Plagiarism Policy & Cheating

How do I ensure my own Academic Integrity?

You can achieve Academic Integrity by honestly submitting work that is your own. Presenting work that fails to acknowledge other people’s work within yours can compromise Academic Integrity.

 

This includes:

• Plagiarism
• Cheating in an assessment
• Copying or submitting whole or parts of computer files as if they are your own (eg web pages).
• Collusion, plagiarism or cheating in assignments will not be tolerated. Your trainer will advise all Participants of the many different ways to avoid plagiarism.

 

It is a form of cheating, known as plagiarism, to use another’s work without appropriate acknowledgment.

 

All work produced must acknowledge the sources of ideas presented and cite the original written work which informed it.

 

Plagiarism may occur in oral, written or visual presentations. It is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person, without appropriate referencing, as though it is your own.

 

It is also a disciplinary offence for you to allow your work to be plagiarised by another student. You are responsible for keeping your work in a secure place.

 

Plagiarism covers a variety of inappropriate behaviours, including:

• Failure to properly document a source
• Copying material from the internet or databases
• Purchasing pre-written or on-demand papers from the numerous paper mills and cheat sites

 

You must reference the following types of information:

Thoughts, ideas, definitions or theories

Research and other studies

Statistics

Information from the Internet, including images and media

• Designs or works of art
• Facts that are not common knowledge
• For direct assistance go to the following site: Referencing Styles

If you don’t reference information in your work, it is assumed that:

• It’s your own idea
• It’s common knowledge, eg you wouldn’t need to reference that Bendigo is in Victoria
• It’s common knowledge in your field of work, eg you must have a forklift licence to drive a forklift.

 

To maintain Academic Integrity:

• Make sure you understand how to reference your sources.
• Don’t leave your assignments around for others to read.
• Make sure you take your discs out of the computers..
• When photocopying or making notes from texts, make sure you record all bibliographic information.
• Make sure your work clearly distinguishes between the ideas of others and your own ideas. If you’re not sure how to do this, check with your Trainer about requirements for referencing.

Participants must not:

• Submit an assessment completed by another person as their own work
• Present as their own work information, text, artwork, graphics or other material taken from any source without referencing
• Quote or paraphrase material from a source without referencing

Detection of Plagiarism

The following may be utilised to detect plagiarism:

• Unusual phrasings, noticeable unevenness of style (some very sophisticated sentences followed by some amateurish ones), concepts that seem too sophisticated for the level of the class, unclear or incorrect sources listed in the bibliography, a writing style or diction choice in a particular paper that seems inconsistent with that found in other samples of the Participant's writing
• Enter an unusual phrase or sentence into a standard search engine (e.g., Google, Yahoo) and to locate a match.