Both you and your lecturers have responsibilities in making sure we all contribute to a university community of learning that has academic integrity. The following information is based on advise from the Council of Writing Programme Administrators (Adapted from WPA):

Your responsibility in making sure you avoid the trap of plagiarism is:

• To identify analyse and interpret a set of sources you believe are relevant to the topic of field you are studying, researching or critiquing
• To acknowledge clearly and accurately when and how you are making use of the se sources, and from whom the ideas or work originates
• To learn the appropriate conventions (such as Harvard or APA) of citing and referencing sources, as stipulated by your school or faculty
• To ask your lecturer or tutor to clarify anything of which they are unsure, relating to these conventions.

It is reasonable that you can expect from your lecturer the following:

• Clear indicators about where to learn the correct and appropriate citation conventions associated with the field of studies you are engaged in, usually in course or programme handbooks.
• Feedback on written assignments indicating any problems and instruction on on how to improve your writing
• Assignment topics that are clear, and researchable and ideally some indication of a model approach to the task.
• A clear warning that you have not adhered to the written conventions of citation and referencing required by your lecturer or school.
• A request to provide her or him with documentation of your writing process notes (such as summaries, drafts etc) as a way of understanding how any problem has occurred.

When to cite your sources, and why it is necessary

It is important to understand that whether or not your failure to adequately cite your references and produce an accurate list of references is intentional or inadvertent, you can still be accused of plagiarism. Here are several good reasons for being careful to cite your sources: This is provided by Princeton University:

• To acknowledge your dependence on another person's ideas or words, and to distinguish clearly your own work from that of your sources.
• To receive credit for the research you have done on a project, whether or not you directly quote or borrow from your sources.
• To establish the credibility and authority of your knowledge and ideas.
• To place your own ideas in context, locating your work in the larger intellectual conversation about your topic.
• To permit your reader to pursue your topic further by reading more about it.
• To permit your reader to check on your use of the source material.

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