What students need to know about acknowledgment
The Academic Misconduct Policy makes it clear that students must be:
- taught the conventions of referencing at university
- given referencing guidelines
- advised about academic writing standards
- taught why plagiarism is unethical
- taught how to avoid plagiarism
- informed that ‘the University will use all means at its disposal to detect and punish serious cases of plagiarism’, which includes using electronic software (such as Turnitin)
- informed of the need to use cover sheets.
New students
Students entering the university are unlikely to understand all academic referencing conventions, even though they understand the concept of cheating and taking undue credit for work that is not their own.
Local and international students can enter
- at first year,
- at higher levels - with credits from other institutions,
- in postgraduate courses - without recent experience of studying, or without experience of studying in an Australian University.
Teaching about referencing
- Students can be taught that academic opinions and arguments are supported by research based evidence.
- Models of writing can be used to teach ‘the requirements of quoting, summarising, and paraphrasing and making reference lists’ (Academic Misconduct Policy 2008 p.4).
- Use a model paragraph to exemplify how you expect students to reference their evidence. Explain the functions of the parts of the model. The students can then practise inserting quotes and references, and analysing the parts of the paragraph.
- Students can be given examples of appropriate referencing to be contrasted with poorly referenced material.
- The document ‘Teaching about referencing and plagiarism’ [pdf 37kb] has activities which can be used to introduce students to academic referencing conventions.
Learning and teaching resources
- The Student Learning website has resources which can be adapted for teaching in tutorials.
- The Academic Integrity/Plagiarism website has a module explaining plagiarism, Assignment coversheets and links to La Trobe University websites relevant to referencing and acknowledgment.
- Academic Language and Learning Unit Advisers run workshops and provide materials to teach students about acknowledgment, referencing and avoiding plagiarism.
- The Academic Language and Learning Unit has resources with explanations, examples and exercises aimed at students who are new to an English speaking university.