Ed Sheeran and Plagiarism

Ed Sheeran and Plagiarism

Earlier this month it was reported in the news that Ed Sheeran was being sued for over 20 million dollars for copying an existing song (Amazing) and using parts of it in his song Photograph. 

Plagiarism

Using someone's work without gaining their permission to do so or giving credit to them is a serious and expensive business and the principle behind it applies to your academic work too. As you move forward in your studies, failure to credit your sources of information can result in disciplinary action. Most Universities (including UCP) require students to submit their work through a software program which checks whether it is their own work or copied from somewhere else (from the internet, for example).

When you are learning and writing assignments, you are of course expected to read and quote other people's work. This is part of the learning process. However if you do not give credit by citing and referencing the works you've read and used in your work, you will be committing plagiarism. Including references at the end of your work, even at College, can also earn you extra marks.

Learn about plagiarism and referencing

To help you understand and apply this correctly, Library+ has created an online learning activity which can be accessed from our Library 24/7 page on Moodle. The activity is made up of 4 parts:

1) Plagiarism

2) Referencing

3) Plagiarism quiz

4) Referencing quiz

The quizzes are intended to test your knowledge having completed the corresponding learning activities first

. 

Lecturers can also ask Library+ for some code which will put a button on their course page to link to the resource. They can then see their students' test scores, if they need or want to.

For more information, please ask in Library+.

So why not have a go - either to learn from scratch or to remind yourself how to reference. The resource is new so if you have any comments on how it can be improved, then please also let Library+ know.

Proofreading

Proofreading

At this time of year, we receive quite a few enquiries from UCP students wanting someone to proofread their work. The College or UCP will not do this for you but you can get advice from a Specialist Support tutor (they are based in room 31b) and there is information to help you on the ARU website. See their guide to proofreading here.

For all students, it is a good idea to check your work before handing it in. It can boost your marks up to 10%. 

What is proofreading and how do you do it?

Proofreading is checking your work and making sure it is the best it can be before you hand it in. It involves making sure it can be understood as well as structure, spelling, grammar and referencing.

CC0 image from www.pixabay.com

Proofreading tips

Here are a few pointers which I’ve taken from ARU’s guide.

·         Wait a few days after writing your assignment/ essay/ dissertation before reading it through (otherwise you are more likely to miss mistakes).

·         Look at it in a different format (e.g. why not print it out?)

·         Read it differently – read it aloud (or ask a  friend to), read it slowly or by starting from the last paragraph.

·         Pretend to be your reader – someone who has never read it before and needs to understand it. A marker will be looking for mistakes.

·         Concentrate and focus - block out outside noises and disturbances.

What should you be looking for?

• Have you said what you mean? Does it make sense?
• Have you said it concisely – or have you rambled on?  (Rewrite it if it doesn't read well).
• Have you written consistently in the right tense?
• Does each paragraph just explore one idea?
• Have you mistakenly used slang?
• Is your grammar correct? (including punctuation)
• Are there words missing? Is there correct spacing between words?
• Is your spelling correct? (Don’t just rely on your online spellchecker)
• Have you cited and referenced all your resources?
• Have you kept within the word count?

Other proofreading guides and help

For a simple introduction try BBC Skillswise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/editing-and-proofreading

Hull University has a guide http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/PDF/Proofreading.pdf which also contains links to other sites.

If you want to have a go at some exercises, then you may find  http://www.uefap.com/accuracy/accfram.htm useful. There are practice activities on punctuation and grammar which anyone may find useful.

Easter baking and finding recipes that work!

Happy Easter!

Easter is one of those times of the year when people like to bake. It can be very relaxing and you know which ingredients have gone into your creations.

CC0 Photo from www.pixabay.com

Finding trustworthy recipes which work and have UK measurements

If you want to learn how to make some Easter cakes and bakes, how do you know which recipes to trust?

Instead of just searching using Google which will bring up all sorts of websites, try these tips:

• Search for a famous chef’s website and then search for a recipe (e.g. Nigella, Jamie Oliver)
• Most supermarket websites have recipe databases.
• Well-known magazines often have recipe sections where the recipes have been tried and tested (e.g. BBC Good Food, Good Housekeeping).
• Brands of ingredients (eg Stork, Allinsons, Whitworths, Philadelphia – other brands available) often provide a collection of recipes to promote their products.
• Some food items have associations or boards which support those who work within the industry but also help promote the products to the public. E.g www.seafish.org supports the fishing industry but also has its own recipe site for fish http://www.seafish.org/eating-seafood/fish-is-the-dish
• Instead of searching online, why not use a book. We have a collection of recipe books to support our Hospitality students in Library+ which anyone in College can borrow.

Limiting Google results to UK sites only

One problem with recipe sites is that if you find an American site, the measurements are in cups which is not useful for those of us in the UK. How do you make sure when you search for a recipe in Google, you only get UK results?

You need to put in your search site:.uk and this will restrict the search to UK sites.

So, in Google you might write “Easter biscuits” recipes site:.uk

(I have put speech marks round Easter biscuits to keep this as a phrase). Have a try!

To finish, here is a video recipe for Hot Cross Buns from Mary Berry (which because it is hers, we know we can trust it).

Planning your revision

Starting to revise

Although it’s the holidays next week, exams are nearly upon us and so it is a good time to start planning your revision.

Library+ subscribes to Which magazine and they have put together a guide for creating such a timetable and have pulled together tips from other students which might help you.

http://university.which.co.uk/advice/student-life/creating-a-revision-timetable-that-actually-works

Photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/pen-writing-notes-studying-8769/

Study Stack

Some of you might like the idea of creating your own flash cards and revision activities and you can use a web resource like Study Stack to create these – whether you are student wanting to make your revision more enjoyable or a tutor wanting a way to help your students revise. Just the process of creating these activities will help you memorise your subject.

There are some existing flashcards on Study Stack which you might find useful but beware as none of these are checked by anyone for accuracy so you want to be sure they are correct before using them. Once you have your flashcards , your flashcards can be converted into other activities (eg hangman, crossword). There a  few tutorials on YouTube but they do not appear to be from the providers of Study Stack themselves so you might want to bear this in mind.

Library+ Loyalty Card

Library+ Loyalty Card

“A book is a dream that you hold in your hands."- Neil Gaiman   

Reading is an important past time. Reading a book (or preferably books) expands your mind and vocabulary, and according to a 2014 report from The Reading Agency, there is “clear evidence that reading for pleasure can increase empathy, improve relationships with others, reduce the symptoms of depression and dementia, and improve well-being throughout life.”* However, like a lot of things, the art of sitting down with a book seems to be losing out to catch-up TV and smart phones.

This year, our goal at Library⁺ is to encourage people to read for fun. No, not just stuff for your courses but fiction books.  We’ve launched a Loyalty Card Scheme to encourage reading for pleasure and it’s really simple to get involved! Just come to the Library main desk to sign up for your card, then borrow and read 6 books before June. Once your card has 6 stamps on it you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win an Amazon Kindle!

Library+ Loyalty Card Prize event

Not only will the winner get an amazing prize but we are also holding an awards event for the Loyalty Card Scheme on Wednesday 14^th June. All those who have completed Loyalty Cards will be invited and we will be joined by local author Eva Jordan and children’s fiction writer Alexander Gordon Smith. All these things are great incentives to start reading and there is no closing date for signing up to a card!

Picture/ Poster by Peterborough Regional College

Books! Not sure where to start? Here’s our top picks-

-           I knew you were trouble- Paige Toon  

-          Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone (illustrated edition)- JK Rowling          The son of Neptune- Rick Riordan

-          Street cat Bob (quick read edition) – James Bowen

-          The Girl of ink and stars- Kiran Millwood Hargrave

-          Lord Loss- Darren Shan

    

The importance of punctuation - the Oxford Comma

Using the correct punctuation

In order to write well and make yourself understood, it is important to use the correct punctuation, but for many of you this can be a struggle (and I suspect there isn't one of us in College that doesn't find themselves at some point not sure when to use a form of punctuation).

Last week, the humble comma was shown to be far more important than the little squiggle it is, when it made headline news in a court case concerning whether drivers in a dairy in the USA were entitled to overtime pay. The whole decision rested on the use of what is known as the Oxford comma. It cost Oakhurst Dairy 10 million dollars. Read about it here.

The Oxford Comma

The Oxford Comma (or serial comma) is an optional comma used after the penultimate item in a list of 3 or more items, before 'and'  or 'or'.

Usually in a list we are told not to put a comma before the final 'and', but in some cases (and the Oakhurst Dairy case is a prime example) putting a comma here helps to make the sentence clearer and better understood.

Bristol University explains simply how this is the case.

It is Bristol University's jelly and ice cream example which helps me remember this (perhaps I'm feeling hungry!)

His favourite puddings were ice apple pie, rhubarb crumble, and jelly and ice cream.

The comma after crumble keeps jelly and ice cream together as one item, one dessert, one dish (albeit made up of 2 items).

Punctuation games/ quizzes

For those of you wanting to brush up on your use of the comma (Oxford or otherwise) or who need some exercises to use in class to help test punctuation, you might find these useful:

BBC Skillswise quiz   -some funny example in here. It does need Flash to work.

How good is your punctuation? - from the Telegraph
Commas game.

Focus on Electronic Resources for Early Years and Child Care

Childlink and Nursery World

Library+ subscribes to a couple of databases which hold lots of useful information for Early Years and Child Care students particularly but may also be useful for Health and Social Care students.
These resources are accessible from our Electronic Resources page under the Library+ section of Moodle.  Both can be used inside and outside College. If prompted, enter your network login name and password.

Childlink

This focuses on legislation, policies and practices regarding children and young people. There are links to new government legislation (e.g. Children and Social Work Bill), research, papers ( e.g. Bounce back from bullying), news (e.g "Schools must do more on mental health") and statistics (e.g. youth custody data). There are also links to trustworthy videos (e.g. How to put your child to sleep properly or What can we do about child abuse?  - see below for the NSPCC video).

There is also a range of practice guides on issues such as Nursery Food and Common Childhood Illnesses. Have a look and see what you can find!

You can access Childlink on your tablet if you have one and there is a Childlink app for your mobile if this is how you wish to access it.

Nursery World

We pay a lot of money to give you online access to back issues of Nursery World so do please use it. Nursery World is very practical and relevant to people working with young children (I've just found an article on dressing up, for example) with ideas that you can use in your work placement as well as use in your assignments. There is health advice, information about special needs, equality and diversity and ideas for play, to name a few.

You can search for what you are interested in using the search box in the top right hand corner or browse through past issues one by one.

Nursery World - available to view in College

If you want any help using these, please come and ask in Library+. We can also come to your lesson and give you a quick demo or training session - tutors just need to arrange this with us.