IRM1501 PORTFOLIO
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2022
, MODULE: INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
FIRST SEMESTER: PORTFOLIO EXAMINATION
CLOSING DATE: 15 MAY 2022
Question 1
Discussion about plagiarism
Plagiarism is an offence committed when someone unlawfully and intentionally takes
ownership of someone else‟s novelty without acknowledging the origin of the source.
That includes copying of another person's ideas, text or other creative work, and
presenting it as one's own, especially without permission. For example, when a
student copies another student‟s work and submits it as his/her own.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines plagiarism as the “action or practice of
plagiarising; the wrongful appropriations or purloining, and publication as one‟s own,
of the ideas, or expression of the ideas … of another”.
Plagiarism arises where a researcher fails or omits to indicate clearly, for example
when the researcher takes word for word, from a published or unpublished text
without crediting the original text and author1.
It occurs in cases where statute, case law, book, article, or electronic text is
paraphrased without acknowledging the source or sources and the author thereof.2
According to TUT301 (2018:35), to publish pieces of written material where quotes of
other sources have been used without being referenced or pretend to own such
context is tantamount to a cheating.
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Question 2
2.1 Distinction between quantitative and qualitative research methodology
Qualitative research is a form of research in which researchers make an analysis of
what they see, hear and understand. It is aimed at collecting data about a topic that
investigates something about human behaviour that cannot be measured, such as
perception, opinions, experiences, and so forth. In general, qualitative research is
1
TUT 501 at 66.
2
TUT.
1