Notes on Plagiarism
1. What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that occurs when a person passes off someone else’s work as his or her own. This can range from failing to cite an author for ideas incorporated into a student’s paper to handing in a paper downloaded from the internet. Please note “Copy and Pasting” from the internet without due referencing is a form of plagiarism. Translating material from the work of others without due referencing is also plagiarism. In addition, cooperation on assignments between students without specific permission is a form of plagiarism.
2. How do I reference properly?
For more information on how to reference your work correctly please see the Final Project Workshop Guidelines or Google “Purdue Owl” or visit the apastyle official website http://www.apastyle.org.
If you use material quoted from other authors (including all material copy/pasted from the internet) this must:
- be limited to 15% of the total assignment (any more than this should be placed in the appendix)
- it should be placed in quotation marks
- it should be clearly referenced. This means the material should be followed by a symbol (a number or an asterisk) which clearly identifies to the reader the reference which relates to that quotation. Simply listing a number of sources at the back of the report is NOT acceptable.
If someone simply alters a few words in a quotation, it will still be treated as a quotation.
3. What happens in cases of plagiarized assignments?
If a student is found to have plagiarized the work of others, their work will be reviewed by the Disciplinary Committee for possible penalty. This may result in a lowering of grade or, if repeated, expulsion from the programme.