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Developing good practice

There are many elements to academic good practice, not just the ability to reference correctly. All students will benefit from taking the two ‘Avoiding Plagiarism’ courses available via the Skills Hub on WebLearn which have been developed to provide a useful overview of the issues surrounding plagiarism and practical ways to avoid it. Graduate students should complete the online courses as part of their graduate skills training portfolio.

Any student seeking advice on academic writing and plagiarism should consult their tutor, who will be happy to help. Your subject handbook may contain useful advice in addition to that given below.

Time management

However obvious it may seem, time management is of the utmost importance. You should buy a diary and use it. Work out how much time you should allocate to each element of your course and try to stick to a timetable. You should aim to study in a regular pattern, perhaps by working a set number of hours a day. Make sure you allow sufficient time to plan and write your assignment so that you do not have to work into the small hours of the morning. The ‘essay crisis’ may be an Oxford tradition, but you are unlikely to produce your best work this way.

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Reading skills

Rather than simply starting the book on page one and working through it in a linear fashion, look first for key terms relating to your topic, read the beginnings and endings of chapters, and find summaries of the main arguments. You will then be primed with a sense of the argument and structure of the book when you come to read it through properly. This should help you both to read more quickly and to engage more closely with the author’s main ideas.

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Note-taking

It is helpful to develop a more strategic approach to note-taking than simply writing down everything that looks important. Read the chapter or article once through quickly without taking any notes. Having obtained the gist of the argument you will be much more discriminating in the notes you make on a second, slower reading. Remember to include full citation details for all your sources and ensure that you note down the page number of each argument or quote that you select. Try to confine yourself to the main points, making it clear when you are quoting verbatim by enclosing the material in quotation marks. It is best to summarise the arguments in your own words as this helps you to understand them and avoids close paraphrasing, which can lead to inadvertent plagiarism. When taking notes in a lecture, try to distinguish the speaker’s main points and note them, together with any useful supporting evidence. Don’t try to record him or her verbatim. Some people find drawing a ‘mind map’ beneficial – this is a symbolic representation of the lecturer’s points, joined by lines indicating connections and their relative importance. These can also be very useful when noting from books or planning your essay.

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Citation

Giving credit to the authors of the ideas and interpretations you cite not only accords recognition to their labours, but also provides a solid theoretical basis for your own argument. Your ideas will gain credence if they are supported by the work of respected writers. Transparent source use allows you to situate your work within the debates in your field, and to demonstrate the ways in which your work is original. It also gives your reader the opportunity to pursue a topic further, or to check the validity of your interpretations.

When writing you should consider the ways in which your work depends upon or develops from other research, then signal this with appropriate citation. Make clear your reasons for citing a source. When paraphrasing an idea or interpretation you must ensure that your writing is not too closely derived from the original, and you must also acknowledge the original author.

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Referencing

There are numerous different referencing systems in use across the disciplines and the conventions may sometimes appear arcane. There should be information about referencing practice in your subject handbook, and your tutor can also direct you to an appropriate style guide. It is sensible to get into the habit of referencing all your work so that you learn the techniques from the start. Leaving all the footnotes until the week your dissertation is due is a recipe for disaster. One of the best ways to learn referencing practice is to imitate examples in your subject, and to seek advice from your tutor in cases of difficulty.

There is a range of software which you can use to keep track of your sources and to automatically format your footnotes and bibliography (i.e. EndNote, Reference Manager, ProCite). Be meticulous when taking notes: include full citation details for all the sources you consult and remember to record relevant page numbers. Citation practice varies but, depending on the type of text cited (book, conference paper, chapter in an edited volume, journal article, e-print, etc.) the elements of a reference include: author; title of the book or article; title of the journal or other work; name of the conference; place of publication; date of publication; page numbers; URL; date accessed. The conventions for citing web resources vary between disciplines. You should note as many essential items of information as possible, such as author, title, publisher, dates of publication and last revision, URL, and date of last access. When using e-print archives you should bear in mind that many contain articles which have not yet been submitted for peer review. It is good practice to review the later, published versions for important changes before submitting your own extended essay or dissertation.

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Research and library skills

All freshers attend an induction session at their subject library. Specialist librarians are able to offer advice on both print and electronic holdings and bibliographic search tools. In some subjects training sessions are provided for those embarking on independent research, and you should avail yourself of these. Your subject handbook may contain information on e-resources of particular relevance to you.
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Information literacy

It is important to develop your IT skills while at university and there are many resources to help you to do so. In addition to software training provided by IT Services, there is a wide range of information skills training available under the aegis of OULS (Oxford University Library Services), including practical Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources (WISER). You may register for free taught courses or pursue online self-directed courses at your own pace. Further information about IT training opportunities is available on the IT Services website. 

The Bodleian has a wide range of scholarly electronic resources which you can access via their website. Subject libraries provide induction and training sessions in catalogue and specialist database searching, online bibliographic tools and other electronic resources. If your subject is not listed here you should ask your tutor or subject librarian for details. Small group and individual tuition can usually be arranged.

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Graduate students

Graduate students' work is expected to meet high academic standards and will be scrutinised carefully. The University must ensure that these standards are upheld and that its research degrees provide proper training for an academic career. In addition, the academic community has to be satisfied that those who obtain the D.Phil. are appropriately qualified to undertake further, unsupervised, research. Plagiarism at this level is a serious breach of academic integrity and the consequences can be severe. In some cases a student may be expelled, or they may be stripped of their degree if their thesis is later discovered to contain plagiarised material. Some academics' careers have been ruined by the discovery of plagiarism in decades-old published work.

Far from being simply a disciplinary matter, plagiarism undermines the central tenets of scholarly discourse. Knowledge develops via a cumulative process as a result of years of research, innovation and debate. It is a principle of intellectual honesty that all members of the academic community should acknowledge their debt to the originators of the ideas, words, and data which form the basis for their own work. It is important to recognise that academic texts are multi-voiced, constructed from references to other texts; it is your responsibility as a writer to make it clear at all times whose 'voice' is speaking, whether your own or one of your sources'. This requirement for transparency of source use means that you must cite adequately, make it clear when you are quoting or paraphrasing, and establish the relationship between your source and your own text.

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International students

Some students from overseas may face particular difficulties when embarking on study at Oxford, especially if they also have to overcome a language barrier. They may need help to improve their skills in academic English, or they may experience difficulties adapting to the requirements of Western academic culture. Time constraints mean this can be a particular problem for students on one-year Master's courses.

Students who experience difficulties should not delay in seeking out sources of support and guidance. You should approach your course director or supervisor to discuss your needs. Develop your academic writing skills through practice and ask for detailed feedback on your work. Ensure that you follow scrupulously the source use and referencing conventions of your discipline, even if they vary from those you have used before. If you have specific difficulties or questions, you should always ask for advice.

Inexperienced writers, particularly those who are not native speakers of English, often develop their writing technique via a process known as 'patchwriting'. If they lack the requisite skills of academic writing or self-expression, they may copy or heavily paraphrase their source material. Where the derivation is not made clear, this is plagiarism. However, it is recognised that many honest students employ mimicry and borrowed language as they learn to write in the academic style, and that patchwriting can be seen as a developmental stage. As students gain more experience at writing they must develop an independent voice and cease to rely on imitation. If work containing unattributed paraphrase is submitted for assessment, it will be treated as plagiarism regardless of the author's intentions.

There are many resources available at the Language Centre for students whose first language is not English. Students who are non-native speakers of English are entitled to take courses in English for Academic Studies. Courses in Academic Writing and Advanced Communication Skills are also available. There are also more intensive courses available, including the Pre-Sessional Course in English for Academic Purposes. This is either a four or eight week course open to students embarking on study at any English-speaking university. There are resources for independent study in the Language Centre library and online English teaching tools.

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Resources

Academic Integrity in Research

  • Describes the code of practice for all those undertaking research at the University.

English language resources

Evaluating web resources

  • The Virtual Training Suite provides over 60 free tutorials on Internet research skills for university students written by a team of UK university lecturers and subject librarians.
  • Although the Intute website is no longer maintained, it continues to provide comprehensive lists of web resources in a wide range of disciplines. The website archive will remain available until 2014, although it will not be updated.
  • Georgetown University Library provides a valuable introduction to searching the World Wide Web and essential guidance on how to assess the usefulness and legitimacy of web resources.
  • Staff at the UCLA College Library have devised a practical (and fun!) exercise to help students learn how to evaluate web resources. 
  • Acadia University has an interactive tutorial for evaluating web resources.

Information literacy

Online tests

  • Online tests are a practical way of gauging your understanding of plagiarism and citation practice. You should try to work through as many of them as possible, then try out the two plagiarism courses available from the Skills Hub on WebLearn: Avoiding Plagiarism 1 and Avoiding Plagiarism 2 (you will need to log in to WebLearn first). If you have any queries about the tests, please ask your tutor/supervisor for advice.
  • First test your baseline understanding with the brief Plagiarism Quiz which is based on an exercise devised for graduate students at the University of Michigan.
  • Indiana University School of Education. You should work through the tutorial and practice questions first.
  • Bradford School of Management.
  • The Goucher College ‘Plagiarism-by-Paraphrase Risk Quiz’ usefully covers academic practice in five different disciplines. The referencing conventions of your subject may vary from the examples in use in this and other web sites; however, the principle of transparency of source use remains the same.
  • University of Essex.

Plagiarism advice

  • Princeton University offers comprehensive advice on the avoidance of plagiarism, with some useful examples and guidance on source use and referencing.
  • Indiana University School of Education has developed a practical tutorial with extensive examples. There is also a formal test by which you can gauge your understanding.
  • Georgetown University provides accessible, often amusing, advice about plagiarism with some excellent examples. It is particularly good on the pitfalls of paraphrasing.
  • You will also find many examples of good citation practice and source use in the Leeds University online tutorial, especially the section headed ‘How do I not do it?’

Study skills

  • The Oxford University Careers Service has produced comprehensive guidance to help students assess, reflect on and develop academic, personal and professional skills whilst at University. 
  • The Skills Hub on WebLearn provides access to a variety of online skills training and professional development courses, including two ‘Avoiding Plagiarism’ courses.
  • There is extensive information about academic writing, note-taking, citation practice, and plagiarism on the Central European University
  • Edinburgh University’s Institute for Academic Development has produced a useful study skills website which covers the topics of time management, reading and note-taking, source use, and essay-writing.
  • Although aimed at American college students, Hamilton College’s Writing Center website contains a wealth of resources designed to promote effective writing, including topics such as grammar and punctuation, source use and referencing. It is well worth a look. You may find the concise guide to source use particularly useful.
  • The British-based PlagiarismAdvice.org provides extensive advice on referencing terminology and practice.
  • You will find a comprehensive guide to the technicalities of source use, quotation and citation on the web site of the University of Victoria (Canada) Department of English.
  • Peter Levin is an academic and student mentor who offers both practical advice to conscientious students and a different perspective on what he sees as the ‘moral panic’ surrounding plagiarism.

Style guides

  • The Modern Humanities Research Association style guide is available to download from their web site.
  • Wiley-Blackwell's Publishing provides a useful guide to the Harvard and Vancouver reference systems on its 'Author Services' web site.
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