Portions of this are taken from an LSBU document and so it will be rewritten.

 

The business of academics is words. If you copy other people’s work then a marker can spot in a second that the writing style has changed and can quickly look up the source.

The main thing is to avoid putting yourself in the situation where you are even tempted to present someone else’s work as your own. This means giving yourself as much time as possible to start on your essay rather than leaving it to the last minute.

Below are the university notes on plagiarism.

You ARE told not to PLAGIARISE.  So what exactly is PLAGIARISM?

The act of plagiarism is to pass off as your own work, the ideas or thoughts of someone else, without giving credit to that other person by quoting the reference to the original. There is no standard definition and dictionaries will vary slightly, but put simply, it is a form of CHEATING and THEFT.

• Plagiarism is presenting another student`s course work or project as your own work.
• Plagiarism is putting into your own words commentary or ideas from another source without giving the reference(s).
• Plagiarism is quoting phrases, sentences, complete paragraphs or more, from an existing published source without using quotation marks and full references.
• Plagiarism is cutting and pasting from a website, electronic journal article etc. without indicating where your information has come from.
• Plagiarism is buying your course work essays from an internet service and hoping your tutor will not notice.

 

What you should be aware of:

• Intentional Plagiarism is the deliberate failure to reference anything. Lack of time is not an excuse.
• Unintentional Plagiarism can happen if you have correctly paraphrased the originals but not acknowledged the sources. It will NOT occur if you fully understand the rules of referencing. There is NO excuse for “unintentional plagiarism”. You are responsible for knowing what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.
• If you have received considerable help from other people you should give credit to them for this and if you were in a group project make it clear which section each member contributed.
• This occurs if you knowingly plan with other students to gain an unfair advantage, e.g. by allowing your coursework to be copied, or by accepting a mark for a group project to which you did not actually contribute.

 

THE SOLUTION = CORRECT REFERENCING, or CITING

The method of referencing used by most, but not all, departments in the University is called the Harvard system.  Make sure you know which one your department uses.  Referencing using the Harvard system involves giving the name of the contributor(s) to any journal article, book (or chapter within) plus the date of publication, in the text of your work, and listing full details at the end of your essay or project.

You must list all the sources of information you use if they are not your own. Sources of “Information” in this context include: music, photos, DVD or video clips, computer programs, maps, cartoons etc., as well as written texts either from an original print source or any electronic source.  It covers anything produced as a result of someone’s creative and original work.

Full details are in the Help Sheet no. 30 – Referencing Using the Harvard System: Frequently Asked Questions and also Help Sheet no. 31 – Referencing Electronic Sources.  These are available in all the libraries and can be copied from blackboard.

(Help Sheets section of Services for Students)

Why is referencing so important?

In a university, you need to present your work in an acceptable academic style. This includes research which makes reference to the existing works of other people and knowing when you need to reference (or “cite”) your sources.  By following the recognised guidelines and respecting and building upon the existing work of other people you will get higher marks for attributing these ideas.

DO

• Always check what is required of you for each assignment, project, or dissertation. Ask the responsible member of staff – your tutor, Course Director, or Module Co-ordinator.
• Paraphrase the original work or summarise it in your OWN WORDS. Remember that you will still need to reference the original.
• Put any phrase or sentence which you have used word for word into “quotation marks”
• Use quotes sparingly – or the text may not be easy to read.
• Give yourself time to do all the references IN FULL
• Reference anything you are not sure about – just in case.
• Make a note of the full reference AT THE TIME of reading the original, especially if it is a chapter from a book or a document from the Internet.
• Try to read the ORIGINAL work you are using, rather than someone else’s comments on it. YOUR interpretations and additions are what your tutor wants to read.
• If you can’t find the original, make reference to it, AND to the source material in which you read about it.
• Evaluate carefully any information found from a random internet search where you have not linked from a reputable web page or database.

DON’T

• EVER CONSIDER using any of the essay writing or document purchasing services available on the internet. Credit your tutor with the ability to recognise a “cut and paste job”, especially if the bottom line says “from Essays-R-Us.com.” or similar.  This is “Cyberplagiarism”.
• Assume information on the Internet is exempt from the need to reference.
• Let your own work be used without getting credit for it. Plagiarism is by no means unique to LSBU and students elsewhere may be using YOUR work.

 

Where you don’t need to use references

• If you are writing up your own experiences, observations, fieldwork, etc.
• You are mentioning something which is “common knowledge”, i.e. well-known facts like historical dates, something well documented elsewhere.

Further measures to avoid plagiarism

• If English is not your first language and you are worried that your style is not good then consult LSBU’s Centre for Learning Development and Support.
• It is unwise to attempt a discussion of someone else’s ideas without fully understanding the argument they are making. If such material is not fully referenced your tutor will suspect that you have not read the original.
• Make time to develop skills in paraphrasing (putting into different words) not just to avoid obvious copying but to help clarify the meaning of your statement and to “add value” to your research.
• We KNOW it can take as long to do a correct reference as it does to write up the actual information researched. However, if you do run out of time, a poor mark is always better than a penalty for plagiarism.