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Academic writing

Plagiarism

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is defined in the Assessment Regulations as 'the deliberate and substantial unacknowledged incorporation in a student’s work of material derived from the work (published or unpublished) of another'.

In other words it means passing someone else’s work off as you own. This includes material from books, journals and the web, as well as from your friends or others.

The University regards plagiarism as a very serious offence and you’re strongly advised to study the Assessment Regulations in full. The regulations are summarised in the plagiarism guide.

Examples of plagiarism include:

the extensive use of another person's material without reference or acknowledgement,
the summarising of another person's work by simply changing a few words or altering the order or presentation without acknowledgement,
the substantial and unauthorised use of the ideas of another person without acknowledgement of the source,
copying the work of another student with or without that student's knowledge or agreement,
deliberate use of commissioned material presented as the student's own work.

How is plagiarism detected?

The most common triggers are:

Changes in writing style and syntactic (word arrangement) structure usually of a higher standard
Undue relience on one source
Use of sources not recognised by the (subject expert) marker
References to sources not readily verifiable
use of American spellings, phrases and contexts
Overall level of language and argument and consequent mark much higher than expected from previous work (giving due consideration to any development in the writer's abilities over time)

PLATO

For more information on plagiarism view PLATO: Plagiarism Teaching On-line. This offers a basic introduction to plagiarism teaching on-line. If you are off campus (or using a browser other than Internet Explorer) you will need to log in to this tool using your domain login (caledonian\user id) and password.

How can I be sure what plagiarism is?

Try this exercise. Adapted from A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation (Capital Community College)

Four students read the following text and used it in their essays in slightly different ways. Which would count as plagiarism?

Elaine Tyler May's (1997, ‘Barren in the Promised Land : Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness’ Harvard University Press

‘Because women's wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage, single mothers rarely earn enough to support themselves and their children adequately. And because work is still organized around the assumption that mothers stay home with children, even though few mothers can afford to do so, child-care facilities in the United States remain woefully inadequate’

Student A wrote:

Since women's wages often continue to reflect the mistaken notion that men are the main wage earners in the family, single mothers rarely make enough to support themselves and their children very well. Also, because work is still based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for child care remain woefully inadequate in the United States.

Verdict: Plagiarism.

There is too much direct borrowing of sentence structure and wording. The writer changes some words, drops one phrase, and adds some new language, but the whole text closely resembles May's. There is no acknowledgment (citation) of May’s work.
Even if May were acknowledged this is still plagiarising because the lack of quotation marks indicates that it has been put into the students's own words.

Student B wrote:

By and large, our economy still operates on the mistaken notion that men are the main breadwinners in the family. Thus, women continue to earn lower wages than men. This means, in effect, that many single mothers cannot earn a decent living. Furthermore, adequate day care is not available in the USA because of the mistaken assumption that mothers remain at home with their children.

Verdict: Plagiarism.

It shows good paraphrasing of wording and sentence structure, but does not acknowledge May's original ideas. Some of May's points are common knowledge (women earn less than men, many single mothers live in poverty), but May uses this to make a specific and original point.

Student C wrote:

As Elaine Tyler May (1997, p.588) points out, ‘women's wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage’. Thus many single mothers cannot support themselves and their children adequately. Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for day care in this country are still ‘woefully inadequate.’

Verdict: Borderline plagiarism.

Although the writer now cites May, this still borrows too much language.

Student D wrote:

Women today still earn less than men — so much less that many single mothers and their children live near or below the poverty line. Elaine Tyler May (1997, p.588) argues that this situation stems in part from ‘the fiction that men earn the family wage’ May further suggests that the American workplace still operates on the assumption that mothers with children stay home to care for them.

Verdict: No plagiarism.

The writer makes use of the common knowledge in May's work, but acknowledges May's original conclusion and does not try to pass it off as his or her own. The quotation is properly cited, as is a later paraphrase of another of May's ideas.

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Updated: 28 October, 2008 | Effective Learning Service | Legal