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Referencing your work to
avoid Plagiarism
A booklet to explain the meaning of Plagiarism and
Copyright plus guidelines on how to reference your
work using Harvard style
Plagiarism – and how to avoid it
Academic honesty
When you have found the relevant information for your essay or
assignment, you need to be able to present it in an ethical way. By
ethical we mean being aware of right and wrong conduct, being honest,
knowing the correct methods to use in presenting information and
understanding any legal requirements. This means that you have to be
aware that laws exist to protect intellectual property. The World
Intellectual Property Organisation says that “intellectual property refers
to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and
symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.”
(WIPO http://www.wipo.int)
Intellectual property is protected by copyright law. This means:
copyright is likely to apply to all of the books and journals we read at
college, and what we are allowed to copy is limited.
However, if you are allowed to photocopy a limited amount of material,
such as a single issue of a journal article under Fair Dealing, what is to
stop you handing it in as your assignment?
This can get confusing in an academic environment. After all, you are
encouraged to read as widely as possible and to build on other people's
work and ideas.
However you must make it very
clear when an idea or thought is
your own, and when it comes
from someone else. To do this,
you must learn how to cite
other people's work.
It is wrong to try and pass
someone else's ideas off as
your own.
What is Plagiarism?
Definition ‘Plagiarism; namely submitting work as the candidate’s own of
which the candidate is not the author. This includes failure to acknowledge
clearly and explicitly the ideas, words or work of another person whether
these are published or unpublished.’ (BUE Examination and assessment
regulations 2007)
If we had not put the quote in inverted commas (quotation marks) and
written the source where we found the definition, we would have been
guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is copying somebody else’s ideas and
saying that it is your own work. This includes writing, maps, pictures,
music, photographs – anything that uses another person’s thought. If you
use it without acknowledgement to them, this is PLAGIARISM!
Even if you plagiarise accidentally, you will still be guilty of plagiarism and
the consequences can be serious.
It is important to understand what is and is not plagiarism to avoid
unintentionally plagiarising when producing a piece of work. People
plagiarise for many different reasons:
because they cannot understand how to approach a task; they have
not left enough time to do it; they are not aware of how to reference
their sources properly;
or they do understand and deliberately plagiarise.
Some tips to help you avoid plagiarism are:
Follow correct citation and referencing
procedure
Keep bibliographic records
Make notes in your own words
Manage your time
Discussing your work with your fellow students (your peers) is one of the
most important parts of the learning process and should be encouraged.
However working too closely with colleagues can result in accusations of
copying and collusion.
The following are tips to help avoid this problem:
1. Always use your own words in your assignments rather than
copying the words used by your peers, even for small
sections.
2. Feel free to discuss your problems, interpretations and
arguments with your peers when this is appropriate. But
when it comes to producing your work ensure you have
developed your own unique interpretation rather than
adopting an agreed shared opinion.
3. If you do draw on the contribution of a peer in the completion
of an assignment make sure you clearly acknowledge this in
the assignment (this acknowledgement should include who
the source was, and the nature of the contribution).
Different assignments may vary in what is acceptable and
unacceptable practice in working with your peers (particularly
where this involves group work). If you are in any doubt you
should seek clarification from the academic member of staff before
proceeding.
We could easily be tempted to hand in work that we know is not our own
and hope the lecturer won't notice. However, lecturers do notice and the
college takes it seriously. The response is the same whether the
plagiarism is done innocently, ignorantly or deliberately - you may fail
that piece of work and in some cases the module or programme. For
more information see section 3.1 of your student handbook
So, to summarise:
It is plagiarism to:
copy material from other people including fellow students and use it
as though it was your own
incorporate published material into a piece of your work without
acknowledging where it came from
steal somebody else's ideas and use them as though they were your
own.
create a piece of work by cutting and pasting sections of text and/or
images from the internet into your essay.
Note: if you purchase a paper from a commercial service including
Internet sites, whether pre-written or specially prepared for you,
or ask another person to write your essay for you, this is cheating
and will be dealt with severely.
It is not plagiarism to:
discuss and share your ideas with others providing the final piece of
work is your own
use quotes and references in your work (be careful though, you may
lose marks if you don't produce some ideas and opinions of your
own!)
use other people's ideas as long as you acknowledge them as the
source and provide a reference
collaborate with others in a piece of group work providing every
body's contribution to the work is acknowledged.
Copyright
Intellectual property is protected by copyright law. This is
government legislation to protect the creators of works
such as books, journals, song lyrics, music, art, films and
TV programmes.
Copyright means that you need to get the owner’s permission to copy the
work –whether that is photocopying, scanning or downloading. This is the
symbol you will most often see when something is protected by copyright:
©. Be careful, though. Even if the copyright symbol is not present, the
owner still has moral and legal rights over how the work is used. So how
can we get round this in the library?
Well, there is a law of “Fair Dealing” which, for library users, means you do
not need permission to photocopy every time as long as the copy is for
your own personal use. Unfortunately, the law does not specify how much
of a work may be copied whilst still being considered ‘fair'. However it is
generally agreed that a single copy of:
5% or one article from a single issue of a journal
5% or one chapter of a book
would be considered fair dealing.
For more details about copyright go to
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/copyrightfaq.htm
How to compile a BIBLIOGRAPHY
A bibliography is a list of references to any published material that you have
used in the course of an essay or an assignment.
This material may be from a variety of sources including books, journal arti-
cles, newspapers, TV programmes, government statistics and web site ad-
dresses.
Only list in the bibliography the material that has been particularly helpful to
the assignment and any material that you have specifically mentioned in the
text of the essay or assignment. Do not include any material that initially
looked promising but actually gave you little help in the end.
When you are collecting information for an essay or an assignment, it is useful
to keep a list of all the material you are reading or consulting. Even if some
items prove to be of little use this time round, you may find them helpful in
the future.
Details of the material you are reading that you will need to keep are:
Books:
author These details should be taken from the
title title page of the book not from the cover.
edition
date of publication These will be found on the back of the
place of publication title page
publisher
Journals:
author These details are found at the beginning
title of article of the article
title of journal These details are found on the front
date & vol./issue no. cover of the journal
page no/s of article
The bibliography should appear at the end of the main text of the assignment
before any appendices.
The bibliography should be arranged alphabetically by author’s surname.
Citing the References in a Bibliography
The examples overleaf show how to cite references in a bibliography using the
Harvard System. There are other referencing systems so speak to your tutor if
they want you to use another system.
Punctuation and the order in which you list parts of the reference are important
in Harvard but may vary according to your tutors or institutions preference.
Always check to see if your tutor has a preferred .
Books
Surname, Initial/s. (Year) Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g. Giddens, A. (2009) Sociology. 6th edn. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Journals
Surname, Initial/s. (Year). ‘Article’. Journal Title, Volume (issue), Pages.
e.g. Quinton, S. and Smallbone, T. (2008) ‘PDP implementation at English
universities: what are the issues’, Journal of Further and Higher Education,
32 (2), pp. 99-109.
Newspaper Articles
Surname, Initial/s. (Date). ‘Title of article/headline’, Newspaper, Date, Page
no.
e.g. Roberts, B. (2010) ‘China Crisis’, Daily Mirror, 10 November, p.11.
TV Programmes
Title of Programme (Year of transmission) Name of Channel, Day/month of
transmission.
e.g. Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention (2010) BBC1, 11 November.
Internet
Website
Title of site (Date last updated/published) Available at: URL (Accessed:
date).
e.g. Tameside College (2010) Available at: http://www.tameside.ac.uk/
(Accessed: 10 November 2010).
Webpage
Organisation (Date last updated/published) Title of webpage. Available at:
URL (Accessed: date).
e.g. Tameside College (2010) Apprenticeships. Available at: http://
www.tameside.ac.uk/ (Accessed: 10 November 2010).
Electronic Book or Journal
To cite a document found on the web, follow a format similar to that for
books and journals but add [Online]. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
e.g. Barker, R., Harris, B. and Sutton, L. (2005) BTEC introduction : sport
and leisure. Oxford: Heinemann Educational. [Online].
Available at: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/tameside/docDetail.action?
docID=10295327&page=1 (Accessed: 12 November 2011).
Help with referencing
The Library catalogue here in college also shows items in Harvard
format. There are handouts available on using referencing in
Word 2007 in the library and on Learning Box.
If you want to read more about how to cite references or compile
a bibliography for your assignment, refer to the bibliography be-
low.
Bibliography
Bournemouth University (2010) Quick guides to referencing.
Available at:
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/infoskills/
infoskills_refguides.html (Accessed: 11 November 2010).
Flood, A., Murray, W. and Rowell, G. (2009) Using sources: a
guide for students: find it – check it – credit it. [Online]. Availa-
ble at: http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2009-12-24-plagiarism-
students.pdf (Accessed: 11 November 2010).
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2008) Cite them right, the
essential referencing guide, 7th edn. Durham: Pear Tree Books.
Please don’t hesitate to ask should you require
further help
Referencing: Citations in Text (Harvard)
When you write an essay or an assignment you need to refer to any
published material you have used in the text of your assignment and at the
end in a reference list or bibliography. This helpsheet looks at in text
citations; please pick up a How to compile a bibliography guide for help
writing a reference list or bibliography.
Material you may refer to in your assignment can be from a variety of
sources including books, ebooks, journal articles, podcasts, newspapers, TV
programmes, government statistics and website addresses. There are many
ways that you can refer to your sources in the text of your assignment such
as summarising, paraphrasing or using quotations.
In-text citations
The examples show how to cite in text using the Harvard System. There are
other referencing systems so speak to your tutor if they want you to use
another system.
In text citations should include brief details of the work you are referring to
in your text. These citations then link to the full reference (with full details of
the work) in the bibliography at the end of your assignment.
Summarising
Summarising is when you give a brief statement about the key points of the
work you have used in your assignment. The only information you need in
your text is the author/s last name and date.
Examples
Craik (2009) claims that fashion is becoming an increasingly important part
of the study of culture.
OR
Fashion is becoming an increasingly important part of the study of culture
(Craik, 2009)
*Note the different author/date format depending on where you put the
citation. The citation goes at the end of the sentence if you do not mention
the author’s name in your sentence.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is when you express an author’s writing in your own words
while keeping the original meaning. It is different to summarising as you
are giving more detailed information about a part of the text. As in
summarising, the only information you need in the text is the author/s
and date.
Examples
Chong (2008) highlights how the internet enabled animators of all levels
to display their work globally and reach audiences that were previously
inaccessible. The web has therefore become an obvious initial choice for
animators to exhibit their work.
OR
The internet enabled animators of all levels to display their work globally
and reach audiences that were previously inaccessible which made the
web an obvious choice for animators to exhibit their work (Chong, 2008).
Quotations
Quotations are used when you present an author’s writing or idea word
for word. Quotations should be used selectively to enhance your writing
and not to boost your word count! You may notice good potential
quotations as you are reading because they are impressive, worded well
or really highlight a point you are trying to make. When using quotes,
quotation marks and page numbers are needed as well as the
author/s and date.
Short Quotations (up to 2-3 lines)
These can be included in the body of your text.
Examples
Fox hunting was a popular pursuit in Britain and by the end of the
seventeenth century “its rituals, red coats, language and literature were
a part of British culture known around the world” (Marr, 2007, p. 544)
OR
Marr (2007, p. 544) states that fox hunting was popular in Britain and
“its rituals, red coats, language and literature were a part of British
culture known around the world” by the end of the seventeenth century.
Long Quotations
Long quotations should be indented from the rest of the text.
Example
Pinker (2003) describes common fears of modern biotechnological
processes:
Some people fear that cloning would present us with the option
of becoming immortal, others that it could produce an army of
obedient zombies, or a source of organs for the original person
to harvest when needed. (Pinker, 2003, p. 226)
Diagrams, illustrations and photographs should be cited like quotations,
so should also include page numbers.
But what if ……..
There is more than one author?
If there are two authors use both names, e.g. Elliott and Quinn (2008)
If there are more than two use the first last name and et al, e.g.
Bowdin et al. (2011)
There is no author?
Sometimes there may not be an author. This is common in newspapers
and websites and in this circumstance the title of the source of
information can be used, e.g. The Sun (2010) or Microsoft (2011)
A number of different sources support your text
More than one source can be referred to at a time and these can be
separated by semicolons and should be cited in date order with the
most recent year first.
Example
There have been many studies on female subcultures (Lincoln, 2004;
Reddington, 2003; McRobbie, 1976)
Further examples can be found in Pears, R. and Shields, G.
(2008) Cite them right, the essential referencing guide.
Copies are available in the library.