Plagiarism Help
How to Avoid Plagiarism and Other Academic Offences
The penalties for committing academic offences can be very severe. This leaflet is designed to give you as much information as possible but is not exhaustive and we advise you to seek further advice from us or your tutor if you are still unsure BEFORE you hand in any work.
What types of Academic offences are there?
Plagiarism-What is it?
- Cutting and pasting from other documents
- Quoting without quotation marks or references
- Paraphrasing without referencing
- Summarising without referencing
- Using an image, source and/or diagram without referencing
- Taking another students’ ideas and passing them off as your own
- Recycling your own work which has been submitted for assessment elsewhere
- Collaborating on what should be individual work
- Translating a document from another language (to mislead the marker)
- Overuse of quotes and non-original work (chunking)
How to Avoid it
- Always use quotation marks for direct quotes
- Always check with your individual tutors on the method of referencing they prefer (the Harvard system is commonly used although not exclusively)
- Always double-check your work to ensure you have referenced correctly
- Never commission anyone to do your work for you
- Never work on an assessment with a fellow student unless it is expressly required
- Never include large chunks of text from the internet
- Never lend your work to anyone
Fabrication-What is it?
- Presenting false results, research or conclusions
- Falsifying interviews or observations
- Falsifying number of placement hours
- Falsifying placements
Simply NEVER do any of these. If you are having problems collecting/interpreting data or are unable to complete an assessment or attend your placement, seek advice immediately from someone on the contacts list at the end of this leaflet.
Cheating in an Exam or Test-What is it?
- Copying or attempting to copy from another student’s exam paper
- Bringing unauthorised material into an examination
- Allowing another student to copy your work
- Any form of impersonation
To avoid being suspected of any cheating, always hand notes, mobile phones or anything else you are unsure about to the invigilator. It is better to be safe than sorry!
Possible Penalties
The penalties for academic offences can be very severe and include:
- Failing the module
- Having a note placed on your academic record ie it may appear on your transcript
- Failing the semester
- Failing the year
- Having your studies terminated
Please note that if you have to retake a module you will have to pay for it again
You can seek further advice from:
University of Bedfordshire Students’ Union Advice Centre
Tel: 01582 743264 / 3275
Steve Briggs
Study Support Tutor
F203 Park Square Luton
Tel: 01582 489202
