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PlagiarismPlagiarism is the attempt to pass off someone else's words or ideas as your own. Plagiarism may involve taking sentences or chunks of a published work - or of another student's essay - and incorporating them into your own essay without due acknowledgement. Plagiarism need not, however, involve direct word-for-word copying: it may involve changing a word or two here or there; it may involve reordering the source material and omitting or adding sections; it may involve paraphrasing an entire sentence, chunk or article. Of course, it is often necessary to give an account of someone else's views. There is nothing wrong with this so long as you make it quite clear by using the appropriate form of reference acknowledgement. An essay made up of a string of quotations or references with little or no commentary is not an example of plagiarism (as long as all sources are indicated). It is, however, wholly unacceptable as the essence of academic discourse is commentary, interpretation, and analysis. Simply knowing what is in books and articles is not enough - particularly at postgraduate level. What matters is evidence of thought, understanding and discrimination. Not everything that is published is of equal value.
Penalties for plagiarism Plagiarism is one of the worst forms of cheating and will attract severe penalties. In imposing penalties, lecturers will normally follow the guidelines set out below. These guidelines make allowance for initial, and perhaps inadvertent, plagiarism but move progressively towards greater severity. They are designed partly to protect lecturers from time-consuming investigations into the extent of detected plagiarism.
Guidelines Instances of misconduct by students are handled by the Student Discipline Committee. If the misconduct is substantiated, the Committee may take one or more of the following actions:
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