Plagiarism and Cheating

A quick guide to plagiarism and sources of further help and advice

What is Plagiarism?

If you

• copy someone else’s work and present it as if it is your own
• copy sections of someone else’s writing and just change the odd word or phrase
• submit the same piece of your own work for two different assignments
• use unreferenced material from any source material (including books, journal articles, newspapers, other people’s essays and websites)

then you will be committing plagiarism, a serious academic offence. Plagiarism will lead to disciplinary action so please make sure you reference your work properly.

Of course, it is important to read widely and to show that you have used other sources but it is also important that you acknowledge these sources. The purpose of assessment is to establish what you know and understand, not what other people know and understand.

Many Higher Education Institutions, including Writtle, use an electronic Plagiarism Detection Service to identify unreferenced copying, as well as collusion between students and reuse of different assignments. Your tutor will advise you if it is appropriate for you to submit your work to Turnitin, the Plagiarism Detection Service, and a link to a Turnitin Student Manual can be found below. When you hand in work you will be asked to complete an Assessment Feedback Sheet which requires you to sign a declaration that the work you submit is your own, except as indicated by full referencing.

You will find it much easier if you get into good habits of studying from the outset. Make sure you know whether you are using your own words or someone else’s – and keep a record of all sources used so that you can refer to them as necessary.

Referencing your Work

For the reasons noted above, it is essential that you acknowledge the source of the work you have used when producing an assignment by using correct referencing. Appropriate, comprehensive, consistent and correct referencing will help to raise the quality of a piece of work and therefore the grade awarded. Full details of the correct way to reference work can be found in the Writtle College Referencing Policy and Guidelines

Further Information

Further details about plagiarism and how to avoid it, including video clips and online quizzes you can try can be found on the University of Essex website at http://www.essex.ac.uk/plagiarism/

Plagiarism and how to avoid it (downloadable Guide published by University of Essex)

Writtle College Referencing Policy and Guidelines

The Academic Offences Section in the Student Handbook for Higher Education Students.