Bàn về chuyện đạo văn

Ảnh: Internet

Vấn đề này báo chí đã làm rùm beng một thời gian trước đây, lúc đó tôi cũng có mấy ý để viết nhưng tôi không viết ngay vì nhiều lẽ. Thứ nhất, tôi không có thời gian. Thứ hai, tôi cũng không thích nói về vấn đề này khi mà các phương tiện truyền thông thi nhau nói về nó. Hồi đó giờ tôi không thích bàn chuyện gì khi mọi người đang tập trung một cách thái quá về nó, mình khó khách quan và người đọc có nhận xét chắc cũng...hơi nóng! Sau nhiều năm đi làm thì cái đầu nóng của tôi cũng nguội bớt chút đỉnh, khi người ta đang hỏa thì cách tốt nhất là...im lặng lắng nghe và cười cầu tài (chắc cũng ít ai nỡ lòng mắng mỏ tiếp), sau đó chờ người ta nguội bớt thì tỉ tê, cách này coi bộ hiệu quả hơn :). 

Trở lại vấn đề chính, bao nhiêu tờ báo lên án người này người kia đạo văn thế này thế nọ nhưng tôi trông dài cả cổ mà cũng không thấy được một bài nào phân tích nguyên nhân và đưa ra ý kiến để người ta tránh chuyện này một cách căn cơ! Phá một ngôi nhà thì rất dễ nhưng xây và làm cho ngôi nhà đó ngày càng đẹp hơn thì khó hơn nhiều! Tôi không thích kiểu phê bình mà không đưa ra hướng giải quyết (nhiều khi đánh hội đồng hoặc té nước theo mưa)! Thực ra chuyện ầm ĩ  về mấy cuốn giáo trình kia chắc người trong ngành ai cũng biết nhưng hỏng ai thèm nói ra thôi, và nó có các lý do lịch sử của nó! 

Theo hiểu biết của tôi thì vấn đề đạo văn chưa hề được dạy ngay cả trong trường phổ thông lẫn đại học. Cao học của mình thì hình như có dạy môn "Phương pháp nghiên cứu" gì đó, và tôi đoán chắc là cũng không ai đề cập tới vấn đề này luôn!(?). Bản thân tôi trước đây cũng vậy thôi, làm gì biết và nhận thức tầm quan trọng của nó, mãi tới sau này, khi viết bài tôi mới nhận ra! Hiện nay, theo tôi đoán, trên 98% sinh viên ở các trường đại học của mình, khi làm tiểu luận, luận văn tốt nghiệp đều mắc phải lỗi này (không nhiều thì ít), lý do là họ không biết chứ không phải là cố tình sai phạm (không biết sau mấy xì-căng-đan vừa rồi thì tình hình có được cải thiện tí nào không). 

Sân chơi nào cũng có luật riêng của nó và người ta đã mất hàng chục năm, thậm chí hàng trăm năm mới hoàn thiện dần những luật đó nhưng tôi không hiểu sao lúc nào mình cũng khác người ta. Kết quả là khi ra "sàn đấu" với họ thì mình phải mất thời gian nhiều cho những chuyện rất vớ vẩn!

Tôi không có thời gian nhiều nên không thể ngồi dịch ra Tiếng Việt cho nên tôi trích lại nguyên văn một đoạn trong điều lệ của UCD ra đây, mong nó có thể giúp ích chút nào đó cho các bạn còn đang đi học.

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What is plagiarism?

(Source: UCD)

The University understands plagiarism to be the inclusion of another person’s writings or ideas or works, in any formally presented work (including essays, theses, examinations, projects, laboratory reports, oral, poster or slide presentations) which form part of the assessment requirements for a module or programme of study, without due acknowledgement either wholly or in part of the original source of the material through appropriate citation.

Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty. In any assignment, plagiarism means that you have presented information or ideas belonging to someone else falsely as being your own original thoughts on a subject. This may happen in a number of ways, and these are explained further below, but in general there are two main ways in which you could potentially plagiarise:

- By incorporating ideas, phrases, or whole sections of text in your assignment which have been written by somebody else; or

- By failing to use proper citation methods which show all of the material you consulted in researching your assignment

What constitutes plagiarism?

Plagiarism can take many forms and the University deems it to include any of the following (a-e):

a) Presenting wowork authored by another person: including other students, friends, family, or work purchased through internet services;

This could include getting someone else to write part or all of your assignment, using an assignment written by another student, including work by students from previous years of your programme, copying the work of another student or buying an essay from the internet. Getting your parents or anyone else to write your assignment is not allowed.

Tip: essays bought from the internet are poor value as they are not customised, can be badly written and are often inaccurate.

b) Presenting work copied extensively with only minor textual changes from the internet, books, journals or any other source;

It is absolutely acceptable to use somebody else’s arguments or points of view to support your presentation of a topic in an assignment. In fact, it is expected that you will wish to incorporate the ideas of others into your work but in doing so you must be explicit that the information included is not your own original thought.  

Tip: If you use any text directly from another source, it must be in quotation marks with appropriate citation. .

c) Improper paraphrasing, where a passage or idea is summarized without due acknowledgement of the original source;

If you want to use somebody else’s idea indirectly as an illustration of the argument you are making, be careful that you express it as a short summary or paraphrase of their argument and acknowledge that it is not your own original idea, but, by citation or reference, indicate the original source.

Tip: It is not acceptable to change a few words of phrases from someone else’s text, and then present the idea with citation. A paraphrase means you express the idea directly in your own words, and you must also include a reference to the original source.

d) Failing to include citation of all original sources;

If you do not include all information that you have consulted, in researching a written piece of work, in your list of references you could be accused of plagiarism. References should include all books, journals, official reports, newspapers or material from the Internet, which informed the presentation of

your assignment.

Tip: If you use information from the Internet, include the URL in your reference list and in [ ] brackets indicate that date on which you accessed the information.

e) Representing collaborative work as one’s own.

You might be part of a study group, you may spend time discussing an assignment with a fellow student or you may be involved in some form of group work. You need to be really careful that if you are involved in group work you are familiar with the assessment task and the assessment criteria, so that you can show what your individual understanding or effort towards the task is. If you discuss an assignment with a fellow student, you need to be conscious that when you write up your assignment you are expressing your own ideas not the opinions expressed by your fellow student.

Tip: Sometimes when students study together, ideas can be borrowed from one to another quite unconsciously. It is normal (and desirable) to form opinions and critical viewpoints through debate and discussion but be clear about your own opinion!

Some examples of plagiarism [Abridged, examples taken from the University of Essex. http://www.essex.ac.uk/plagiarism/Test.htm (accessed 19 September 2005)]

Read the extract below, which is taken from page 96 of Arnold, J., Cooper, C.L. and Robertson, I. (1995) Work Psychology, London: Pitman

There are a range of problems faced by minorities in the workplace. First, the selection and recruitment process is biased against them in one form or another. Second, they have very few role models in the work environment, who could mentor them and socialize them towards organizational life. Third, they do not get the feedback they need in terms of performance appraisal to guide them through the turbulent waters of their careers.

a) Example 1:

There are a range of problems faced by minorities in the workplace. First, the selection and recruitment process is biased against them in one form or another. Second, they have very few role models in the work environment, who could mentor them and socialize them towards organizational life. Third, they do not get the feedback they need in terms of performance appraisal to guide them through the turbulent waters of their careers.

Comment: This is an instance of plagiarism, as the extract has been copied word for word and has not been acknowledged as the work of another author.

b) Example 2:

There are a range of difficulties faced by minorities at work. First, the selection and recruitment process is biased against them in some way. Second, they have few role models in the organizational context, who could mentor and socialise them regarding organisational life. Third, they don't get the feedback they need on their performance to guide them through the choppy waters of their careers.

Comment: This is an instance of plagiarism, as the extract has been copied almost word for word with only minor changes. The text has not been acknowledged as the work of another author.

c) Example 3:

 Arnold et al. (1995: 96) suggest that: "There are a range of problems faced by minorities in the workplace. First, the selection and recruitment process is biased against them in one form or another. Second, they have very few role models in the work environment, who could mentor them and socialize them towards organizational life. Third, they do not get the feedback they need in terms of performance appraisal to guide them through the turbulent waters of their careers."

Comment: This is not plagiarism, the extract is presented as a direct quotation and acknowledged as the work of another author. 

d) Example 4:

Minorities of whatever sort are presented with a number of difficulties in the organisational context. For example, performance appraisal often does not meet their needs in terms of providing guidance on career development. The ways in which organisational personel are selected and recruited are often characterised by racism, sexism, homophobia etc. Finally, the lack of people of colour, women and other members of minorities in senior positions often mean that those lower down the organisation cannot get the mentoring and socialisation they need at work (Arnold et al., 1995:96). 

Comment: This is not plagiarism, the extract is presented as a indirect quotation and acknowledged as the work of another author.

Can plagiarism be unintentional?

The cause of plagiarism may arise from a range of situations: not having enough time to complete an assignment properly before submission; carelessness in referencing (rather than deliberate attempt to conceal information sources) or a lack of understanding of the correct methods of referencing background material. However none of these are valid excuses. Plagiarism is defined by the action rather than the intention.

In other words you need to be really careful that when you present any assignment, you distinguish between your own writing, opinions or data and the writing, opinions or data expressed by others. All students are responsible for being familiar with the University’s policy statement on plagiarism and are encouraged, if in doubt to seek guidance from an academic member of staff. Plagiarism is a serious academic issue and alleged instances of plagiarism will be investigated thoroughly by the university.

How is plagiarism detected?

All of your lecturers will be familiar with the references in your subject area, they are quite likely to recognise particular phrases, sentence constructions and even paragraphs as parts of well known published works, particularly where they are not referenced properly. In addition it is routine practice in the University to use electronic detection sources to identify instances of plagiarism, which includes similarities between work authored by different students as well as information derived from the Internet. You also have to remember that a lecturer or tutor will correct a whole range of assignments and that their familiarity with the range of work presented will allow them easily to detect similarities in students’ work.