Academic Misconduct Guide - University of Wolverhampton

Acceptable summaryIt is vital for universities to have a full writtenpolicy on what they believe constitutesplagiarism. This way, universities will makesure students are aware of what is expectedof them and the same rules can then beapplied to all studets to ensure fairness(Evans and Gill, 2001).10Note that in this example the context andmeaning of the original is kept but similarwords and sentences are not used.Critical evaluationQuoting and summarising are very usefulacademic skills to acquire and they will goa long way to ensuring you are not accusedof academic misconduct. However, to gainhigher marks it is not enough to rely onother people’s ideas. You must engagewith the sources you are using andcritically evaluate them.A well-written piece of work is more than aseries of quotes, summaries and paraphraseslinked together. Your own opinions, backedup by evidence, need to be apparent inthe text. The Napier Business School (2006,p16) gives excellent advice in this area:• Identify common themes inarguments or schools of thoughtin the subject discipline• Show how thought in the areahas evolved• Show how you would classifydiffering arguments• Evaluate authors’ arguments andindicate any shortcomings in thosearguments, showing why you considerthem to be shortcomings• Indicate how much more workwould need to be done to be surecertain arguments are valid• Synthesise the evidence andarguments of several authorsto reach a conclusion• Show how each author differsand where they disagree witheach other