Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism
Put in quotationeverything that comes directly from the text especially when taking notes.
Paraphrase, but be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing a few words.
Instead, read over what you want to paraphrase carefully; cover up the text with your hand, or close the text so you can’t see any of it (and so aren’t tempted to use the text as a ‘guide’). Write out the idea in your own words without peeking.
Check your paraphraseagainst the original text to be sure you have not accidentally used the same phrases or words, and that the information is accurate.
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Common Knowledge:facts that can be found in numerous places and, to your knowledge, are likely to be known by a lot of people.
Example: Arcangelo Corelli was born near Ravenna in 1653.
This is generally known information. You do not need to document this fact.
Quotation:using someone’s words. When you quote, place the passage you are using in quotation marks, and document the source according to a standard documentation style.
Paraphrase: using someone’s ideas, but putting them in your own words. This is probably the skill you will use most when incorporating sources into your writing. Although you use your own words to paraphrase, you must still acknowledge the source of the information (in a footnote).
Adapted from: www.indiana.edu/~wts/plagiarism.html and Music Department Field Guide 2002/03
University Rules
With regard to plagiarism, the School and the Faculty follow central University practice which is described in the following section:
WARNING
Plagiarism and Cheating
All assessments are intended to determine the skills, abilities, understanding and knowledge of each of the individual students undertaking the assessment. Cheating is defined as obtaining an unfair academic advantage and any student found using any form of cheating, attempting to cheat or assisting someone else to cheat may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the University's Disciplinary Procedure.
The University takes this issue very seriously and students have been expelled or had their degrees withheld for cheating in assessments. If you are having difficulty with your work it is important to seek help from your tutor rather than be tempted to use unfair means to gain marks. Do not risk losing your degree and all the work you have done.
The University's regulations define a number of different forms of cheating, although any form of cheating is strictly forbidden. These are:
• submitting other people's work as your own- either with or without their knowledge. This includes copying in examinations; using notes or unauthorised materials in examinations
• impersonation- taking an assessment on behalf of or pretending to be another student, or allowing another person to take an assessment on your behalf or pretend to be you
• plagiarism- taking or using another person's thoughts, writings or inventions as your own. To avoid plagiarism you must make sure that quotations from whatever source must be clearly identified and attributed at the point where they occur in the text of your work by using one of the standard conventions for referencing. The Library has a leaflet about how to reference your work correctly and your tutor can also help you. It is not enough just to list sources in a bibliography at the end of your essay or dissertation if you do not acknowledge the actual quotations in the text. Neither is it acceptable to change some of the words or the order of sentences if, by failing to acknowledge the source properly, you give the impression that it is your own work
• collusion- except where written instructions specify that work for assessment may be produced jointly and submitted as the work of more than one student, you must not collude with others to produce a piece of work jointly, copy or share another student's work or lend your work to another student in the reasonable knowledge that some or all of it will be copied;
• duplication- submitting work for assessment that is the same as, or broadly similar to, work submitted earlier for academic credit, without acknowledgement of the previous submission
• falsification- the invention of data, its alteration, its copying from any other source, or otherwise obtaining it by unfair means, or inventing quotations and/or references.
16 APPENDIX B : GUIDES FOR REFERENCING
Citing your references
Citing your references correctly is an essential part of your academic work for three main reasons:
• to acknowledge the sources you have used as the basis of your research
• to enable other people to identify and trace the sources you have referred to quickly and easily
• to support facts and claims you have made in your text.
Citing: acknowledging within your piece of work the source from which you obtained information.
Reference: full details of the source from which you obtained your information.
Bibliography: a list of the references you have used, usually placed at the end of your text.
The rules for citing and referencing could be found on the PTS web-cite and will appear in the Russian version of the Handbook
THE END
[1] Subject to those appeals/complaints procedures meeting the minimum requirements of the the UK QAA Code of Practice