HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS BASED ON COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The Project “How to Avoid Plagiarism at M. Phil Level” reflects various short comings of the students in attempting academic writing, reasons to indulge in plagiarism intentionally or un intentionally. Students of Education departments of all public and private universities of Multan City were the population of study. The population belonged to Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Institute of Southern Punjab Multan, Women University, Allama Iqbal University Multan (Students form Multan city only) and NCBA &E(Old 2017 Students).  A sample of 45 students was taken through convenient sampling taking 9 students from each university. Questionnaire comprising of 20 items was distributed to these students through direct meeting with them, by E-mail and  by Whats App.,in response but only 43  complete questionnaire were received. The return rate was 96 %.Four research questioned were answered with the help of questionnaire based on the data collected. It is recommended that Booklets on Plagiarism are available at HEC website these must be included in the teaching content i.e syllabus so that students may learn it during course work, there must be  more emphasis on University plagiarism policy. The students must join direct and on-line courses, Seminars, conferences, student’s debates, Workshops and sessions with the experienced faculty members must be made to generate awareness about plagiarism. Academic writing practice sessions must be arranged on regular basis to improve poor language skills. Students must devote ample time for literature review. This will improve their paraphrasing skills, summarising skills, Lack of in-text referencing and weak citation.