Did Anita Stuhmcke draw this?
Due to an absence of skills – I
took it from the web…
Courtney Lockwood, The Nine Types of Law
Students,
www.lawschoolcartoons.com/?p=15 May 8,
2009, 6:19 pm (Accessed 28 August 2012)
Improving and Enjoying Legal
Referencing!
LECTURE OUTLINE
1.
Why you need to reference
2. Citation styles
3. Putting it together – WHEN to cite
material
75% of students have a negative
perception of referencing
• ‘In all honesty, I seriously dislike referencing. It is far
too troublesome for simply putting forward a point’
• ‘I hate referencing because I am not very good at it and
find I get marks deducted for bad referencing.’
© 2011 Reed International Books Australia Limited trading as LexisNexis. Permission to download and make copies for classroom use is granted. Ancillary for LexisNexis Guides Legal
Referencing, 4th Edition by Anita Stuhmcke
So, why reference?
WHY REFERENCE? The reader will be
able to evaluate, find and read your
sources….
• How do we know 75% of students dislike referencing?
Colin Neville tells us so from a survey of 201 United
Kingdom students in The Complete Guide to
Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed, (McGraw
Hill) 2010, 5
So from that single reference we now know:
(a) It was a study done in another
jurisdiction (the United Kingdom).
(b) The survey was done in 2010.
WHY REFERENCE? we may now evaluate
the usefulness of the information (and find
the original source for ourselves!)
WHY REFERENCE?
‘It stops you spouting cow dung’
Who said this?
(a) Undergraduate student
(b) Farmer, Albury NSW
( c) Judge, South Australia
(d) The Prime Minister
(e) Your law lecturer
CORRECT ANSWER: A
Comment from an undergraduate student
cited in Neville, Colin The Complete Guide
to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism,
2nd ed, (McGraw Hill) 2010, 7
WHY REFERENCE?
REFERENCING MEANS YOU WILL
COMMUNICATE KNOWLEDGE
ACCURATELY
This is important as …..
WHY REFERENCE? Your scholarship is now
part of the discipline of law
You are now involved in a community of legal learners who:
(a) Must transmit knowledge accurately and reliably;
(b) Develop the discipline; and
(c) Engage with knowledge.
WHY REFERENCE? To help yourself
1. Improve both your ‘marks’ and your academic success;
2. Assist you to learn to distil complex ideas and present
them clearly and concisely;
3. Allow you to explore and fulfil your highest talents
through appreciation of the work of others.
Your marks!
Competent referencing demonstrates:
• An understanding of the requirements of
legal research
• An indicator of good legal writing
• A grasp of material
For example, one of the 25% of students
who was positive about referencing in the
study by Neville states that
‘[R]eferencing is essential and learning to
do it boosts confidence, not just in writing
but also and primarily in arguing ideas. It
is a way of putting my point forward’.
Colin Neville, The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed,
(McGraw Hill) 2010, 5
Pause and evaluate the sources
used in this lecture
• What sources have been used in the
lecture?
• Do you think the sources used so far
reflect a grasp of the literature in the area?
1 cartoon and 1 book….
• The use of sources for this lecture is not
looking good….
WHY REFERENCE?
To avoid plagiarism
Sourced from:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=plagiarism+cartoons&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&sour
ce=univ&sa=X&ei=oFAgUOjhEsiviQf00YDgCw&sqi=2&ved=0CFcQsAQ&biw=891&bih=491
“Plagiarism is derived from the Latin word
‘plagiarus’ which means ‘kidnapper’.”
The above is a quote from:
Doug Atkinson & Sue Yeoh ‘Student and staff perceptions of the
effectiveness of plagiarism detection software’ (2008) Australasian
Journal of Educational Technology 24(2) 222-240 at 222 citing the
Concise Oxford Dictionary and Dawson J (2004) ‘Plagiarism: What’s
really going on? In Seeking Educational Excellence. Proceedings of
the 13th Annual Teaching learning Forum, 9-10 February, Perth:
Murdoch University http://lsn.curtin.edu.au/tlf/tlf2004/dawson.html
and Hawley CS (1984) ‘The thieves of academe: plagiarism in the
university system’ Improving College & University Teaching, 32(1)
35-39.
WHY REFERENCE? To avoid punishment for
plagiarism …
1. The University may exclude or fail or discipline or
reduce your marks for “academic misconduct” if you do
not reference correctly or plagiarise; AND
2. You may be prevented from practicing law as a legal
practitioner…..
Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152
Applicant refused admission as legal practitioner on the basis of:
An assignment submitted by the applicant in the Law of Trusts where it was alleged that:
•
Internet material taken without acknowledgment: ‘… the allegation was that the applicant submitted,
as her own work, with only minor adjustment, an article published by Professor Derek Davies of St
Catherine’s College, Oxford, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Bond University. The article had been
published on the Internet.’ And further .. the only differences between the article and the assignment
were ‘…the omission of two paragraphs and a heading, and the alteration of the first sentence of the
next paragraph following the omission, the effect of which was to make the paragraph appear to flow on
from the previous included paragraph. The other obvious difference was the title and ascription of
authorship.’ Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152, [5].
•
The student was then retrospectively investigated by the university and two further instances of academic
misconduct concerning an Administrative Law assignment submitted in the year 2000 and a Law of the
Sea assignment submitted in 2002 were found:
•
No attribution: In Administrative Law the student ‘…quoted substantial commentary by Professor Sykes
without attribution’; Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152, [6].
•
Verbatim reproduction: In law of the Sea the student ‘quoted verbatim from a governmental publication
without acknowledgement. For the Law of the Sea assignment, she was denied all marks, and because
of the Administrative Law plagiarism, her overall result in that subject was downgraded from a credit to a
pass.’ Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152, [12].
Why reference? International standards and
the Western tradition of individual
scholarship
• http://thatsreallywild.com/ghost/et-plagieringseventyr/
That’sreallywild, <http://thatsreallywild.com/ghost/etplagieringseventyr> March 13, 2011 (5.13) Retrieved 18
August 2011
• In the Western tradition of scholarship if
you do not attribute work to another that
you have taken you have STOLEN from
them in the same way that you may
STEAL a physical good such as their car.
• Theft of ideas is a very serious ‘offence’
Koch-y Kat
(see Media Watch
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2060271.htm
…the three sentences outlined came from
the Sunrise research brief...it has since been
pointed out to me that these 3 sentences
look as though they came from a similar
story in another newspaper. While that was
not obvious in the research brief it isn't an
excuse and I take full responsibility for the
mistake.
— Response from David Koch to Media
Watch's questions
Plagiarism is a public no no … but there
are gradations of intentionality and
punishments alter accordingly..
Joe Biden
th
47
vice-president of
the US
• He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from Syracuse
University's College of Law in 1968,[19] where by his own
description he found it to be "the biggest bore in the
world" and pulled many all-nighters to get by.[15][20]
During his first year there, he was accused of having
plagiarized 5 of 15 pages of a law review article. Biden
said it was inadvertent due to his not knowing the proper
rules of citation, and he was permitted to retake the
course after receiving a grade of F, which was
subsequently dropped from his record.[20] He was
admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.[19] (source
wikipedia….good source …bad sauce?)
Plagiarism is theft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgTG6
PYSTUY&feature=autoplay&list=PL4654E
7281F30605C&index=6&playnext=6
Melishiding, September 2, 2009(53), Retrieved 9
September 2011
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgTG6PYST
UY&feature=autoplay&list=PL4654E7281F3060
5C&index=6&playnext=6>
Two keys to Academic Success:
(1) Avoiding Plagiarism and
(2) Accurate Citation
WHY REFERENCE? Plagiarism
is easy to detect
Legal history or the history of law is the
study of how law has evolved and why it
changed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PmJhRIuqw7c&feature=relat
• Plagiarism may occur
edinadvertently if you
are unsure of what is required at
university, how to research and use writing
strategies or how to reference specific
sources.
• You may also be tempted to plagiarise
when working in groups or when deadlines
are due and you have not planned your
assignment.
Avoiding plagiarism
When you use the ideas of other people
1. Paraphrase and cite your source
When you use the words of other people
2. Use Quotation marks and cite your source
Paraphrase – a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1t0G7Z
nRG8
Peakdavid, "Avoid Plagiarism in Research
Papers with Paraphrases & Quotations”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1t0G7Z
nRG8 (3.14) Retrieved 18 August 2011
Paraphrase Exercise
“There are two things wrong with almost all
legal writing. One is its style. The other is
its content.”
(Quote from Rodell Fred, ‘Goodbye to law
reviews’(1999) 73 Australian Law Journal
593)
Paraphrase Exercise
Which is correct?
A. Legal writers such as Rodell have
criticised both the form and the substance
of legal writing (see Rodell Fred, ‘Goodbye
to law reviews’(1999) 73 Australian Law
Journal 593)…
B. The style and content of legal writing is
bad.
Citation
• Determine the style your course/lecturer uses
• Follow the relevant style guide….
• Be accurate, consistent and detailed
Example AGLC BOOK citation
IN A FOOTNOTE:
Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford
University Press, 6th ed, 2009) 24.
IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ashworth, Andrew, Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford
University Press, 6th ed, 2009)
WHY REFERENCE?
• The reader will be able to find, evaluate
and read your sources
• To communicate knowledge accurately
• Your scholarship is now part of the
discipline of law
• To help yourself
• To avoid plagiarism
• International standards and the Western
tradition
Avoiding plagiarism – time
management
‘Facebook activity is directly proportional to
the amount of assessment and examination
deadlines.’
From: ‘Practice Makes Perfect: The
Dilemma of the Procrastinator’ 2012 (5)
Vertigo 12