Plagiarism and Referencing Format (Research Paper Sample)

Plagiarism and Referencing Format
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Introduction
Referencing is a technique of organizing data or information used in academic writings such as essays and assignments. In writing academic work, it is always significant to acknowledge sources of the information used in writing thus allowing the reader to trace the source. Referencing is an important aspect in academic writing as it eliminates some of the serious penalties that may be imposed on someone’s work such as thesis or essays after using someone else’s words or ideas ("University of Southern Queensland," 2013).
Purpose of referencing
Referencing helps in differentiating an academic writer’s idea from other sources and inclusion of various points of views from different writers. Referencing helps in acknowledging sources of all the information used in writing to avoid plagiarism which is a serious academic crime. Additionally, referencing is very useful in validating an academic writing thus adding credibility of the work since it refers to originally documented work. Referencing further provides the scope and depth of an academic writing by evaluating and conceptualizing primary sources. It shows the position of agreeing or disagreeing with an individual’s position and incorporates other researches which make up an academic writer’s study ("University of Southern Queensland," 2013)
Plagiarism and consequences
Plagiarism is one of the major problems scholars are facing today in the education sector all over the world. Plagiarism is defined as the unacknowledged use of someone else’s work and passing it off as if it were one’s own. There are different types of plagiarism which are classified into two major categories that include deliberate and unintentional plagiarisms. Unintentional plagiarism is that kind of plagiarism that occurs due to a minor referencing error such as attributing an academic work to a wrong source or author, misquoting or missing a reference. On other hand, deliberate plagiarism is categorized into ignorant and malicious plagiarisms where malicious plagiarism is very obvious (Griffin, 2008).
Several reasons contribute to plagiarism being rampant in the society and therefore students should not be condemned but rather measures be taken to assist them in their research work. For example, the predominance of electronic media in the society has largely contributed to the rising cases of plagiarism because this has made it easier for students to copy other people’s work not because they have to but because they can. Some students also engage in plagiarism because they do not know how to make citations while others do not understand what constitutes plagiarism, its nature and component. Others on the other hand, do their assignments and research work when the papers are due and they end up copying to submit in time.
Several measures need to be taken to avoid plagiarism because when one is found guilty several measures can be taken. Preventive or punitive measures can be taken but they have different impacts. Punitive measures are negative forces imposed on offenders and most of the time they discourage students. On the other hand, preventative approaches encourage, motivate, and teach students how to avoid plagiarism. The society should be enlightened on the issues of ethics to help curb plagiarism (Neville, 2010).
Some students are usually aware that plagiarism is wrong but they engage in it anyway given the unethical climate in the society. Students should be at the forefront in ensuring integrity in their learning process. They should have the ability to question and ask for clarification when need arises. This would help in ensuring that all students are enlightened on referencing and causes of plagiarism would reduce drastically ("University of Southern Queensland," 2013).
Plagiarism as an evil has a cost and therefore it should be avoided at all times. This has clearly been indicated in the recent past in Germany when the education minister resigned over plagiarism accusation ("Deutsche Welle" Web). To help curb this evil completely the society should participate fully in ensuring that students are aware of the consequences that follow and the need to avoid plagiarism. (Neville, 2010)
Referencing Shortcuts
Vague summarization
This is a form of plagiarism where another party’s work is narrowed by summarizing its contents then assuming the idea as the writer’s own or thinking that because it does not constitute the whole of third party’s idea, it is insignificant to reference it. This form of plagiarism is based on an assumption that if similar words of an original work are not copied by twisting the words then it does not count to plagiarism (Neville, 2010).
Works Cited is good enough
This is failure to provide reference in the text and believing that by including the work on the reference part is satisfactory. This act is predominant when discussing a common knowledge from a particular source or author.
Change the words
Some students believe that plagiarism is copying someone else’s word by word hence prompting them to change words or wording of original work forgetting that the idea of the original work do not change.
Compilation
Compilation is gathering and copying several pieces of texts from various sources to complete a particular writing work. It may include work whose paragraphs have information from different sources. Compilation of data from different sources does not mean that the work is the student’s own but it simply lead to plagiarism.
Three types of proper referencing
Summary
This is a way of referencing that includes a short description of a bigger section of text from another source. After summarizing the work of someone else’ a student should refer to the author as well as year of publication in the text reference especially while using the APA style.
Direct quotation is another type of reference which entails the use of similar words of someone else and putting them in quotation marks. It involves restating an original work of someone else and applying inverted commas. Quotations are further classified into short quotations and long quotations depending on the length of the quotation (Neville, 2010). Short quotations must include the name of the author, the year in which the original work was published and the page number in the APA referencing style. A short quotation is introduced using a signal phrase with the publisher...