Plagiarism, Referencing and Sourcing in Academic Writing.

1011 Words5 Pages
In 1995 a survey involving the extent of Plagiarism and cheating in the U.K. found that 60% of students plagiarised, 72% copied coursework and 66% paraphrased without acknowledgement. Later surveys also confirm these statistics. (Walker 1998) Academics also surveyed by Bull and Collins (2001) found 70% believed plagiarism was a ‘significant problem’. Various reasons were given as to why this occurred but misunderstanding was the most frequent. (Carroll, J. 2002) Plagiarism, what is it, why forbidden and the consequences. Plagiarism is the use of or passing off as our own the work of someone else, without giving credit to the originator through acknowledgement, usually for our own gain. Plagiarists pass off or give a false impression that what they are presenting, whether it be words, ideas or thoughts, belongs to them, that they were the first to come up with it. (Carroll, J. 2002), (Cottrell, S. 2013) Plagiarism is forbidden in academic writing because it is a form of stealing in that the originator owns the intellectual property rights to the work or idea and rightly deserves credit for that work. (Cottrell, S. 2013) It would also negate the skills and abilities a College and its study program is wanting to develop within a student i.e. Thinking, analytical, evaluating and reasoning skills. The possible consequences of plagiarising someone’s work depend on the setting i.e. in a college setting it could range from a reprimand to failure of the course. (Tromley, A. 1986) The difference between referencing and plagiarism. Plagiarism, as previously stated, is simply the unacknowledged use of another’s work as if it were our own. (MacMillan, K. 2011) Referencing work by stating where we sourced the information within that work is a way of acknowledging our debt to the originator and giving them credit for their work. Referencing enables the reader to

More about Plagiarism, Referencing and Sourcing in Academic Writing.

Open Document