Turnitin.com

All students on this course are required to submit their work electronically to turnitin.com, a plagiarism software package used by this university (and many others internationally). Only assignments submitted promptly to turnitin.com will be marked.

Plagiarism is intellectual theft and is committed when you use other people’s ideas and/or words and pass them off as your own work by failing to indicate clearly the source. Plagiarism is regarded as a serious form of cheating and may result in a mark of zero for your assignment and/or the assignment being withheld. The most serious cases may result in a monetary fine and/or suspension or expulsion from the University. Plagiarism includes use of material that is the work of another student or a lecturer, the writing of a published author, and the wide range of material available on the Internet where there may or may not be an acknowledged author.

Provided they acknowledge these sources accurately using an approved referencing system, students can use and refine the work of others to support their own argument, or use them as a base from which to pitch their own counter-argument (note that you need a referencing system AND a bibliography).

Learning the conventions of citing source material is an important academic skill and an essential part of learning to use other people’s work to strengthen your own. Tutor comments on your essays and in tutorials are designed to help you learn the conventions of citation. If you have any questions about how to cite sources properly please make time to see you tutor AND check out the website. The SLC can also offer help in learning to reference.