In general, theoretical study is taught on university courses in my country and we don't need to support ideas with examples. It's different in the UK. - Laila
Knowing how to use other people's ideas in your written work is an important academic skill, but this needs to be done correctly to avoid any risk of plagiarism. Plagiarism basically means taking another person's ideas, or words, and presenting them as if they were your own. To avoid this, you need to know how to refer to such source material and how to include the necessary reference details. If it is believed that you have committed plagiarism, it may lead to you getting 0% for an assignment, or worse.
In these activities you will explore the meanings of some important concepts concerned with referencing. You will also practise identifying examples of different ways of referencing correctly and of plagiarism from students' writing.
Understanding what referencing involves
Do you know how to refer to what you have read in your academic work, and do you understand the difference between the various methods of doing this?
Instruction
Read these four short explanations of different concepts to do with the task of referencing. For each, choose the concept that is being described from the dropdown list and then check your answers.
is rewriting another person's opinion in your own words, and including the appropriate reference details (name, date of publication).
Paraphrasing is rewriting another person's opinion in your own words, and including the appropriate reference details. (name, date of publication)
Both paraphrasing and quotations involve using another person's ideas, with a reference included in both cases. It is important to be able to use these two methods of referring to source material appropriately in your written work.
is copying word for word what another person has said and putting them in "quotation" marks followed by the appropriate reference details.
Quoting is copying word for word what another person has said and putting them in "quotation" marks followed by the appropriate reference details.
Differences between a quotation and paraphrase:
A quotation uses exactly the same words as the original, which are put inside "quotation marks" followed by the author's surname, date of publication and page number(s).
For example: "The idea of what makes a good leader has shifted significantly over recent years from a power-holding to a power-sharing individual" (Simpson 1980:53).
A paraphrase keeps the author's idea, but involves rewriting it using your own words. It still requires reference details. Quotation marks are not used around a paraphrase, and often the page number is not included in the reference details. Paraphrases are used more often than quotations and are often shorter than the original.
For example: Management styles have changed recently and managers are increasingly willing to share their power with others. (Simpson, 1980).
is copying another person's idea or using their exact words, without reference details. This may be seen as 'stealing' someone's ideas and is not allowed.
Plagiarism is copying another person's idea or using their exact words, without reference details. This may be seen as 'stealing' someone's ideas and is not allowed. Providing you correctly quote or paraphrase, you should avoid the risk of plagiarism.
is a full list of the details of books and journal articles etc that you have referred to in a piece of academic writing or used as background reading. It is included at the end of your writing.
A bibliography is a full list of the details of books and journal articles etc that you have referred to in a piece of academic writing or used as background reading. It is included at the end of your writing.
A bibliography is different from a reference list (also sometimes used at the end of a piece of academic writing). A reference list only contains details of books, journal articles etc that have been referred to in a piece of academic writing, whereas a bibliography includes these and details of all background reading too. The use of reference lists is generally more common for student written course assignments. However, in some kinds of academic writing a bibliography is often required (e.g. for a dissertation).
Identifying examples of paraphrase, quotation and plagiarism
In this activity you are going to practise identifying examples of quotation, paraphrase and plagiarism in student writing.
Instruction
Read this original text taken from a course textbook on how police and governments tackle crime. Compare it with the four extracts from student essays that follow. Decide if each student's use of the original text is quotation, paraphrase or plagiarism and select the appropriate button. Then read the feedback.
The original text is presented at the top of the frame and a related extract from a student essay is presented below it. Compare each extract from a student essay with the original text. When you have selected the appropriate button, the correct answer and an explanation will appear at the bottom of the frame.
Original text (Calder, 2007):
There is an understandable tendency to focus on the most serious crimes as these tend to be the most shocking and attention grabbing. Newspapers, for example, are most likely to report major crimes such as murders or large scale theft, rather than minor pick-pocketing. This seems to be an erroneous approach, and new evidence is emerging to suggest that governments would be wise to instruct their police services to focus on minor crimes. If criminals are caught committing low-level crimes, they are less likely to progress to major crimes and therefore it reduces crimes levels as a whole.
Student extract 1:
Focussing on tacking major crimes is an erroneous approach, and new evidence is emerging to suggest that governments would be wise to instruct their police services to focus on minor crimes.
Student extract 2:
Law-enforcing authorities often pay most attention to high level crime; however, it would be more effective to focus on low level crime as a way of reducing overall crime rates (Calder 2007:7).
Student extract 3:
It is a bad idea to focus on tackling major crimes. Police should tackle minor crimes to reduce the overall level of crime.
Student extract 4:
Often police services pay most attention to trying to reduce major crimes, rather than low level crime. This appears to be an "erroneous approach" (Calder 2007:10) and more attention should be paid to tackling these.
This is plagiarism. Large sections have been copied from the original, but quotation marks and reference information have not been included.
This is a paraphrase. The idea is the same as the original, but it has been rephrased using the student's own words. Reference details have also been included.
This is plagiarism. Although the words have been changed and it looks like a paraphrase, reference details have not been included, so the idea has been 'stolen'.
This includes a quotation. The words which come from the original have been put in quotation marks and the reference details are given.
Would you like to review the main points?
Being able to refer to the opinions of others appropriately in your assignments is important. If you take someone else's ideas without referencing them properly, this is considered to be stealing and called plagiarism. Plagiarism is viewed very seriously by universities in the UK. However, appropriate and correctly referenced use of what you have read in your assignments will improve the quality of the assignment.
Understanding what referencing involves
Identifying examples of paraphrase, quotation and plagiarism
