How to avoid plagiarism
Collaboration on tasks
What are the rules when working with other students on an assessment task?
For group assessment tasks
These are tasks which you do with one, two or more students. Usually you submit one assignment with everyone’s name on it. The mark you get is the same as that of the others in your group.
The work you do in these assessments is shared between the group members. Being able to negotiate who does what and how much is not always easy. However one of the reasons lecturers set these types of assignments is to give you this experience of negotiation.
For individual assessment tasks
These are tasks that you submit by yourself. The mark you get is for you alone.
Preparing your work for these tasks takes place in classes (tutorials, seminars, workshops, etc.) and may also involve researching information in the Library, from the web or other sources. Students often do this preparation with a classmate or even a group of other students.
Working together is a good way to share resources and to clarify ideas through discussion. In fact, many tutors recommend that you team up with another student or students because this can help you cope with the content and task.
However, when it comes to structuring and writing the task, you should work by yourself and do this work independently. If your work closely resembles that of another student, your lecturer / tutor might think that one of you has plagiarised, and this may result in one or both of you being penalised in some way.
