Editing and Proofreading

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is about ensuring that any evidence used in your writing is referenced and acknowledged, so that the reader can differentiate between your perspective on a topic and ideas grounded in the literature. If you're new to referencing, and want to find out more about what plagiarism means at university, please see our guide to referencing.

Along with accurate APA referencing, the following tips and questions will help you to avoid plagiarism and provide enough information for other people to trace and read the sources you include:

• Are your claims accurate and evidenced?
• Have you used tentative 'hedging' language? These words - including could, should, perhaps, possibly, potentially - allow you to offer your opinion as just one possible interpretation or perspective on a topic.
• Is it always clear when you are citing someone else?
• Have you used your own words (paraphrasing) as well as direct quotations? Paraphrased sentences still need to be referenced so that the reader can easily see which sources influenced your ideas, but these references do not need to include a page number. 
• Use anti-plagiarism software (Turnitin or other free plagiarism checkers) to help with checking your work.