Plagiarism

and how to avoid it

Anna Michalska
anna.michalska@coventry.ac.uk

 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

Academic Dishonesty

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?

Coventry University definition...

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.

What is plagiarism?

 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

Why is plagiarism a problem?

Using Turnitin
Googling suspicious fragments
Analysing writing styles
Making use of viva voce
or presentation questions
Relying on own experience as academics

How do we detect Plagiarism?

 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!

Turnitin

 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

Cheating: Process and penalties

 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.

In-text-
Citation

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

Referencing and Citation

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

Assessment Criteria

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

Sources

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

Quality of sources?

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

Sources of information

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

Quotations vs. paraphrasing

 Quotations
Smith said (Smith 2015: 49)

Paraphrasing or rewriting same idea?

According to Smith (Smith 2015)

List of References vs. Bibliography

Quotations and paraphrasing

Have you completed

the Good Academic Practice Quiz on Moodle?

Good Academic Practice Quiz

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

Further Information

Thank you!
Any questions?
Source: http://www.installingorder.org/plagiarism-in-dissertations-ending-careers

The End