Academic Writing for International Students of Business

What is plagiarism?

Basically, plagiarism means taking ideas or words from a source (e.g. a book or journal) without
giving credit (acknowledgement) to the author. In academic work, ideas and words are seen
as private property belonging to the person who first thought or wrote them. If you borrow
or refer to the work of another person, you must show that you have done this by providing
the correct acknowledgement. This is done by the following methods:

Summary and citation

Rodgers (2007) argues that family-owned businesses survive recessions better.

Quotation and citation

As Rodgers maintains: ‘There is strong evidence for the resilience of family businesses in

recessionary times’ (Rodgers, 2007: 23).

These citations are linked to a list of referencesat the end of the main text, which include
the following details:

Avoiding

Plagiarism

UNIT

1.3

Plagiarism is a concern both for teachers and students, but it can be avoided by

understanding the issues involved. In the English-speaking academic world, it is

essential to use a wide range of sources for your writing and to acknowledge these

sources clearly. This unit introduces the techniques students need to do this.

Further practice is provided in Units 1.6 Summarising and Paraphrasing and

1.7 References and Quotations.

Author Date Title Place ofpublication Publisher

Rodgers, F. (2007) The Family Business: A re-assessment Oxford Critchlow