E-tivity 6

In class we discuss the importance of respecting IPR and of avoiding Plagiarism that is "the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one's own original work"(Wikipedia). Some useful tecnics are for example the attribution, the direct quotation and reference, the paraphrase and reference, the summary and reference and the use of links.

Very important is the style used to write citations. The following list contains the essential features of a good citation.

_ Author's name and surname;

_ Date of publication;

_ Title of book/article/journal/chapter/ed.book/title of blogpost;

_ Editor's name (in the case of an edited book);

_ Pages of chapter or journal article;

_ Place of publication;

_ Publisher;

_ Url and date visited.

I learned that Plagiarism is considered as achademic dishonesty at University and it is punished with expulsion or academic censure. Moreover, there is a slighlty difference between plagiarism and copyright violation. The first one is an act of false claim of autorship, whereas the second one is the infringment of the rights of a copyright holder, when material protected by copyright is used without consent.
In my view it is not so an easy task to avoid plagiarism. Everytime I write papers I am terrified of falling in the error of saying something already said by someone else. When I was in Germany as Erasmus student I had to be really carefull when I wrote papers, as teacher managed to discover immediately someone who had copied and pasted something from a book or an online source. I agree with them as I think that to be original and to write something that is the result of a study or a research is more rewarding than anything else. To respect others and their works is a mark of respect and it must be punished. I believe that one thing is to show to know different authors, citing them with their works and another is to copy them to spare time or to show what a creative thought we have. On the other hand, in Italy it is not used to teach how a student should write a paper and what are the moral values a student should respect. At first sight a students' honor code seemed to be exagerated but it isn't so. It is very important to consider the role of the student as a profession and as any profession is concerned there are specific rules to respect. Students have to demonstrate respect to professors and peers and I would be in favor of introducing "Turnitin" and a code of respect also in the Italian School System. Here is an example of honor code Sarah gave us to read and to reflect on.
Intellectual property rights are becoming even more important in the global world as it becomes even less easy to protect its own ideas. I will try to be keep in mind that there are the IPRs to respect and to be more confident with myself and my capabilities.
I saved on my delicious page this real interesting book about IPRs in the global economy, than I found the official Website about IP and a futher explanation on Wikipidia .