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    https://intranet.ecu.edu.au/student/my-studies/rules-and-policies
  • University Rules

Plagiarism

When writing your thesis, you should ensure you do not use another person’s ideas or words in a way that would suggest they are your own.

Unintentional plagiarism can occur where students are careless and use inefficient note taking systems. Notes taken without accurate documentation or the use of quotation marks could later inadvertently be used in the mistaken belief that they were the student’s own words.

You should consult standard references on writing research papers and discuss with your supervisor appropriate methods of note taking to avoid this danger.

Lester (1987, p. 78) provides the following rules of conduct when using the material of others:

  • acknowledge borrowed material within the text by introducing the quotation or paraphrase with the name of the authority. This practice serves to indicate where the borrowed materials begin;
  • enclose all quoted material within quotation marks;
  • ensure that paraphrased material is rewritten into your own style and language. The simple rearrangement of sentence patterns is unacceptable. Do not alter the essential idea of the source;
  • provide specific in-text documentation for each borrowed item; and
  • provide a bibliographic entry for every source cited in the paper.
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