Information

One first year student we interviewed in our focus group said: 'Tutors will come down very heavily on you if you plagiarise. It is possible to test this!' What did he mean? And how can you make sure that what you hand in is 'your own work'?

Defining plagiarism

Step 1

Read the definition below, taken from the University of Birmingham 'Guidance on Plagiarism for Students' and underline the key words:

'Plagiarism is a form of cheating and is a serious academic offence. It arises where work submitted by a student is not their own and has been taken from another source. The original material is then hidden from the marker, either by not referencing it properly, by paraphrasing it or by not mentioning it at all.'

What do you understand from this statement?

Commentary

Let's take the highlighted points one by one - click the tab below to expand this acordion

Examples of plagiarism

Open

Hidden

'work submitted by a student is not their own'

Clearly, paying for essays to be written for you by online custom writing services or 'ghost writers' is cheating! You know this is not your own work

This note on the site written for Postgraduate Students is interesting: 'Paying someone to proofread your PhD thesis is not plagiarism' as long as you complete a form and get the proofreader to sign a statement saying that they have complied with the following statement:

'Such correction may involve the rewriting of some of the text originating from the student for the purposes of clarifying the student’s written English. Rewriting of text with the purpose of improving the student’s research arguments or contributing new arguments is not acceptable.'

**KEY POINT**
KEY POINT
Advice given by your tutors or by members of the AWAS team will comply with these guidelines. We are here to help you acquire the editing skills you need to present your own ideas clearly, concisely and coherently. Your final draft should demonstrate ' independent thought, grounded in the teaching received'

'has been taken from another source'

For advice on how to refer to your reading to support your own argument, look at the units above in this module

'and the original material is then hidden from the marker, either by not referencing it properly...

There is also information on referencing in this module

'...by paraphrasing it ...'

This is covered in detail in the unit 'Quote, paraphrase or summarise' section in this module

'...or by not mentioning it at all.'

This should be self-explanatory

**KEY POINTS**
KEY POINT
Not doing all the following: stating clearly that you have taken the material from another source, and providing bibliographical details so that your reader can find it and read it for themselves is plagiarism

Moving on

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