How to avoid plagiarism

In order to avoid plagiarising work, it is important to have a strong understanding of what plagiarism is.  Once you’ve got that, you’ll recognise the importance of ‘good academic practice’ and referencing. Click below for more information.

 

Referencing

Good academic writing engages with relevant sources and evidence. This engagement is demonstrated in your writing through use of others' work, either quoted, summarized or paraphrased.  This should always be referenced, and you should always include a list of references you have used within your piece of work (or a bibliography of the sources, if your subject area uses bibliographies).

Referencing is crucial because:

  • It gives due credit to the other people's work
  • It shows that you have acquired the skill of entering into academic discussion and
  • It allows your reader to trace your sources

Schools have slightly different rules on the style of referencing and what is expected of you – they should give you this information in your course handbook.