Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition.

Plagiarism | University of Oxford, viewed 02 09 2020, (https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism)

The above is an example of a quotation with a reference.

We often - especially in IT - need to use other people's work. If asked for a definition is it much better to give one from, say, Wikipedia, that has been carefully peer-reviewed, than to just make something up.

This is quite permissible so long as it is referenced, in other words you are not passing it off as your own original work but say instead where it came from.

A piece of work that is largely quotations can still be judged highly: you are displaying your scholarship and your skill in finding evidence. Explain why the material is relevant, what it proves, and why you chose to include it.

Unreferenced though, it becomes plagiarism, which is a disciplinary offence in all academic settings.

In your context, the very minimum sanction you can expect for plagiarism in assessed work is having the work rejected in its entirety. You would have to do it again - which implies resit or 2nd submission territory. If already a resit then you have failed the unit and most likely your course. In more egregious cases, suspension or withdrawal are possible even at a first submission. And a 'conviction' for plagiarism is not something you want on your disciplinary record.

If another student presents your work as their own, then you will both be deemed guilty of plagiarism. Even if it is quite clear who is the original author you will be regarded as having facilitated the offence by making your work available[^1] unless it is beyond doubt that it was stolen and no permission or consent or assistance was furnished. Therefore you need to be very cautious of allowing another student the opportunity to copy your work.

Never provide another student with a copy of your assignment in an editable format.

You might trust them, but do you really want to trust another person that much? Your whole course? And what legitimate reason could they have for asking that could not be met in another, safer, way? If you feel that there is a good reason, then provide notes only, a PDF, hard-copy, access on your screen only, ...

Even your tutors have no reason nor need to have your work in editable format. This is one reason why you are encouraged to submit in PDF format where possible.

It is very easy to publicly expose your work to other students without thinking it through ... sharing files on Teams, or OneDrive, public repos on GitHub. Be mindful of the risks.

[^1]: It is permissable to quote another student's work if referenced and with the author's permission. See any good guide to referencing for how to reference unpublished work.

Ashley Oliver, Sep 2020