Plagiarism and how to avoid it

Anna Michalskaanna.michalska@coventry.ac.uk

Academic Dishonesty

Exam cheating Impersonation Sabotaging, misrepresenting or fabricating written work, sources,

research or results Deliberate plagiarism Copying text or programming code from others Buying essays or downloading them from Essay Mills Submitting work completed by someone else Submitting work youve submitted before (self-plagiarism) Inappropriate collusion and sharing of work Lying to protect a student who has committed one

What is plagiarism?

What I called creative recycling the school called plagiarism

Sources: http://internet.phillipmartin.info/internet_plagiarism.htm http://www.zazzle.co.uk/plagiarism_or_recycling_poster-228216252403329015

What is plagiarism?

Definitions: Using the work of someone else and presenting it as your own

Failing to correctly cite and reference the work of someone else

Not giving due credit for the contribution of someone else to your work

Deliberate/Accidental plagiarism?

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is intentionally or unintentionally reproducing (copying, rewording, paraphrasing,

adapting, etc) work that was produced by another person(s) without proper

acknowledgment in an attempt to gain academic benefit. Intentionally or negligently allowing such reproduction to happen may also

constitute plagiarism.

Coventry University definition...

Why is plagiarism a problem?

Dishonestly claiming credit for work that is not your own

Not acknowledging the originator of the work

Unfair to other students Quality assurance Damage to reputation

How do we detect Plagiarism?

Using Turnitin Googling suspicious fragments Analysing writing styles Making use of viva voce or presentation questions

Relying on own experience as academics

Turnitin

Does Turnitin tell you whether text is plagiarised? No, results need interpretation

Shows where text matches with other sources in the Turnitin repository May not show the source that was accessed

What percentage match indicates problems? Depends, needs interpretation

Can correctly referenced work show a high %? Yes, but this would suggest poor scholarship

What could I do to reduce a high % match? Wrong question!

Cheating: Process and penalties

Module leader passes evidence to admin officer

Letter inviting you to meeting with ACO (Academic Conduct Officer)

ACO confirms academic and disciplinary penalty decisions

ACP (Academic Conduct Panel) more serious cases or repeats

Zero marks, No award, Exclusion

Referencing and Citation

Centre for Academic Writing (CAW) CU Harvard Referencing style Referencing tools RefWorks, CAW Vault

Referencing and Citation

Certainly in a higher education context there are many factors that prevent rapid changes. Kolmos and de Graaff compare the management of a university faculty to the navigation of a super tanker.The inertia of mass precludes any abrupt change of course (Kolmos and de Graaff 2007: 35). This analogy clearly reflects the experience of the SEE team.

Kolmos, A, De Graaff, E (2007) Process of changing to PBL in De Graaff, E. and Kolmos, A. (eds.) Management of Change Implementation of Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning in Engineering, Rotterdam / Taipei: Sense Publishers.

Reference

In-text-Citation

Assessment Criteria

Relevance to the research question Understanding, explaining Applying, analysing Referencing and quality of sources Quality of writing and expression Structure and focus, vocabulary Answering the question

Sources

Why do we have to use sources? To add the academic value and credibility of your work To demonstrate that you are aware of previous related

research

Why do we have to acknowledge sources? To give due credit to the author To allow your readers to follow up on your work

and research

Quality of sources?

Source: http://blaugh.com/2006/10/13/the-whole-internet-truth/

Sources of information

Assessing quality and relevance Dates, currency of information Focus, context appropriate? Citations from other sources? Supports or contradicts your arguments? Demonstrates bias or poor technique? Degree of precision of findings

Record, index all sources as you find them

Quotations vs. paraphrasing

Source: http://www.toondoo.com/

Quotations and paraphrasing

Quotations Smith said (Smith 2015: 49)

Paraphrasing or rewriting same idea? According to Smith (Smith 2015)

List of References vs. Bibliography

Good Academic Practice Quiz

Have you completed the Good Academic Practice Quiz on Moodle?

Further Information

CU Harvard Referencing Style guide: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/student-support/academic-support/centre-for-academic-writing/support-for-students/academic-writing-resources/cu-harvard-reference-style-guide/?theme=main

The End

Thank you! Any questions?

Source: http://www.installingorder.org/plagiarism-in-dissertations-ending-careers