Crime Scene
Picture the scene
You’ve just spent a week working hard on a piece of coursework. You spent ages doing the research and found loads of information on the Internet.
You have high hopes for a good grade. Then all of a sudden, BANG, you get a fail!
What went wrong?
You scan your feedback comments …
It seems your lecturer is not happy with the references you used.
Apparently you missed out all the key sources of information that you should have used. They ask why you didn’t refer to your reading list or any resources from the library.
Some of the sources you quote are inappropriate – they were looking for academic sources such as journal articles, rather than random web sites.
They are also unhappy with the content of the some of the sites you quote –there was a lot of bias and you don’t give both sides of the argument. Much of the information you cited was out of date and downright inaccurate!
They also warn you to watch out where the information you use is coming from – all the sources you used were from the USA and you missed out all the European research in this area.
But perhaps most embarrassing – apparently you’re not allowed to "cut and paste" text from web sites into your assignments – it’s plagiarism - unless you use proper citation methods – so you get an outright fail!
Your lecturer suggests you brush up on your Internet research skills.
What does this mean?
