This section contains extremely important information. Students are advised to read it very carefully. Many students practise plagiarism without realising that they are doing so. Given the measures that are being taken to inform students about what plagiarism is, claiming ignorance about what constitutes plagiarism will not be deemed a legitimate excuse.

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. Students caught engaging in this practice will be reported to the relevant university authorities. The university takes plagiarism very seriously and students found guilty of it can expect to face heavy penalties, up to and including either rustication or expulsion from the university.

A general definition
To plagiarise is to use another person's work while presenting it as one's own.

Forms of plagiarism

Many students have this general understanding of what plagiarism is, but do not realise the many forms it can take. These include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following overlapping practices:

Submitting as one's own, work which one has copied, whether in whole or in part, from anybody else, and irrespective of whether that copied work is published or unpublished, from the web or from another student (past or present) or a family member.

Lifting another person's ideas or words without acknowledgement, whether or not that person knows of or has given permission to use the work without acknowledgement.

Acknowledging a source but not indicating that one has quoted verbatim (i.e. word for word).

Indicating, via quotation marks, that some words have been taken directly from another author, but without acknowledging the source by providing the necessary citation details.

Preserving the general structure of a sentence, paragraph or other unit of work authored by somebody else, making minor grammatical, structural or word changes. This constitutes editing somebody else's work - often for the worse - not writing one's own work.

Any student who is in doubt as to whether a practice constitutes plagiarism is responsible for asking the relevant lecturer or tutor.


Avoiding plagiarism

Never copy from another person

Students are permitted to discuss class work and essay topics with other people, but they are not permitted to copy their work.

Exercise caution in making preparatory notes from sources

Some students make the error, in preparing for their essays, of making verbatim notes from a source and then including these in the essays they subsequently write. To avoid this, it is best not to copy verbatim but rather to make notes in one's own words. Where words are copied verbatim in one's preparatory notes, these should be included in quotation marks to remind one that these words are directly quoted.

Always acknowledge the source of an idea that one borrows from somebody else

It is not necessary, however, to acknowledge generally accepted facts and ideas. For instance, if one noted that Immanuel Kant was the author of the Critique of Pure Reason it would not be necessary to reference the secondary source in which one read that. Similarly, if one wrote that ethical egoism is the view that one ought to pursue one's own interests, one would not need to acknowledge a book or article where one learnt that.

Even a single sentence or phrase copied from another source must be included in quotation marks and referenced

It is particularly easy for students to fall into the trap of cutting and pasting from one or more web sources into their essays. This is as unacceptable as copying from print sources. All quotations must be clearly indicated as such by the use of both quotation marks and citation of the source.

Remember, however, that one should keep quotations to a minimum. They should be used only when necessary. A string of quotations, even if clearly marked as such and duly referenced, is not an acceptable essay. It is not possible to assess a student's understanding of the issues if large parts of the student's essay consist of quoting the words of others.

A rule of thumb is to quote only when some important purpose is served by doing so. For example, when an author's wording is ambiguous, it may be important to quote the exact words as a prelude to explaining the different interpretations of them.

Do not follow the structure of other people's work too closely

In writing one's essay, one should not simply reproduce the (general or detailed) structure of other people's work. It is not acceptable to merely reword or edit other people's writing and present it as one's own.

Plagiarism declaration

A signed declaration, indicating that one has not plagiarised, must be included on the front cover of each essay submitted. It should take the following form:

1. I know that plagiarism is a serious form of academic dishonesty.
2. I have read the document about avoiding plagiarism, am familiar with its contents and have avoided all forms of plagiarism mentioned there.
3. Where I have used the words of others, I have indicated this by the use of quotation marks.
4. I have referenced all quotations and other ideas borrowed from others.
5. I have not and shall not allow others to plagiarise my work.

Signature:


Some examples

Some real examples of plagiarism are reproduced on the following pages. The similarities of the source and plagiarised versions are underlined. Occasional rephrasing in the plagiarised version is indicated by grey script. Each example is followed by an explanation of why it is an instance of plagiarism.

One student copying from another

The structure of student B’s paragraph is modelled very closely on Student A’s.

Student B has not used student A’s exact words, but has plagiarised in rewording each copied component of student A’s paragraph.

Copying from web source - with acknowledgement but without quotation marks
 

Whole sentences and phrases have been lifted from the source without indicating that words have been quoted verbatim.

That student C has faithfully acknowledged the source of each copied sentence does not mean that plagiarism has been avoided.

Had student C used quotation marks, plagiarism would have been avoided. However, it would not have made for a good essay, especially since most of the rest of the essay consists of “cutting and pasting” from this and other sources.

 Copying from published source without acknowledgement 

Student D has quoted verbatim (with the occasional rephrasing) from the source, but has not acknowledged that source.

Changing the occasional word and slightly rephrasing the source, as student D has done, does not avoid plagiarism.