What is plagiarism?

A good understanding of plagiarism is extremely important when writing up your assignment.

Plagiarism is the taking of another person’s ideas, writings or inventions and using them as your own. This does not conform to good academic work. Re-wording/paraphrasing another person's work without citing the source is also considered plagiarism. One way to alleviate plagiarism is to reference all sources used.

What is referencing or citing?

Referencing is the process of acknowledging the contribution of other writers and researchers in an academic piece of work. Any research assignment that draws on the ideas, words or research of other writers must be cited/acknowledged.

There are two tiers of citing

In-text citations

This is when you refer to other people’s work in the text of your assignment. These citations appear in the main body of your assignment. It is very important to acknowledge the authors of the book/article that you used in your assignment, whether you have quoted from them directly or just referred to their research/ideas.

Generating a reference list

You must ensure that you keep a record of all your sources you used or referred to in your assignment. At the end of the assignment, you will compile your reference list.

There are many citation styles – check what is the preferred style of your department. UCT generally uses the UCT Author-date Reference Guide: based on the Harvard Referencing style.

You are now ready to submit your assignment!