Plagiarism

Avoiding and detecting plagiarism

You can avoid plagiarism by following good academic practice, this includes:

• Taking referencing seriously.
• Never trying to give the impression that you have read a source in the original if you have not.
• Using entirely your own words unless quoting.
• Using relevant quotations sparingly and commenting on them; avoid using direct quotations as a substitute for expressing ideas in your own words.
• Never writing directly from source material.
• When you take notes, always using your own words to explain the ideas; avoid simply highlighting the text.
• Summarising main ideas and paraphrasing in your notes.
• Locating knowledge through locating authors within traditions and perspectives.
• Trying to develop a critical approach when reading: see your sources as authored constructions which can be challenged and debated, especially with the support of other authorities within the field.
• Developing your own opinions based on your reading of the sources.
• Keeping all documentation of your work in progress.

You may take concepts and arguments from the documents but you must write them in your own words. Just changing one or two words in a sentence does not prevent your work from being plagiarism.

View the full Harvard referencing guidelines (PDF).

If you are in any doubt about the correct procedures for acknowledging and referencing the work of others, you should seek advice from your personal tutor, lecturer or module leader.

Additional resources

We strongly encourage you to view the “Academic Integrity” and “Referencing” video tutorials on your subject pages on the Library website, where you can learn about academic writing and how to get more advice and information.

You can also check your work with Turnitin, by using the Similarity Checker hosted on your SurreyLearn homepage.

You should be aware that on submission of the electronic copy of your coursework on SurreyLearn all work will automatically be checked through Turnitin, where applicable.

Failure to understand what constitutes plagiarism, pressure of time, or conflicting deadlines for assessed work are not acceptable as sufficient explanations for the submission of plagiarised material.

Self-plagiarism

Among the types of plagiarism listed by the University in the Regulations for Academic Integrity is ‘self-plagiarism’: passing off work as original that has already been assessed (whether by the University or another institution).

This means that you may not submit work for assessment that has previously been submitted for assessment at this university or elsewhere (i.e. at another university, or at school or college).

There should be no overlap of phrasing between work you have submitted for different assignments, and you should avoid discussing the same aspects of a topic and deploying the same quotations in different assignments.

On a related issue, you should not submit for assessment any work you wrote prior to taking the module concerned. This means not only work submitted for assessment elsewhere, but also writing you may have posted on an online platform. Even if you wrote it yourself, it would not be a response to the module and the assignment instructions, and would not be indicative of your learning from that module.

Contract cheating

Another type of plagiarism is the use of essays purchased from a company and passing this as your own. This is listed by the University in the Regulations for Academic Integrity as 'contract cheating': purchasing work to pass off as one’s own.

Presenting purchased essays as your own contravenes the Regulations for Academic Integrity and is considered to be academic misconduct of the highest severity. This means that a student's registration could be terminated if they are found to have presented written material that was produced by others. The practice of buying assignments from third parties is strictly forbidden. The University rigorously checks all work submitted by students and can identify contract cheating through software such as the Turnitin® Authorship Investigate service. All students are responsible for complying with the requirements outlined in the Regulations for Academic Integrity.