Avoiding Common Plagiarism Errors LEARNING SKILLS GROUP

Avoiding Common Plagiarism Errors LEARNING SKILLS GROUP

Workshop Overview What is plagiarism and what are its consequences? The most common forms of plagiarism How to avoid plagiarism Academic Integrity Module for Students 2

What is plagiarism? The failure to properly acknowledge (in your assignment) the use of information, words, or ideas from other people/sources. CC0 Public Domain 3

Why acknowledge? To give proper credit to the writer(s) whose ideas or research you are using To support your ideas by providing evidence and examples To demonstrate that your information comes from a reputable source To enable the reader to locate the source for further information 4

What do you need to acknowledge? Direct quotes from another source, even very short ones Borrowed ideas (whether or not you quote them, summarise them, paraphrase them, or translate them) Data or specific facts from published/unpublished study Images, music, sound files not created by you Computer codes you have not written 5

What do you need to acknowledge? Information from personal and/or spoken communication such as: emails, conversations, unit discussion forums, interviews, speeches, etc. Probably facts that appear to be true but you are not able to prove it. For example: The Treasurer stated that 100 million dollars was raised from a sales tax last year. Although this statement is probably true, the figure may not be entirely accurate or proven. 6

What does not need to be acknowledged? Your own original observations, experiences, experimental results, ideas, comments, analysis, arguments, interpretations, and conclusions. Note: If you use these in one assignment, you may not be allowed to use them in the same way for another assignment (or you may have to reference/cite your previous assignment). 7

What does not need to be acknowledged? Proven facts universally accepted as true. For example: Australia is located south of the Equator. Shakespeare was an English playwright. The nucleus is part of a cell. In Australia, school education is mainly the responsibility of State and Territory governments. The S&P/ASX 200 is the Australian stock market index Note: proven facts (such as the population of a country) can change. 8

Important! Each discipline has knowledge that is commonly accepted in that discipline (and thus may not need to be acknowledged). As a general rule, if you are not sure whether a piece of information in your discipline needs to be acknowledge, check with your Tutor or Lecturer. OFFICE I FACULTY I DEPARTMENT 9

How to properly acknowledge You must use a systematic way of referencing. Reference both printed and electronic materials with: In-text Citation Reference List Footnotes Endnotes 10

Example: In-text Citation (APA style) According to Sothern and Gordon (2003), Environmental factors may contribute as much as 80% to the causes of childhood obesity (p. 104). Source: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/res5e_ch09_s1-0001.html 11

Example: Reference List (APA style) Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 7-10. Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., Harlow, T., & Bach, J. S. (1993). There's more to self-esteem than whether it is high or low: The importance of stability of self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1190-1204. Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048. Source: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/06/ 12

Example: Footnote (APA style) Scientists examined over several years 1 the fossilized remains of the wooly-wooly yak. 2 (These have now been transferred to the Chauan Museum. 3 ) Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. 1 While the method of examination for the wooly-wooly yak provides important insights to this research, this document does not focus on this particular species. Source: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/06/ 13

Important You must follow a specific referencing style such as APA (American Psychological Association), Oxford, Harvard, Australian Guide to Legal Citations, etc. Check your Unit Guide or ask your Unit Convener to confirm which style to use. 14

What is plagiarism? The failure to properly acknowledge (in your assignment) the use of information, words, or ideas from other people/sources. CC0 Public Domain 15

Plagiarism can be Unintentional Intentional No matter if the plagiarism is intentional or not, you are still responsible for it! 16

How can plagiarism be detected? Conveners may use software such as Turnitin that compares similarity between your work and other people s published or unpublished work (including other students assignments). The person who marks your assignment can often detect plagiarism because of inconsistencies in the writing style CC0 Public Domain 17

Consequences of plagiarism Level 1 reduced mark on assessment task resubmission with reduced mark issuance of a caution Level 2 Fail for assessment task (with mark of zero) Level 3 Fail for unit (with mark of zero) Level 4 Referral to the University Discipline Committee. CC0 Public Domain 18

Common forms of plagiarism #8-404 Error (frequency.6%) Work that includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources

Common forms of plagiarism #7 - Mashup (frequency 9.1%) Work that mixes copied material from multiple sources without citations

Common forms of plagiarism #6 - Hybrid (frequency.5%) Work that combines: cited parts copied parts without citation

Common forms of plagiarism #5 - Recycle (frequency 5.5%) Work that borrows generously from the author s (your) previous work without citation; also called self-plagiarism

Common forms of plagiarism #4 - Remix (frequency 5.6%) Work that uses paraphrases from multiple sources, made to fit together (with no citations)

Common forms of plagiarism #3 - Find-Replace (frequency 3.9%) Work where only some of the key words and phrases of the original text are changed, and the original source is not cited.

Common forms of plagiarism #2 Control C (frequency 8.9%) Work that contains significant portions of text from a single source without alteration or citation

Common forms of plagiarism #1 - Clone (frequency 9.5%) Submitting another person s work, wordfor-word, as one s own.

Workshop Activity See Handout

Student A's writing is an example of "Cut and Paste" plagiarism. There is a citation of the authors' names; however, much of the abstract has been directly copied into the students' assignment without quotation marks, page numbers, or the year of publication. Cahir, Huber, Handal, Dutch and Nixon say that students are most likely to drop out of university when first attending. In their recent study, the authors analyse the use of technology in supporting the transition process of first time university students enrolled in a second-year accounting course. The research results highlight several challenges and necessary considerations in the implementation of learning skills programs. 28

Student B's writing is an example of "Find - Replace plagiarism. There are citations of the authors' names and the year of publication. Some parts from the original text have been changed into the student's own words. However, much of the original text has been copied without any quotation marks or citations. In paraphrasing, the sentence structure, sentence order, and vocabulary have to be different from that of the original text. Cahir, Huber, Handal, Dutch and Nixon (2012) say that students are very likely to drop out of university in their first year. Cahir et al., (2012) analyse the usage of technology when supporting the transition process of first time university students taking a second-year accounting course. The research results reveal some challenges and put forward the necessary considerations in the implementation of learning skills programs. 29

Student C's writing is an example of how to use a source correctly. In the first sentence, information has been summarised so that the rewritten words and sentence structures are quite different from the original text. The surnames of the authors and the year of publication have been provided as in-text reference. The second sentence contains factual, proven information that can be found in an encyclopedia and does not need to be referenced. As Cahir, Huber, Handal, Dutch and Nixon (2012) discovered, when the university used technology such as Blackboard, Google Calendar and text messaging to contact students early in their first semester, the majority of students stated they were more aware of the learning support services offered by the university. Blackboard is a Learning Management System (LMS) and Google Calendar is a free web application. 30

Tips for avoiding plagiarism Take notes carefully: Organize your notes so that you know where the information/ideas come from. Put the full bibliographical details (author, title of source, year of publication, page number, etc.) next to each piece of information. Use quotation marks and write down the page number when you copy directly from a source.

Tips for avoiding plagiarism Provide in-text citation when you use the words or ideas of a source Put quotation marks around any text directly copied from a source and provide the reference in-text (including the page number of the quote). Computer Science: Include/retain authorship comments in the programming code (name, date, type of change, lines affected). Improve your skills in paraphrasing and summarising a text. Know what a good paraphrase/summary should look like.

Paraphrase example http://web.williams.edu/wp-etc/acadresources/survival_guide/citingdoc/paraphrasingapa.php

Tips for avoiding plagiarism Include references for images, charts, tables, data, video files, personal communication that are taken from other sources. Plan and manage your time carefully so that you can check over your assignment drafts and spend enough time doing the referencing. Include a complete and correctly typed reference list at the end of your assignment.

Academic Integrity Module for Students Learning Skills ilearn unit Access through Learning Skills website Checking your understanding of acceptable and unacceptable academic behabviour