What is Academic honesty? You might have heard it referred to as plagiarism or cheating, at QUT we have a huge pile of resources to help you give credit where credit is due and be authentic in your studies.
So what do you do if you have a whole bunch of great resources you want to use in your assignment? First off, it is great that you have found some resources relevant to your assignment but remember to have a good look at what your source is and where it came from. You want to use good quality information to back up your ideas and arguments. So make sure you don’t quote any information you haven’t verified!
Next, you need to work the information into your assignment. You do this by direct quoting, summarising or paraphrasing their work. Remember, direct quotes should only take up 10% of your word count. Paraphrasing is the hardest but recommended. It is worthwhile aiming for as you can demonstrate your own understanding and show off your critical thinking skills! How to Paraphrase will give you some helpful tips so that you can put your best foot forward.
The final step you need to make is to acknowledge the work of the people whose resources you think are awesome have used in your assignment. Referencing or citing another person’s work is really important and there is loads of information about how to do this on QUT CiteWrite.
To avoid plagiarism make sure you reference and give credit to those who have come before you. And don’t forget, pictures and music need to be referenced too!
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