Reflection of interaction and plagiarism

Reading and writing are interconnected. Readers read articles written by the known or unknown writers, and writers’ works are waiting to be read. The social interaction cannot be avoided.


With the time changing, the awareness of “human resources” appears, especially in the western countries. The issues of “plagiarism” ,“ownership of words”, and “textual borrowing” are becoming more and more important in the academia.

I must acknowledge that I receive information or acquire knowledge from others’ ideas. We cannot inevitably adopt someone’s conception in our works. However, how do we define the intentional and unintentional plagiarism, and clarify the boundary between plagiarism and non plagiarism?

As for the some of the non-western countries, they do not think “plagiarism” is a serious issue except in the academic field. “ When I was in the university, I never heard of that “plagiarism” would cause crime. Many students were accustomed to “cutting and pasting” from the electronic text, and did not prove if the information or data were accurate. So, as instructors, no matter who are L1 or L2 writing teacher, they should help students perceive the issue in their learning process, and guide them how to employ other useful ideas in their writing without plagiarizing as well .