Dear Abbey
My lecturer wants to talk to me about my latest assignment because she is saying that I might be charged with plagiarism. The thing is, I admit that there is a part of the work that was copied directly from another book but it was a genuine error – I just got some of my own notes and notes I’d taken from the other book mixed up. So if it’s just a mistake, then it isn’t technically plagiarism, and I can’t be charged, right?
Yours,
Muddled
Dear Muddled,
The fact that you have a piece of someone else’s work included in your assignment without reference to the original author is plagiarism, whether you did it deliberately or you did it accidentally. It is still considered plagiarism and the university takes this very seriously. The fact that it was a genuine error may be relevant when it comes to deciding on the penalty, but it doesn’t prevent the university from charging you with plagiarism in the first place. For future reference, be careful when copying pieces of other people’s work for notes and make sure you always store each extract with the details of the author and publication from which it is taken. There is a good page on the university website that explains what plagiarism is, and how to avoid it.
The best approach is for you to explain to your lecturer exactly what happened, acknowledge that it was wrong and offer to rewrite the offending section with appropriate references. If things don’t go your way and the process becomes a formal charge, seek some assistance from the MPA advocate.