ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that plagiarism is a disputed concept, and that many instances of 'plagiarism' in student academic writing are not instances of intentional 'dishonesty', 'theft' or 'immorality', but problems of academic literacy. Mangaliso is a first-year student whose secondary education was severely disrupted due to his role in the self defence units (SDU) on the East Rand in the two years before the first democratic elections in 1994. Emma is a British student who was doing a third-year course in Department S, as part of a postgraduate Diploma. She has an undergraduate degree from Cambridge. She went to a private girls' school in London, and a sixth form college for A-levels. She read history for three years. She came to South Africa to fill in time while her Cambridge supervisor was on sabbatical, and because she loves Third World studies.
