Plagiarism

Citing and listing academic references

What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is defined as “Passing off someone else’s work as

your own”. There are different types and different degrees of plagiarism

Plagiarism

Copying directly from a text, word for word Using an attractive phrase or sentence you have found

somewhere

Using text copied and pasted from the internet

Paraphrasing the words of a text very closely

Copying from the work of another student Downloading or copying pictures, photographs, or diagrams

without acknowledging your source.

Plagiarism Even if you change words or sentences you have ‘borrowed’ or

put them in a different order, the result is still plagiarism. Plagiarism is treated very seriously and plagiarised work is

usually disqualified.

Use your own words Even if you don’t think you write well – they count for more

than copied text, and show your understanding.

Why bother researching? The quality of your research feeds into the quality of your final

report/essay/article It shows you have “read around” the subject Gives you a better chance of doing good work & getting good

grades

Why bother citing references? Taking another person’s work as your own is plagiarism Basically it is CHEATING Citing references shows you have researched and

acknowledged your sources Gives your work an academic “air”

Why bother listing references? Indicates the breadth of your research

Allows context of your quotations and citations to be checked

Allows the reader to do further reading on a particular area of interest

The Harvard Referencing system One of a number of referencing systems Fairly straightforward Gets easier with practice.

Harvard referencing system Boodle link http://boodle.bcot.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=19 We’ll get the gist of the system and then carry out a practice

exercise

Practice exercise You will get 3 extracts from systems analysis text books

From these make up a coherent paragraph using parts of each extract

Cite your references in the text and list them according to the Harvard system

Harvard Referencing

Conclusion Do bother to research Do bother to reference Use the Harvard systems in reports and essays It gets easier with practice.

Quotation: Quotation is using someone's words. When an exact quote of a few lines is

used, the passage should be enclosed by quotation marks and the source should be documented according to standard documentation style.

The following is an example using the Modern Language Association's style (MLA)

According to an article in the Globe & Mail on May 7, 2002 an Ipsos-Reid poll showed that, "Almost a third of Americans consider Canada just another state, many mistakenly think Japan and China are their biggest trading partners and most say Britain is their country's best ally."(1)

For a longer quotation, do not enclose the passage in quotation marks; instead, indent the entire passage and use proper documentation.

Paraphrase: Paraphrasing is using someone else's ideas by putting them in

your own words. This is a skill you will learn to master when incorporating sources into your writing. Although you use your own words to paraphrase, you must still acknowledge the source of the information