Translate

Plagiarism - Footnotes!

Plagiarism is the unattributed use of others works. When you use texts of others, whether quoted or paraphrased, you Must indicate such with a footnote. The footnote shows you have done your research and are not copying others work wrongly. Footnoting is good! Copying texts is ok, but Only if you indicate it with a footnote.

We are teaching you how to think; we are not teaching you what to think. We want you to learn to think for yourself, to think independently, to think creatively and critically. Yes, we expect and hope you will read and refer to other authors – explicitly! You Must say when you use any other author's text. There's nothing to hide. We understand how difficult it is to write in a foreign language. It's ok to quote other's texts, even extensively. But, such uses of others texts must be cited with a footnote. It's only fair.

When you use any other author's writing without citing it with a footnote it is as if you were trying to present someone else's original work as your own. It's not fair to that author. It's also not fair to your reader – your reader will want to know where you got your ideas from, which other authors you read – and are responding to.


Because plagiarism is like stealing it is a serious academic offense. I know you will want to use other author's texts. That's fine it's even expected and desired. BUT you Must tell us you did so – and that's what footnotes are for. They show us you have done your research, have read and thought about other others.


The footnote should be as follows:

Author's First name and last name, a comma, the title of the work in italics, a way to find the work, the page or pages the cited source comes from and the year of publication, a period. Then, “Available at” and a url if possible. So, for example:

Eric Engle, My Next Great Idea, 1 Journal of Law and Economics, page 17 (2010). Available at: http://lexnet.com/my-next-great-idea.htm

The footnote should be sufficient so that I or your reader can locate the original text.

If/ you have lost the source, you should indicate as much of the source as you recall. An imperfect footnote is much much better than no footnote!


http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

presents detailed rules – including examples! – of how to cite to legal sources in U.S. Style


http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/published/oscola/oscola_2006.pdf

presents detailed rules – including examples! – of how to cite to legal sources in British Style

they are similar but not the same. Please format your footnotes in either of these styles. You should choose the style based on whether you wish to try to publish your work in the U.S. or Europe, respectively.


http://drcwww.uvt.nl/dbi/instructie/eu/en/T42.htm

shows how to cite to E.U. Laws.


You want your footnotes to be as proper as possible because editors at law journals will judge your work a bit based on the quality of your footnotes. No editor wants to reformat your footnotes. But an imperfect footnote is so much better than no footnote. It's the difference between “acceptable” (a bad footnote) and “unacceptable and thus failure” (no footnote).


Most all of your life you have been told What to think. Anyone can memorize. We do not tell you what to think but How. That's what we are looking for, and why plagiarism is common, yet unacceptable. It's common because 1) someone else has thought of this 2) the grammar is so hard 3) it doesn't seem like a big deal, people copy all the time. But it is a big deal, because we need to know where you got your nice text from, to be fair to other authors, and so you don't appear to be stealing other's ideas and presenting them as your own.


Citation is also important because Courts will Not “just take your word on it”. The Court Must have good law, must know where the law is which you are relying on!

No comments:

Post a Comment