POLICY ON PLAGIARISM FOR ENGLISH 178

This document is based on the University of Stellenbosch’s interim approach to dealing with plagiarism in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The purpose of this document is to establish a consistent and comprehensive approach to dealing with plagiarism committed by students enrolled in the English 178 course.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is committed when the work (words, ideas, intellectual or artistic creations), published or unpublished, of others is taken over and presented as if it is the presenter’s (writer’s or speaker’s) own. Amongst other possibilities, the following contraventions are considered to be plagiarism: 

• Handing in someone else’s work, with or without his or her permission, as one’s own;
• Word-for-word repetition (whether paragraphs, whole sentences or partial sentences) from someone else’s work, including that of a fellow student or from class notes without the necessary and correct acknowledgement and reference;
• Repeating someone else’s ideas in one’s own words without acknowledging the original source;
• Incomplete and/or inconsistent reference to sources;
• The use of direct quotations without using quotation marks.

All instances of plagiarism are serious offences which can have major consequences for the student, including exclusion from the course and even suspension from the university. They can also lead to criminal and civil action.

Approach and detection

The University’s approach makes provision for a developmental dimension, namely that occurrences of plagiarism – excluding those of a serious nature – can be used as opportunities for showing those who have committed them as a consequence of ignorance of what is expected of them and how they should deal with information and research in the future. This does not imply that the University is complaisant in its approach to plagiarism; but, on the contrary, that it is creating a basis for a fair, consistent and transparent approach. 

In terms of this approach, all students will be thoroughly informed at the beginning of the year about the current plagiarism policy and its implementation in the Department of English. Tutors will be responsible for ensuring that students have a thorough understanding of this policy, as well as the correct method of referencing sources used in the completion of assignments, and for reminding students of this information on a regular basis (particularly before the submission of assignments). Students are to ensure that each assignment they submit is correctly referenced in the style prescribed by the Department, and accompanied by a document (the Department’s “Plagiarism Declaration”) signed by the student in which he or she declares that no transgression with regard to plagiarism (in the most comprehensive sense) has been committed in the assignment concerned.

Students will also be responsible for submitting every assignment they complete to the “Turnitin” plagiarism detection programme on WebCT, unless directed otherwise by their tutor. Students’ marks will not be confirmed and assignments will not be returned until submission to Turnitin has been completed and confirmed by the tutor.  Tutors will use Turnitin to assist in the detection of plagiarism in all categories described below; however, the extent of the student’s offence will be determined at the discretion of the student’s tutor and/or the Department’s Plagiarism Officer.

Categories of plagiarism

Three broad categories are applied in the detection and handling of plagiarism offences by the Department of English. These categories have been adapted from the Plagiarism Policy of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Category 1:   Plagiarising the work of another student

Plagiarism in this category includes, but is not limited to, the following offences:

• Handing in the work of another student, with or without his or her permission;
• Handing in the work of a student who completed the course in a previous year, with or without his or her permission;
• Word-for-word repetition of sentences and/or paragraphs from another student’s work, with or without his or her permission;
• Repetition with deliberate alteration of selected words, phrases, sentences and/or paragraphs from another student’s work, with or without his or her permission;
• Obvious replication of the structure or argument of another student’s assignment, with or without his or her permission.

Category 2:   Plagiarising work from secondary sources without due acknowledgement

Plagiarism in this category includes, but is not limited to, the following offences:

• Handing in work gleaned from other sources, published or unpublished, without duly acknowledging these sources. This includes information taken from websites; published books, journal articles, conference papers or reviews; unpublished manuscripts or conference papers; class notes and departmental handouts; or any other source;
• Repeating ideas or arguments contained in other sources as described above, without due acknowledgement;
• Word-for-word repetition of sentences and/or paragraphs from other sources as described above, without due acknowledgement;
• Repetition with deliberate alteration of selected words, phrases, sentences and/or paragraphs from other sources as described above, without due acknowledgement;
• Obvious replication of the structure or argument of work from other sources as described above, without due acknowledgement;
• Handing in one’s own original work or parts of work that has already been submitted for another module or programme without indicating where the material was originally used.

 Category 3:   Incomplete, incorrect or inconsistent referencing

 Offences in this category can be regarded as showing carelessness or inaccuracy in using and   acknowledging sources, but which is still regarded as plagiarism. The distinction between Category 2 and 3 offences in individual cases will be determined at the discretion of the student’s tutor and/or the Department’s Plagiarism Officer, but this distinction can generally be characterised as the plagiarism of work from another source with deliberate intent (Category 2), or the accidental, careless or ignorant failure to reference correctly (Category 3). Category 3 offences will generally be recognised if there has been some demonstrable attempt by the student to reference sources correctly.

• Plagiarism in this category includes, but is not limited to, the following offences:
• Incomplete or inconsistent references to sources;
• Failure to provide a bibliography with every submitted assignment. Even if secondary sources are not used, students are expected to reference the primary text with which the assignment is concerned;
• Omitting the acknowledgement of sources in some parts of the assignment;
• Using direct quotations without the use of quotation marks.

Procedure and penalties

All offences will be dealt with at the discretion of the tutor(s) concerned, and/or the Department’s Plagiarism Officer. The following are guidelines on the procedure for handling first and second offences. In all cases, it is vital that the tutor explain clearly to the student(s) involved why the offence is considered to be plagiarism, why the penalty is being applied, and how the student(s) may prevent this from recurring in future. The student(s) should also understand that a second offence may result in their exclusion from the course.

First offences:

Category 1 offences:

In plagiarism cases involving more than one student, it is necessary to determine which student is the author of the original work, and which student is responsible for copying that work, although both students will face penalties. To this end, the tutor(s) concerned may wish to hold a meeting with one or both students involved; if a satisfactory outcome cannot be achieved (ie if the students involved are not forthcoming in admitting responsibility), the Department’s Plagiarism Officer may be called upon to hold a hearing with both students, in order to determine an appropriate outcome. Should the tutors involved uncover evidence that more than two students are implicated, and suspect the existence of an organised syndicate, the Plagiarism Officer should be alerted as soon as possible, so that further investigations can take place.

Penalties for Category 1 offences are recommended as follows: 

• The student who is determined to be the author of the original work will receive a lesser punishment, but will still be liable for a penalty on the mark of the assignment concerned. The Department holds students accountable for the protection of their own work; carelessly (but unintentionally) allowing another student access to their work is therefore punishable by a penalty of between 10% and 20% on the mark of the assignment concerned, at the discretion of the tutor(s) and/or Plagiarism Officer. If the student admits to willfully and intentionally providing the other student with access to their work, or giving permission for it to be copied, the penalty will be between 20% and 50%, at the discretion of the tutor(s) and/or Plagiarism Officer;
• The student responsible for willfully copying the work of another student and handing it in as his or her own will receive a harsher penalty. Depending on the severity of the case (ie how much of the assignment was copied), a penalty of at least 15% (in very minor cases) will be applied; the penalty will be at the discretion of the tutor(s) and/or Plagiarism Officer, and in severe cases (where more than half of the assignment was copied) may result in the student receiving zero for the assignment concerned; 
• In cases where students worked on an assignment together, and it is therefore not clear who the original author is, the tutor(s) may, at their discretion, penalise both students equally. If the tutor(s)feel that there was no malicious intent (mala fide) to plagiarise, they may apply a less severe penalty, but should ensure that the students understand why working together on an assignment to the extent that they produce very similar work is considered to be plagiarism by the Department; 
• The names of both the students will be submitted to and recorded by the Plagiarism Officer.

Category 2 offences:

The distinction between Category 2 and 3 offences is made at the discretion of the tutor concerned (see guidelines above), but generally any case where Turnitin shows a match of 20% or higher with another single source that is not acknowledged at all by the student should be treated as a Category 2 offence. The tutor should hold a meeting with the student concerned to allow him or her the chance to explain how the offence came about; however, ignorance should not be accepted as an excuse, especially in cases where there is a match of 20% or more with another single source that is not acknowledged. The tutor should explain the offence to the student, as well as how to prevent it from recurring in the future, and indicate the penalty to be applied. The tutor should also make the student aware that a second offence may result in their exclusion from the course.

Should the student wish to appeal against the penalty applied by the tutor, he or she may request a meeting with the Department’s Plagiarism Officer and the tutor concerned to discuss the case. It will then be the responsibility of the tutor to inform the Plagiarism Officer of the particulars of the case before the meeting takes place.

• Penalties implemented by the tutor for Category 2 offences are recommended as follows.
• At the discretion of the tutor, a penalty of at least 10% (in very minor cases) will be applied to the assignment concerned. The tutor may wish to use the Turnitin match percentage as a guideline when deciding on penalties: for example, a match of 25% to a single, unacknowledged source may be punished with a deduction of 25%. The tutor may, at their discretion and in severe cases, give the student a mark of zero for the assignment concerned; 
• The name of the student will be submitted to and recorded by the Plagiarism Officer.

Category 3 offences:

As mentioned above, the distinction between Category 2 and 3 offences is made at the discretion of the tutor concerned, but generally any case where the student has made a demonstrable attempt at acknowledging their sources, and where the offence has clearly been committed due to carelessness or ignorance, can be considered as a Category 3 offence. Failure to attach a bibliography to an assignment can also be considered as a Category 3 offence.

Penalties implemented by the tutor are recommended as follows:

•  At the discretion of the tutor, a penalty of 5% will be applied to the assignment concerned;
• The tutor should ensure that the student understands their error, and how it should be corrected in future.

Second offences:

All cases of repeat offenders in Categories 1 and 2 should be referred to the Department’s Plagiarism Officer. The student will be subject to a Plagiarism Hearing in the presence of the Plagiarism Officer and tutor(s) concerned, and students guilty of a second offence in Categories 1 and 2 will usually be excluded from the course for the year concerned (subject to the discretion of the Plagiarism Officer). The Plagiarism Officer reserves the right to refer the student to the University’s Central Disciplinary Committee (CDC) or report the case to the Registrar’s Division. Should an excluded student enroll for the same course the following year, the student will be subject to close monitoring by their tutor(s) and the Department’s Plagiarism Officer.

Because offences in Category 3 are generally considered to be less severe than those in Categories 1 and 2, due to lack of malicious intent (mala fide) to commit plagiarism, these cases are not generally reported to the Plagiarism Officer, but dealt with as necessary by the tutor concerned. However, should a student continuously commit offences in this category despite advice from the tutor, the tutor may wish to refer the student to the Plagiarism Officer for a meeting.