Test your understanding of plagiarism i
Read the six scenarios below to test your understanding of the University's definition of plagiarism:
'Using or copying the work of others (whether written, printed or in any other form) without proper acknowledgement in any coursework'
Please note that the results of this test are not monitored or recorded in any way.
Scenario 1
Annette is having trouble with an assignment for her second-year Psychology module. She finds the perfect piece of text online, cuts-and-pastes it, and re-orders it. She does not acknowledge the source and decides not to add any original text.
Is this an example of plagiarism?
Yes /
No
You selected Yes
Correct!
This is plagiarism. Annette has copied without acknowledging the source – either in the main body of the text or in a reference list. Once her essay has been run through Turnitin (the plagiarism detection service that the University uses), an originality report will confirm that she has plagiarised and she will be penalised for cheating which may include expulsion from the University.
You selected No
Sorry - You are wrong
This is plagiarism. Annette has copied without acknowledging the source – either in the main body of the text or in a reference list. Once her essay has been run through Turnitin (the plagiarism detection service that the University uses), an originality report will confirm that she has plagiarised and she will be penalised for cheating which may include expulsion from the University.
Scenario 2
Sanja is a first-year Media student. She finds essay-writing difficult and has developed a style in which she quotes from a text (using proper referencing) and then rewrites the quotation in her own words in the next paragraph as a kind of summary. She fears that her approach could be considered plagiarism and is dreading her essay being run through Turnitin, the plagiarism detection service.
Is this an example of plagiarism?
Yes /
No
You selected Yes
Sorry - you are wrong
This is not plagiarism. Sanja uses quotation marks and citations to acknowledge her sources. However, although there is nothing improper about the way she is using quotes, her approach does not represent good practice in essay-writing. In a university-level essay, space is at a premium: every sentence and every word should help to advance the academic argument. There is no room for tautology (repeating the same thing but in different words). It is often necessary to introduce or explain a quotation, or to discuss or develop the idea, but it should not be necessary to merely reiterate it.
You selected No
Correct!
This is not plagiarism. Sanja uses quotation marks and citations to acknowledge her sources. However, although there is nothing improper about the way she is using quotes, her approach does not represent good practice in essay-writing. In a university-level essay, space is at a premium: every sentence and every word should help to advance the academic argument. There is no room for tautology (repeating the same thing but in different words). It is often necessary to introduce or explain a quotation, or to discuss or develop the idea, but it should not be necessary to merely reiterate it.
Scenario 3
Ping is a keen Computer Science student. He spends a lot of time working on his final-year project and tries to include as many scholarly references from journals and books as he can find. He makes sure that whenever he uses a quote he puts it in quotation marks, but he is so immersed in his work, and has included so many quotes, that he forgets where many of his references have come from. He has not kept a full record of his sources and does not have time to look them up, so he leaves many of his quotes unattributed and decides not to include a bibliography or reference list at the end of his project.
Is this an example of plagiarism?
Yes /
No
You selected Yes
Correct!
While Ping’s enthusiasm and hard work should be commended, by adopting the simple bad practice of not keeping a full record of the key reference details of his sources he has committed plagiarism. Note that even though he has used quotation marks and has not therefore attempted to pass off someone else’s ideas and words as his own, he is still deemed to have plagiarised because he has not attributed his quotes to a specific source and therefore not included ‘proper acknowledgement’, as the University definition states. By other definitions, incomplete referencing may simply be seen as ‘poor academic practice’, but the University sees this practice as a form of plagiarism because it is a ‘misuse of authorship’. You should not, however, be fearful that if you have merely used the wrong referencing system you will be adjudged to have plagiarised by your department. You may be penalised for using the wrong system by being deducted marks, but as long as you acknowledge the specific source, you will not have committed plagiarism
You selected No
Sorry - you are wrong
While Ping’s enthusiasm and hard work should be commended, by adopting the simple bad practice of not keeping a full record of the key reference details of his sources he has committed plagiarism. Note that even though he has used quotation marks and has not therefore attempted to pass off someone else’s ideas and words as his own, he is still deemed to have plagiarised because he has not attributed his quotes to a specific source and therefore not included ‘proper acknowledgement’, as the University definition states. By other definitions, incomplete referencing may simply be seen as ‘poor academic practice’, but the University sees this practice as a form of plagiarism because it is a ‘misuse of authorship’. You should not, however, be fearful that if you have merely used the wrong referencing system you will be adjudged to have plagiarised by your department. You may be penalised for using the wrong system by being deducted marks, but as long as you acknowledge the specific source, you will not have committed plagiarism
Scenario 4
Trevor loves sport and spends all weekend playing rugby with his friends. He does not spend any time writing the essay which is due in on Monday. On Sunday evening he finally sits down to write it, but after an hour realises that there will not be enough time for him to complete it. Trevor panics and spends £70 on an essay from a cheat-site. He does not want to plagiarise so he merges sections of the bought essay with his own work.
Is this an example of plagiarism?
Yes /
No
You selected Yes
Correct!
This is plagiarism. Trevor does not use quotation marks and citations to distinguish which sections of his essay are his and which sections are attributable to someone else. Once his essay has been run through Turnitin (the plagiarism detection service that the University uses), an originality report will confirm that he has plagiarised (it will even tell his teacher which cheat-site he purchased it from) and he will be penalised for cheating which will probably include expulsion from the University.
You selected No
Sorry - you are wrong
This is plagiarism. Trevor does not use quotation marks and citations to distinguish which sections of his essay are his and which sections are attributable to someone else. Once his essay has been run through Turnitin (the plagiarism detection service that the University uses), an originality report will confirm that he has plagiarised (it will even tell his teacher which cheat-site he purchased it from) and he will be penalised for cheating which will probably include expulsion from the University.
Scenario 5
Jack cuts-and-pastes passages from internet documents into his Law essays. In his reference list he includes all of the web-addresses from which he has borrowed passages but does not use quotation marks or citations to make it clear exactly which parts of his essay have been copied from an outside source.
Is this an example of plagiarism?
Yes /
No
You selected Yes
Correct!
This is plagiarism. Jack has only partially referenced his sources and has not included ‘proper acknowledgment’. He may be judged even more severely than Ping in example 3, because while Ping at least indicated which words were not his own by using quotation marks, Jack has made no attempt to make this distinction and could therefore be trying to take credit for someone else’s work.
You selected No
Sorry - you are wrong
This is plagiarism. Jack has only partially referenced his sources and has not included ‘proper acknowledgment’. He may be judged even more severely than Ping in example 3, because while Ping at least indicated which words were not his own by using quotation marks, Jack has made no attempt to make this distinction and could therefore be trying to take credit for someone else’s work.
Scenario 6
English is Fernando’s second language. He is a fluent speaker but wants to improve his written English so asks his British friend Emily to check the literature review he is writing as part of an assignment. Emily happily checks the review and spends some time with Fernando explaining his errors and working with him to improve his written English. Afterwards, Fernando is initial very pleased and completely re-works his essay, but later on he becomes worried that he may have cheated…
Is this an example of plagiarism?
Yes /
No
You selected Yes
Sorry - you are wrong
This is not plagiarism, nor is it cheating in any other form. It is not collusion (when two people work together to deceive a third party), as Emily did not provide direct, subject-related help to Fernando: she simply provided him with some neighbourly advice on how to improve his language skills, for which anyone would be grateful. This is the kind of budding system that the University strongly encourages.
You selected No
Correct!
This is not plagiarism, nor is it cheating in any other form. It is not collusion (when two people work together to deceive a third party), as Emily did not provide direct, subject-related help to Fernando: she simply provided him with some neighbourly advice on how to improve his language skills, for which anyone would be grateful. This is the kind of budding system that the University strongly encourages.
