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Activity 1

Read the text below and then decide whether or not the student texts are plagiarised:

For a dissertation or thesis, one of the first things to do is to clarify the focus and define the parameters of the research. In short, you should identify your intellectual project: consider what you will concentrate on, and what is practicable for a lone researcher with limited resources and a tight timescale. A challenge facing you is to design a study that is both practicable and of sufficient scope and significance to yield worthwhile data. Be wary of pre-judging what you will find (p. 38).

Poulson, L. and Wallace, M. (eds.) (2004) Learning to read critically in teaching and learning. London: Sage.

1
Is the text below plagiarised from the text shown above?

Poulson and Wallace (2005) state that when writing a dissertation, one of your first tasks is to decide on the focus and set the parameters of the research. You should decide what your project is, what you will concentrate on and what is realistic for a researcher working on their own with few resources and not much time. One problem is designing a project that is both practicable, but will still produce worthwhile data. Be careful not to pre-judge what you will find.

a)
b)

That is correct. This is plagiarism because:

- The sentence structure is identical to the original text.

- The writer has only changed a few key words, for example, 'realistic' instead of 'practicable'; 'few resources' instead of 'limited resources'.

- Many of the words are exactly the same as the original.

That's incorrect. This is plagiarism because:

- The sentence structure is identical to the original text.

- The writer has only changed a few key words, for example, 'realistic' instead of 'practicable'; 'few resources' instead of 'limited resources'.

- Many of the words are exactly the same as the original.

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For a dissertation or thesis, one of the first things to do is to clarify the focus and define the parameters of the research. In short, you should identify your intellectual project: consider what you will concentrate on, and what is practicable for a lone researcher with limited resources and a tight timescale. A challenge facing you is to design a study that is both practicable and of sufficient scope and significance to yield worthwhile data. Be wary of pre-judging what you will find (p. 38).

Poulson, L. and Wallace, M. (eds.) (2004) Learning to read critically in teaching and learning. London: Sage.

2
The text below is plagiarised from the text shown above, is this statement true of false?

For Poulson and Wallace (2005), one of the most important aspects of writing a dissertation or thesis is finding a focus for your research. This involves taking into account what you will be able to realistically achieve in the time and with the resources you have available, in order to produce a project that delivers meaningful results.

a)
b)

You are correct, the statement is false. The text has not been plagiarised because:

The writer has used their own words to express the ideas put forward by the original author.

The writer has acknowledged the original authors correctly.

The sentence structure is different from the original.

That's incorrect, the statement is false. This text has been not plagiarised because:

The writer has used their own words to express the ideas put forward by the original author.

The writer has acknowledged the original authors correctly.

The sentence structure is different from the original.

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Check your answer

For a dissertation or thesis, one of the first things to do is to clarify the focus and define the parameters of the research. In short, you should identify your intellectual project: consider what you will concentrate on, and what is practicable for a lone researcher with limited resources and a tight timescale. A challenge facing you is to design a study that is both practicable and of sufficient scope and significance to yield worthwhile data. Be wary of pre-judging what you will find (p. 38).

Poulson, L. and Wallace, M. (eds.) (2004) Learning to read critically in teaching and learning. London: Sage.

3
Is the text below plagiarised from the text shown above?

Poulson and Wallace (2005) argue that clarifying your focus is the first step in any research project. To summarise, this means identifying what your project really is and what you can achieve with limited resources and a tight timescale. The main challenge is to design a project that is practicable and yet will produce enough data.

a)
b)

That is correct. This is plagiarism because:

- Although the writer has changed some of the wording, there are sections that are 'too close' to the original text; for example, 'clarifying focus', 'limited resources' and 'tight timescale'.

- The sentence structure is the same as the original.

That's incorrect. This is plagiarism because:

- Although the writer has changed some of the wording, there are sections that are 'too close' to the original text; for example, 'clarifying focus', 'limited resources' and 'tight timescale'.

- The sentence structure is the same as the original.

Your answer has been saved.
Check your answer