Avoiding plagiarism

Students sometimes are uncertain about the difference between poor referencing techniques and plagiarism. Because academic integrity is such a serious issue at university, and particularly in your legal education, it is important that you familiarise yourself with the University of Wollongong's policy, Academic Integrity and Plagiarism (opens in a new window).

There are many different practices that are considered plagiarism, which can range from: outright cheating by copying from another student; copying from other members while working in a group; or even handing in the same piece of your own work for more than one assignment task. However, the three most common ways that a text is plagiarised include:

• directly copying without quotation marks or a citation
• paraphrasing without acknowledging the author
• paraphrasing parts with a correct citation, but directly quoting small word-for-word sections without quotation marks

It is clear from this list that good researching and referencing techniques are very important to successful academic writing. Strategies that will ensure that you are not inadvertently or accidentally plagiarising include:

• being sure to take full bibliographic details when you are making notes while preparing for an assignment
• carefully integrating research, so that the quotes support your argument and you are not simply patching together other peoples' ideas
• good paraphrasing and summarising skills that showcase your understanding and careful selection of relevant research
• excellent referencing in footnotes and bibliographies, indicating your control of the research material

For more information and examples about good referencing strategies in academic writing, refer to UniLearning.

This completes the Citing While Writing module.