Unit 7 Avoiding plagiarism

In this unit you will:

- know about plagiarism

- learn techniques to use sources for the writing

Warm up

Work with your partner, consider the following academic situations and decide if they are plagiarism.

	Situation	Yes/No
	Copying a paragraph, but changing a few words and giving a citation.	Yes
	Cutting and pasting a short article from a website, with no citation.
	Taking two paragraphs from a classmate’s essay, without citation.
	Taking a graph from a textbook, giving the source.
	Taking a quotation from a source, giving a citation but not using quotation marks.
	Using something that you think of as general knowledge, e.g. large areas of rainforest have been cut down in recent years.
	Using a paragraph from an essay you wrote and had marked the previous semester, without citation.
	Using the results of your own research, e.g. from a survey, without citation.
	Discussing an essay topic with a group of classmates and using some of their ideas in your own work.
	Giving a citation for some information but mis-spelling the author’s name.

This exercise shows that plagiarism can be accidental. For example, situation (10) above, when the author’s name is m is-spelt, is technically plagiarism but really carelessness . In situation (9) your teacher may have encouraged you to discuss the topic in groups, and then write an essay on your own, in which case it would not be plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is also theoretically possible, as in situation (7). It can be difficult to decide what is general or common knowledge (situation 6), but you can always try asking colleagues.

However, it is not a good excuse to say that you didn’t know the rules of plagiarism, or that you didn’t have time to write in your own words. Nor is it adequate to say that rules are different in your own country. In general, anything that is not common knowledge or your own ideas and research (published or not) must be cited and referenced.

What is plagiarism?

Basically plagiarism means taking ideas or words from a source without giving credit (acknowledgement) to the author. It is seen as a kind of theft, and is considered to be an academic crime. In academic work, ideas and words are seen as private property belonging to the person who first thought or wrote them. Therefore, it is important for all students, including international ones, to understand the meaning of plagiarism and learn how to prevent it in their work.

The main difficulty that students face is that they are expected:

a) to show that they have read the principal experts on a subject – by giving citations

b) to explain these ideas in their own words and come to their own original conclusions

There are several reasons why students must avoid plagiarism:

Copying the work of others will not help you develop your own understanding

To show that you understand the rules of the academic community

Plagiarism is easily detected by teachers and computer software

It may lead to failing a course or even having to leave college

Date: 2016-01-05; view: 2144

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