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On Reference, Footnotes and Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is considered a very serious academic "crime" and a disciplinary offence which could result in even expulsion from the University since it is de facto stealing. In the University of Hong Kong, p lagiarism covers "all form of work submitted for assessment as part of a University examination" (e.g., theses, dissertations, take-home examinations, assignments and projects).
In the Fifth Regulation of the University's Regulations Governing Conduct at Examination , "plagiarism is defined as the unacknowledged use, as one's own, of work of another person, whether or not such work has been published." Plagiarism is about reproducing others' works in your own paper without stating the origins of your copied materials, be those from internet articles, other students' old papers, academic journals, books, lecture notes or internet images. In short, if a student tries to present others' ideas or works as if it was the work of the students' own, it is plagiarism.
There are two forms of common plagiarism practices:
- Direct copy-and-paste, without referring to the source.
- Close paraphrasing, changing grammar, adding a few words or switching from passive to active voice and vice versa from others' works, without referring to the source.
Yet, as History is about gathering, analysing and evaluating evidences, interpretations and arguments, any student who had written a History essay would have realized that it is impossible for one to write a paper without drawing from existing knowledge. What really matters then would be how to copy without plagiarizing?
* For further details concerning plagiarism, please refer to the What is Plagiarism?, a booklet on plagiarism released by the University of Hong Kong.
Proper Referencing and Writing Footnotes
Elements of referencing:
1, Proper indications
2, Footnote
3, Bibliography 1, Proper indications
In order to avoid plagiarism, you have to make sure that your readers know a certain proportion of your work contains the work of someone else by proper indications. If you are taking a sentence or paragraph from other works without paraphrasing (direct quotation), you must present the copied materials in quotation (e.g., "omnia per ipsum facta sunt et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est") or indentation, e.g.:
"In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est. In ipso vita erat et vita erat lux hominum. Et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non conprehenderunt." (Ioannes 1:1-5, Vulgate )
And you should present the source immediately after the copied passage.
2, Footnote
How, then, should we present the source? In the source, the name of the author, title of the source, publication date and page reference should be included. This piece of information is what we called "citation". Academics of different discipline usually present the source in a certain citation style, and the History Department's "house style" is the Chicago style.
For example, if I want to cite some information concerning Yellow Fever on page 113 from Michael Oldstone's book Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present, and Future , the footnote should be as follows:
Michael B. A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present, and Future (Oxford, 2010), 113.
Click here to find some more samples on footnoting.
Basic form for a book
Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 2000) , 22-25.
- Note: the title of the publication must be either underlined or in italics . And if you need to cite the book more than once in your essay, you can just cite the name of the author and the page:
Henry Mayer, 23.
- But if you are citing more than one book from the same author, you will have to include the brief title of the book to distinguish which book you are citing:
Henry Mayer, All on Fire , 22-25. Two or more authors
James Bradley and Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers (New York, 2000), 78-80.
- Note: For books with more than three authors, you may use the Latin term "et al." ("and others") after the first author instead of listing all the authors (for example, "Jane Doe et al.").
Anonymous work
DK Altas of World History (New York, 2000), 33.
Chapter in an edited book
Alison Bashford, "Medicine, Gender and Empire," in Philippa Levine, ed., Gender and Empire (Oxford; New York, 2004), 112.
Translated work
Julia Tunon, Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled , trans. Alan Hynds (Austin , 1999), 52-57.
Edition other than the first
William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II , 4 th ed. (New York, 1999), 247.
Journal article
Seth Harter, "Hong Kong's Dirty Little Secret: Clearing the Walled City of Kowloon," Journal of Urban History 27(1) (November 2000) , 104-105.
Chinese book title
Ching Julia, "Indigenization of Theology and Its Universality ", Jidujiao yu Zhongguo bensehua: guoji xueshu yantao hui lunwen ji. [Christianity and Chinese Contextualization: International Symposium Theses Collection] Ed . Lin Zhiping (Taibei, 1990), 10-24 .
Tang Qing, Zhongguo Jidu jiao bai nian shi [A Century's History of Chinese Protestantism] (Hong Kong, 1987), 12.
- Note: Chinese surnames always come first in both footnotes and bibliographies. The English translation of the title follows its putonghua pinyin. If you are citing the same book again, you can cite it in the following manner:
Tang Qing, Zhongguo Jidu jiao bai nian shi , 12.
Titles in other languages
Horst Gründer, Christliche Mission und deutscher Imperialismus: eine politische Geschichte ihrer Beziehungen wahrend der deutschen Kolonialzeit (1884-1914) unter besonderer Berucksichtigung Afrikas und Chinas [Christian Mission and German Imperialism: a Political History of their Relations during the German Colonial Period] (Paderborn, 1982), 12.
Arno Sames, ,,Die öffentliche Nobilitierung der Missionssache". Gustav Warneck und die Begrundung der Missionswissenschaft an der Theologischen Fakultät in Halle. ", ["The "Public Ennoblement of the Mission Business." Gustav Warneck and the Rationale of Mission Studies at the Faculty of Theology in Halle. " ] Es begann in Halle…: Missionswissenschaft von Gustav Warneck bis heute. [It began in Halle...: Mission Science of Gustav Warneck up to today] Ed. Dieter Becker, Andreas Feldtkeller (Erlangen, 1997), 11-22.
Reference
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History , 3 rd ed. ( Boston; New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2001).
3, Bibliography
Samples of Bibliography Entries
Basic form for a book
Mayer, Henry, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery ( New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000 ).
Two or more authors
Bradley, James and Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers (New York: Bantam Books, 2000 ) .
- Note: For books with more than three authors, you may use the Latin term "et al." ("and others") after the first author instead of listing all the authors (for example, "Doe, Jane, et al.").
Author's name in the title
Darwin, Charles, Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection , 1825-1859. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996 ) .
Anonymous work
DK Altas of World History (New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000) .
- Note: If the title begins with an article (A, An, or The), alphabetize the book according to the first letter of the next word.
Chapter in an edited book
Benz, Ernst, "Pietist and Puritan Sources of Early Protestant World Missions (Cotton Mather and A. H. Francke)", Christianity and Missions, 1450-1800 . Edited by J. S. Cummins (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 1997) , 315-342 .
Translated work
Tunon, Julia, Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled . Translated by Alan Hynds ( Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999).
Edition other than the first
Chafe, William H., The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II , Fourth Edition ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) .
Journal article
Harter, Seth, "Hong Kong's Dirty Little Secret: Clearing the Walled City of Kowloon." Journal of Urban History 27(1) (November 2000), 92-113.
Titles in other languages
Ching, Julia, "Indigenization of Theology and Its Universality ", Jidujiao yu Zhongguo bensehua: guoji xueshu yantao hui lunwen ji. 基督教與中國本色化 : 國際學術研討會論文集 . [Christianity and Chinese Contextualization: International Symposium Theses Collection] Edited by Lin Zhiping. 林治平主編 . (Taibei: Yuzhou guang chubanshe 宇宙光出版社, 1990), 10-24 .
Tang , Qing 湯清, Zhongguo Jidu jiao bai nian shi 中國基督教百年史 [A Century's History of Chinese Protestantism] (Hong Kong: Daosheng 道聲, 1987).
Gründer, Horst, Christliche Mission und deutscher Imperialismus: eine politische Geschichte ihrer Beziehungen wahrend der deutschen Kolonialzeit (1884-1914) unter besonderer Berucksichtigung Afrikas und Chinas [Christian Mission and German Imperialism: a Political History of their Relations during the German Colonial Period] (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1982).
Sames, Arno,,,Die ,,öffentliche Nobilitierung der Missionssache". Gustav Warneck und die Begrundung der Missionswissenschaft an der Theologischen Fakultat in Halle. ", ["The "Public Ennoblement of the Mission Business." Gustav Warneck and the Rationale of Mission Studies at the Faculty of Theology in Halle. " ] Es begann in Halle…: Missionswissenschaft von Gustav Warneck bis heute. [It began in Halle...: Mission Science of Gustav Warneck up to today] Edited by Dieter Becker and Andreas Feldtkeller (Erlangen: Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission Erlangen, 1997), 11-22.
Reference
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History , 3 rd ed. ( Boston; New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2001).
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