Plagiarism: reduce the risk
Robust notetaking skills, academic integrity, and developing your writing skills can help guard against plagiarism which is always a risk for students.
There are many kinds of plagiarism. Most are unintentional but some are intentional.
In both cases, the penalties and consequences of plagiarism are serious and can impact your success in your studies.
Awareness of the pitfalls and risk areas where plagiarism might occur can help you develop the skills you need to proactively manage the risk and ensure you submit original coursework.
What is plagiarism
When you submit an assignment and include someone else’s work or ideas without the proper citations and references this is plagiarism.
Citations and references allow you to give the original author and source attribution within your assignment acknowledging their work.
Plagiarism is passing someone’s idea or written work as your own and is an academic offense.
When does plagiarism happen
When you are investigating your research question, making notes, and writing your assignment for university there are a few areas where the risk of plagiarism exists:
Search strategy - when you don’t document your search strategy
List of sources - when you don’t track the sources you used
Notetaking skills - when you don’t use good notetaking skills
Paraphrasing - when you poorly paraphrase or don’t cite
Direct Quotations - when you overuse direct quotations or don’t cite
Summarising - when you copy instead of writing in your own words or don’t cite
Referencing - when you fail to reference
Developing your own ideas - when you don’t analyse, synthesise and write in your own words
Time management - when you don’t manage your time
Writing skills - when you don’t write in your own words
1. Search Strategy
Creating a strong search strategy is a fundamental part of the research process.
A strong search strategy includes noting the keyword combinations you have used, databases you have searched, and the sources you have identified.
There is a risk of plagiarism when you fail to keep a track of the search process.
You need a record of the steps you have taken to identify relevant sources so you can demonstrate how you have selected the sources to answer your research question.
2. List of sources
Building a list of sources that you have used as part of your research process provides a foundation for all assignment activities.
Include all the bibliographic information for each source you have used, regardless of whether it makes the assignment shortlist or not.
This means you will have a complete record of the sources you identified from your search strategy.
An annotated bibliography can be a useful tool here. Using the annotated bibliography, you can add notes to your source list to indicate your decision-making process.
Without a record of source details, you may risk inaccurate authorship plagiarism later in the assignment process if you can’t remember which sources you used, where you found them, or why you decided to include them in your assignment.
3. Notetaking Skills
Notetaking is a very important skill for all students.
Good notetaking skills help students resist the temptation of copying notes from other sources word-for-word and increase the risk of plagiarism.
Good notetaking strategies and skills encourage you to capture your own view, ideas, and personal reflections alongside any direct quotes, summaries, or relevant paraphrasing.
Complete notes will always include citations and references for the original source alongside your own reflections.
This means the citation details are readily available when you need to include them in your assignment writing.
4. Paraphrasing
When you understand a source and can restate the meaning, concepts, and ideas in your own words.
By paraphrasing you can lower the risk of plagiarism.
Paraphrasing can be challenging but the notetaking process is a valuable skill that helps you intellectually process the information.
Paraphrasing as you make notes means it will be easier to incorporate the information into your assignment because you have processed and understood the information.
Always include citations when paraphrasing or this could risk paraphrasing plagiarism.
5. Direct Quotations
Direct quotations are a useful tool if used sparingly.
They can add a new dimension to your assignment writing to reinforce a point you are making.
Try to limit the number of direct quotes you include in your notes and assignment as they can easily lead to mosaic plagiarism or aggregator plagiarism.
6. Summarising
It can be tempting to use abstracts of research papers or other sources instead of summarising the source in your own words.
Try to always write your summary notes in your own words so that you can be confident you understand the material and explain why you have included it.
A summary you have written yourself will be easier to understand and reference when you start to write your assignment.
7. Referencing
Referencing is a huge part of all academic writing.
Consistent, accurate citations and references acknowledge the original authors, sources you have used, show your research process, and demonstrate good academic practice.
Capture all the bibliographic information of the sources you use through the research process from search strategy, reading, notetaking through to writing.
Whenever you are writing your assignment mention ideas, words or the work of others make sure to cite the source to avoid plagiarism.
8. Developing your own ideas
Writing a successful assignment means integrating others’ ideas into your own writing, but adding something original to the mix.
That originality is your unique perspective and opinion.
Building your argument on the foundations of the previous research in the subject areas which you may have quoted, paraphrased or summarised you should develop your own ideas.
You don’t need to reference your own ideas but any time you mention words, ideas or other work from another source to bolster your argument or the point you are making you should include a citation.
Analyse and synthesize the information published in your subject area to develop your own views.
If you fail to develop your own views you may risk incidental plagiarism or accidental plagiarism by unintentionally relying on the words of
9. Time management
Procrastination and poor time management can lead to rushing an assignment, not doing your research, and eventually, plagiarising another’s work.
Time management means giving every step of the process enough time, so you don’t have to take any shortcuts.
Don’t be lazy.
Give yourself enough time so that you aren’t tempted to cut and paste from published sources directly into your assignment.
Or worse, use extracts from sources without citations which would be direct plagiarism.
This means enough time researching, taking notes, cross-checking your notes, formulating your thesis, writing, and then editing your assignment.
Knowing how much time to set aside for an assignment depends on how long it takes you to accomplish each of these steps.
Just keep in mind that rushing any of the steps can lead to one or multiple of the previously mentioned traps that lead to unintentional, or intentional, plagiarism.
10. Writing skills
Being unable to phrase a thought is a frustrating feeling.
Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead students down a path of plagiarism through the repetition of phrases they have encountered in other sources, while being completely unaware of it.
Attending writing workshops, using a dictionary and a thesaurus, using the internet to understand the nuances behind some concepts, and practising your writing are all great ways to improve your writing skills.
Use your notetaking skills early in the research process to write in your own words.
This will give you some reassurance when you come to writing your assignment that you are already lowering the risk of plagiarism by relying on notes you have written in your own words.
Summary
Research is the main pillar upon which good academic writing is built.
Make sure your research is comprehensive and includes multiple sources.
Use tools like annotated bibliographies to record all the sources you have used in your research process.
Write notes in your own words, making sure to always include the relevant citations and references.
Use your notetaking for more than just copying and pasting from a published source.
Create notes that are original to you and unique to your research question are a good first step in reducing the risk of plagiarism.
Manage your research process and the time you have available so you don’t rush the process and skip over steps that allow you to develop your own opinions and viewpoints.
Notebooks
We have 6x9 notebooks lined with space for references so you can document the bibliographic information for every source alongside your notes.
Click on the notebook image to buy on Amazon.
