Masters Dissertation - Do I have any chance?

I submitted quite a good dissertation recently. It was well researched and had over 120 references.... mostly pretty good ones!

Unfortunately I ran into a problem on the last day, where my in-text referencing got lost due to a PC shut down. I could only manage to do the first 30 references properly again.

For the rest I started giving references in bulk. In other words I would put an end note after every 1000 words and give several references at once for all the 1000 words combined.

Am I going to be accused of plagiarism / poor academic practice for not putting references after the exact (required) sentence and thus fail the module?

Or is there a chance of me getting the minimum pass mark?

Reply 1

Klix88

Original post by Masters_Student1

There really is no way for us to know. I doubt that type of referencing would be acceptable at my current or previous unis at Masters level, but it entirely depends upon your department's rules and how your markers interpret them in relation to what you've submitted.

If you want a more accurate idea, then try talking to your supervisor. Although at my Masters uni, the policy was that supervisors wouldn't discuss the diss after it was submitted and before it had been marked.

Reply 2

monkyvirus

You shouldn't have an issues with plagarism (as it would seem obvious you have referenced) however they may assume your referencing is poor / you ran out of time. They can't make allowances for mishaps and they would probably say you should have had a better referencing system or saved enough copies to avoid this sort of thing (sorry to sound harsh, but computers being wierd is something they expect us to have 12 contingency plans for). So yes you will lose marks (probably) but if it is otherwise a good piece of work you'll still get a good one.

Don't worry this sort of thing happens all the time and people still pass!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

Masters_Student1

Original post by Klix88

By unacceptable do you mean they'll fail me because of poor in-text referencing? (if it's unacceptable)

Original post by monkyvirus

That's what I've heard in many places as well, and it kinda puts my mind to rest. Thanks a lot! : )

Reply 4

Euphiletos

Original post by Masters_Student1

If I had to guess, I'd say you stand to lose some marks, but no more.

Reply 5

Duncan2012

There's really no excuse for failing to back-up/save your work regularly nowadays. Especially at postgrad level. USB drives are a few quid. Alt+F, S. Word has an autosave function.

Check the mark scheme, and if you're lucky you might just lose marks for incorrect referencing.

I suspect the markers are more lenient than I would be.

Reply 6

Masters_Student1

Hey guys thank you for responding. The deadline is just a few days away and I'm slightly tense about this. I asked my guide about this and I got a response that I would only lose a few marks, if at all. The Leicester uni website says that the following counts as plagiarism:

•

short blocks/significant or numerous blocks of material or copied text which is referenced in the bibliography but is not properly citied;

I didn't study at Leicester though. But are they referring to direct quotes only or heavily paraphrased material/statistics here? Is referencing every 1000-1500 words in bulk going to get me accused of plagiarism? Thanks in advance!

Reply 7

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Masters_Student1

•

short blocks/significant or numerous blocks of material or copied text which is referenced in the bibliography but is not properly citied;

It's a judgement call, not a universal rule.
That judgement is made by your specific university and department.
Ask your specific university or department, or, if you have to ask random people in the internet to work it out for you, give us the right documents to work with!