As a student, you are required to reference your sources using an appropriate referencing style. Correct referencing is an important part of academic writing and it ensure that the ideas or words of others are rightfully acknowledged. It also helps avoid plagiarism. Well used referencing demonstrates that the writer has indeed read the contemporary and historical background literature and helps provide authority for statements made in conclusions, summaries and interpretation of results.

CPEE uses the Harvard Author-Date referencing style. It should be noted however that the Harvard referencing and citation style will vary from different sources in minor features such as punctuation, capitalisation, abbreviations, and the use of italics. CPEE provides an Introductory Guide to using this system however it limits itself to providing some examples of the Harvard methodology for books, journals, web documents, course material and conferences.

The definition of plagiarism provided by Collins Dictionary (n.d.) is, “Plagiarism is the practice of using or copying someone else's idea or work and pretending that you thought of it or created it”.

Plagiarism varies in its severity and can often be unintentional. As such it is important to be able to identify where a possible instance of plagiarism may occur and ensure that you take measures to correctly cite references and detail contributors prior to submitting your work. There are penalties for Plagiarism so it is important to understand this process before submitting assessment work.  

Examples of plagiarism can range from an un-intentional lack of correct citation through to a deliberate copying or theft of another student’s assessment tasks. The following resources are provided to assist students with avoiding plagiarism throughout their studies.