Extent of copying

[dekoyl]

When writing anything for English, to what extent are we allowed to use the words of others?

For example, if I described a character as "witty, insouciant and seductive", which is directly extracted from a published source, would this be considered as plagiarism which would result in heavy consequences?

Or how about if I used a whole sentence such as "There is something heroic about his godless stoicism"?

Thank ye.

[vce01]

i think its fine as long as you're understanding what it means. & as long as you're not copying slabs of text.

plus i doubt anyone's going to find out. it's like 3 words 

[dekoyl]

i think its fine as long as you're understanding what it means. as long as you're not copying slabs of text.

plus i doubt anyone's going to find out. it's like 3 words 

You never know The guy who wrote the study guide might be the assessor and then the one sentence I copied would stand out and be familiar to him/her. Uh oh.

[vce01]

i think its fine as long as you're understanding what it means. as long as you're not copying slabs of text.

plus i doubt anyone's going to find out. it's like 3 words 

You never know The guy who wrote the study guide might be the assessor and then the one sentence I copied would stand out and be familiar to him/her. Uh oh.

well everything i wrote was from study guides haha so yeah. in any case, there's only so many words you can use to describe something/someone in a certain way. who knows, you might be copying a study guide you haven't come across even though you didn't intend to.

[Matt The Rat]

Under 10% of a book is fine under copyright laws so go nuts.

[xox.happy1.xox]

I agree. I used tons of memorised quotes and phrases in my essays and didn't give any footnotes or accreditation to the respective authors. Half of my essays had words that I didn't know the meaning of, but thought it sounded good, so I just threw it in there... It must have been good, because I got a B+ which was 1 mark off an A. Go for it.

[Eriny]

It's fine. If it weren't in an exam I'd recommend citing the source, but it's not a huge deal if you copy peoples ideas, arguments, or even directly quote them (this changes in uni though!)

[xox.happy1.xox]

It's fine. If it weren't in an exam I'd recommend citing the source, but it's not a huge deal if you copy peoples ideas, arguments, or even directly quote them (this changes in uni though!)

Why does it have to change in uni... I suck at making my own ideas.

[Eriny]

^ If you use many ideas in the same essay (and cite them all, of course) it's almost like coming up with your own idea, I suppose. However, it's not too big a deal if you rely on secondary sources, as long as you don't rely completely on one or two. Usually the top scoring essays will be interesting and/or creative, but you can pass without it.

[xox.happy1.xox]

^ If you use many ideas in the same essay (and cite them all, of course) it's almost like coming up with your own idea, I suppose. However, it's not too big a deal if you rely on secondary sources, as long as you don't rely completely on one or two. Usually the top scoring essays will be interesting and/or creative, but you can pass without it.

I'm trying to get into Monash or ANU law; but I'm scared my scores at Vic Uni won't be high enough to gain access to these unis. ... Is the transferal rate around 70%, Eriny?

[jsimmo]

i think its fine as long as you're understanding what it means. as long as you're not copying slabs of text.

plus i doubt anyone's going to find out. it's like 3 words 

You never know The guy who wrote the study guide might be the assessor and then the one sentence I copied would stand out and be familiar to him/her. Uh oh.

well everything i wrote was from study guides haha so yeah. in any case, there's only so many words you can use to describe something/someone in a certain way. who knows, you might be copying a study guide you haven't come across even though you didn't intend to.

That's pretty much the same thing as me - I copied ALL the really good ideas from study guides and manipulated them in a way that I pretty much wrote the same essay over and over again for different topics. I wouldn't have survived english if I didn't have study guides

ALSO - to answer your main question - I don't think I actually directly copied a whole passage from a study guide and placed it into my essays - but I based my essays around the actual ideas stemming from the study guide (so pretty much - what I was saying was in the study guide - but worded differently). I'd be careful copying large slabs as your teachers and definitely the examiners will be familiar with all the guides.

[Eriny]

^ If you use many ideas in the same essay (and cite them all, of course) it's almost like coming up with your own idea, I suppose. However, it's not too big a deal if you rely on secondary sources, as long as you don't rely completely on one or two. Usually the top scoring essays will be interesting and/or creative, but you can pass without it.

I'm trying to get into Monash or ANU law; but I'm scared my scores at Vic Uni won't be high enough to gain access to these unis. ... Is the transferal rate around 70%, Eriny?

If you average 70% in your coursework you'd probably be able to transfer, if that's what you mean. Although, given that VU isn't a group of 8 uni, you'd probably want a fair bit higher than that. Doing well in uni isn't as impossible as it might seem right now though, and I don't think law itself requires as much of an independent flair as my Artsy subjects tend to. If you do the required task, you should be able to do pretty well. I can't really say how likely it is you'll get into the other unis until you see how you go next year. Chances are though, if you're dedicated and really love what you're doing, obstacles won't be as difficult to manage as you might think.

[vce01]

i think its fine as long as you're understanding what it means. as long as you're not copying slabs of text.

plus i doubt anyone's going to find out. it's like 3 words 

You never know The guy who wrote the study guide might be the assessor and then the one sentence I copied would stand out and be familiar to him/her. Uh oh.

well everything i wrote was from study guides haha so yeah. in any case, there's only so many words you can use to describe something/someone in a certain way. who knows, you might be copying a study guide you haven't come across even though you didn't intend to.

That's pretty much the same thing as me - I copied ALL the really good ideas from study guides and manipulated them in a way that I pretty much wrote the same essay over and over again for different topics. I wouldn't have survived english if I didn't have study guides

Lol yeah same, im incapable of making up my own ideas

[xox.happy1.xox]

I never used a study guide... (Grrr...)