Guide to avoiding plagiarism

by Professor Adèle Thomas
Qualification Leader: PhD and Master’s Programmes: LPC, HRM, HRD, Department of Industrial Psychology & People Management, University of Johannesburg

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is passing off the ideas, writing, works or inventions of others as your own intellectual work when they are, in fact, not your own. This can include phrases, words, images, artefacts, sounds or other intellectual or artistic work. Plagiarism also includes pretending that your own work, previously submitted for assessment, is now a new and original contribution. This can include work that has been submitted previously to another academic institution or here at UJ, or work that has already appeared in a public domain in some form. Plagiarism does not have to be intentional. Unintentional plagiarism is considered to be just as serious as intentional plagiarism.

Plagiarism is intellectual theft as the plagiariser stands to gain some benefit or unfair advantage over his or her classmates. The word ‘plagiarism’ comes from the Latin word ‘plagiarius’ which means to kidnap. So plagiarists, in this sense, kidnap the work of others and present it as their own. In this way plagiarism makes a mockery of the five fundamental values of a university. It is not honest; is destroys the trust between teachers and their students and impacts respect in that relationship; is does not promote fairness in the way work is assessed; and students transgress the responsibility they have to fairly portray their work and their abilities.

Examples of plagiarism

• presenting the ideas, words or results of another person as your own, without acknowledging the original author, i.e. copying without citing your source;
• using direct words in sentences, paragraphs or parts of articles and books without “quotation marks” and/or other appropriate acknowledgement (eg. not citing a page number) even if you acknowledge the source in the text or in the reference list;
• formulating your words so closely to those of the original author that it is obvious that you could not have written them without having had the source next to you (i.e. your paraphrasing of the author’s words is too close to the original author’s use of the words) even if you did acknowledge your source in the text and in the reference list;
• composing a paragraph by taking short phrases from a number of sources and putting them together, perhaps also including some words of your own, to make a coherent whole, and then attributing the whole lot to one source or providing no attribution at all;
• providing misleading attribution by using the words of another but citing a more respectable source;
• collaborating with others on work that you are required to undertake individually;
• using your own work, previously submitted for assessment, or your work that is in the public arena, without citing it;
• downloading sentences, paragraphs or sections of writings from the Internet and using them without quotation marks and/or proper acknowledgement (you need to cite the author [even if it is a company] and provide a paragraph number for a direct web quotation).

The following examples have been summarised by the Turnitin (2012) organisation:

Carroll, J. & Appelton, J. (2001). Plagiarism: A good practice guide. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University.
Turnitin (2012). White paper: The plagiarism spectrum. Available at http://pages.turnitin.com/plagiarism_spectrum.html (Accessed 10 February 2014).
SHDC.249/2014(5)