WELCOME!

Professor Anita Stuhmcke

Anita.Stuhmcke@uts.edu.au

Please do the exercise on the handout titled: ‘When should I reference material?’

1. Do the exercise alone and then

2. Check your answers with the people sitting around you

LECTURE OUTLINE

1. PART A: Why you need to reference

2. PART B: Study Skills

3. PART C: AGLC Citation style

Putting it together – WHEN to cite material

Did Anita Stuhmcke draw this?

Due to an absence of skills – I took it from the web…

Courtney Lockwood, The Nine Types of Law Students, www.lawschoolcartoons.com/?p=15 May 8, 2009, 6:19 pm (Accessed 28 August 2012)

Improving and Enjoying Legal Referencing!

© 2011 Reed International Books Australia Limited trading as LexisNexis. Permission to download and make copies for classroom use is granted. Ancillary for LexisNexis Guides Legal Referencing, 4th Edition by Anita Stuhmcke

75% of students have a negative perception of referencing

• ‘In all honesty, I seriously dislike referencing. It is far too troublesome for simply putting forward a point’

• ‘I hate referencing because I am not very good at it and find I get marks deducted for bad referencing.’

So, why reference?

WHY REFERENCE? The reader will be able to evaluate, find and read your sources….

• How do we know 75% of students dislike referencing?

Colin Neville tells us so from a survey of 201 United Kingdom students in The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed, (McGraw Hill) 2010, 5

So from that single reference we now know:

(a) It was a study done in another jurisdiction (the United Kingdom).

(b) The survey was done in 2010.

WHY REFERENCE? we may now evaluate the usefulness of the information (and find the original source for ourselves!)

WHY REFERENCE?

‘It stops you spouting cow dung’

Who said this?

(a) Undergraduate student

(b) Farmer, Albury NSW

( c) Judge, South Australia

(d) The Prime Minister

(e) Your law lecturer

CORRECT ANSWER: A

Comment from an undergraduate student cited in Neville, Colin The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed, (McGraw Hill) 2010, 7

WHY REFERENCE?

REFERENCING MEANS YOU WILL COMMUNICATE KNOWLEDGE

ACCURATELY

This is important as …..

WHY REFERENCE? Your scholarship is now part of the discipline of law

You are now involved in a community of legal learners who:

(a) Must transmit knowledge accurately and reliably;

(b) Develop the discipline; and

(c) Engage with knowledge.

WHY REFERENCE? To help yourself

1. Improve both your ‘marks’ and your academic success;

2. Assist you to learn to distil complex ideas and present them clearly and concisely;

3. Allow you to explore and fulfil your highest talents through appreciation of the work of others.

Your marks!

Competent referencing demonstrates:

• An understanding of the requirements of legal research

• An indicator of good legal writing

• A grasp of material

• A diversity of sources

For example, one of the 25% of students who was positive about referencing in the study by Neville states that

‘[R]eferencing is essential and learning to do it boosts confidence, not just in writing but also and primarily in arguing ideas. It is a way of putting my point forward’.

Colin Neville, The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed, (McGraw Hill) 2010, 5

Pause and evaluate the sources used in this lecture

• What sources have been used in the lecture?

• Do you think the sources used so far reflect a grasp of the literature in the area?

1 cartoon and 1 book….

• The use of sources for this lecture is not looking good….

WHY REFERENCE?

To avoid plagiarism

DO EXERCISE

• On the handout – turnover the page and

“Write your definition of plagiarism in the space below”

Once you have written your answer you can discuss this with your neighbour

Sourced from: http://www.google.com.au/search?q=plagiarism+cartoons&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=oFAgUOjhEsivi

Qf00YDgCw&sqi=2&ved=0CFcQsAQ&biw=891&bih=491

“Plagiarism is derived from the Latin word ‘plagiarus’ which means ‘kidnapper’.”

The above is a quote from:

Doug Atkinson & Sue Yeoh ‘Student and staff perceptions of the effectiveness of plagiarism detection software’ (2008) Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 24(2) 222-240 at 222 citing the Concise Oxford Dictionary and Dawson J (2004) ‘Plagiarism: What’s really going on? In Seeking Educational Excellence. Proceedings of the 13th Annual Teaching learning Forum, 9-10 February, Perth: Murdoch University http://lsn.curtin.edu.au/tlf/tlf2004/dawson.html and Hawley CS (1984) ‘The thieves of academe: plagiarism in the university system’ Improving College & University Teaching, 32(1) 35-39.

WHY REFERENCE? To avoid punishment for plagiarism …

1. The University may exclude or fail or discipline or reduce your marks for “academic misconduct” if you do not reference correctly or plagiarise; AND

2. You may be prevented from practicing law as a legal practitioner…..

Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152  

Applicant refused admission as legal practitioner on the basis of:

An assignment submitted by the applicant in the Law of Trusts where it was alleged that:

• Internet material taken without acknowledgment: ‘… the allegation was that the applicant submitted, as her own work, with only minor adjustment, an article published by Professor Derek Davies of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Bond University. The article had been published on the Internet.’ And further .. the only differences between the article and the assignment were ‘…the omission of two paragraphs and a heading, and the alteration of the first sentence of the next paragraph following the omission, the effect of which was to make the paragraph appear to flow on from the previous included paragraph. The other obvious difference was the title and ascription of authorship.’ Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152, [5].

• The student was then retrospectively investigated by the university and two further instances of academic misconduct concerning an Administrative Law assignment submitted in the year 2000 and a Law of the Sea assignment submitted in 2002 were found:

• No attribution: In Administrative Law the student ‘…quoted substantial commentary by Professor Sykes without attribution’; Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152, [6].

• Verbatim reproduction: In law of the Sea the student ‘quoted verbatim from a governmental publication without acknowledgement. For the Law of the Sea assignment, she was denied all marks, and because of the Administrative Law plagiarism, her overall result in that subject was downgraded from a credit to a pass.’ Re Liveri [2006] QCA 152, [12].

Unintentional and Intentional

Yingying Dou, the director of the MyMaster website. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

•Up to 1000 students from 16 universities had used the services of an online company called My Master to help them write assignments. The website was marketed in Chinese to international students.

•"Are you racking your brains on your school work? Do you worry about spending $3000 retaking tuition on the failing subject? Leave your worries to MyMaster and make your study easier!," one flyer, posted on a toilet door at the University of Technology, Sydney, read.

•See: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/go-to-hell-university-essay-cheating-mastermind-yingying-dou-responds-to-investigation-20141121-11r6ur.html

Why reference? International standards and the Western tradition of individual scholarship

• http://thatsreallywild.com/ghost/et-plagieringseventyr/

That’sreallywild, <http://thatsreallywild.com/ghost/et-plagieringseventyr> March 13, 2011 (5.13) Retrieved 18 August 2011

• In the Western tradition of scholarship if you do not attribute work to another that you have taken you have STOLEN from them in the same way that you may STEAL a physical good such as their car.

• Theft of ideas is a very serious ‘offence’

Koch-y Kat (see Media Watch

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2060271.htm

…the three sentences outlined came from the Sunrise research brief...it has since been pointed out to me that these 3 sentences look as though they came from a similar story in another newspaper. While that was not obvious in the research brief it isn't an excuse and I take full responsibility for the mistake.— Response from David Koch to Media Watch's questions

Plagiarism is a public no no … but there are gradations of intentionality and punishments alter accordingly..

Joe Biden 47th vice-president of the US

• He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from Syracuse University's College of Law in 1968,[19] where by his own description he found it to be "the biggest bore in the world" and pulled many all-nighters to get by.[15][20] During his first year there, he was accused of having plagiarized 5 of 15 pages of a law review article. Biden said it was inadvertent due to his not knowing the proper rules of citation, and he was permitted to retake the course after receiving a grade of F, which was subsequently dropped from his record.[20] He was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.[19] (source wikipedia….good

source …bad sauce?)

Plagiarism is theft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgTG6PYSTUY&feature=autoplay&list=PL4654E7281F30605C&index=6&playnext=6

Melishiding, September 2, 2009(53), Retrieved 9 September 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgTG6PYSTUY&feature=autoplay&list=PL4654E7281F30605C&index=6&playnext=6>

Two keys to Academic Success:

(1) Avoiding Plagiarism and

(2) Accurate Citation

WHY REFERENCE? Plagiarism is easy to detect

Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it changed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJhRIuqw7c&feature=related• Plagiarism may occur inadvertently if you

are unsure of what is required at university, how to research and use writing strategies or how to reference specific sources.

• You may also be tempted to plagiarise when working in groups or when deadlines are due and you have not planned your assignment.

Avoiding plagiarism

When you use the ideas of other people

1. Paraphrase and cite your source

When you use the words of other people

2. Use Quotation marks and cite your source

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1t0G7ZnRG8

Peakdavid, "Avoid Plagiarism in Research Papers with Paraphrases & Quotations” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1t0G7ZnRG8 (3.14) Retrieved 18 August 2011

Paraphrase – a video

EXERCISE ON HANDOUT

• Do the exercise titled:

• “Which of the following is common knowledge and why?”

• What do you think the “golden rule” for referencing should be here …”When in doubt…???”

Paraphrase Exercise

“There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is

its content.”

(Quote from Rodell Fred, ‘Goodbye to law reviews’(1999) 73 Australian Law Journal 593)

Paraphrase Exercise

Which is correct?

A. Legal writers such as Rodell have criticised both the form and the substance of legal writing (see Rodell Fred, ‘Goodbye to law reviews’(1999) 73 Australian Law Journal 593)…

B. The style and content of legal writing is bad.

Citation

• Determine the style your course/lecturer uses

• Follow the relevant style guide….

• Be accurate, consistent and detailed

Example AGLC BOOK citation

IN A FOOTNOTE:

Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 6th ed, 2009) 24.

IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ashworth, Andrew, Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 6th ed, 2009)

WHY REFERENCE?

• The reader will be able to find, evaluate and read your sources

• To communicate knowledge accurately• Your scholarship is now part of the

discipline of law• To help yourself • To avoid plagiarism• International standards and the Western

tradition

Avoiding plagiarism – time management

‘Facebook activity is directly proportional to the amount of assessment and examination deadlines.’

From: ‘Practice Makes Perfect: The Dilemma of the Procrastinator’ 2012 (5) Vertigo 12