Topic 2 - Plagiarism and Referencing (Who, Where, Why, What, When, How)

Plagiarism and Referencing is something new to every first year college student, although it is necessary and very important it is a real pain and very hard to get your head around. I’m not trying to panic you but three months in and I’m still trying to figure it out. Firstly I will explain plagiarism to you and I have included a short video that might help you understand it.

Plagiarism is defined as taking another person’s work in the form of writing, music or ideas and using it as your own and taking credit for it. It can include information from assignment’s, websites or books. Plagiarism can occur due to careless thinking or lack of knowledge when it comes to referencing, which I will also explain to you in this blog. It also happens when people can't distinguish between their own ideas and others. Failure to take proper notes during lectures can also lead to plagiarism. ( Cooke, 2013)

Avoiding plagiarism is essential, always remember to give the author credit and reference whatever you use belonging to them. You must also reference anything that is not considered common knowledge. Quoting and paraphrasing can also be used to support your work. I have added a short video below that I watched in my lecture on Referencing and Plagiarism, hopefully it will help you understand a bit better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwZJQDwX7c0

Referencing is when you acknowledge the work of someone else after using it in your work. As well as acknowledgement we also use it to back up our work and avoid plagiarism. Here in ITB we use The Harvard Referencing style, at the beginning of this year we were giving a leaflet to follow when referencing which must always be kept beside you when doing assignment’s to keep you on the right track. I have added a video that should help you understand how to reference correctly, I would also suggest you check out the Anglia Ruskin Referencing Guide for futher help at referencing. ( Cooke, 2013)

References: COOKE, D. (2013) Communication and the learning environment. [ lecture notes] Plagiarism and Referencing. Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Lecture Theatre 1, 15th October 2013.
What Is Plagiarism? [online] http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/plag/whatisplag.php [Accessed: 20^th November 2013]