Academic Language and Learning
Plagiarism
Many students are confused about what constitutes the dread sin of PLAGIARISM . Very few students commit the sin deliberately; however a number commit it unwittingly.
Why is it important not to plagiarise?
When you are writing in an academic context it is essential to give the SOURCE of all of your information. This is so for a number of reasons. First, it gives your material weight and authority; second, it enables the reader/s to check the veracity of your material; and third, unless you have actually done an experiment on the topic area, you have no knowledge of your own to contribute - ALL of your information must come from sources. Therefore we need to know those sources.
What is plagiarism?
Put simply, there are two types of plagiarism.
- Writing without giving your sources.
Here the writer uses the ideas of some-one else without telling the reader - that is, without CITING.
The following sentences from a first year psychology essay are clearly plagiarised.
Pain has been shown to respond well to placebo therapy. Placebos are potent and effective for the relief of physiological and psychological pain. At least 30-35% of post-operative patients received pain relief from the administration of placebos. Placebos are even more effective in the specific relief of surgical pain.
The student writer does not know this information from his/her own experience. Thus the writer should have acknowledged the sources and cited. The passage should have read as follows.
Pain has been shown to respond well to placebo therapy (Collins, 1989; Jackson, 1987; Wilson and Knight 1992). Placebos are potent and effective for the relief of physiological and psychological pain (Beecher 1955). Evans (1974) demonstrated that at least 30-35% of post-operative patients received pain relief from the administration of placebos. Placebos are even more effective in the specific relief of surgical pain.
Note that you must be absolutely precise about where the material has come from. If two parts of a sentence do not come from the same source YOU MUST INDICATE APPROPRIATELY: for example,
Time-effect curves for aspirin (Houghton, 1992) and placebos (Graeme, 1993) have been plotted.
- Using the words of the original
This type of plagiarism is, in fact, more common in student writing. It occurs when the writer cites appropriately and correctly BUT USES THE SAME WORDS (or many of the same words) as the original. So, even if you have put in all your sources BUT have used the words of the original text you have still plagiarised.
The following passage, despite its citations is, in fact, plagiarised. The bold words indicate where the student has used the exact words of the original document.
Responses to supplementary feeding depend on many factors such as stage of lactation (Evans, 1994), availability and quality of grazed pasture (Lyons et al.,1996), and quantity and quality of supplement (Bennett and Bingley, 1992). When grazing cows are offered supplements they reduce pasture intake unless pasture allocations are very small (Eyre, 1995).
How many words from the original can I use?
The answer is “not many at all”. It is not sufficient to simply change one or two words from the original. Of course technical terms do not have to be changed, but for the rest of the time you can use the ideas of the original text (so long as you cite) but the words must be your own.
Here is some typical source material which a student might read in a text.
The second important distinguishing characteristic of the bryophytes is the nature of their alternation of generations. In bryophytes, the gametophytes are always nutritionally independent, whereas the sporophytes are permanently attached to the gametophytes and vary in their dependence upon them
Below is an acceptable, non-plagiarised version of the above material. It is in the writer's own words AND it is correctly cited.
Secondly, bryophytes differ in the way that their generations alternate: the gametophyte generation is able to feed itself whereas the sporophyte generation feeds off the gametophyte (Raven et al., 1985).
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