Plagiarism and Turnitin

Plagiarism is defined by the New Oxford Shorter English Dictionary as "the taking and using as one's own ... the thoughts, writings and inventions of another". This can happen through copying, summarising or paraphrasing someone else's work or ideas, then not acknowledging the original author and passing the material off as your own independent work. Often this can be accidental (e.g. you've forgotten to reference something), but it can also be done deliberately.

NTU defines plagiarism as “'presenting someone else’s ideas as your own in a substantial proportion of your work, with or without consent, by incorporating it into assessment without full acknowledgement”. NTU classes plagiarism as an academic integrity issue, and there are several different penalties which may be applied to plagiarism offences. The Academic Integrity Policy lists the various penalties which may be applied to plagiarism offences, and what will happen if a student is suspected of a breach of academic integrity.

Examples of plagiarism include:

• The inclusion in a candidate’s work of material from another person’s work without the use of quotation marks and full acknowledgement of the source;
• The summarising of another person’s work by simply changing words or altering the order of presentation, without full acknowledgement;
• Self-plagiarism: students are not permitted to reuse work they have previously submitted, without proper reference and acknowledgement in the current assessment being submitted.