This document discusses plagiarism and how to avoid it. Plagiarism involves copying others' work and claiming it as your own, summarizing or paraphrasing without citation, or colluding with others on assignments. While some students plagiarize unintentionally due to language barriers or being encouraged in other countries, it is still considered a serious academic offense in Britain. To avoid plagiarism, students should summarize others' ideas in their own words, cite sources using quotation marks for direct quotes, and reference works fully. Plagiarism can be detected electronically or by lecturers' expertise, and carries penalties up to failing a course. The document advises using the Harvard referencing system.

1. Plagiarism
Institute of Lifelong Learning

2. Plagiarism is…
1. Plagiarism is about copying or acquiring
the work of others and, directly or
indirectly, claiming it to be your own
independent and original work.

3. Plagiarism is also about:
2. Summarizing or paraphrasing another
person’s original idea, research, theory
or practice without acknowledging the
source. If you do not acknowledge the
source you, in effect, imply that it is your
idea when it is not.

4. …and about:
3. colluding with other students and
submitting identical or near identical
work; or allowing other students to copy
all or part of your work.

5. University Regulations:
“A dissertation, thesis, essay, project or
any other work which is not undertaken in
an examination room under supervision
but which is submitted by a student for
formal assessment must be written by
the student and in the student’s own
words, except for quotations from
published and unpublished sources
which shall be clearly indicated and
acknowledged as such…”

6. Why students plagiarise
• Student A thought it was discourteous to rewrite an
author’s words, as that author was well-known & respected
writer;
• Student B was worried his command of English; he
thought the author’s English was better so copied this;
• Student C had plagiarised from the internet, as he thought
that copying from books was wrong, but that copying from
internet was acceptable;
• Student D had been encouraged by her tutors in her home
country to copy work without citing sources so thought it
acceptable in Britain.
However, this doesn’t make it right; it is still plagiarism!

7. I
In Britain plagiarism is a serious
academic offence, because:
• We feel you should acknowledge, respect and
honour another person’s hard work and effort;
you do this by using references in assignments.
• Our aim is to encourage you to think
independently; summarising or paraphrasing
the ideas of others (and acknowledging them) is
an important step toward this goal.

8. University education is about..
• reading the ideas of
others
• analysing, criticising and
applying the ideas of
others
• but it is also about
encouraging you to think
for yourself and develop
your own ideas.

9. How to avoid plagiarism (a)
Always try to summarize in your own
words (or by paraphrasing) another
person’s work , and give
acknowledgement to that person in your
assignment. This is done by citing your
sources and giving full references, or…

10. How to avoid plagiarism (b)
…by using quotation marks in your
assignments to distinguish between
your words and the words copied
directly from a source. Once again, you
would give cite your sources in your
assignment and give a full reference at
the end of an assignment.

11. How to avoid plagiarism (c)
• Don’t allow other students to copy (fully or
partially) your work
• Don’t copy (fully or partially) other
students’ work

12. Summarising other people’s
ideas can be difficult…
• …particularly if English is not your first
language, and/or
• you feel the author’s way of expressing
ideas is better than yours, and/or
• the words used by an author are difficult to
alter or change

13. However, you should…
• …try to present other people’s ideas
as best you can using your own
words.
• Lecturers will take into account that
English may not be your first
language when marking your work.

14. Plagiarism can be detected
• Electronically – software can highlight
something that has been copied, or partially
copied, from an electronic or printed source.
• By lecturers – lecturers can recognise when
something has been copied or partially copied,
as they are experienced in reading student
assignments, and plagiarism stands out!

15. So, don’t do it!
• Plagiarism is
treated seriously
by universities in
Britain - you could
fail a module or a
course.

16. Referencing
• The way to avoid plagiarism is to always
give the source of other people’s
ideas/practices that you refer to in your
assignments
• We use the HARVARD SYSTEM of
referencing in the Institute of Lifelong
Learning.

17. Institute of Lifelong Learning