1: Plagiarism
What is Plagiarism?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the origin of the word goes back to the 17th Century and means "kidnapping". It is defined as “The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft”. Someone else's work and ideas includes images, data, graphs etc. as well as words.
UCC's Policy on Plagiarism states:
"We freely pledge to abide by the UCC Code of Honour. Being truthful, honourable and honest in all our conduct, we will not lie, cheat or plagiarise. We will always endeavour to show respect to fellow students, staff and to all members of the wider community."
Turnitin is plagiarism detection software, which is integrated into UCC's Canvas platform. When you upload your essays through Canvas, Turnitin can highlight similarities with existing literature and written work from billions of sources worldwide. Your lecturer will judge whether any of your essay is plagiarised, and whether there is sufficient citing and referencing.
Here are some examples of Plagiarism:
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Turning in someone else's work as your own (even if you’ve paid for it e.g. using essay mills!)
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Self-plagiarism - turning in a previous essay of yours for a new assignment. (You could check with your lecturer to see if you can use parts of your previous work to build on an argument if it's in a similar topic)
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Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
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Failing to put a quotation in "quotation marks"
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Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
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Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
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Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not
(Adapted from: “What Is Plagiarism?” Plagiarism.org. iParadigms, 2014 Links to an external site. Accessed: 31 May 2019)
Here are a few tips to ensure you are not plagiarising:
- Start writing, in your own voice. Write what you know about a subject – then look for a variety of sources to support your own ideas or when there’s a knowledge gap.
- Take notes carefully - If you add source material to your work, mark it or identify it in such a way that you will know it’s from a source and not your own. Cite the work immediately and add it to your reference list. Don’t copy & paste.
- Cite/Reference - If you bring someone else’s work into your assignment (by summarising, quoting or paraphrasing), you must mention the source
| Citing, Referencing & Plagiarism | Module Navigation |
Preface | Section 1: Plagiarism | Section 1.1: Common Knowledge | Section 1.2: Direct Quotations |
Section 1.3: Paraphrasing | Section 1.4: Test Your Knowledge |
Section 2: Citing & Referencing | Section 2.1: How It Works | Section 2.2: Secondary Referencing |
Section 2.3: Referencing Styles | Section 2.4: Citing and Referencing Tools | Conclusion