Department of Intelligent Computer Systems University of Malta Writing and Referencing Dr. Chris Staff [email protected] October 2010 [email protected]

Department of Intelligent Computer SystemsUniversity of Malta

Writing and Referencing

Dr. Chris [email protected]

October 2010

University Guidelines

mailto:[email protected]


Learning outcomes

Learn definitions of minor/major plagiarism Academic Incompetence Collusion Checklist of good writing and referencing style Primary and Secondary sources

References

Plagiarism and Collusion Guidelines, University of Malta, 2009


http://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/95571/University_Guidelines_on_Plagiarism.pdf


Major Plagiarism 1

• ‘Significant unacknowledged borrowing’, e.g.• “Copying text or a diagram from another source,

failing to enclose the copied text within quotation marks, or taking somebody else’s ideas, and failing to correctly acknowledge the source of the text, diagram, or ideas”.

• “Purchasing a paper or report from a ‘paper mill’; paying others to prepare an assignment but then submitting the work under your own name”.


Major Plagiarism 2

• Continued…• “Copying text but replacing some words or

changing word order, whether or not the source is correctly acknowledged; re-drawing diagrams and failing to acknowledge the source”.


Minor Plagiarism 1• Examples:

• “Individual in-line citations lacking corresponding entries in the references section, or failure to compile a references section”.

• “Demarcated text without in-line citation or instances of incomplete or inconsistent in- line citation”.

• “Incorrectly written entries in a reference list, when this results in the reader’s inability to create a correspondence between the entries in the reference list and in-line citations”.


Minor Plagiarism 2

• Continued…• “Inconsistent citation style, when this results in the reader’s

inability to identify sources”.

• “Unacknowledged borrowing that does not contribute significantly to the text in question”.


Academic Incompetence

• Academic Incompetence is not considered plagiarism

• No disciplinary action taken, but may result in a reduction of marks

• Cases of minor plagiarism in first year assignments is commuted to Academic Incompetence, but you should receive feedback

• Major plagiarism always considered major plagiarism!

• Second case of minor plagiarism treated as major


Collusion 1

– Collusion is unauthorised collaboration on work submitted for assessment– Assignments should clearly specify if work is

individual or group work– If you’re not sure, ask the lecturer– All work performed by members of a group may

need to be clearly indicated


Collusion 2

• You may usually discuss problems and possible solutions orally, even if work is individual

• Never share written work, code, etc., unless permitted to do so by the lecturer


Checklist of good writing/referencing style 1

• “Does the written work have a references section (either as footnotes or endnotes), if one is required by the nature of the assignment?”• If there is no references section, where have you got

the information from?• Most of our work builds upon a body of knowledge



• “Does each bibliographic entry in the references section have an identifier so that it can be referred to from the main body of text?”• If it doesn’t, how can author show which references

are the source of claims made in the main body of the report?

• Readers may need to be able to independently verify claims made

Example

Entries in the references section should be uniquely referable, through an identifier, e.g., [12], [Sta96], Staff, C., 1996…, etc.



Brusilovsky, P. and Sosnovsky, S. 2005. Individualized exercises for self-assessment of programming knowledge: An evaluation of QuizPACK. J. Educ. Resour. Comput. 5, 3 (Sep. 2005), 6. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1163405.1163411


Brusilovsky, P. and Maybury, M. T. 2002. From adaptive hypermedia to the adaptive web. Commun. ACM 45, 5 (May. 2002), 30-33. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/506218.506239



• “Are the entries in the references section written consistently?”• If not, perhaps the entries have been copied from

different sources• What else might have been copied?• Can you easily tell which in-line citations refer to

which reference entries?

Examples

Reference format inconsistent:

Sometimes title first, author surname first, author name first, authors with multiple publications in the same year not differentiated, author name missing, etc.




• “Is there in-line citation wherever it is needed?”• Are there any unsubstantiated claims?• Have the claims been invented or have they been

copied from a source without reference?• Of course, if it is common knowledge then be

prepared to defend it!• If there is a references section, then there should be

in-line citation• Difference between references and bibliography



• “Do all citations that appear in the main body of text correctly refer to entries in the references section?”• It is essential that all in-line citations have

corresponding entries in the references section



• “Is the citation style consistent?”• If it isn’t, perhaps the work is unduly influenced by

other sources.

Examples

Mixing numbering, APA, Harvard style references

E.g., Staff [11] and Brown (Brown, 2005) claim that…




• “Are all claims made either common knowledge or substantiated? A claim can be substantiated by either citing a source that verifies the claim, or by referring to a chapter/section in the student’s written work that contains the substantiation.”• If a claim is unsubstantiated then was it invented?

Or was it taken from a source (where it was substantiated) without due reference?



• “Is all the information provided pertinent to the assignment question, or does the written work go ‘out of point’?”• A tendency to go out of point may indicate that the

author is too reliant on a source.



• “Is the writing style consistent?”• If not, the author may have been too closely reliant

on the wording in/phraseology of the sources.

Example

Brown proposes an eclectic model [11] so Staff doesn’t what he agrees.



Primary and Secondary Sources

• Primary sources are those that contain the substantiated claim or are first to make an observation

• Secondary sources repeat the claim/observation, normally citing the primary source (or another secondary source)

• A claim becomes ‘common knowledge’ when it is well known enough to not cite the source

Examples

Staff [1] in Brown [4] claims that the choice of classroom can effect student progress.

Brown [4] claims that Staff [1] has confused the issue of Shakespearian studies with classroom choice.

“2B or not 2B” ([1] cited in [4])…



References

• How to structure a reference and other information

• Source: A Quick Guide to Referencing

http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/documents/tipsheetsv3/tp06_AQuickGuideToReferencing.pdf

Documents

Department of Intelligent Computer Systems University of Malta Writing and Referencing Dr. Chris Staff [email protected] October 2010 [email protected]