St. Clare’s

College LIBRARY

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is:

using other people’s original

words or ideas

without clearly acknowledging

the source of the information.

Plagiarism often happens accidentally because students:

don’t understand what it is or

its implications or

their information research and processing skills need to be improved

Hmmmm….confused?

Image 1: Causes of Plagiarism (Wilson, 2007,p.2)

Plagiarism can take many forms: Copying or ‘cutting and pasting’ an entire source and presenting it as

your own

Copying ideas from sources without acknowledging where they came from

Paraphrasing material from a source without proper acknowledgement

Using too many direct quotations meaning your contribution is minimal

Buying an essay or assignment from a research service, another student or online (Source: UNSW Learning Centre, 2008)

Learn how to take notes effectively How can you make sense of your notes when you come to write

up your assignment and avoid plagiarising? Use a system when taking notes as you research – try note cards. For example:

Source – Author/Title/Date/URL/Page Number

Tags (keywords)

Abstract –taken from source

Paraphrase – into your own words and condense from the source

My ideas – ideas you have developed in reaction to your research. Ask questions, do you agree?, what is important about this source?, does it give a different perspective?

Change the text colour between your original ideas and the ideas you have paraphrased

(Source: McKenzie, 1998; Abilock & Smith 2007)

Photocopy the title page for bibliographic details

Put author and date details at start and end of each paragraph of notes you write

Reference as you go

Make sure every in-text citation within your essay can be found in the reference list

Leave lots of time to finish your reference list!

Handy tips for avoiding plagiarism

Web tools to help you

Use an online tool like http://quotepad.info/

Use an online referencing generator like http://library.scotch.vic.edu.au/research/biblios/ScotchBib/index.htm

How do I reference? Get the ‘St Clare’s Guide to Referencing Assessment Tasks’

available in the Library and online via

http://delicious.com/stclareslibrary

What do you need to reference? Words and ideas from others from all sources including

the Internet, study guides, books, journal articles, radio transcripts, personal interviews, films, online videos, blogs, wikis, images, diagrams, emails.

No need to reference… Your own experiences; your own critical analysis,

comments or conclusion; common facts and knowledge (eg. the world is round).

(Source: The Learning Centre, 2008, p.3)

Cite correctly to avoid plagiarism

Know the difference between…paraphrasing, quoting and summarising!!!

When you use other people’s original words or ideas: place their words between “…..” and after the quote, place the surname,

and year of publication, page number in parenthesis Eg: “lorem ipsem” (Smith, 2008, p.3).

When you paraphrase other people’s words or ideas: at the end of the sentence or paragraph, place the surname and year of

publication in parenthesis. If there is more than one source, cite them all Eg: (Smith, 2008; Wall, 2006)

Check out the UNSW Learning Centre online document covering this topic at http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/pdf/paraquo.pdf

If in doubt…

Don’t pretend if you don’t have the source

Ask for help from Library staff or your teacher

References for this Presentation Abilock, D. & Smith, S. 2007, ‘Beyond cut and paste’, accessed 4 November 2008 from

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/ethical/catandmouse2.pdf

McKenzie, J. 1998,The new plagiarism: Seven antidotes to prevent highway robbery in an electronic age. From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal,7(8), accessed 4 November, 2008 from http://fno.org/may98/cov98may.html

The Learning Centre UNSW, 2008, ‘Avoiding plagiarism’, accessed 4 th November, 2008 from http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/pdf/plag.pdf

Wilson, D. 2007, Crime or confusion – why do students plagiarise?,Connections 60(1), pp.1-2.

Useful Links Plagiarism and Academic Integrity, UNSW

http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism/index.html Plagiarism: What do you value? Available through Clickview. http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiarism/ - online interactive plagiarism tutorial Plagiarism and Academic Honesty, Sydney University

http://elearning.library.usyd.edu.au/learn/plagiarism/index.php (interactive tutorial) - this is excellent tutorial. It has a university focus but is still highly applicable.

All My Own Work – Board of Studies site for Yr 10 – Yr 12 students http://amow.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/

THE END