Plagiarism in Academic Writing Among TESL Postgraduate Students: A Case Study

This case study aimed to gain insights into plagiarism among postgraduate students. It examined the extent of plagiarism, sources of plagiarism, types of plagiarism and causes of plagiarism among four students from the Master in Education in Teaching English as a Second Language (M.Ed TESL) programme in a public university in Malaysia. The instruments were written assignments, interview and self-reflection reports. The extent of plagiarism and the sources of plagiarism were facilitated through the use of Turnitin software. Analysis of participants’ writing and original sources was done to determine the types of plagiarism in the students’ writing. The findings showed that plagiarism existed in the students’ writing. They plagiarized mainly from Internet, publications and students’ paper and the types of plagiarism found were sham, verbatim, illicit and patchwriting. Data from interviews and self-reflection reports which were qualitatively analysed indicated that personal voice, time management, language proficiency and academic writing skills caused plagiarism. The findings imply that awareness of plagiarism should be instilled at postgraduate level. Postgraduate students should also be guided by the faculty in enhancing their academic writing skills. This can increase self-efficacy to deter plagiarism in line with Bandura’s self-efficacy theory highlighted in this study.