Avoiding Plagiarism

Why?

• Your achievement at the university is measured by the knowledge you acquire as well as the ability to think critically and independently — integrating, querying, and developing your own ideas

• Using others’ work to pass as your own does not fit this expectation

• Penalty: zero marks; failing the course; unable to complete study program; academic discipline;

Good referencing

• From CUHK Independent Learning Centre• Good referencing can…– make your writing more persuasive– give you due credit as the teacher knows you have

read appropriately – allow your readers to retrieve the material you

have cited, and therefore contribute to scholarship development

CUHK policy• What is plagiarism?• http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p01.htm

• “Plagiarism is the act of using the work of others (in particular the writing of others) as one's own.”

• “The most obvious and substantial type of plagiarism is copying whole articles, sections, paragraphs or whole sentences from other publications without acknowledgement.”

• “If material is taken from a source, there shall be proper quotes and acknowledgements.”

Don’t fall in traps!

(CUHK policy continued)• “However, even the use of a few words or paraphrasing

(without actually copying any words at all) may constitute plagiarism if the source is not acknowledged.”

• “Students sometimes unintentionally plagiarize because they are not aware of the very stringent rules that apply. Students must read the guidelines provided.”

Let’s take a quiz

• University of New South Wales: Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

• Site: “Which of the following are incidents of plagiarism?”

• http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism/plagquiz.html (accessed 2013.9.4)

(UNSW cont’d)• Plagiarism in all its disguises: Common forms of plagiarism• Downloading an assignment from an online source and submitting it as your own work. • Buying, stealing or borrowing an assignment and submitting it as your own work. • Copying a section of a book, article or website and submitting it as your own work. • Copying, cutting and pasting text from an electronic source and submitting it as your

own work. • Taking exact sentences or paragraphs from someone else (essay, article, book, lecture,

web page, newspaper) without quotation marks and without proper acknowledgement. More

• Using the exact words of someone else, with proper acknowledgement, but without quotation marks. More

• Putting someone else's ideas into your own words and not acknowledging the source of the ideas. More

• Using your own ideas, but with heavy reliance on phrases and sentences from someone else without acknowledgement. More

• Relying too much on other people's material; that is, repeated use of long quotations (even with quotation marks and with proper acknowledgement). More

Resources• The CUHK Independent Learning Centre http://www.ilc.cuhk.edu.hk/EN/index.aspx

• Anthropology Department statement: http://cuhk.orientalecom7.com/en/plagiarism_policy.php

• Additional information: guidelines developed and published by the Department of Sociology, CUHK http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/soc/citation.pdf

• University page: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/ – What is plagiarism?: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p01.htm – Proper use of source material:

• Rule of thumb: use quotation marks for key terms and six words or more quoted together; just citation if the idea is borrowed instead of the language

• see http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p02.htm – Appendix A: Detailed guidelines on proper use of source material

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p02a.htm