Plagiarism

Plagiarism essentially means stealing other people's ideas. For the honest student, knowing how to reference will protect you from inadvertently 'stealing' other people's ideas.

Referencing should indicate the sources that have shaped your thinking and leave a clear route for readers who wish to check your sources of information. Let’s have a look at how to do this correctly.

Student carrying book

Quoting

If you quote someone else's work word for word:

Say you are quoting: "To quote Freud”, “As Piaget says”, “Jung puts it like this..."
Put the quote within "quotation marks".
Make sure the quote is exactly the same as the original.
If the quote does not make sense out of context, add the necessary words in square brackets: " [In the context of recent developments in the technology] Tsakapoulos says 'we can finally assess geospatial patterns at the landscape scale.'"
Give a short reference in your text, such as "Scott (1988) says" and give the full reference at the end of your text.
Make sure that in-text references are unique, so if you quote two different papers written by Smith in 2018, call them "Smith (2018a)" and "Smith (2018b)" and use the same convention in your list of references.

The conventions for writing references will depend on the course you are following. Get into the habit of storing all references (in your own notes as well as written work) in the style required by your course. Your course tutor will let you know which style to use and there are lots of online resources that show you how to use each style correctly.

Paraphrasing

There are many reasons why you might choose to paraphrase. Perhaps you want to reflect the ideas of others, linking them more precisely with your own argument, or you want to summarise a lengthy quote, or show that you have understood the idea.

Paraphrasing means you absorb the idea and then express it in your own words. It's not simply a matter of changing a few words here and there. You must ask yourself, "What does this mean to me?" and write your explanation into the paraphrased text.

It is important that you reference the original source. You could write something like, "To summarise A.N. Expert's findings (2018) ..." and then provide a full reference to "Expert, A.N. (2018)" in your references. Check your course guidelines for the correct referencing style to use when you acknowledge the source of paraphrased work.

Referencing

Giving references provides a clear direction for both you and your reader. When adding referencing, ask yourself the following questions:

Will your reader know exactly where to find the source information?
Will you know exactly where to go back to if you need to refresh your memory of the original source when you are revising?
Have you stored the reference in exactly the format required by the course?
Always check your course guidelines for the correct referencing style you need to use for your course.

We will recap the principles of effective references shortly to jog your memory.

Avoiding plagiarism

If you follow the guidance above, you will have clearly identified the sources you have used and whether you have quoted them directly, paraphrased them in your own words, or simply referred to them in passing. That's honest, ethical and academic practice, and gives you and your reader all the information needed to trace the source.

If you don't go through that process, you could either lose track of your own source material, or worse, risk accusations of plagiarism.

Universities actively check to ensure that you are not claiming credit for other academics' ideas and arguments. There are various ways that your tutor may spot ideas you've copied without referencing. For example, tutors could identify changes in your writing style. Their own subject knowledge may help them to quickly spot unoriginal ideas, and they will use software to check your work against existing material in the field.

One of the great aspects of researching and developing your own ideas is demonstrating how you have built your own argument and leaving a clear track for others to interrogate your work and understand how you have come to your conclusion.