Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence but more often than not it results from misunderstanding rather than a deliberate intention to cheat. Many students simply do not understand what plagiarism is. Although confusion is understandable, especially at the beginning of your study, ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse or as a defence against an accusation of plagiarism. You must therefore make sure that you understand what plagiarism is and how you can avoid it.

[From: Plagiarism at the University of Essex]

You might also like to try the Epigeum online interactive tutorial: "Plagiarism and how to avoid it"

Unless otherwise stated, the ideas and suggestions presented below are courtesy of Netskills, University of Newcastle and used with permission. See http://materials.netskills.ac.uk/

What is plagiarism?...

The Oxford English Dictionary says:

plagiarize (also plagiarise)
verb. take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one's own.

[Concise Oxford Dictionary. Ed. Judy Pearsall. Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Bath University. 23 June 2004 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t23.e42866]

You may be found guilty of plagiarism if:

You are presenting or passing off another person's work as your own
You import into your own work 'more than a single phrase from another person's work without the use of quotation marks and identification of the source'
You make 'extensive use of another person's work, either by summarising or paraphrasing it merely by changing a few words or altering the order of the presentation, without acknowledgement'
You use 'the ideas of another person without ackowledgement of the source' or submit or present work as your own 'which is substantially the ideas or intellectual data of another'
You submit the same piece of work for two different assignments, even if they are to different departments
You make 'a deliberate attempt at passing off the ideas or writings of another person as your own'
You take 'the words, ideas and labour of other people and give the impression that they are your own. Plagiarism is simply theft'

[From: Beat the Witch-hunt!, Peter Levin's Guide to Avoiding and Rebutting Accusations of Plagiarism for Conscientious Students . Please see this document for full references.]

Different types of plagiarism

Intra-corpal plagiarism - e.g. copying from another student on your course
Extra-corpal plagiarism - e.g. copying from an external source such as a book or journal
Collusion - working together for mutual benefit but with the intention of deceiving a third party
Autoplagiarism - citing your own work without acknowledging it

What's wrong with plagiarism?

It's cheating
Plagiarism penalises honest students
It degrades academic standards, degrees and institutions
There may be a negative impact on professional standards if students are not learning the required topics properly

Your Course Handbook will contain a section on the penalties if you are caught plagiarising. These can range from being given 0% for a piece of assessed work to failing your degree. You may not think it happens, but since 2000 at least one University of Bath student who had plagiarised has been refused a degree and left the University after four years with nothing to show for their time here, not even a favourable reference.

Why you should avoid essay cheat sites

See Authorship and Plagiarism: Cheat Sites (University of Essex) for information about the pitfalls of using essay cheat sites on the Internet.

Detecting plagiarism: how your tutor will be able to tell if you have plagiarised

Remember that your tutors are very experienced and have read widely on the topic you are studying. They will certainly know if you have simply copied sections from texts on the recommended course reading list, or if you have copied directly from their lecture notes or handouts.
Remember that everybody has their own style of writing. It is very easy for your tutor to spot changes in style, which inevitably occur when you copy somebody else's work. Even if you try to disguise this by changing the odd word or phrase, it will still be obvious to your tutor.
Remember that your tutor will be marking the coursework for classes and/or year groups. They will be able to recognise similarities between submitted work. They will also be able to tell if you have copied another student's work.
Remember that your tutor is also aware of the many cheat sites which now offer to sell you essays. It is very likely that your tutors will have searched these sites for essays which might be available on your particular topic. If you do decide to risk failing your assignment by copying an essay from a cheat site, you should also remember that other students in your group may very well have bought the same essay.

[From: Plagiarism at the University of Essex: How will it be detected?]

Also, some tutors use technology to uncover plagiarism and there are many different ways by which they can do this. For example there are pieces of software available that enable staff to conduct electronic comparisons of students’ work against a range of electronic sources including web sites and essays from cheat sites.

Test yourself

There are a number of online plagiarism tests available to help you understand and avoid plagiarism in your work:

For academics: effective methods of deterring plagiarism

Detecting plagiarism is reactive, short term, time consuming and can have a negative effect on students. Deterring plagiarism is proactive, has lasting impact and should have a largely positive effect.

Deterring plagiarism:

Encourage originality - self reflection and individualised responses
Use unusual topics and formats e.g. website, brochure, project, poster
Ask for applied knowledge, applying theory X to event Y e.g. 'To what extent has Tony Blair increased the powers of the Prime Minister?' rather than 'What are the powers of the Prime Minister?'
Ensure students understand referencing and citation practices, especially for online resources
Assess process as well as outcomes
Discuss plagiarism with students
Demonstrate the poor quality of many plagiarised texts
Teach general study skills (include the Library staff)
Change assessment/essay topics every year
Insist on drafts of assignments in advance
Ensure secure submission and return of assignments
Reinforce with other assessment methods such as in-class essays, exams, discussions, vivas
Clarify how much collaboration is allowed in group work, be clear how marks will be allocated (group mark or individual mark?)
Set up regular plagiarism audits

Useful links:

University of Bath Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office: Plagiarism, referencing styles and citation practices.
University of Bath Library: referencing guidelines
University of Alberta Library Research and Writing help (includes Research and Writing Tips, Proper Paraphrasing, Common Knowledge and Quotations, Evaluating Internet Sources)
Higher Education Academy: guides for students
Harris, R. (2002) Anti-plagiarism strategies for research papers. Virtual Salt. Available at: http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm [Accessed 23rd June 2004]
Discusses some pedagogic approaches to deterring plagiarism

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