The height of plagiarism

BY Mugambi Kaberia 

         

            It is quiet unfortunate how university students copy and paste take-away C.A.Ts nowadays. I wonder whether this comes with the improvement of technology or is because of laziness that comes with it. A lecturer gives students a six-page assignment to be submitted in two weeks time. What happens within these two weeks is quiet axiomatic; raves, idling around, watching endless series and playing FIFA until its one day to submission. What happens next is quiet heart rendering. An assignment meant to be done for two weeks is done perfectly in two hours, in the morning of submission day. Shocking!

 

          Now, some may think that that is a brilliant mind in work, well, to some extent. But the reality is, there is no way, on earth to be specific, an assignment scheduled for two weeks can be perfectly done within two hours! What happens within those two hours is Goggling, copy pasting, editing and printing. This makes me wonder where we are ending to. The trend is taking roots among the university students in a worrying rate. Am not disputing the fact that the Take-away C.A.Ts are to be researched but that does not justify copy pasting. 

          The work is edited so perfectly that lecturers can’t help thinking how brilliant this student is to come up with such a serendipitous work. Well, this credit is not due! As much as you may seem perfect, the fact remains this isn’t your work. Some copy paste wrong documents without even knowing what it is. This is what we call plagiarism. It puts you in danger of being sued in a court of law with plagiarism offences. This will not only see you jailed but also hurting your reputation badly, bearing in mind the consequences in this competitive world. It will also haunt you and worst of all, annoying God. It’s against the will of God to steal. We all know that. God hates dishonesty and He’s a just God. After graduation, when you will be called for an interview, please don’t bother your parents or your religious leaders to pray for you. Don’t even try ‘planting a seed’. Why? Keep reading. 

          God is a just God. He will not let you secure that position because you don’t deserve it. You are one of them reading this and you are telling yourself, He’s a forgiving God, He will forgive me. That’s true. He will forgive you when you repent but consequences of sin must manifest! Rest assured of that. 

         Take an example of an engineer who copy pasted assignments. What happens when he/she gets into the industry? We see the “copy pasted knowledge” resulting to collapsing buildings and eventually lose of lives. Just a shortcut in exams can lead to lose of lives! 

         As if this is not enough, look around you, it’s like we are living in China. We import almost everything except ourselves. From cutleries; spoons, plates, cooking pots, cooking sticks, flasks, buckets, cups to stationeries; pens, highlighters, glue, scissors, the list is long. Our roads are china made, with china made cars on them, being driven by drivers in china made shoes and suit and on his hand, a china made watch. Why all this while we have engineers with first class honours graduating from our universities year after year?  Copy pasting! It’s not that I have anything with China, but it’s too much for us as a developing nation. Where did the rain start beating us if I may ask? 

          According to the copyright Act enacted in 2001 but effective in 2003, chapter 130 in the Laws of Kenya, any creative work belongs to the creator, who holds copyright on the work. It’s against this law to use  anyone’s work without consent.  If you have to use someone's work, citation is the option. Otherwise stick to your own ideas as much as possible! 

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