Plagiarism
Proper academic practice:
summarising & paraphrasing
Academic Integrity
• Academic integrity is about proper practice in the
presentation of papers. As a scholar you must be
HONEST, TRANSPARENT and TRUSTWORTHY.
• Honest – the work you present as yours must be
YOURS.
• Transparent – your reader must be able to see
exactly where you relied on the research and
ideas of OTHERS.
• Trustworthy – the work you present must
represent research material reliably.
Be careful!
• Warning! The result of dishonest practice in
the academic world is NEVER PRETTY.
• For some it has meant:
• Expulsion
• Loss of job, career and reputation
• Disgrace
What happened at a university in
Victoria
• 13 years ago the Vice-Chancellor of one of Victoria's top
universities resigned his position.
The professor admitted that he had twice plagiarised text for
books that had been published in Britain 20 years previously.
Like all major universities, this one enforced a strong noplagiarism code, including expulsion, on all its staff and
students.
So, to protect its already damaged reputation, the university
agreed that the resignation was in its own best interests.
It can happen easily
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This doesn’t mean that the professor was a bad person. Maybe he just worked too
quickly and didn’t put quotes in quotation marks. Maybe he read something and
later forgot that the idea had come from a book. The point is, though, that he
didn’t reference carefully enough and … it cost him his job and hurt his reputation.
“I didn’t mean to plagiarise!”
Three important issues
• In this presentation we will look at three
issues regarding academic integrity:
• Plagiarism
• Summarising
• Paraphrasing
Important qualities
• At Southern Cross University we are committed to ensuring academic
integrity. This involves:
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Honesty
Respect
Fairness
Trust
Responsibility
Courage
• Why courage? This is because some of your peers might try to pressure
you into giving them your work to ‘look at’. The correct and courageous
answer to this request must always be, ‘No’. If your friend’s essay turns out
to be identical to yours in just one or two places, you are both in trouble!
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is when you copy someone else's work and don’t
acknowledge the author or the source.
This makes it look as though it is all your own work and that
you are taking the credit for it. But this is NOT your work.
Unless you cite (acknowledge) the source, you are stealing
someone else’s ideas.
• In academic writing, this is considered to be as serious as cheating
in an exam. If you have plagiarised someone's work this means you
have failed to comply with the basic standards of academic
integrity. This is seen as a breach of discipline and can have very
serious consequences.
What does referencing look like?
Like this …
Recent research indicates that students need
more sleep than was previously thought. (Pillow
2015, p. 68) However, Professor Mattress from
Stoke University argues that it is not so much
the amount of sleep that matters as what
students do before retiring. Playing computer
games, he argues, is a greater problem for
concentration the next day than not sleeping
eight hours is. (Mattress 2015, p. 191)
Punishments for Plagiarism
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The consequences for plagiarism can include:
repeat of an assessment task
loss of marks for an assessment task
loss of marks for a unit of study, or
possible suspension
Those are the ‘nice’ consequences. They can be a lot
WORSE.
• LIKE …
EXPULSION …
It can happen to you!
The “ THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE FOR ME” delusion
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Some students think, ‘I won’t take this plagiarism warning seriously – it’s not the
sort of thing that happens to me.’
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USUALLY, THEY ARE EXACTLY WHO IT HAPPENS TO …
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Things students say when caught plagiarising:
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‘Oh, is THAT what plagiarism means?’
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‘I thought we were allowed to do that! I’ve always done it like that!’
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PLEASE listen now so that this does not happen to you.
Examples of plagiarism
• Here are some obvious examples of plagiarism
• Downloading or copying an article from the Web
• Hiring someone to write a paper for you
• Copying chunks of text without quotation marks or citing
your source
• Cutting and pasting snippets of text from a variety of
sources
• Downloading an article and then changing key words in
every sentence
It’s no excuse!
• Claiming that the rules are different in your
country and you didn’t know the rules
regarding plagiarism in Australia, or that you
didn’t have time to write in your own words
is not an acceptable excuse.
These things are OK
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What’s OK?
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You can refer to something which everyone accepts as common knowledge without having to
reference a source for the information.
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e.g. Large areas of rainforest have been cut down in recent years.
You can reproduce a graph or table from a source, as long as you cite the source for the graph.
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You can reproduce paragraphs from your own essays in other essays. However, if you are
quoting from something you have had published, then you must cite the source of your
previously published material.
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You may use material from a group discussion with other students without referencing the
discussion. However, there would be nothing wrong in citing the discussion as an academic
event; this you could do by citing the date, time and venue of the discussion. This would be
the preferable course of action if one of the participants has clearly been the formulator of a
particular idea or perspective that you want to highlight.
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RATHER OVER-REFERENCE THAN UNDER-REFERENCE!
This isn’t OK!
• What’s Not OK?
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1. Copying a paragraph, but changing only a few words and giving a citation. The reason is
that you have stuck too closely to the original structure and pattern of the source, and in
claiming to have summarised that person’s ideas, you are misrepresenting the truth because
you have essentially reproduced parts of a previous paper without acknowledging the extent
of your dependence on it.
2. Cutting and pasting a short article from a website, with no citation.
3. Copying paragraphs from a classmate’s essay, without citation.
4. Taking a quotation from a source, giving a citation but not using quotation marks.
5. Giving a citation for some information but misspelling the author’s name. [Not that
serious, but still irresponsible scholarship that could confuse readers.]
If you are uncertain about whether a practice is OK or not, please check with your lecturer or
tutor.
Follow the rules!
• Plagiarism can be accidental. That’s why you must check your essay
thoroughly before submitting it.
• Plagiarism rules might seem petty at times. You would be correct
to point out that thousands of online articles are ‘cut and paste’
jobs making use of material circulating on the Web. Those articles,
however, are not examples of scholarship. Proper scholarly articles
on the Web are meticulously referenced.
• As long as you are studying at Southern Cross University, you are
subject to the RULES OF SCHOLARSHIP. We are all bound by those
rules in our academic work. Accept this, follow the rules, and you
should experience no problems.
How to summarise
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Summarising is one way to avoid plagiarism. When you summarise you take the main ideas from a piece
of text and then put them into your own words. Your summary must be shorter than the original text.
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In order to summarise someone’s work appropriately, you must understand what they are saying. Here’s
an example of how to do it (Communications in Organisations by Dr. Mieke Witsel. p. 183)
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Building a Network of Contacts
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You can begin the job search long before you are ready to find employment. In
fact, you can do it now by building a network of contacts. More specifically, you
can build relationships with people who can help you find work when you need it.
Such people include classmates, professors, and businesspeople.
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Right now, your classmates are not likely to be holding positions in which they
make or influence hiring decisions, but some of them may know people who can
help you. In the future, when you want to make a career change, they may hold
such positions. The wider your circle of friends and acquaintances, the more likely
you are to make employment contacts.
(115 words)
Note taking and summary
Points made
1. You can start network-building now > classmates, professors
and business people.
2. Classmates will one day hold positions of influence.
3. Classmates know people in positions of influence.
4. Contacts are important when changing careers.
5. The more friends, the more contacts.
SUMMARY
Network building starts during studies when students establish ties with classmates, lecturers and
business people. When seeking or changing jobs, one needs access to people who have done well
and have influence, or who know company bosses. The more friends, the more contacts. (Witsel
2015, p. 183)
(43 words)
SHORTER SUMMARY
definition: ‘leverage’ – make us of, gain access to
Witsel’s advice? Tomorrow’s power brokers are today’s students, lecturers and business people.
Leverage their influence in the future by befriending them now. (Witsel 2015, p.183)
(22 words)
Tips for summarising
• Tips for summarising
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Read the text very carefully, then REREAD it
Check any new or difficult vocabulary
Mark the key points by highlighting or underlining
Make notes of the main ideas you want to summarise (don`t include any
minor details)
Combine these ideas together in your own words
Do not include your own opinion or add extra information
Use your own words and not those of the original author (unless using
quotation marks)
Remember to cite your source using a recognised referencing format
Check your summary to make sure it is accurate and nothing has been
missed.
What is paraphrasing?
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PARAPHRASING
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A paraphrase is longer than a summary because your intention is to include most of what the
source has to say. However, once again, the idea is to say it in one’s own words. Paraphrasing is a
highly acceptable way to include the ideas of other people in your writing.
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Paraphrasing is when you write published information and ideas in YOUR OWN WORDS –
WITHOUT CHANGING THE ORIGINAL MEANING
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IMPORTANT STUFF
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The paraphrase should be clearer and more easily understood than the original and is often about
the same length. When you paraphrase, although the original meaning will not have changed, the
sentence structure and the vocabulary will be different.
A good paraphrase
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For Example
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Original Text
In today’s society and business environment, ethics are required to resolve
dilemmas that arise out of the conflicts between the economic and social
performance of organisations. [FROM A BOOK, LET’S SAY, BY (Williams 1997, p. 76)]
(26 words)
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Paraphrased Text
Tension between the social and economic effectiveness of organisations in
contemporary society can generate conflict which requires an ethical approach to
resolving disputes and problems. (Williams 1997, p. 76)
(25 words)
Although the words and sentence structure has changed the original meaning is
still the same.
Steps for paraphrasing
• STEPS FOR PARAPHRASING
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1. READ the text carefully
2. REREAD the text until you FULLY understand it.
3. HIGHLIGHT important KEYWORDS (subject-specific).
4. LOOK UP any difficult words and make sure you know what they mean–
try to find SYNONYMS for them
5. WRITE DOWN the main points. DON’T COPY entire sentences
6. REWRITE each sentence. Try to SIMPLIFY the sentence structure and
the vocabulary without changing the meaning.
7. WRITE YOUR PARAPHRASE FROM MEMORY: Put the text away.
8. REVISE what you have written and compare it to the original.
Tips for changing words
• Tips for changing the words
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• Circle the specialised words – the words that the text is actually
about. These will need to be included in your paraphrase, as
without these words, the meaning of the paraphrase can change.
• Underline any keywords that can be changed.
• Find other words and phrases that have similar meanings that can
be used to replace the keywords in the text.
• Use a thesaurus or dictionary, or look for synonyms in your word
processing software.
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• You don’t have to change every single word. There will be some
words that you cannot change – names for example – and some
key words, but you do have to write it IN YOUR OWN WORDS.
Practising paraphrasing
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Have a go at paraphrasing this extract from a text:
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Financial statements require quantitative economic data; they do not reflect qualitative economic
variables. Thus, the value to the firm of a management team on the morale of the workforce is not
included as a balance sheet asset because it cannot be measured objectively. [FROM A BOOK, LET’S SAY,
BY NGUYEN 1986, p. 88]
(43 words)
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Steps:
Read once
Read again
Highlight key words
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Financial statements require quantitative economic data; they do not reflect qualitative economic
variables. Thus, the value to the firm of a management team on the morale of the workforce is not
included as a balance sheet asset because it cannot be measured objectively.
Creating Synonyms
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Create synonyms where possible:
Financial statements – company accounts
Quantitative data – technical term; have to keep
Qualitative data – technical term; have to keep
Value – worth
Management team – leadership group
Morale – team spirit; esprit de corps
Workforce – the staff
Balance sheet asset – profitable resource
Objectively – factually, scientifically, numerically
Voila! It’s done!
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Write down the main points:
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Companies count their economic assets (quantitative data)
They can’t count or measure company esprit de corps (a qualitative factor)
So the motivational input of a leadership group will not appear in any asset
column
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Paraphrase:
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The importance of leadership groups which motivate their staff might go
unnoticed because only measured statistics (qualitative data) end up in the credit
column of companies’ books. Their contribution is regarded as qualitative, so their
effectiveness cannot be measured. (Nguyen 1986, p. 88)
(39 words)
Referencing styles
Referencing is a topic all on its own, so
relax – we’ll do that next time.
Plagiarism
List 10 strategies you will use this session to ensure that you are not penalised for
plagiarism. Go into as much detail as you like.
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