160

STUDYING AND LEARNING AT UNIVERSITY

Note that, when reaching the second stage, it is much easier and requires far less time and effort to compile a bibliography or list of references if you have recorded details of the material you have consulted in a logical and organised way during the first stage. The guidance in Chapter 6 provides examples showing how to apply the two most widely used referencing formats (the Harvard and Numeric systems) to the resources you are most likely to use and need to reference in your work.The examples are indicative rather than prescriptive. In referencing, slight variations from accepted styles are generally less important than consistency. In circumstances where you are told, for instance by a university department, to use a certain style and how to apply it, you should use the specified style in that way and apply it consistently.

More about plagiarism

In Chapter 5 we looked at the possibility of plagiarism creeping into assessed work and some of the consequences. Before we leave the subject of assessed written work reports in this chapter and essays and dissertations in Chapter 6 we will look at this area again as it is important to be fully aware of what can be seen as constituting plagiarism and how to avoid it. Plagiarism is taking the words or ideas of another person and using them as if they were your own. It can be intentional or accidental. Plagiarism is taken very seriously in higher education. If even a small section of your work is found to have been plagiarised, it is likely that you will be assigned a mark of zero for that assignment. In more serious cases, it may be necessary for you to repeat the course completely. In some cases, plagiarism may even lead to your university registration being withdrawn. Courter and Hamp-Lyons (1984) distinguish between four types of plagiarism:
Outright copying wholesale copying. Paraphrase plagiarism making minimal changes to sections of text and incorporating them as your own. Patchwork plagiarism interspersing sentences or phrases taken from the work of another. Stealing an apt term using a way of explaining or describing something first used by another.

We can divide occurrences of plagiarism roughly into two types, deliberate and accidental, and it can happen for many reasons.

Deliberate plagiarism
For plagiarism to be deliberate you will have made a decision to take someones work and pass it off as your own. This can be in the form of:

ASSESSMENT: REPORTS AND EXAMINATIONS

161

Copying the work of another student Copying work directly from a book or article Copying work directly from a website Allowing somebody else to complete the work for you Using, and in some cases buying, work from the internet.

There may be a range of reasons why deliberate plagiarism is embarked upon. Perhaps you do not have the time or energy to do the work yourself, or you think your cheating will not be detected, and even if it is noticed, that the tutor will not think that it matters. It could be because you are not capable of doing the work for yourself. Whatever the reason, there is no good defence for cheating. Apart from the fact that you do not actually learn from the process of cheating, you are very likely to be detected. Tutors will know the area of study very well and may simply recognise the work of another in your assignment. There are also increasingly sophisticated systems that tutors can turn to in order to verify plagiarism or otherwise. Detection will lead to consequences.

Accidental plagiarism
Accidental plagiarism is usually the result of ignorance or stupidity. It might be more charitable to say carelessness or lack of skill, but if you use the work of another person without acknowledgement it is still plagiarism. For some students a lack of confidence in their own abilities can lead them to seek support from the work of others, but again, there is no defence against plagiarism, whether deliberate or accidental. Some of the reasons for accidental plagiarism are set out below:
Not knowing that you should not copy directly without acknowledgement. Not having the technical writing skills to present ideas in your own words. Not knowing how to reference the work of others in your writing. Taking notes from an original source and copying whole sentences or paragraphs but not making this clear to yourself. You then use the same words in your writing not realising the significance. Forgetting to acknowledge the words or even ideas of someone else. Not having time to check and complete the references properly. Using somebody elses notes and not being aware that some of the notes have been taken verbatim.

If we look over the list of possible reasons for accidental plagiarism we can see that this type of mistake can be avoided without too much difficulty. For most of the reasons given, a little more care and attention to detail might solve the potential problem. For

162

STUDYING AND LEARNING AT UNIVERSITY

others, poor technical skills in writing, for example, it is necessary actively to seek help. This help can come from three main sources: your tutor, texts designed to help in the development of academic writing skills and your university student support system. If you know that you have problems of this nature, either identified by your tutor, or because you recognise some of your own habits in the list above, you really need to address the problem. A fourth source of help, of course, could be fellow students.

Original source
From time to time this submerged or latent theatre in Hamlet becomes almost overt. It is close to the surface in Hamlets pretence of madness, the antic disposition he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. It is even closer to the surface when Hamlet enters his mothers room and holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelias funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief. Kernan, A. (1979) The Playwright as Magician. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 102103

Word-for-word plagiarism, or unacknowledged direct quotation (plagiarised passages are in italics and underlined): Almost all of Shakespeares Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For example, there is Hamlets pretence of madness, the antic disposition that he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. When

Copying seleted passages and phrases without any acknowledgement (plagiarised passages are in italics and underlined):

Paraphrasing the text while maintaining the basic paragraph and sentence struture (no plagiarism): Almost all of Shakespeares Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For example, in Act 1, Hamlet pretends to be insane in order to make sure his enemies do not discover his mission to revenge his fathers murder. The theme is

Almost all of Shakespeares Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For example, in Act 1, Hamlet adopts a pretence of madness that he uses to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from discovering his mission to revenge his fathers murder. He also presents truth by means of a show when he

ASSESSMENT: REPORTS AND EXAMINATIONS

163

Hamlet enters his mothers room, he holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelias funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief. *** The opening sentence is loosely adapted from the original and reworded more simply. The rest of the entire passage is taken almost word for word from the source. The minor alterations of the original do not relieve the writer of the responsibility to attribute these words to their author. A passage from a source may be worth quoting at length if it makes a point precisely or elegantly. In such cases, the passage should be copied exactly, put in quotation marks, and cited accordingly.

compares the portraits of Gertrudes two husbands in order to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made. And when he leaps in Ophelias open grave ranting in high heroic terms, Hamlet is acting out the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief. *** This passage, in content and structure, is taken wholesale from the source. Although the writer has rewritten much of the paragraph, and fewer phrases are lifted word for word, this is a clear example of plagiarism. Inserting even short phrases from the source into a new sentence still requires placing quotations around the borrowed words and citing the author. If even one phrase is good enough to borrow, it must be properly set off by quotation marks. In the case above, if the writer had rewritten the entire paragraph and only used Alvin Kernans phrase high heroic terms without properly quoting and acknowledging its source, the student would still be guilty of plagiarism.

even more obivious when Hamlet compares the pictures of his mothers two husbands to show her what a bad choice she has made, using their images to reveal the truth. Also, when he jumps into Ophelias grave, hurling his challenge to Laertes, Hamlet demonstrates the foolishness of exaggerated expressions of emotion. *** Almost nothing of the original language remains in this rewritten pragraph. However, the key idea, the choice and order of the examples, and even the basic structure of the original sentences are all taken from the source. Although it would no longer be necessary to use quotation marks, it would absolutely be necessary to place a citation at the end of this paragraph to acknowledge that the content is not original. Better still would be to acknowledge the author in the text by adding a second sentence such as, Alvin Kernan provides several examples from the play where these themes become moreobvious and then citing the source at the end of the paragraph.

164

STUDYING AND LEARNING AT UNIVERSITY

On pages 162163 is a detailed example of plagiarism from an original text. This example is amended from a source at Princeton University (Princeton, 2003), where a section on the universitys website gives some very useful background on the rules which apply in academic writing.

Preparing for and taking exams

Each one of us will have different set of concerns about exams. Some unusual people say that they have no worries about exams and that they simply take them in their stride. This may or may not be true; often those who seem, and claim, to be most relaxed about exams are like swans paddling very fast beneath the water. It is worth spending some time reflecting on your particular concerns and considering what your particular exam needs might be. Here, we will look in turn at some of the areas associated with exams which can cause concern, or even anxiety of one sort or another.

Early preparation
There are different types of examination: seen papers; open book; one question only; no choice papers; multiple choice papers. It is very important to know in advance what the structure and duration of your exam paper will be. You will of course need to know the exact time and place of the exam. If the location is not familiar to you it is a good idea to take the time to make a visit to the room so that there will be no risk of late arrival as a result of not being able to find where you should be. There are some other important things too which you really should know about some while before an exam:
Content? What material will be covered? How long is the paper? How many questions will you have to answer? What choices will there be? Will the questions be multiple choice, essay-style, calculations etc.? What will I be able to take in to the exam room (books, notes, calculator, tables etc.)? What will be provided for me in the exam room (books, documents, tables etc.)? Will there be any reading material provided before the exam? Will the questions be available before the exam?

Your module guide, exam guide or tutor will be the source of the answers to these questions.