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Business 101 & 102 Business 101 & 102 Online Support Modules - ARCHIVED Business 101 & 102 Business 101 & 102 Online Support Modules - ARCHIVED |
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Academic honesty and referencing
Introduction
Why should I learn about academic honesty? How will this help me to become a better writer? Academic honesty is part of being a member of a scholarly community such as the University of Auckland Business School. After all, knowledge in any subject can only be built over time through the sharing of ideas. The only requirement is that if you are ever going to use or build on the ideas of others, then the original source and ownership of these ideas must be properly acknowledged.
Put simply, if academic and professional writing is all about using and incorporating the ideas and research of others, then you must learn to correctly provide the source for the ideas you are using. This requires correct citing and referencing.
The University regards academic honesty very seriously and has guidelines for students (see the document "Academic Honesty, Cheating and Plagiarism: A brief guide for students"). Every year there are students who get into trouble with academic honesty issues and who face serious penalties. Do not let this happen to you.
The lucky thing is that if you put effort into developing good academic writing skills during your first year at University, these skills will ensure that you will remain honest in your academic work and that you will avoid plagiarism. The way to avoid plagiarism is to reference your work properly. This involves developing your skills in correct paraphrasing, quoting, citing, and referencing. Beyond ensuring your academic honesty, these skills will impress your lecturers and help you to get higher marks in your courses.
Remember that all of your written assignments in BUSINESS 101 and 102, and in most of your other courses at the University of Auckland Business School, will be put through the Turnitin process which will detect instances of plagiarism.
Paraphrasing and Quoting
The main thinking and ideas in your written work comes from you, but in academic writing you often need to include other people's ideas and research to support your own ideas. To succeed in academic and professional writing, you need to learn how to integrate ideas from other sources into your writing using paraphrasing or direct quoting.
In deciding whether to quote or paraphrase, quoting is best reserved to use when you think an author has expressed something well or a statement will validate your own opinions. It is important, however, to prove that you can understand ideas by showing that you can render someone else's words into your own way of expression and this is the value of using paraphrasing.
Paraphasing is a valuable skill because ...
- The analytical skills required to paraphrase helps you to understand the author's meaning
- By restating the ideas from another source in your own words, you are proving to the reader that you understand the original
- The use of paraphrasing shows the reading and research you have done for an essay or report as evidenced by your intext citing and reference list
- By the use of paraphrasing, opinions and ideas from other sources can be combined with your own ideas to strengthen and support your writing
- By using intext citing and a reference list as part of correct paraphrasing you are remaining academically honest in your written work and avoiding plagiarism.
Steps to effective paraphrasing.
Direct quotes
Use direct quotes very sparingly, only where necessary to reinforce or justify a view. If you use too many direct quotes, your reader will wonder what your own ideas are.
The examples below follow the APA style where both paraphrasing and quoting require an intext citation with the full citation details in the reference list.
The complete reference will be added to your reference list - see next section Referencing and citing.
| Quoting A passage or remark you have quoted directly from someone's work. | |
Original text | Example of quoting |
Tips for quoting |
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Paraphrasing | |
| Original text Mill's Reef Winery is a small family-owned business. It was recently targetted for a takeover, but family members resisted the bid. This boutique winery, based on Waiheke Island, has enjoyed recent success in the competitive New Zealand wine market by winning the Wine Association's gold medal for its pinot gris. | Example of paraphrasing Another paraphrasing example for viewing |
Steps to effective paraphrasing
| Step 6 | Add an insight or idea of your own that supports and integrates the ideas you have used from other sources. |
| Step 5 | Add a citation (author/date) after the paraphrased piece of writing in your essay to acknowledge that this particular idea did not come from you. |
| Step 4 | Check your writing with the original piece to ensure you have conveyed the ideas of the original and that your version accurately expresses all the essential information, but in your own words. |
| Step 3 | Think about what the author is saying and write down the ideas in your own words using your writing style. |
| Step 2 | Identify key information that you would like to use in your writing that will help to support or strengthen your own ideas or viewpoints. |
| Step 1 | Read the original piece of writing until you understand clearly what the author is saying. |
The thought of combining other people's ideas with your own ideas in your writing can be daunting, but if you learn to do this by paraphrasing you are well on the way to achieving excellent academic writing skills and academic success.
Referencing and Citing
By now you should understand how important it is to reference your sources of information when using ideas and text from other sources. But how do you learn to reference and cite correctly?
Academics and students of the University of Auckland Business School are expected to use a recognised, consistent style for citing work. This style is APA which comes from the American Psychological Association.
It requires citing, both within the body of written work (in-text citation) as well as creating a reference list. Within APA there are rules for citing all types of materials; books, journal articles, web sites, DVDs, TV programmes and new media etc. You must also acknowledge the source of material such as data, images, diagrams or tables.
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Correct APA referencing requires both a reference list and an in-text citation: A reference list at the end of the document includes only those sources actually mentioned (cited) in the assignment. (This is quite different from a bibliography which would include all material used in preparation for the assignment even if the material has not been specifically referred to in your assignment, e.g. background or future reading). An in-text citation is when the reference is cited within the body of your written work. |
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Referencing Tools
Tools which will help with referencing include:
- APA Referencing: A Guide for Business Students Written specifically for University of Auckland Business School students, it includes examples of in-text citations and referencing for a wide range of information sources and formats.
- ReferenCite is the University's central academic referencing resource. You can click on the Overview button and then follow the guide down the right-side column. You will see a button for the Quick©ite tool which allows you to preview how a reference should be cited according to APA style.
- Some journal databases now include a 'Cite this' function. This allows you to preview a selected reference according to different referencing styles, including APA.
Watch this example from Ebsco Business Source Premier.
An example of a reference
Remember the Poulin article on Mill's Reef Winery? Let's see what the reference would look like using APA style.
Poulin, D. (2010). The state of the New Zealand wine industry, 2010. Auckland: New Industry Press.
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This piece has been adapted from University of Otago - OIL tutorial.
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Test yourself
