Unit

3 Ethics in Academic Writing

Overview

An important requirement for writing in academic disciplines is abiding by set ethical

standards. This unit will cover these standards including documentation style and
instruction on avoiding plagiarism.

Unit 3 Learning Objectives

At the end of this unit you will be able to:

1. Determine the nature and types of plagiarism.
2. Comply with standards relating to plagiarism in given assignments.
3. Practise the documentation style used in the humanities.

This unit will be divided into two sessions:

Session 3.1 – Plagiarism

Session 3.2 – Documentation

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 69

70 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students
Session 3.1
Plagiarism

Introduction
In Module One, Session 1.2, research was underscored as ‘the most important aspect of
the writing process’ in any discipline, particularly at the graduate level. It is through the
research process or the systematic investigation into and study of a range of reliable sources
and materials that a writer is able to establish facts, interpret and analyse information
and reach novel conclusions about a particular topic. The research process is twofold: it
typically involves consulting, taking, borrowing and adapting materials from a range of

in print, on-line, manuscripts and theses on the one hand, and the acknowledgement of
these sources on the other. The acknowledgement of sources is critical when conducting
research, and failure to do so in a proper and acceptable manner could lead to consideration
of plagiarism, which is a basic plank of respectable academic scholarship (Coulthard et.

REFLECTION

Think about your normal research practices. When you conduct research for a written
assignment, do you always ensure that you acknowledge or credit every source properly?
Do you know the academic rules of your discipline, for acknowledging textual borrowing or
the inclusion of the work of others into your own texts?

What is plagiarism?
At its simplest, plagiarism is the theft, or unacknowledged use, of text or ideas created

copying or stealing, inter alia, another person’s words, phrases, sentences, ideas, data,

appropriate attribution to that individual. The Quality Assurance Unit of the University

1. Unacknowledged quotations, or failure to credit quotations of another person’s spoken

or written words and unattributed borrowing, or failure to credit another person’s
ideas, opinions, theories, graphs, diagrams.
2. Unattributed borrowing also includes the failure to credit another person’s work when
paraphrasing from that work.
3. Cosmetic paraphrasing which occurs when an acknowledgement is made but the words
are so close to the original that what is deemed to have been paraphrased is, in fact, a

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 71

 4. Wrongly attributed borrowing, where one does not acknowledge the work from which
one obtained an idea, but quotes, instead, from the original source, which may well

form of plagiarism. (http://www.open.uwi.edu/qau/plagiarism

One exception to these guidelines is that you do not have to cite common knowledge
or information that is widely known about current events, well known history, famous

common knowledge, the safest thing to do is to document the source.

In academic contexts in particular, where research is conducted on a daily basis, penalties

Indies, penalties range from a grade zero to expulsion from the University, depending

Plagiarism.pdf.

One common form of plagiarism that often occurs at universities, that students sometimes
tend to overlook, is collusion. Collusion occurs when a student copies the work of another
student and submits it for assessment as his or her own. It is important to note that all

ACTIVITY 3.1 •

Please answer the following questions to test your understanding of plagiarism.

Is it plagiarism if you…

1. Cut/copy-and-paste a sentence or paragraph from a web site without enclosing it in

quotation marks and referencing the source?
2. Use the ideas of another author without providing a reference, even if you paraphrase
them or write them in your own words?
3. Claim or submit work produced by another student as your own?
4. Copy a diagram or data table from a web site, providing a reference for the source
underneath?
5. Submit all or part of one essay for two separate assignments?
6. Copy words from a book into your own work, but place quotation marks around them
and provide a citation?
7. Include a fact or saying in your assignment, which is generally known without providing
a reference?
8. Incorporate text from another source, changing one or two words and providing a
citation?
Adapted from: https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/tutorial/whatis1.html

72 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

Students often mistakenly believe that they could avoid plagiarism by making ‘small’
changes to the original text by replacing words with synonyms, re-arranging words,

acknowledging the source. However, even these small changes or instances of plagiarism
within a text or document may be detected manually or with computer software.

assignment by identifying too many similar lexical, grammatical and textual features

manually through linguistic analysis of the suspected texts. The problem with detecting
plagiarism manually, however, is that it is only practical when comparing a limited
number of texts. Computer-assisted detection makes it possible for vast numbers of texts
to be compared to each other, particularly in cases where the original document is not
available for comparison. Some of them include Turnitin, Copycatch Gold, Plagiarism
Detector and Viper.

ACTIVITY 3.2 •

The following excerpts are taken from a case of suspected plagiarism among three student
texts.
a). State whether you think that these students are guilty of plagiarism or not.
b). Give two (2) reasons for your answer.

Excerpt 2 Excerpt 3
Excerpt 1
In order for teachers It is very important
It is essential for
to competently for us as educators
all teachers to
acknowledge the to realize that Britain
understand the
ethnic minority, as a nation has
history of Britain
it is essential to become both multi-
as a multi-racial,
understand the racial and multi-
multi-cultural nation.
history of Britain cultural. Clearly it is
Teachers, like
as a multi-racial, vital for teachers and
anyone else, can
multi-cultural nation. associate teachers
Teachers are prone to ensure that
age-old myths and
to believe popular popular myths and
beliefs. However,
myths and beliefs; stereotypes held by
it is only by having
however, it is only by the wider community
an understanding of
the past that we can understanding and
appreciating past their teaching. By
begin to understand
theories that we can examining British
the present.
begin to anticipate History this will assist
the present. our understanding
and in that way be
better equipped to
deal with the present
and the future.

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 73

 ACTIVITY 3.2 • Cont’d
Reference: Coulthard, M., & Johnson, A. (2007). An introduction to forensic linguistics:
Language in evidence. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007

For further practice on understanding plagiarism, please complete the tutorial provided by
Cardiff University at the following web site:
https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/tutorial/practice1.html

Avoiding Plagiarism

REFLECTION

How do you avoid plagiarism and its consequences, while incorporating the work of others
into your own?

Generally, new students at universities around the world are taught explicitly about
plagiarism and how it should be avoided. These students are usually provided with
written guidance on plagiarism, as instructors seek to instill in them the values and
procedures of the academic community. In addition, students are usually required to

regulations regarding plagiarism. Therefore, any student, who is caught plagiarising after
signing such a contract, is assumed to have intentionally broken the contract, which he or
she signed and is therefore considered to have plagiarised.

There are several ways to avoid plagiarism. Some of these ways are listed below:

1. Developing and practising good note-taking habits

Good note-taking practices will help you to reduce the risk of inadvertent plagarisation.
Before you begin to take notes from any source you should ensure that you make a note
of all referencing and citing material that you will need in order to credit the source
appropriately. In addition, instead of copying the text verbatim, you should aim to read

like to use the author’s exact words, you must ensure that you use quotes and cite them
using an appropriate in-text citation style guide, some of which will be highlighted in
Session 1.2. Alternatively, instead of using too many quotes, which might indicate a lack
of understanding of the text or lack of analytical ability on your part, you may choose
to paraphrase the writers’ words instead of quoting them. Summarizing, paraphrasing

academic writing and help to avoid the risk of plagiarism. It is important to note that
you must always provide an in-text citation and a full bibliographic reference, just like
you do when quoting, whenever you summarize or paraphrase from another source. Be
careful not to use too much of the original text even though you credit it appropriately, as

74 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

it is plagiarism if you include too many words from the original text in your paraphrase.

whereas when you summarize a text you are aiming to provide a shortened version of the
text in your own words.

Please use this link https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/paraphrasing/index.html to access

a useful tutorial on quoting, summarizing and paraphrasing.

Avoiding Plagiarism: Note-Taking Tips

method of note taking and writing.

• Keep Copies of your documentation information. For all sources that you
use, keep photocopies of the title and copyright pages and the pages with
quotations you need. Highlight the relevant citation information in color. Keep
these materials until you have completed your paper.
• Quotation or paraphrase? Assume that all the material in your notes is direct
quotation unless you indicated otherwise. Double-check any paraphrase for
quotes phrases, and insert the necessary quotation marks.
•
paper, your list is a working bibliography, a list of possible sources to which

delete the items you decided not to use in your paper.

Source: Behrens, L. and L. J. Rosen. (2009) Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. 3rd
ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

2. Using Turnitin or Turnitin.com

Another way that you can avoid plagiarism is through the use of Turnitin or Turnitin.
com, which is a well-established online plagiarism-detection service that allows you to
check the originality of your written assignments and avoid plagiarism before you submit
them. Once you submit your work to Turnitin, the software will compare it to a vast
database as well as a vast number of papers in the student paper archive. You will then
be provided with an originality report, which will indicate how similar your work is to
other texts in the databases. Careful examination of this report could help your lecturer
to determine whether you are guilty of plagiarism. The School for Graduate Studies and

use the following link for instructions for creating a new student account if you do not
have one: http://www.uwi.edu/grip/turnitin.

3. Proper Documentation: Citing and Referencing

Remember that documentation is the main method that you could use to acknowledge
sources. There is a range of documentation conventions used across disciplines to ascribe
authorship to the work of others and avoid plagiarism. In other words, they help you to
simultaneously protect your own work and the work of others in maintaining academic

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 75

 integrity. The following session will focus on the documentation style used in the
humanities and will highlight some of the other styles that are commonly used in other
disciplines.

Keep in mind that whenever you quote, summarize or paraphrase another person’s work
you must cite or document the source appropriately, using the documentation style that is
stipulated by your faculty for your discipline. The two main types of citations that are used

or paraphrased and appear “in text”, within parentheses or round brackets. They are
generally used to indicate to the reader the source of the reference and its location within
the source. This information could include the author’s last name, the page number as
well as the year of publication, depending on the documentation style that you are using.

“Bibliography. These are arranged in alphabetical order, at the end of the document.

of the sources that you have used in your document, while a “Bibliography” provides a
complete/comprehensive list of all the sources that you consulted while researching a
particular topic, including the ones that were not cited in your work. It is good practice to
keep a record of the full publication details of each source that you consult. This will make
the compilation of your reference list or bibliography much easier.

Citing and referencing are important in academic writing for a number of reasons, some
of which are highlighted in the following diagram:

Figure 3.1: Some Reasons for Citing and Referencing

76 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

styles are used across disciplines, please ensure that you know the conventions used in
your faculty, school or department. Use the following to complete a self-review activity on
citations, references and bibliographies prepared by Monash University Library: http://
monash.edu/library/skills/resources/tutorials/citing/index.html

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 77

78 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students
Session 3.2
Documentation

Introduction
Documenting allows you, the writer, to give credit where it is due as well as to locate
the sources you have consulted. In other words, when you document, you ensure that
the reader of your paper is able to use the information you provide, both in the text and

writer to acknowledge that someone else has contributed directly or indirectly to the ideas
expressed. This session introduces you to the practice of documentation, highlighting its

the discipline of the humanities.

Documentation Styles
A documentation style is a standard approach to the citation of sources that the author
of a paper has consulted, abstracted, or quoted. It prescribes, as outlined in the session
above, methods for citing references within the text, providing a list of works cited at the
end of the paper, and even formatting headings and margins.

Although there are many referencing styles that could help you to document sources in
various ways, below is a list of recommended documentation styles used by faculties,

Information contained in referencing

1. Author
2. Type of publication
3. Date of publication
4. Publisher

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 79

 Faculty Department or Recommended Style Manuals
School
Engineering The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago:
Chicago University Press. Latest edition.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/
tools_citationguide.html

Humanities 1. Humanities •
and Education Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly
Publishing. New York: Modern Latest
edition. http://owl.english.purdue.
edu/owl/resource/747/01/

•
Theses and Dissertations, Kate L.
Turabian. Chicago University of
Chicago. Latest edition. http://www.
press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/
turabian_citationguide.html
2. Education Publication Manual of the American

APA. Latest edition. http://owl.english.

purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Medical • International Committee of Medical
Sciences Journal Editors. Uniform requirements
for manuscripts submitted to biomedical

• Publication Manual of the American

APA. Latest Edition.

•

University Press. Latest edition.

Food and The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago:
Agriculture Chicago University Press. Latest edition.
Science and • The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago:
Technology Chicago University Press. Latest edition.
Social The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago:
Sciences Chicago University Press. Latest edition.

Table 3.1: Documentation Styles of the U.W.I. by Departments

80 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

widely used style manuals for documenting sources.

Understanding APA

work in accordance with the APA format. This style, referred to as a “parenthetical” or in-
text citation documentation style, allows the reader to see immediately the source of the
information and omits the use of footnotes or endnotes.
The style lays a directive for the formatting of documents, for in-text citations, for the
reference list and for headings.

Formatting Documents
The APA style for documentation stipulates that for any academic research paper there are
four general sections namely:

• Title Page- This contains the title of the paper, the author’s name, the

• Abstract- a concise summary of the work that includes the key points of your research.
These are: your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data
analysis, and conclusions. The abstract should be a single paragraph double-spaced.
• Main Body- the content of the paper
• References- a complete list of all the works cited within the essay.

It also requires that each typed line is double-spaced and printed on standard-sized paper

readable be used. In particular APA endorses the use of 12 pt. Times New Roman font.

USEFUL LINKS/RESOURCES
For more details on formatting using APA see:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
http://www.apastyle.org

In-text Citations
An in-text citation is a brief mention in the text of the paper (usually at the end of a

The APA style states that three kinds of information be included in in-text citations:

1.
2.
3. The page number, which appears only in a citation to a direct quotation.

APA follows the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last
name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example,

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 81

 paper.

If referring to an idea from another work or making reference to an entire book, article
or other work, but not directly quoting the material, the in-text reference should state
only the author and year of publication. If, however, a direct quote is used then the page
number is included in the citation.

For examples of this go to: http://youtu.be/XQ8fy7SPotM

USEFUL LINKS/RESOURCES
For more on in-text citations within APA see:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

Reference Lists
A reference list provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any
source cited in the body of the paper. It begins on a new page separate from the text of
the essay. The page carries the title “References” centered at the top of the page. This title
should not bear any marks or highlights. In other words, do not bold, underline or place
the “title” within quotation marks. All texts within the reference list should be double-
spaced.

APA recommends that:

•
from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
•
authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. If the work has

author’s name. After the ellipses, list the last author’s name.
•
• For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the
entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
• Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
•

compound word.
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as
journal articles or essays in edited collections.

82 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

 USEFUL LINKS/RESOURCES
For a more detailed discussion on reference lists see:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/

Headings
APA Style uses a unique headings system to separate and classify paper sections. There

particular paper will vary depending on the complexity of the paper or the subject matter.
Regardless of the number of levels utilized within your paper, always use the headings in
order, beginning with level 1.

Table 2.3.2: APA Style Headings

(Adapted from: http://blog.ap
headings.html)

APA also insists that a page header is included (also known as the “running head
top of every page. The running head is a shortened version of the paper’s title and cannot
exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.

For detailed information on APA Headings see APA Publication Manual (6th ed., sections 3.02–

For more information on the APA citation style check the APA website http://www.
apastyle.org

•
• Information on bias in language

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 83

 • “Ask the Expert”--an e-mail form that allows you to ask questions about APA style
• A form for requesting e-mail updates of APA style
• A chapter-by-chapter description of changes made in the 6th edition

http://youtu.be/reFXrhdvnmw

ACTIVITY 3.3 •

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. (Confucius). With this
in mind practising the APA documentation style should empower your ability to use it
whenever you write for academic purposes.
The following is a list of questions asked by students who are required to use the APA style.

You are required to:

1. Imagine that you are the expert or the instructor for this convention and provide the
necessary answers for each of them.
2. Post your responses to the discussion forum for the relevant week.
3. Critique at least one response for each question presented by a colleague under the
relevant response.

Remember your answers should be clear and concise.

Questions

1. Using APA, how do I cite an author if the work is referenced more than once in
a single paragraph?
2. How do I cite a work that has no listed author in an APA-style paper?
3. What do I do if the source-type that I am using does not appear in any APA
reference/style guides?
4. What do I do if a website is missing information required for an APA-style
citation?
5. If I co-author a paper, how should the author’s names appear in an APA-style
title page?
6. I have been reading books on my Kindle (or Kindle enabled device). How do I cite
Kindle books in APA?
7. How do you cite YouTube videos in APA?
8. I am including clip art in my APA style PowerPoint presentation. How do I properly
cite the clip art that I am going to use?
9. How do I cite my professor’s classroom PowerPoint presentations in APA?
10. How do I cite lecture notes in my APA-style research paper?

84 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

 ACTIVITY 3.3 • Cont’d

11. I created and administered my own survey for a project. How would I cite this
survey in an APA-style paper?
12.
be different than the subsequent pages. How do I set a different header on the

Unit Summary

This unit highlighted the importance of ethical considerations within academic writing. It
discussed the pitfalls of plagiarism and provided guidelines to avoid them. The unit also
introduced the APA documentation style, the recommended citation style for use within
the MA English Language Programme.

Module Wrap-up

This module introduced you to several research and writing conventions practised within
four distinct disciplines. It examined the nature and structure of academic papers within

also highlighted the importance of proper documentation as a mechanism to retain the

academic integrity of written work. It provided examples of APA citations, the required
documentation style for your programme.

LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students 85

 References
Reference Guide to Writing Across the Curriculum. Parlor Press,

York, NY: Pearson Longman.

evidence. New York, NY: Routledge.

Gaertner-Johnston,L.(2004) http://www.syntaxtraining.com/business_writing_tips.
html#top

www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/soc_sciences/
history.shtml

www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/humanities/write.shtml

http://www.open.uwi.edu/qau/plagiarism

https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/tutorial/whatis1.html

https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/paraphrasing/index.html

http://www.uwi.edu/grip/turnitin

http://monash.edu/library/skills/resources/tutorials/citing/index.html

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/html

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/html

Pearson Longman

http://pages.uoregon.edu/

86 LG600 Advanced Academic English Language Skills for Graduate Students

August 28, 2012 from http://methodsofdiscovery.net/

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