citation is done for these 3 reasons

1. To give credit to your sources
2. To tell your potential readers the materials you have used
3. And finally, to guide readers to the materials you have used so they can confirm, challenge or expand it further.

These 3 simple but great reasons are vital in every academic writings. First of all, you are doing yourself a favour by avoiding plagiarism, a serious offence in any prestigious Learning Institutions.

Crediting Your Sources
How would you feel if someone took your ideas and writings and published it without giving you proper credit? How would you feel if anyone took your belongings without even asking? That is a simple analogy of why you must give credit to your sources. When you are using someone else’s ideas or writings, you will need to give credit where it is due. It is a form of courtesy and responsibility and when using another person’s words and ideas, it is important that you give proper credit to acknowledge or recognise that person. Remember that it is a serious offence to plagiarise works of another person which may be lead to several consequences that you never want in the first place.

Telling Others of Your Sources
Citation will help others to locate your sources. What you have used or what you have taken from another person’s works, you will have to tell. This will enable us or any other readers to locate your materials and sources. Where did you get that information? Obviously, you are referring to someone else’s work. Positively, citing your sources will strengthen the credibility of your work. When forming your ideas and conclusion, citation will show that you have done your work thoroughly by considering ideas and opinions of other people.

Promoting Research and Conforming Your Ideas
In academic world, there are some individuals will refuse to accept your ideas or conclusions without authenticating or confirming your ideas. These doubtful readers will not accept your findings and conclusions unless you provide them with proof and supporting ideas. Your citations are the key pointers of your findings and conclusions. Citation is a form of cross-reference between your ideas and your sources. Furthermore, citation will provide your reader the opportunity to build on your work. Readers may want to follow-up on some of your source material. A good citation will enable a reader to find this material more easily.

Reference

Salam Ramadan dan Salam Sejahtera

Sudah lama saya tidak menulis di dalam Bahasa Omputeh. Bukan apa. Boring sebab tidak banyak benda yang bisa dingarutkan. Sebelum apa2, berikut adalah posting untuk Handbook Pelajar yang saya karang untuk kegunaan dan bacaan pelajar2 di OUM.

What is plagiarism?
Most dictionaries define plagiarism as an immoral act of stealing works of others and claim it as one’s own work. It is a wrongful act of copying another person’s ideas and writings without providing any references or citations as if it is one’s own work. Plagiarism is a serious offense in Learning Institution in all countries across the globe.

In the context of Learning Institutions, plagiarism is a form of cheating. On the serious side, it is a fraudulent action and is subjected to several penalties including revocation of conferred degrees or any other stern actions.

When does plagiarism occur?
Academic wise, plagiarism is all about academic integrity. In Open University Malaysia, plagiarism is committed when:

• Publishing and claiming as the sole author of any publications which is wholly written or partly written by another person.
• Incorporating as co-author or any publications without making any contributions (academically) to that publication.
• Forcing any third party to include you in the list of co-researchers or co-authors without making any contribution (academically) to that publication.
• Extracting academic data which are the results of undertaken by another person and incorporating those data in your research without dully acknowledgment.
• Using research data obtained through collaborative work with another person, as part of another distinct publication or research without obtaining the consent of your co-researchers prior to embarking on your personal research or prior to publishing the data.
• Transcribing the ideas or creations of another person kept in any form, whether written, printed or electronic and claiming as the creator of that idea or creation.
• Translating the writing or creation of another person from one language to another, wholly or partly and claiming the translation as your own writing and creation.
• Extracting ideas or writing of another person and make certain modifications without dully acknowledgement to the original source.

In summary, you are plagiarising when:

• Copying from any source without adequate citations and references.
• Submitting as your own someone else’s unpublished work, either with or without permission.
• Letting someone else write a paper for you or paying someone else to write a paper for you
• You cheat about your paper

Go to Part 2

Salam Sejahtera dan Selamat Pagi

Pada hari Jumaat ini, eloklah kita bersedekah Ummul Al-Quran kepada semua hambaNya yang telah pergi. Ameen. Semoga yang telah pergi itu, dirahmati Allah dan kita yang masih hidup ini diberikan limpahan rezki yang cukup. Amin.

Mana-mana Universiti, pasti mempunyai sebuah Perpustakaan untuk membantu pelajar-pelajarnya mencari bahan-bahan pengajian mereka. Perpustakaan merupakan gedung ilmu yang kaya dengan pelbagai jenis maklumat. Apa yang diperlukan hanyalah usaha dan kepakaran mencari maklumat, untuk mana2 matapelajaran. Ini adalah kerana, pangkalan data hanyalah sebuah sistem yang bodoh (secara detailnya, sistem ini bodoh kerana tidak tahu apa yang pengguna mahu). Sistem ini memerlukan pengguna untuk diaplikasikan secara penuh.

Seperti yang kita sedia maklum, sebagus mana pun sistem itu, ianya tetap tidak akan dapat meneka apa yang pengguna mahu. Kitalah sebagai pengguna harus memberitahu kepada sistem apa yang kita mahu. Barulah sistem bisa memaparkan maklumat yang kita cari. Untuk itu adalah amat penting, pengguna menggunapakai tips ini:

Kenal pasti kehendak
Sebelum kita mencari maklumat, hendaklah kita mengenalpasti apakah keperluan kita. Sistem tidak tahu kehendak pengguna. Eloklah kiranya kira bentuk soalan2 atau statements berdasarkan kehendak kita. Kita hendaklah kreatif dan innovatif. Sebagai contoh:

Are left-handed people more intelligent?
Education in rural areas
Are drug-users more likely than non-users to commit robbery?

Dan daripada soalan atau statement yang kita buat, kenal pasti katakunci atau konsep yang penting untuk digunapakai didalam carian kita.

Are left-handed people more intelligent?
Education in rural areas
Are drug-users more likely than non-users to commit robbery?

Elok juga dipikirkan perkataan yang hampir maksudnya dengan kata-kunci kita tadi. Seterusnya kita gunakan boolean operators iaitu OR atau AND untuk menggabungkan kata-kunci kita tadi. Kedua AND dan OR ini mempunyai perbezaannya. Ini kita boleh lihat di dalam gambarajah di bawah.

AND

• Akan memapakarkan maklumat yang hanya mempunyai kata-kunci kita
• Digunakan untuk menggabungkan kata-kunci di dalam satu konsep

Jika kita lihat. Bahagian yang Kelabu itu adalah carian kita. Kesimpulannya, AND digunakan untuk membuang mana-mana carian yang tidak relevan dengan kemahuan kita.

OR

• Akan memaparkan mana2 maklumat yang mengandungi kata-kunci kita kesemuanya
• Selalunya digunakan untuk mencari persamaan dan mengembangkan carian kita

Perhatikan bulatan2 ini. Kesemuanya adalah kelabu. Ini menunjukkan OR akan memaparkan kesemua carian yang mempunyai kata-kunci kita.

Secara terperincinya carian jazz OR blues akan mencari mana-mana artikel yang membincangkan sama ada Jazz atau Blues. Berbeza pula carian jazz AND blues yang mana hasil daripada carian ini akan memaparkan artikel2 yang membincangkan kedua2 Jazz dan Blues.

Selamat Mencuba