6.5.1 Your responsibility
Your primary responsibility in submitting assignments is to present your own, original work for assessment. At the same time you are encouraged to use journal articles, books and other references to develop your ideas, and to substantiate your arguments and opinions.
Using someone else's idea is not cheating, provided you:
1. Acknowledge the source of that idea as an in-text citation in the body of your assignment and
2. List the full reference in a reference list at the end of the assignment.
To do this properly, you need to understand what is meant by quoting and paraphrasing. See ECU Referencing Guide.
Quoting is using the exact words of another author.
If you make a quotation, your in-text citation should include the page on which the words were found. In the example below, the quote was taken from page fifty four.
Short quotations should be enclosed with double quotation marks (" ").
“It is difficult to believe that Australia’s present transportation system will be able to cope with the needs of society in the 21st century” (Lomas, 1988, p.54).
Long quotations (40 words or more), should be indented and displayed in block format. Quotation marks are not necessary.
Paraphrasing is writing the ideas of another author in your own words.
If you paraphrase another author, you still need to provide an in-text citation.
If your words are a summary of the author's work as a whole, then a page number is not needed in the in-text citation.
However, if the idea you summarise is made on a particular page in the original work, then a page number is required.
For further information and assistance with issues of academic integrity, such as plagiarism, check out the Academic Tip Sheet: Plagiarism.
This is the final module in the Pilot: Online Information Literacy Tutorial. Remember, if you need assistance using any of the Library's services, please Contact the Library.