Referencing and avoiding plagiarism

Contents

1. Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
2. What is plagiarism?
   1. How to avoid plagiarism
   2. Examples of good and bad academic practice
   3. Activity 1
   4. Plagiarism of expression
3. Why you need to reference
4. What is referencing?
5. How to provide references 1
6. In-text citations (Author/date style)
7. How to provide references 2
   1. Footnotes, reference lists and bibliographies
   2. Activity 2
8. To reference or not to reference that is the question
9. Referencing: Think - Who? When? What? and Where?
10. Referencing books
    1. Referencing book chapters
    2. Activity 3
    3. Referencing eBooks
    4. eBooks: Finding the URL
    5. Activity 4
11. Referencing journal articles (print)
    1. Activity 5
12. Referencing electronic journal articles
    1. Electronic journals and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
    2. Activity 6
    3. Referencing online reports (Government department)
    4. Referencing the Internet (webpages)
    5. Activity 7
13. Managing your referencing: EndNote
14. Summary

How to avoid plagiarism

The key to avoiding plagiarism is understanding how to incorporate ideas and evidence from others into your own work with proper acknowledgement. This is a key foundation for all academic work.

Taking steps to ensure you do not plagiarise starts with the reading you do when gathering material for assignments. Good note making decreases the chances of inadvertent plagiarism.

Good practice when making notes

• At the top of the page you are writing notes on, write down all the bibliographical details for the source (book, journal, website) you are reading.

• Try to summarise the information you are reading into your own words, rather than writing down lots of direct quotes. It helps if you put the book to one side and then try and write from memory - this means you are less likely to inadvertently plagiarise the information. Check your notes against the original to make sure the content is correct and you have not 'borrowed' phrases.

• When writing down ideas from a particular person, make sure to note down their name next to the information.

• Clearly mark anything you have taken directly from the text - for example with a Q for quotation or in a different colour pen to show that it is a direct quote.

• After each quote you note down, write the page number (you will need this to give a correct reference).

• Only copy down direct quotes occasionally when you think they will really have an impact in your writing.

• Mark your own ideas clearly in your notes, for example with a symbol.

For more advice on Effective note making strategies, see the relevant section on the Skills Plus webpages : http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/skillsplus

Good practice when writing

• Make a written plan before you start your assignment. This will help you work through your ideas and develop a line of argument, which will ensure that you are not entirely relying on other people's words and ideas.

• As you are writing, ask yourself 'Where did this information come from?' - check that you have acknowledged all your sources.

• Make sure all your direct quotations are in quotation marks and have a reference with a page number.

• When you are writing about someone's ideas, try to use their name in the sentence so that you identify the ideas directly with them. For example: Atkinson (2005) states that.......

• If you use quotes, make sure you don't use them to make your point - if you are doing this, you are probably taking too much directly from someone else's writing. Try instead to make the point or put the ideas across in your own words, and then use a quote as evidence to 'back up' what you have said.

• It is also important that you learn about referencing and how to provide clear references to the sources you have used. Read on to find out more....