GCETE: Graduate Certificate in Education (Tertiary Education): Academic Integrity

What is referencing - Part B

References are made up of two parts.

1. An in-text citation occurs in your writing just before or after you use information from another person.
2. A list of all of the works that you have cited is collected and presented towards the end of your assignment.

Both of these elements require very careful formatting to be considered correct. And yes, your tutors will notice even the smallest punctuation error!

FedCite, a tool developed by library staff will help you with referencing.

Quoting and Paraphrasing

Quoting

The university has a range of study skills available online. Click on the icon to access the study-skills page to learn about quotations within your work.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing and summarising are also techniques for including other peoples ideas into your work. Click on the icon to access the study-skills page to learn about paraphrasing within your work.

APA Referencing Style

There are five different styles of referencing used at Federation University.

• APA  stands for American Psychological Association and is the most common system in use at Federation. 
• MLA (Modern Language Association) is used in some areas of the Education and Arts Faculties such as literature and film. 
• Chicago Note is used in units associated with history and the other arts. 
• Australian Harvard is an in-text citation style, often used by the Sciences and Technology.
• IEEE is a sequentially numbered referencing system commonly used in Engineering and Information Technology

If you are not familiar with the APA referencing style, or haven't used it in a while, check out the video series below:

Citations

A citation occurs at the point where you use a reference. The following video shows two ways that a citation can be included into a text.

• Information prominent citation explains the information and then provides the link to the original source.
• Author prominent citation identifies the author as part of the narrative and then proceeds with their ideas.

Reference List

A reference list is more than just a list of books that you have read on a particular subject. The items included in this part of a written paper (assignment, thesis etc.) are all cited somewhere within the body of the paper. 

So if you skim read three books about modern chocolate making, they do not automatically turn up in your references list.

However if you discuss the author of one books interpretation of the use of cocoa in modern chocolate making, then you cite that author in-text (within your assignment) and add the authors book to your references list.

Watch the video below for some thoughts on compiling a list entry for your references list.

Grey literature

During this course you will regularly be requested to provide evidence to support your ideas or approach. At times this evidence will come in the form of peer reviewed work from journal publication, but at times will need to come from other sources. Many of these ‘other sources’ are covered by the term Grey Literature. This covers a broad range of documents including Government reports, white papers and other government documents, conference proceedings and research reports, all the way through to more informal sources like newsletters, blogs and communications. This sort of information is often required to gain a full picture of an issue, or to find current and up-to-date credible information. However, remember that even grey literature must be correctly referenced and attributed both in text and with a full citation.

The Grey Literature subject guide explains what it is, how to find it and how to evaluate grey literature.

Plagiarism

Check out the fun, innovative video below that explores:

• what plagiarism is
• different types of plagiarism
• penalties for plagiarising
• tips for preventing plagiarism

Turnitin

Turnitin is the originality checking software used by Federation University and other institutions. It is sometimes referred to as plagiarism detection software, although this isn’t technically correct.

There are two ways that Turnitin can be used. In both cases a report is generated which you can use to improve your work.

• For students: The Turnitin report can be used to check for errors you have made. It may find mistakes in your referencing, use of quotations, or the quality of paraphrasing. It will also find a lot of things which are not really a concern, for example many commonly used phrases, names, terms or data sequences may come up in a similarity report. That is why we need to review the report rather than just accepting the percentage number it generates.
• The second use of Turnitin is when your assignment is submitted to your tutor through Turnitin. In this case your tutor will examine your Turnitin report and you will be marked on mistakes found in your referencing and punctuation. Unacceptable levels of direct copying or poorly attributed work may result in a charge of plagiarism being raised.

There is no rule around an acceptable and an unacceptable percentage in similarity scores.  A very well referenced paper may return a high score due to the appropriate use of quotes or the use of certain phrases and naming conventions, whereas an unacceptable submission may also have a high similarity score due to academic integrity problems and breaches.

Turnitin does not detect plagiarism, but when a high percentage score is achieved on your report it means that a high percentage of your work is exactly the same as various other peoples works. This would be a matter of concern to your tutor and they may then start to examine your work for plagiarism. What usually gives you away in plagiarism is that we each have our own writing styles. When the style suddenly changes mid assignment your tutor starts to examine where the different text has come from!

Submitting a paper into a Turnitin Link

It is important to use the link provided for you by your tutor on your unit Moodle site. If you use a generic site from other sites, it will not recognise your work for your specific unit and give an originality report of 100%, even though it is your own original work.

If you are not familiar with using Turnitin, check out the video's below.

Turnitin Training Videos. (2011, MAY). Submitting a paper to a Turnitin assignment - student training. [video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/-l8V7KzTzNY

Turnitin Training Videos. (2011, MAY). Viewing an originality report in Turnitin OriginalityCheck - student training. [video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/iQhKfU_ONNc

Presentation

The way you present your assignments reflects the pride you have in your work. At a postgraduate level of study, it is expected that all assessment tasks will have academic integrity not only in its content, but also in its display. Consider the following:

• Spelling, grammar, and punctuation - With the plethora of electronic tools available, there are minimal excuses for submitting work littered with spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. We all make the odd mistake, but numerous errors highlights either ongoing issues, or a lack of care.  Always proof read your work. If English is your second language, make sure you get someone whom English is their first language, to proof read your work. Remember, as students you have access to the support of the Learning Skills Advisors and Studiosity to help you with your work. See the Current Students > Study Support section of the FedUni website for more information
• Word documents - Ensure margins are equivalent to approximately 2cm, spacing is 1.15 or 1.5 and font size is 11-12 using Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman.
• Powerpoint presentations - Ensure slides are not cramped with text or multiple dot points. Mix it up with images or embedded videos where appropriate.  Have a go at a narrated presentation or screen capture software.
• ePortfolio layout - If using an e-portfolio page to display your work, ensure you create headings to identify the various components, and display the elements in an easy to find manner.
  • Use of text vs attaching documents - too much of anything can be un-engaging. Mix it up to make your submission inviting to view.
  • Use of images and videos - is a great way to practice and highlight your diverse skills. However make sure the size of the image is not overtaking the page, and the links work.
  • You can find more help on using Mahara in the Digital Resources section of this guide

While the presentation of your work only accounts for a small percentage of your assessment score, it is a great chance to learn some new skills and practice making your content look engaging. A valuable skill for any educator!