Certificate IV Public Relations
Develop public relations documents BSBPUB403A
Develop public relations documents
Week 3 – PR research and report writing
What is plagiarism?
The term plagiarism refers to taking and using another person’s ideas, writing or inventions as
one’s own and failing to acknowledge the source.
Cheating & Plagiarism Policy
Central TAFE has a Policy and Procedure on Cheating and Plagiarism. Cheating means
gaining an unfair advantage by deception or breaking the rules and is forbidden (see Student
Code of Conduct). Plagiarism, whether deliberate or accidental, is a form of cheating and is not
acceptable. Penalties for plagiarism range from students having to resubmit work with correct
citations to being suspended.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be avoided by acknowledging the sources of information used in written work. At
Central TAFE, the method used for acknowledging information sources is the Harvard
Referencing System.
Examples of Plagiarism include:
• Using another person’s ideas or opinions without acknowledging the source of information.
• Failing to place a quotation in quotation marks.
• Using statistics, maps and illustrations without acknowledging where they came from.
• Failing to include all sources of information used in the preparation of an assignment in a
bibliography or reference list.
• Cutting and pasting to create a paper from several sources.
• Using information from a World Wide Web site, CD-ROM or other electronic source without
proper acknowledgement.
Plagiarism and the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a popular source of information for students. If using ideas or quoting
from a www site, you must cite that source. Copying visual information or graphics from a www
site is very similar to quoting information, and the source of the visual information or graphic
must be cited.
Plagiarism and the Library
To assist students to avoid plagiarism by referencing their work correctly, the librarians
provide/recommend the following:
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Referencing Guide
A 28 page handbook providing information on referencing using the Harvard System. It
is available for $2.00 per copy from all College bookshops.
Harvard Referencing Section in ‘Your Guide to the LRC’
A condensed version of the ‘Referencing Guide’ is available in a free publication for
students entitled ‘Your Guide to the LRC’, available from the LRC.
Help Sheets on Harvard Referencing These are available on the LRC web pages at
www.central.wa.edu.au/library by clicking on ‘Help Sheets’ and then on ‘Harvard
Referencing’.
Harvard Referencing Online Tutorial
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Certificate IV Public Relations
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Develop public relations documents BSBPUB403A
Created using WebCT software, it contains quizzes, self tests, glossary, etc. It is
available on the LRC web pages on the College Website. Contact the LRC for login
details.
In class referencing activity
In your own words, when do you need to reference the source of information to avoid
plagiarism?
When you directly copy a source of information from text that is not your own thoughts or ideas. If you
copy a sentence from a book or website you must reference it otherwise it as seen as plagiarism
because you are trying to pass it as your own work.
You are writing a report and want to include the population of WA in one section. You find out
from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) website that the figure is 2.08 million people. Do
you need to reference the ABS in your report? Why or why not?
Yes. Because you need to support your findings with a source that the statistics came from because they
are not your own findings.
The manager of an organisation you are researching has supplied facts over the phone about
the organisation for your report, such as its sales, staffing and predictions for 2005. If you
include the information in your report, do you reference this personal conversation?
You would need to reference that you have spoken to a representative from the organisation and include
the information that they have provided.
What is in text referencing?
when you’ve used information from a source, you must include the authors name, year of publication and
page number in brackets, to show you have got the information from another source and have included
the reference after the information you have used so the person reading it can identify that it is not your
own work.
Report Writing
From the TAFE website homepage, access the Library then teaching and learning resources.
Look up writing skills then choose report writing. You will find handouts to assist you to prepare
reports and essays for TAFE.
In class report writing activity
What are the differences between a report and an essay?
A report needs to be backed up with your findings and information to support what you’re saying, where
as an essay is your personal opinion on a matter.
List the main headings you would have in a report.
Title, Acknowledgements, Abstract, Table/ list of contents, List of tables and illustrations, Introduction,
Background, Purpose, Scope, Research, Definitions of terms.
The handout suggests that you do not write a report in the order it is presented to the reader.
What should you start with when writing a report?
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Develop public relations documents BSBPUB403A
On the front of your report you should have an executive statement that basically indexes the whole
report which will help the reader decide if they want to keep reading the report or not.
Essay Writing
What are the five components of the body of an essay?
1. Cover page
2.
Introduction
3.
Body
4.
Conclusion
5.
References
What are the 10 steps of essay writing?
Step 1: Decide on your topic
Step 2: Analyse the topic, determining the approach asked for and the main concepts and
Keywords. Try rewriting your topic using different words.
Step 3: Brainstorm/mind map the topic, asking yourself How? When? What? Where? Why?
Step 4: Identify and locate resources
Step 5: Note taking
Step 6: Planning the essay - write paragraph headings
Step 7: Write the first draft
Step 8: Edit and rewrite the final draft
Step 9: Prepare the Reference List/Bibliography
Step 10: Final checking – apply the finishing touches to the appearance and accuracy of the
Essay.
List reference sites for information on reports and essays:
http://www.central.wa.edu.au/Library/assignment-help/Documents/essay-writing.pdf
http://www.ecu.edu.au/CLT/tips/docs/report_writing.pdf
PR Research
In class research activity
What are the two main methods of research? Provide a short description and examples of
each.
The two main methods of research would be Quantitative and Qualitative.
Quantitative is asking people questions and measuring their response in tallies or yes no formats
Qualitative is asking people their opinions about open questions and recording their whole response
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What type of activities could you undertake to find information (primary or secondary)?
Eg one is search the Internet.
Look up related books in the library. Research journals and articles. Also search engines on the internet
You will be provided with more information and how and what to research in the coming weeks
in this and other Certificate IV units.
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