Report_Writing

Plagiarism and Referencing Academic study is based on the development of ideas, arguing clearly, logically and honestly. As a result, knowledge is built up and people know where the ideas came from, what evidence supports them, and what evidence challenges them. This whole structure depends on acknowledging where ideas came from and making clear exactly what new ideas you yourself are putting forward. In other words, you must not plagiarise and you must reference. Plagiarism Make sure you are familiar with the university‟s regulations on plagiarism http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/quality/credit/creditinfoannex10.html#plagiarism It is forbidden to represent any one else‟s work as your own. The most common problems will be avoided if you follow these rules:      Don‟t copy from textbooks or articles written by others without acknowledging the author Don‟t copy from friends or other students Don‟t let them copy from you (or else you become an accessory to the crime) Don‟t copy from web sites Don‟t submit the same work for different assessments You are, however, meant to work together when work is explicitly set as a group task. More information is available in the university‟s guidelines on academic integrity http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ai/students/index.html When you are writing your own report or essay, make notes from your various sources. However, when it comes to writing your own words, just use your own notes. Do not have the original book, report or article open in front of you and, especially, do not have the window open on your computer showing the original resource. The temptation to copy and paste is just too great! Remember too that just changing the occasional word from another source does not make the writing your own—this is still plagiarism. Referencing Any mention of work by others must be explicitly referenced in the text of your essays. A general bibliography at the end is not sufficient. In the Social Sciences, the standard system that we use is known as “Harvard referencing”. This is based on the principle that references in the main body of the text are identified by the authors‟ surnames and the year of publication. The full details are then given at the end and must include enough information to enable readers to locate the original publications themselves. A full specification becomes very detailed and you should look at one of these web sites to answer any of the more abstruse questions you may have http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm http://www.uyea.btinternet.co.uk/docs/harvard.html A very full description of the author-date system of referencing can also be found at http://library.curtin.edu.au/research_and_information_skills/referencing/chicago.pdf Nowadays, more and more information is available on the Internet; it is just as essential to reference these sources as it is for any other. The examples below should tell you enough to get started and will deal with the most common types of reference that you will need. You will find slight variations in practice from place to place but if you follow these guidelines you will not go far wrong. 1 In main body of text (citations) These two examples are almost the same; the second shows what to do when the author‟s name is part of the sentence you are writing. Organizational culture is „the set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions‟ (Schein 1996) Schein (1996) described organizational culture in terms of shared assumptions Especially in long books, it is helpful to give the page number of specific quotations According to Mullins (2002, p.95) „The organisation is a complex social system‟ (note that the verbatim quote is in inverted commas). A web page is cited by using the title of the page, with, as usual, the year The Operational Research Society is the recognised professional body in this country (The OR Society, 2007). Any graphs or tables must have their source listed at the bottom of every such graph or table. Something like—Source: Bank of England (2009)—is good, with full details of how to find it in the list of references at the end. List of references at end Book references need the following information in this order author/ editor(s) year of publication title of book (in italics or bold) edition of book publisher place of publication Note that the title is in italics: Mullins, L.J. (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour, 6th edition, Financial Times, Harlow. Journal articles need the following information in this order: author of journal article year of publication article title (for added clarity, you can put this in single inverted commas) title of journal (italics or bold) volume of journal issue number of journal article pages Note that the journal title is in italics or bold. (Not all journals will have volume and issue numbers, or these may be months rather than numbers) Schein, E.H. (1996) „Culture: the Missing Concept in Organization Studies‟, Administrative Science Quarterly, June, p.236. Web pages change rapidly, so it is essential to give the date of access. The OR Society (2007). Retrieved 19 November 2007 from http://www.orsoc.org.uk/ Kim Parker March 2010 2