Sociology and Social Policy: Referencing

Plagiarism : using somone else's ideas as if they were your own is unacceptable and a punishable offence.

Click on the links below to get a better understanding.  What is Plagiarism?

Turnitin is an internet based tool used to check and detect plagiarism in an essay or any kind of academic related document. Its a licensed based software which universities and school obtain through subscription

Referencing is a practice of acknowledging other peoples works, ideas, sources used in a paper, assignment, report and conference papers in academic writing.

Referencing can be done manually as well as electronically.  There are several electronic bibliographic management systems available which can assist you with painfree referencing.

EndNote and RefWorks are 2 popular and powerful tools available at UKZN that help you manage your research. EndNote can be downloaded from the University's software library and RefWorks is accessible via the A-Z list of databases on the Library's home page. The library offers training sessions in both these helping students with the creation of an electronic bibliography.

Link to the UKZN Training Guide, Referencing.

•       To  acknowledge the sources of information you have used just as authors of books and journal articles list the sources they have used

•       It is academic courtesy to acknowledge the work of others - none of us know everthing and we rely on the work of others

•       Your lecturers/readers need to see how widely you have read; whether you have used key sources and how up to date your information is

•       Your lecturers/readers need to be able to verify the information you have used.

The Writing Place (WP) is designated as an academic support service that is tasked with improving the academic writing and critical thinking skills of students through an emphasis on essay/assignment structure and understanding of academic concepts.  The primary function of the WP is to provide one-on-one academic writing tutoring at the Drop-in Centre.  At these 45 minute consultations a trained tutor will work through a student’s essay in discussion with the student concerned to assess whether or not the student is addressing all parts of the essay question and to provide suggestions on how structure and grammar can be improved. http://cohtlu.ukzn.ac.za/writing-place.aspx   The Writing Place UKZN

The following guide assists you with the operations and functionality of EndNote.

EndNote enables you to move seamlessly through your researh process with flexible tools for searching, organizing and sharing your research, creating your bibliography and writing your paper.