Almost eight out of ten students who are caught cheating at exams are involved in some form of plagiarism. For the majority of these, the case is connected with plagiarism of external sources without correct reference to the source and plagiarism from another exam paper, according to statistics from Educational Development and Analysis, who are part of Educational Law at AU.

How to quote correctly

 You are on the right side of the line if you:

• mark direct quotes accurately using e.g. quotation marks, indentation or italics.
• use accurate source references for other people’s facts, results and argumentation – also when you use material from notes, books and the internet.
• follow the above when you reuse text from your own exam papers.

 If you are in doubt as to whether it is necessary to refer to a source, the best advice is to do it anyway just to be on the safe side.

Different academic environments have different traditions for proper source referencing. Make sure you are familiar with yours.

Source: The "Avoid pitfalls at exams" guide, published by AU.

Translated by Peter Lambourne