Student Learning Development

Referencing
and Avoiding Plagiarism
Student Learning Development

Presentation Outline

• Why do we reference?

• How do we reference?

• What is the Harvard Style?

• What is Plagiarism?

• How can I avoid Plagiarism?

Student Learning Development

Why do we Reference?
Student Learning Development

Reasons
To make clear when a particular piece of information, idea, etc. is not
our own and to tell our readers where it came from. This allows us to:

•show where we got our facts from

•use other people’s work to support This is why
it is
our own argument (evidence, examples, important to
findings, etc.) ensure each
reference is
•discuss what other people or complete
organisations have said and done and and
accurate.
give our own analysis of it
•to provide useful definitions, explanations, etc.

To allow other people to find the material we used to support our

claims.
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How do we
Reference?
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Citation Reference List

You make a short You make a list at the
reference (author’s last end of your essay of all
name and year of the sources you have
publication) in the text referred to in you work
of your essay every – you give complete
time you refer to details here including
someone else’s work. publisher, etc.

The citation acts as a

key so that your reader
can find the full
reference easily on the
list of references at the
end of your essay.
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Quotations
Using the exact words of the author(s) in quotation marks ‘…’. You
must include the author’s last name, the year of publication and the
page number.

For example:
Generally, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) covers ‘those
educational activities in higher education, the purpose of which is the
teaching and learning of the English language required by
undergraduates, post-graduates and/ or staff’ (Kennedy, 2001, p. 25).

When should you quote?

•When you are using someone’s definition which is key
•When you want to discuss exactly what someone said
•When the precise detail of what someone says is important – e.g. a
law, policy document, etc.
•When someone has phrased something effectively and succinctly
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Paraphrasing
You paraphrase when you change the information read into your own words without
changing the original meaning.

Why paraphrase?
•It shows that you understand what the writer is saying
•It makes it easier to build you own argument. For example, you can use what
someone else says as evidence or an example to support what you want to say
•It fits more easily with your own writing style

Example:

Original: Employers who provide childcare at the workplace have found that
lateness declines and levels of stress experienced by employees also decline.

Paraphrased reference: There is evidence to suggest that on-site day care is

beneficial to employers because employees are more punctual and appear to suffer
less from stress (Smith, 2018).
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Paraphrasing Exercise
‘Employers who provide childcare at the workplace have found
that lateness declines and levels of stress decrease’ (Smith,
2012, p.52).

1. According to Smith (2012), those employees who are

provided with childcare at the workplace have a tendency
to be more punctual and less stressed.

2. Smith (2012) has held the view that when employers offer
day care facilities, their employees tend to arrive on time
more and seem to be less stressed.

3. There is evidence to suggest that on-site day care is

beneficial to employers because employees are more
punctual and appear to suffer less from stress (Smith,
2012).
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Things to note
Why are these different?
1)It is necessary to read research papers critically. In
this regard, Walker (2019) emphasises the importance
of understanding the methodology employed by
researchers in their studies.

2)It is important to understand the methodology that

researchers use in their studies (Walker, 2019).

When the author’s name is part of the sentence, it does

NOT go inside the brackets because it becomes the
subject of your sentence.
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More than one author

• Up to three authors: include all the names, in the order they are listed. For
example:

A sound business plan is essential to the success of every business (Morson and
Child, 2010).

Morson, Child and Smith (2010) state that most single pets live in privileged
circumstances.

• More than three authors: give only the first author followed by et al. For
example:

Worth et al. (2013) suggest that top CEOs agree income could be raised to 50%
on earnings over £100,000.

Despite technological advances, radio production is less sophisticated than in the

past (Howard et al., 2015).

N.B. Give ALL the names in your reference list:

Howard, C., Smith, T., Jones, L. and Brown, N. (2015) Enemies and Friends. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
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Secondary Referencing
This is a sentence in a book by Grey (2016, p.9):
‘According to Brown’s (2015) study, middle managers feel more
stressed than those in higher positions’.

You want to use Brown’s information but you have only read Grey’s book:

• In your essay:

There is evidence that stress is a greater problem for middle managers

than for senior managers (Brown, 2015, cited in Grey, 2016, p.9).

• In your list of references:

You cannot include Brown because you have not read this author – you
can only have Grey in your list.
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Exercise
According to (Rose Waters and Barry Monk), children love to be
scared by their television viewing provided that, in reality, they know
they are perfectly safe. Certainly, the image of children hiding behind
sofas in the security of their living rooms while watching Dr Who has
almost become part of the cultural identity of British childhood
(http://www.kidwatch.org/scifi/falseurl.html, 2011). However, there
are programmes aimed at children which cause concern to parents
because they may be too frightening. A recent study by Mabel
Bentley, for example, reported in Amanda Baxter’s book ‘Kids and
Monsters’ found that ‘the vast majority of parents interviewed had
expressed reservations about at least one of the programmes their
children watched on the grounds that they felt the child had been
genuinely scared while watching or had exhibited a subsequent
reaction, such as a nightmare’. Holmes and other researchers
reported similar findings.
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Exercise
According to Waters and Monk (2013), children love to be scared by
their television viewing provided that, in reality, they know they are
perfectly safe. Certainly, the image of children hiding behind sofas in
the security of their living rooms while watching Dr Who has almost
become part of the cultural identity of British childhood (Kidwatch,
2011). However, there are programmes aimed at children which cause
concern to parents because they may be too frightening. A recent
study by Bentley (2014, cited in Baxter, 2015, p. 69), for example,
found that ‘the vast majority of parents interviewed had expressed
reservations about at least one of the programmes their children
watched on the grounds that they felt the child had been genuinely
scared while watching or had exhibited a subsequent reaction, such as
a nightmare’. Holmes et al. (2017) reported similar findings.
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What is the Harvard

Style?
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Harvard Style: list of references

• This should list all (and only) the sources you
have used in your assignment

• The list should be in alphabetical order

• Don’t separate different kinds of sources unless

you are specifically told to

• Each reference should follow the format for that

kind of text
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The Harvard Style

The way we reference is different for different types of
sources (e.g.: books, e-journals etc.).
• Use Cite Them Right

Available by clicking the ‘Referencing’ tab at the

top of the Blackboard home page. It is also
available in the library and the CCCU bookshop.

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2016) Cite them

right: the essential guide to referencing and
plagiarism. 10th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave
MacMillan.
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Reference list - example

Abber, C. and Smith, T. (2016) Book, two
Research study methodology. authors
Dover: Dover University Press.

Wharton, C., Pail, R. and Crumb, Print or

F. (2018) ‘Why businesses fail’, electronic
Business Review, 7 (10), pp. 160- journal
172.

National Health Service (2019) Website

Symptoms. Available at:
www.nhs.uk/livewell/symptoms.as
px (Accessed: 02 July 2017).
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Reference list - exercise

Look carefully at the information given about each item in this list of
references. Can you identify what kind of source each one is?

Barton, K. (2012) People in paintings. Cambridge: Cambridge Book

University Press.
Journal
Baxter, F. (2015) ‘Consumer chemistry’, Journal of Chemistry
Education, 65 (3), pp. 206-219.
Chapter
Ellis, P. (2017) ‘The ability to think critically’, in Barlow, G. and Freid,
R. (eds.) Thinking skills: How can we teach them? New York: W. H.
Freeman, pp. 197-211. Newspaper

Hopper, C. (2014) ‘Legal Lingo’, The Times, 24 August, p. 25.

Oxfam (2018) E.ON shelves Kingsnorth. Available at: Website
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/impact/kingsnorth.
html (Accessed: 15 October 2018).
Website Journal Newspaper article Chapter in a book Book
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What is Plagiarism?
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Definition
What is Plagiarism?
Choose as many as you like.

a. Copying another student’s work

b. Using a paragraph from your own essay submitted previously
c. Using an idea/ information from someone else in your essay
without saying so
d. Copying something directly from a book, journal or website
without quotation marks or saying where you found it
e. Citing someone else’s idea and discussing it
f. Using a graph from the Internet without citing it
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Definition
What is Plagiarism?
Choose as many as you like.

a.Copying another student’s work

b.Using a paragraph from your own essay submitted previously
c.Using an idea/ information from someone else in your essay
without saying so
d.Copying something directly from a book, journal or website
without quotation marks or saying where you found it
e.Citing someone else’s idea and discussing it (NOT PLAGIARSM)
f. Using a graph from the Internet without citing it
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To sum up

If you have included something in your essay

and you do not make it clear that it is
someone else’s idea, then readers assume it’s
YOUR idea simply because it’s in YOUR essay.

That’s the convention in academic writing.

Therefore, we reference everything that is not
our own original work.
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How can I avoid

Plagiarism?
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How to avoid plagiarism

• Avoid poor paraphrasing: make sure that you change the words and the way
the sentence is put together. You can also be accused of plagiarism if you only
change someone's words very slightly

• Make sure you understand the sentence(s) you want to paraphrase to ensure
you do not change the meaning.

• Don’t forget to use quotation marks when you borrow somebody else’s words

• Make clear which arguments of your essay are based on other people’s work
and whose work you have used

• List every source you have used and double check your reference list against
the citations in you essay