PLAGIARISM

Please read the following very carefully, and refer to it each time you have an essay or assignment to do. The department assumes that you have read and assimilated the information given below. Ignorance is no defence.

1. What is plagiarism?

Most students understand that it is not acceptable to pass someone else’s work off as their own. However, many students do not realise all of the practices that constitute plagiarism. These include:

· Incorporating into your work any words (including a phrase, or sentence, and in some cases, even a word) that you found elsewhere. If the text you have taken is not from a book – if it is from the Internet, or from class notes, or from a conversation you have had with another scholar – you are still plagiarising if you do not acknowledge your source.

· Using an idea that you have got from someone else – whether a critic, a teacher, or a friend, and not acknowledging the source of that idea.

· Acknowledging a source by including a reference to that source, but not making it clear that you have used text word-for-word from that source. Every time you copy out the words of someone else, you must put inverted commas around the entire utterance (see point 5 [i] and   [ii]).

· Using a sentence or a paragraph that you have found elsewhere, and changing or editing it slightly.

· Using quotation marks to indicate that the words are not your own, but failing to include the source of the words in a properly referenced manner.

2. Why is it so bad to plagiarise?

The currency in which we trade at university is ideas. That is why using the words and/ or ideas of another person without acknowledgment constitutes theft. Similarly, if you attempt to take credit for arriving at your own idea without demonstrating how you got there, you are ignoring the scholarly community and the due process that constitutes academic work. 

3. Why do people plagiarise?

Some students plagiarise because they want to avoid doing the work themselves. However, some students plagiarise because they do not have the confidence to tackle the task at hand. Feeling unsure of where to start is not an acceptable excuse for plagiarism. If you feel overwhelmed or uncertain you must approach your tutor for help. If you plagiarise in order to find a solution to these feelings the full penalties will apply to you. There is a third reason why some first year students plagiarise. At school you are sometimes encouraged to copy material, or to cut and paste from the Internet. At university, this does not constitute research. You have to be aware of the difference in the nature of the work you are now doing. If you simply copy, or cut and paste, or do any of the other things mentioned above in point 1, you will be guilty of committing theft (see point 2). You will also be held accountable if work has been copied from you. You are not allowed to lend your work to anybody, even if they claim to want to see how the essay should be done. You are responsible for guarding your own work.

4.Turnitin

Turnitin is a clever programme employed by the University of Stellenbosch that compares all students’ electronic work with any and all data on the internet. Once you have uploaded your essay onto Turnitin, you will need to wait to print your electronic receipt. Your receipt is proof that your essay has been submitted. You must attach this to your essay.

After all students’ essays have been submitted to this programme, tutors individually check their classes’ similarity reports online. Please remember that this site is active, so if your similarity report at the time of submission was 4% and somebody submits an identical copy, the similarity percentage will rise to 100%. Turnitin scans for student-on-student plagiarism and any internet plagiarism. It also identifies plagiarism where you may not have referenced correctly. So please make sure you reference correctly, avoid copying a peer’s work or anything from the internet. There is really nothing Turnitin cannot find!

5. What will happen to me if I plagiarise?

You will get 0% for the piece of work you have submitted. In addition: your name will be added to a database of students who have been found to plagiarise; you may be sent to the Dean for a disciplinary enquiry; you may be excluded from the English course; you may be expelled from the university.

Remember that pleading ignorance will not protect you from these consequences. Furthermore, if your tutor suspects you have plagiarised it is your responsibility to demonstrate that you have not (see point 7).

6. So what must I do?

(i)  Make careful note of your sources when you prepare for your essay, as you go along. If you write out word-for-word a point from one of your sources, and forget to mark it as such in your rough notes, you may end up incorporating this plagiarised piece of work into your essay accidentally.

(ii) Think carefully about each quotation before you insert it into your essay. A string of long paragraphs quoted from elsewhere does not constitute an essay, even if you reference properly. If you are going to use a quote you need to explain in your argument why you are including that quote. A general rule of thumb to follow is: the longer the quote, the longer your explanation needs to be. Quotes, especially long quotes, need to be analysed and/ or commented upon in your essay. Remember to indent long quotes.

(iii) You must acknowledge every idea that is not wholly your own.

Commonly accepted facts do not need to be referenced in this manner, e.g. you can assume that William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet without having to quote the source of that information.

(iv) You MUST refer to the Essay Writing Guide every time you write an essay. There you will find guidelines for how to quote correctly, and how to reference correctly. It is imperative that you follow these rules. Part of what you are learning at university is how to construct an academic essay. This means you have to pay attention to the details of how to quote and reference. There is no excuse for not getting this right.

(v)  Ask your tutor if you are in any doubt. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are fulfilling the task you have been set.