Digital Era and Academic Writing

This assignment examines the impact of digitization on academic writing. It highlights the benefits of increased access to information and resources, while also addressing concerns surrounding plagiarism and copyright infringement in the digital age. The essay emphasizes how internet connectivity and readily available data have enhanced the capabilities of both academic and professional writers.

Running Head: CRITICAL ESSAY
Academic Writing in A Globalized and Digitized Era
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CRITICAL ESSAY
Scholars traditionally were thought to be the academicians that are employed by the
universities for the academic purposes. These aspects get broadened when the concept of digital
scholarship is applied. Digital scholarship implies that scholar remains highly connected with the
global network of peers and share the media output over the internet. Digital scholarship
somewhat describes the monotonous feel of the institutionalized based researches and focuses
more on the digital world that includes the online data sharing, and networking. All these
activities occur under a digital identity. Perhaps if a simple definition is used then it can be said
that, a digital scholar is someone who uses technology based approaches to write and
demonstrate issues (Weller, 2011). Thesis statement: This study is based on finding the
potentials and problems for the professional and academic writers in a globalized and digital era.
First of all, to emphasize on the professional and academic writing in a globalized and
digital world. The problems that affect the professional and academic writers need to be
highlighted. Colleges, Universities and writing centers throughout the world face issues related
to plagiarism. The issues related to the plagiarism are very complex and leave a little room for
the teacher and the student to understand the various complexities associated with the copyright,
attribution, and permission. Teachers find themselves in a conflicting position with respect to the
students. The issues of plagiarism are not to be confined in a classroom, whereas the discussion
must be based on the fair usage of the copyright materials. The limited access of the copyright
material has raised public concerns and debates. It is seen that on one side there is vast increase
in the quantity of information over the internet, and on the other side the issues related to the
intellectual property litigations and limited access to the copyright materials. These concerns
have raised exponentially currently. It is important to note that, the postmodern literary theory
reveals that nothing in this world in fully original, the main factor is that new information are

2CRITICAL ESSAY
processed by processing and mixing the reused ideas. Across the different fields and disciplines,
it is important to note that plagiarism is not just a simple wrong; a deep understanding of can
reveal the major difference that lies within the original work and mere changing of the texts to
create new inferences. However, several contributors have reminded from time to time that
copyright laws do not guarantee that individual work is totally under the control of a single
person (Eisner & Vicinus, 2008, p. 1-9).
Buying and stealing others work, both ruin and undermine the reliability of the written
work and at the same time damages the free exchange and the openness in the spread of the
ideas. Recently, high levels of plagiarism in the works of the undergraduate student of a Harvard
student was noticed in a novel and also there are several evidences that reveal that works in the
biomedical field are to a large extent found to be plagiarized. The process of inculcating and
conserving the ethical way of working will depend on the advantage being provided by the
newer technologies. Writers must possess the knowledge of how to give appropriate credits to
the original authors of a particular work (Eisner & Vicinus, 2008, p. 1-9). There is a wide
difference between the copyright infringement and plagiarism. Copyright can be described as a
matter of law whereas plagiarism can be described as a matter of ethics. Although, plagiarism
can occur unintentionally, but people who is involved in plagiarism often gets punished. Another
explanation provided by the author is that plagiarism is considered as a matter of norms of
community and etiquette. Plagiarism is widely considered as a crime against a particular group
of audiences and is seen as an embarrassment and insult to the others. Whereas, another
distinction also points out that plagiarism is the reuse or the use of ideas and words without the
giving a suitable acknowledgement. Whereas, copyright infringement is the reuse and use of
ideas and words without permission (Eisner & Vicinus, 2008, p. 173-180). The condition of

3CRITICAL ESSAY
plagiarism is more complicated in the professional writers. There is a case of essay written by
Michael Grossberg that display the complexities in detecting the and monitoring plagiarism that
are existing in a single discipline, when the privacy and confidentiality drive the process (Eisner
& Vicinus, 2008, p. 1-9).
The potentiality of the digitized era and the globalized world can be viewed by the
following way: Gordon Kane explains that within theoretical physics, the self-policing process is
easy because the field is small and people know each other. The additive effect of internet also
aids in sharing views and the ideas. The best part is that rather than waiting for months and years
for the work to get published, academic writers. Whereas, the same is problematic if policing in
the field of medical biology. In the field of science, it is found that theft of data and ideas are
more complex and serious if the author’s works and argument are not acknowledged. At the
same time, Gilbert S. Omenn’s made it clear that, another risk is posed by the researchers that
peer review the journals, because during the peer reviewing there is a high chance of stealing of
ideas from the grants and the applications (Eisner & Vicinus, 2008, p. 1-9). The academic
research articles and papers related to Humanities are always packed with the references which
suggest a positive side that there exists more than one a synchronous dialogue within different
number of academic writers. In the field of Humanities, the authors that are associated with a
work, acknowledge each other and eventually valorise the facts. The peer also extends the
critique which are thus incorporated into the final work (Sinclair, 2015, p. 44-49). It is an
established belief that all the writers are good readers and theses readers possess the potential to
become a good writer. Reading is considered to be an essential aspect of creative work.
Participatory reading is a great way to gain knowledge regarding the circulation and creation of
the knowledge and content. The advent of the new technologies has made it possible to engage

4CRITICAL ESSAY
with the new materials that are found in the multiple perspectives disciplines (Clinton, Jenkins &
McWilliams, 2013, p. 3-23). Digital scholarship potentiality has increased manifold through the
sophistication of the search engine’s algorithm and the digitized global library. Such as the one
undertaken by the search giant, Google in the year 2004. This project typically contained the
digitization of the five big academic libraries in the United States. The new development of the
searching algorithm has led to the expansion of the searching abilities of the search engine an at
the same time, searching information is also easy for any person accessing the internet. The new
Web 2.0 version offers newer internet based services like the Wikipedia, social networking sites,
folksonomies and communication tools (Donelan, Kear and Ramage, 2005, p. 225-228). The
digital research process that are utilized in the world over is motivated through the application of
the information and communication technology (ICT) and also due to the increasing availability
of the internet connection. Internet is actually revolutionizing the research process to be
conducted fully from the online resources. Furthermore, the information that are gathered
digitally from the online resources provide a big leap in the research process which otherwise
would have taken a long time to conduct from the printed resources. These printed resources are
not always available widely and acts as a hindrance in the conduct of research. Writing also is
affected the same way, the advent of the internet and the availability of the research journals,
research articles and thesis to a great extent influence the writing of both the academic and
professional writers. The availability of the information 24/7 over the internet, intranet and the
other faster growing networks have favoured the digital scholarships information delivery
(Mutula, 2011, p. 261-276).

5CRITICAL ESSAY
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the digitized era and the
globalized world has enhanced the writing skills of the both the professional and academic
writers. Although, there exists a big issue of plagiarism that affects the writer knowingly or
unknowingly. The availability of the information by just at the click of the mouse has enabled
writers to delve into the vast world of information. This information is considered as data sets,
that help in further analysis. Plagiarism is considered as crime while the copyright infringement
under the purview of law. These are the issues that are currently being faced by the professionals
and academic writers. The potentiality of the academic and professional writer is enhanced by
the internet connectivity and availability of the resources. The resource availability on a wide
scale has enhanced the working ability on both data processing, information representation.

6CRITICAL ESSAY
Reference
Clinton, K., Jenkins, H., & McWilliams, J. (2013). New literacies in an age of participatory
culture. Reading in a participatory culture: Remixing Moby-Dick in the English
classroom, 3-23.
Donelan, H., Kear, K. and Ramage, M. (2005). Online Communication and Collaboration: A
Reader. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp.225-228.
Eisner, C., & Vicinus, M. (2008). Originality, imitation, and plagiarism: Teaching writing in the
digital age. University of Michigan Press. pp.173-180
Mutula, S. M. (2011). Ethics and trust in digital scholarship. The electronic library, 29(2), 261-
276. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471111125212
Sinclair, C. (2015). Students’ perspectives on academic writing in the digital age. TechTrends,
59(1), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-014-0819-5
Weller, M. (2011). The digital scholar: How technology is transforming scholarly practice.
A&C Black.