21 September 2009
Help to avoid the plagiarism traps and succeed in your studies
Students at the University of Dundee will be given assistance to produce quality academic writing and avoid the pitfalls of plagiarism thanks to a new initiative running this semester.
Teaching staff have created an online module entitled ‘Write Attributes’ that takes students through the full process of extracting information from source material and then framing key ideas within their own text - without plagiarising.
Academics and students must support the arguments put forward in essays, papers and dissertations by drawing on existing research literature to validate their own work. This requires them to follow recognised citation models for text references and for compiling reference lists or bibliographies.
The issue of plagiarism within higher education has become increasingly prominent as the Internet has brought new challenges to universities looking to help students make the most of new media sources whilst upholding long-standing academic ethics and avoid their studies being tainted by an association with plagiarism.
This means engaging with the students and spelling out to them exactly what is, and what isn’t acceptable from the very start of their students, according to Dr Kathleen McMillan, of the University’s Academic Achievement Teaching Unit.
She said that students often did not set out to deliberately mislead tutors, but instead ran into problems through incorrect references or because they lack the knowledge of what is acceptable in terms of word substitution, direct quotations, summaries and paraphrasing.
'For students entering higher education for the first time, getting their heads round this can be quite challenging,' she said. 'Most have never had to consider the concept of citing source material before, and so it is important they get it right from the start.'
'The problem is that students tend to focus on the mechanical aspects of their chosen citation model and seem to think that, provided they have all the punctuation marks in the right places, they have not plagiarised the text.'
'Often, all that has happened is that they have shuffled the words around a bit, or substituted them with words with similar meanings to those used in the original text. This ignores the critical thinking required to select relevant ideas and then process them so that they form a structured analysis of the work of others.'
'Write Attributes examines the presentation, structure, critical thinking and analysis required in academic research and writing, and aims to equip students with these skills from the outset. It is also useful for students and staff to look at this module as it is easy to fall into bad habits.'
More than 200 references and citation models exist, and Write Attributes provides a guide to the ones most commonly used and accepted in academia, including information about how to cite online references.
To address fundamental misunderstandings of what constitutes plagiarism, the module is divided into four sections - Academic Ethics, Academic Writing, References, and Resources.
It takes a step-by-step to the correct use of quotes, summaries and sources, and promotes best practice by providing good and bad examples of expressing ideas in different ways.
A quiz at the end of the module enables students to test the knowledge they have gained by looking at practical examples. Write Attributes has received positive feedback from both students and staff, and is one example of the initiatives designed to support students available through the University’s new PLUS@Dundee (Personal Learning for University Success) programme.
The module is available to all students and staff with access to the MyDundee intranet application.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
