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 no-plagiarism 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• 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: • 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

• 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

• Some students think, ‘I won’t take this plagiarism warning seriously – it’s not the sort of thing that happens to me.’

• USUALLY, THEY ARE EXACTLY WHO IT HAPPENS TO …

• Things students say when caught plagiarising: • ‘Oh, is THAT what plagiarism means?’

AND • ‘I thought we were allowed to do that! I’ve always done it like that!’ • 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• What’s OK? • You can refer to something which everyone accepts as common knowledge without having to reference a

source for the information. • 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. • 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. • 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.

• RATHER OVER-REFERENCE THAN UNDER-REFERENCE!

This isn’t OK!• What’s Not OK? • 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• 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. • 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) • Building a Network of Contacts

• 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.

• 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

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)

Notes taken from: Witsel, M 2015, Communications in Organisations (6 ed), McGraw-Hill, North Ryde.

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.

Tips for summarising• Tips for summarising • 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?• PARAPHRASING • 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.

• Paraphrasing is when you write published information and ideas in YOUR OWN WORDS – WITHOUT

CHANGING THE ORIGINAL MEANING

• IMPORTANT STUFF

• 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• For Example • 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) • 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 • 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 • • 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. • • 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• Have a go at paraphrasing this extract from a text: • 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) • Steps:• Read once• Read again• Highlight key words • 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• 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!• Write down the main points:

• 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 • Paraphrase:

• 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.

PlagiarismList 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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