Academic Research Booklet

Academic Honesty Plagiarism is using someone else’s work without acknowledging it.

It can be intentional—like copying from a website and claiming it as your own—or unintentional, such as forgetting you copied something. Examiners can't tell the difference, so accidental plagiarism is treated the same as deliberate cheating. Plagiarism can have serious consequences, including losing your qualifications or being barred from future courses with the same governing body. When writing your essay, it’s important to use others’ work to support your ideas. To avoid plagiarism, you must cite your sources using references and a bibliography (see pages 29–34). Using AI AI may one day be acceptable in academic work—but that time hasn’t come yet. Using tools like ChatGPT or CaktusAI to write your essay is not allowed. If you’re caught, your work will be invalid, and you’ll receive a failing grade. These tools often cite sources incorrectly—or invent them entirely. AI-generated work can also be reliably detected by plagiarism checkers. It’s simply not worth the risk!