Plagiarism & Referencing

Orna FarrellOrna.farrell@dbs.ie

Learning outcomes

At end of this session you will:• Know what plagiarism is• Use a referencing method• Understand the difference between in-text

and bibliographic referencing• Be able to write a bibliography

Discussion questions

• What is referencing?• What is plagiarism?• Why should I cite and

reference sources?• How do you avoid

plagiarism?• What is common

knowledge?• Which referencing style

should I use?

What is referencing?

• Referencing is a standard method of acknowledging your sources of information

• References enable the reader to find the sources of documents

• There are two types of references:

In textBibliography/ reference

list

What is plagiarism?

• Plagiarism is cheating. It is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own. These ideas may be in printed or electronic format

• Giving credit to the original authors by citing and referencing your sources is the only way to use other people’s work without plagiarising

Activity: Is this plagiarism?

1. Copying & pasting text from the internet2. Passing off someone else’s work as your own3. Failing to put a quotation in “”marks4. Summarising or paraphrasing 5. Changing words or phrases but copying the

sentence structure of the source

Why should I cite and reference sources?

• To acknowledge your sources

• To add weight to your discussion

• To show that you have read widely on a topic

How do you avoid plagiarism?

• At all times reference your information• Use your own ideas and the ideas of others

sparingly• When taking notes & using the internet record

referencing info & save your notes• Use quotes when directly stating another

persons words• Include a bibliography

What is common knowledge?

• In all academic areas there is some information regarded as common knowledge

• “This is generally defined as facts, dates, events and information that are expected to be known by someone studying or working in an area

How do I know it’s common knowledge?

• Did I know this information before I started my course?

• Did this information come from my own brain?

• If the answer is NO then the information is not common knowledge and you need to reference it

When do you give a reference?

• You must give a reference whenever you draw on a source of information:

• As your inspiration• As your source for a particular theory, argument

or viewpoint• For specific information like statistics, examples

or case studies• For direct quotes• Reporting or paraphrasing an authors words

Which referencing style should I use?

• Dublin Business School• Business students: Harvard Business Method• Arts students: APA method

References

• http://library.dbs-students.com/LibGuide/LibGuide.aspx?WebPageID=5009

• Pears, R. & Shields, G.(2008) Cite them right. Durham: Pear Tree.

• http://www.apa.org/