*jellz*
Member
Re: The Idiot's Guide to University (FAQ)
glitterfairy! my 8 hour eStudent buddy
awesome guide. Thought i'd comment on the plagarism/referencing stuff:
one of the hardest things to get used to at uni, i found, was the plagarism thing, because most of my assignments in school were pretty much copied and pasted off of the internet. At mac (and other unis do this, i'm sure) a lot of the humanities subjects put each assignment through a plagarism checker. Ours is called "turnitin". We were warned that not only would you inevitably get caught and get a serious warning, but also possibly fail/redo the assignment, or even get expelled (unlikely for a first time offender though). It also means you CANNOT copy assignments from your mates in older years or copy passages out of books. Someone in one of my tutorials got in serious trouble last year (failed + had to repeat the course) because they copied a lot of their assignment from someone who did the course two years before. So my point is this: if your assignment is due the next day and you haven't done it, you have a way better chance of passing if you fill up on coffee and stay up all night to do it properly. To be honest, most first year assignments probably wouldnt take longer than one hard night's slog if you've been to the lectures, done the relevent readings and got a general idea of whats going on. That being said, you should always try to avoid the all-nighter when possible, because chances are your assessments will all be due pretty close to one another, and you'll need your stamina to keep going! Get organised early
As for referencing, at macquarie i found that we got little direction in this area even though its an absolutely VITAL element of good academic practise. Even students who don't mean to plagarise can unwittingly do so if they fail to reference properly. Every time you use a direct quote, paraphrase or even just use an idea that you got from a particular source, you must acknowlede the source-- book, academic journal, website, documentary, magazine article, graph etc. etc. in considerable detail. When researching in the library, if you're not allowed to borrow the book or article, make careful note of the full name, author, publisher, publication date, year/edition, relevent page number and so on. There are many difference ways to reference your assignments-- Harvard, MLA, footnoting etc. So when you get an assignment, the best thing to do is to ASK YOUR TUTOR what their preferred system of referencing is and make sure they explain it to you. Don't feel stupid asking-- there are students in 2nd and even 3rd year who are only now developing an effective referencing style. Therefore, get into the habit early on.
thats all from me. woo!
glitterfairy! my 8 hour eStudent buddy
awesome guide. Thought i'd comment on the plagarism/referencing stuff:
one of the hardest things to get used to at uni, i found, was the plagarism thing, because most of my assignments in school were pretty much copied and pasted off of the internet. At mac (and other unis do this, i'm sure) a lot of the humanities subjects put each assignment through a plagarism checker. Ours is called "turnitin". We were warned that not only would you inevitably get caught and get a serious warning, but also possibly fail/redo the assignment, or even get expelled (unlikely for a first time offender though). It also means you CANNOT copy assignments from your mates in older years or copy passages out of books. Someone in one of my tutorials got in serious trouble last year (failed + had to repeat the course) because they copied a lot of their assignment from someone who did the course two years before. So my point is this: if your assignment is due the next day and you haven't done it, you have a way better chance of passing if you fill up on coffee and stay up all night to do it properly. To be honest, most first year assignments probably wouldnt take longer than one hard night's slog if you've been to the lectures, done the relevent readings and got a general idea of whats going on. That being said, you should always try to avoid the all-nighter when possible, because chances are your assessments will all be due pretty close to one another, and you'll need your stamina to keep going! Get organised early
As for referencing, at macquarie i found that we got little direction in this area even though its an absolutely VITAL element of good academic practise. Even students who don't mean to plagarise can unwittingly do so if they fail to reference properly. Every time you use a direct quote, paraphrase or even just use an idea that you got from a particular source, you must acknowlede the source-- book, academic journal, website, documentary, magazine article, graph etc. etc. in considerable detail. When researching in the library, if you're not allowed to borrow the book or article, make careful note of the full name, author, publisher, publication date, year/edition, relevent page number and so on. There are many difference ways to reference your assignments-- Harvard, MLA, footnoting etc. So when you get an assignment, the best thing to do is to ASK YOUR TUTOR what their preferred system of referencing is and make sure they explain it to you. Don't feel stupid asking-- there are students in 2nd and even 3rd year who are only now developing an effective referencing style. Therefore, get into the habit early on.
thats all from me. woo!
