Question

Read the passage given below, and answer the questions given at the end. Each answer must be within the
word limit of 50-100 words.
Passage:
Students are responsible for familiarising themselves with the University Code of Student Conduct, as on
enrollment with the University the student has placed themselves under the policies and regulations of the
University and all of its duly constituted bodies. Disciplinary authority is exercised through the Student
Conduct Committee. The Committee has procedures in place for hearing allegations of misconduct. Copies of
the student conduct code are available at the Student Services Office.
Academic dishonesty is never condoned by the University. This includes cheating and plagiarism, which violate
the Student Conduct Code and could result in expulsion or failing the course.
Cheating includes but is not limited to obtaining or giving unauthorized help during an examination, getting
unauthorized information about the contents of an examination before it is administered, using unauthorised
sources of information during an examination, altering or falsifying the record of any grades, altering or
supplying answers after an examination has been handed in, falsifying any official University record, and
misrepresenting the facts to get exemptions from or extensions to course requirements.
Plagiarism includes but is not limited to submitting any paper or other document, to satisfy an academic
requirement, which has been copied either in whole or in part from someone else’s work without identifying
that person; failing to identify as a quotation a documented idea that has not been thoroughly assimilated into
the student's language and style, or paraphrasing a passage so closely that the reader could be misled as to the
source; submitting the same written or oral material in different courses without obtaining authorisation from
the lecturers involved; or 'dry-labbing', which includes obtaining and using experimental data from fellow
students without the express consent of the lecturer, utilizing experimental data and laboratory write-ups
from other parts of the course or from previous terms during which the course was conducted, and fabricating
data to fit the expected results.
Questions:
1. Arsal takes help from an online blog for his final essay assignment. Although he does not copy the
exact words of the blog, the plagiarism check shows more than 60% plagiarism in his essay. What do
you think could be the reason?
2. If you were in Arsal’s place, what steps would you take to ensure the absence of plagiarism in your
essay?
3. How does one credit the original source consulted for the information they have incorporated into
their work?
4. In your opinion, which sources (books, journals, blogs, websites, social media, newspapers, magazines,
videos, etc.) are more reliable in terms of research and why?

Answer 1

1. The reason could be as he read the blog and did his research from that blog he must have tried to change the language but under plagiarism only change in language does not matter, the content should be unique and only referrence should be taken from the research. If one reads a blog and tries to write on that basis then it may lead to plagiarism if the meaning derived is same.
2. I would have only taken referrence as the key points and would have developed my essay on the basis of these key points and my original content. Change in sentence does not help in avoiding the plagiarism or changing the sentence from active to passive is not sufficient in avoiding the plagiarism.
3. The credit can be given by putting the footnotes and referrences in the essay. If any referrence is taken from book or website or blog then it should be mentioned under the section of referrence or bibliography. If the statement or sentence is taken in its exact sense then it should be acknowledged in the footnotes with its complete information.
4. In my opinion books are the best sources for the purpose of research and other credible sources can be journals and blogs which are certified. Authenticity should be there in the content and I think social media content is not that authentic if we compare it from books and journals. Newspapers are also good source of information but in most cases or scenarios they mention as per the reports, but these reports does not have any authenticity.