5. Plagiarism and Referencing (Who, Where, Why, What, When, How) – How I would enlighten a new college student.

For first time students at third level education referencing and plagiarism can be a daunting new topic. Many will have heard of it from friends already in college or through the movies but few will have anticipated it to be as initially complex and confusing. As a student, it is important that you identify in your submission when you are using the words or ideas of another author and to acknowledge the source of the information in the main body of the assignment. Academics see plagiarism as a serious offence and in some Universities and further education centres it is deemed to be among the most serious of offences to plagiarize another authors work without properly referencing it in the bibliography. The policy towards Plagiarism at IT Blanchardstown where I am currently studying defines it as ''deliberately representing someone else's work without giving acknowledgement to the source of the information.'' 

Students are not expected to re-invent the wheel and churn out original material for assignments, it is expected that they will use source information from previously published material to corroborate and back up their own material when compiling course work assignments. However they must always reference source information used.

The most popular and common form of referencing used today is the Harvard style referencing system, or otherwise known as the Name and Date system. According to Staffordshire University, referencing must be consistent and follow the following guidelines. 

• Citations are written in text of the document, citing authors surname and date in brackets
• Complete list of all texts and sources used must be provided at the end of the assignment
• Capitals are only to be used for authour surnames at the end in bibliography and not in main body
• Title of sourced information is the only piece of material to be italicized in the text.

Once the student becomes more familiar with what is expected in regards to referencing and plagiarism you may wonder what you found so daunting first day and in time referencing will become second nature by the time your studies are completed. Practice makes perfect as they say. 

Reference List

ITB Handbook (2012) Referencing & Plagiarism, Dublin. 

Staffordshire University (n.d) Harvard Referencing System guide & examples [online] Available at: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/support_depts/infoservices/learning_support/refzone/harvard/index.jsp [Accessed 8 December 2012]

University of Exeter (n.d) Referencing - the Harvard System [online] Available at: http://education.exeter.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm [Accessed 8 December 2012]

Images

Kids Health (n.d) What is Plagiarism, Available at: http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/school/plagiarism.html [Accessed 8 December 2012]

St Johns University (2012) Plagiarism - Queens Campus, Available at: http://www.stjohns.edu/campus/ev_cam_121128mh.event@digest.stjohns.edu%2Fstudent_life%2Fev_cam_121128mh.xml?context_date=11/28/2012 [Accessed 8 December 2012]