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How do I avoid plagiarism?
Plagiarism can best be avoided by following good academic practice, which involves using correct academic referencing. Referencing involves clearly indicating which ideas, hypotheses, quotes or data originate from other people's work. The aim of referencing is to:
- acknowledge your sources by using appropriate referencing. See What is referencing?
- demonstrate your reading and understanding of the relevant subject matter to the tutor. See Why should I reference?
Using another person's work in a way which may mislead or deceive your reader is plagiarism, whether you deliberately intend to deceive or not.
- Correct referencing will help you avoid accusations of plagiarism in your work. The correct format for referencing depends on the style recommended by your department or lecturer. Check with your tutor or lecturer and use the referencing style guides.
- If you read, study or use any other work in your assignment, you must clearly show who wrote the original work. This is called referencing and correct referencing will help you to avoid accusations of plagiarism.
- You must reference exact quotations, summaries and paraphrases of source material. For further information see Working with text-based sources.