Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using the work of other people without acknowledgement. Rules about plagiarism apply to the use of all spoken, written and visual information sources regardless of where they are found (e.g., books, journal articles, newspapers, the internet pictures/images, maps, tables, and figures).

Self-plagiarism (presenting previously submitted work) is also unethical, as is plagiarism by cheating (using text from another student’s work). All students should know that plagiarism is a serious violation of academic values and has potentially serious consequences, as outlined in the UNE policy documents.

To avoid plagiarism, you need to:

Cite your sources according to the rules

Regardless of whether you have used direct quotes (exact words of the author) or indirect quotes (paraphrases or summaries), you need to acknowledge the source of the ideas you are using in your writing. This is called citing or referencing. There are two main methods of referencing/citing within the text of your assignments:

  • author-date (APA, Chicago, MLA, AGPS)
  • footnoting (used mainly in History and Law at UNE).

You will be informed by your lecturer about the referencing style required in your unit of study. Also, check the referencing resources.

Paraphrase information into your own words

Paraphrasing means putting the ideas and information from information sources into your own words. Clearly, there are technical or discipline-specific words that you should not replace; however, other wording, sentences, and paragraph structure must be your own writing.

Paraphrasing is easiest if you try to draw out the main concepts or information being stated in the sources. Try to avoid reliance on word-for-word paraphrasing (using a thesaurus to change words here and there), as this technique can result in sham paraphrasing and claims of plagiarism. See the ASO factsheet Paraphrasing and Summarising.

Summarise information very briefly into your own words

Like paraphrasing, a summary will also involve writing ideas or information from another source in your own words but a summary will be shorter than the original. To summarise a longer piece of text, you will condense the main ideas into a much shorter piece of text.

Use direct quotes to copy the exact words of the source

Paraphrasing and summarising are the preferred way to incorporate information into your academic writing, but you may occasionally use the exact words from a source. This is called a direct quote, and you need to show clearly that these are not your words.

Enclose a short direct quote in double or single inverted commas (depending on the requirements of the referencing system you are using). For long quotes, the text is placed on a new line and indented to the right (different referencing systems have slightly different requirements for long quotes). For instructions on the APA style, see the ASO factsheet APA: In-text References

Always use Turnitin – the plagiarism tool for students and lecturers

Turnitin is a document review software that finds potentially unoriginal content or similarities to other sources. The software produces an originality report. There are two separate Turnitin submission checks, one that is optional (pre-submission self-check) and one that is automatically applied when you submit your assessment. The self-check allows students to identify areas of improvement before submitting their work for final assessment

To use pre-submission self-check,

  1. Log in to MyLearn
  2. Select the submission page for your assignment
  3. Locate the Assignment Help panel on the right-hand side of the page
  4. Select the Originality Check link and enrol yourself in the site to upload your draft file. Please note that the generated originality report from the self-check site is only accessible by you. It is a guideline and only compares your text to publicly available internet sources.


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