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1. Acknowledgement
Practice
In a university, ideas are important, and it is also
important to give people appropriate credit for having
ideas.
There are several reasons why you should give people
credit when using their ideas; three of the more important
of those reasons are:
"fairness to authors and other students, the responsibility
of students to do independent work, and respect for
ownership rights."1
If, in writing an essay or report, you copy a passage
from a book word-for-word and don’t give a reference
to the book, this is:
- unfair to the author who wrote the passage in the
book;
- unfair to other students who do their own work without
copying;
- failure to do independent work as expected in a
university; and
- breach of copyright.
2. Plagiarism
Giving and gaining credit for ideas is so important
that a violation of established procedures has a special
name: plagiarism. Plagiarism means using
the ideas of someone else without giving them proper
credit. That someone else may be an author, critic,
journalist, artist, composer, lecturer, tutor or another
student. Intentional plagiarism is a serious form of
cheating. Unintentional plagiarism can result if you
don’t understand and use the acceptable scholarly
methods of acknowledgment. In either case, the University
may impose penalties which can be very severe.
Over many years, procedures have been developed for
acknowledging ideas in all forms of expression. In published
writings, for example, authors are expected to give
references to articles and books on which they have
relied, and to give written thanks to people who have
helped them in preparing their work.
There are several methods for giving credit in written
work and the lecturers and tutors in the academic units
in which you study should inform you about methods that
are acceptable to them. A good way to gain a better
understanding of those methods in a particular discipline
is to read articles published in academic journals of
that discipline.
The following examples will help you understand some
of the common methods for acknowledging your sources.
If you have any questions about these methods, check
with your lecturer or tutor.
(More information on referencing and citing can
be found at: http://www.library.uow.edu.au/resourcesbytopic/UOW026621.html)
3. Acknowledging Sources of
Quotations
If you copy part of a sentence, whole sentence(s) or
paragraph(s) from an article, a book, lecture notes,
an essay, report or any other source, it should be put
in quotation marks and the article, book or other source
should be referenced using an appropriate method.
Example 1: "The subjugation of thought in Australia
through stringent censorship and draconian defamation
laws has existed throughout the 200 years of white settlement"
(Pollak, 1990, p 7).
The bibliography should then include:
Pollak, Michael. Sense and Censorship: Commentaries
on Censorship Violence in Australia (Sydney: Reed
Books, 1990).
Example 1 is presented using the author-date system
in which the author of the work and the date the work
was published are listed in brackets.
Example 2: "The subjugation of thought in Australia
through stringent censorship and draconian defamation
laws has existed throughout the 200 years of white settlement."2
Correct - see the footnote (reference at
bottom).
Example 2 is presented using the footnote system in
which the full reference is given as a footnote. You
should be aware that, depending on the system your lecturer
or tutor prefers, you may use either footnotes at the
foot of the page or endnotes at the end of the text.
Example 3: The subjugation of thought in Australia
through stringent censorship and draconian defamation
laws has existed throughout the 200 years of white settlement.
Wrong and very bad: this is a direct quote
from Pollak and therefore should be placed in quotation
marks followed by a reference using the author-date
system or the footnote or endnote system.
If you use a quote, the words in quotation marks must
be copied exactly as they are in the original source.
Example 4: "In Australia, stringent censorship
and draconian defamation laws have existed throughout
the two hundred years of White settlement" (Pollak,
1990, p.7).
Wrong: the quote is inaccurate in several places.
If you change or add anything, use square brackets
[ ] to indicate the place where the alteration is located.
If you omit something from the quote, use a line of
dots .... to indicate the location of the omission.
Example 5: Pollak claims that censorship and
defamation law have been the means for "[t]he subjugation
of thought in Australia .... throughout the 200 years
of white settlement" (Pollak, 1990, p.7).
4. Acknowledging Sources of
Ideas
Even if you are not using the exact words of somebody
else, it is wrong to use their ideas unless you give
appropriate credit. For example, if you write an essay
or paper on the censorship of the press and you structure
it using the same set of topics as Pollak uses in his
book Sense and Censorship, you should say this
in a sentence or note and thus give credit to Pollak.
Example 6: In this essay, the use of censorship
against Dorothy Hewett, Terry Hayes, Chris Masters and
Brian Toohey will be described.
Wrong: the last four chapters of Pollak’s
book are on these individuals, so you should give
Pollak credit for having picked them out – and
more credit if you used his book for your analysis.
5. Paraphrasing
This means taking the ideas of somebody else and expressing
them with different words. Since you are using your
own words, you do not need to use quotation marks.
However, you must make enough changes so that what you
have written is distinctly different, and you must acknowledge
your source.
Example 7: Stringent defamation laws combined
with tight censorship practices have meant that independent
thought has been under attack since white settlement
began in Australia (Pollak, 1990, p.7).
Example 8: In Australia, stringent censorship
and draconian defamation laws have led to the subjugation
of thought in Australia throughout the 200 years of
White settlement (Pollak, 1990, p 7).
Wrong: this is too close to Pollak’s original
wording.
Example 9: Stringent defamation laws combined
with tight censorship practices have meant that independent
thought has been under attack since white settlement
began in Australia.
Wrong: there is no citation of Pollak.
It is often better to avoid paraphrasing altogether
and write things in your own words. One good way to
do this is to first read the book or article and make
brief notes. Then close the book or turn over the article
and write what you want to say without looking at the
source. In other words, don’t refer to the source
material while you are writing, unless you are transcribing
a direct quote. Then, afterwards, put in the citations,
in the appropriate form and at the appropriate places.
6. Common Knowledge
It is unnecessary to give a citation to something that
is common knowledge. Common knowledge is what ‘everyone
knows’ about a particular subject, or which can
be found in many sources such as newspapers, magazines,
popular journals and radio and television reports.
Example 10: Defamation laws are quite severe
in Australia.
Correct: this is common knowledge. No citation
is needed.
7. How to Avoid Plagiarism
Unwitting plagiarism is often the result of poor study
methods. The habit of copying verbatim (word-for-word)
from a source as you read is dangerous. It is easy to
forget that the notes you make are verbatim and to later
write them into an essay or report. The only material
you should write verbatim are those absolutely delightful,
pithy, witty or incisive phrases which you need to make
a special point in your essay or report.
The distinction between what needs to be acknowledged
and what is common knowledge is not always clear. As
you gain experience in expressing yourself, you will
learn to discriminate and you will learn the acceptable
practices for acknowledgment in the disciplines in which
you study. But while you are learning, always play safe
and acknowledge, acknowledge, acknowledge.
List of References:
1. Barry M Kroll, "How college freshmen view plagiarism",
Written Communication, Voc 5, No 2, April 1998,
pp 203-221 (quote from p 203).
2. Pollak, Michael. Sense and Censorship: Commentaries
on Censorship Violence in Australia (Sydney: Reed
books, 1990), p7.
Last revised:
February 15, 2008
Comments & Questions to Policy & Governance Unit
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