Herman Melville, the great American novelist was quoted explaining the very essence of creativity and, in the same breathe; bashing plagiarism. He said, “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation” (Melville, 1957:151). Many reasons exist as to why plagiarism is increasingly common throughout the world, in many industries. This is mainly in the academic realm. It is due to the fact that Higher Education facilities strive to reach idealistic goals of innovative and unique thinking and ways of learning. Technology has its said benefit(s) in terms of making academic activities easier (to varying degrees), however; it limits the goals that universities set out to achieve in order to attain it. This, as a result, just causes students to become lazy and “spoon fed”. Plagiarism in academic and non-academic contexts is seen as a serious offense and consequently is severely punishable, across the board. The increase in plagiarism can be associated with the advancement of technology. Owing to ongoing bloom of technological utilities, increasing amounts of cases of plagiarism are being reported. Easier access to e-Journals, online articles, web pages and the like has brought …show more content…
Whereas in academic context plagiarism is seen as a stealing of ones ideas and words and making it one’s own, this unethical behaviour does not only gives a bad image to one as an individual but it also gives a bad image to the higher education institution. Tertiary institutions aim to ensure that all work done by an individual is unique and innovative. The similarities are that plagiarism in both industries are equally taken seriously but is more likely to be forced upon in the academic