Hi all,
I am in my last year on a law course, and for one of my modules we had to submit a 4000 word essay. I did so, however one day before the results were due to posted, I got a letter saying there is evidence of plagiarism in my coursework and that I have to attend a hearing in front of the faculty.
I have looked back through it and there are two paragraphs that are highlighted; however, both paragraphs are paragraphs of pure legal regulation, and I am not sure how I could have changed that, I put that as is, into my coursework and then added the relevant reference as a footnote. One of the paragraphs is a paragraph which I used bits from the lecture slides we had given, on the lecture slides it is word for word what it says on the Gov website, and thus I was under the impression I could use it. Even still, I referenced the powerpoint in my bibliography and added a footnote after the paragraph.
I had no intention of plagiarising. I wrote it myself, I have referenced/footnoted almost everything that should be and used quote marks when needed. The highest the likes if Quetext and Unplag gave me were 15%, a lot of which was my bibliography and footnotes. Though apparently Turnitin gave it 35%, 15% of which was footnotes, and bibliography and it highlighted parts that were referenced.
The problem could be that those two chunks are essentially word for word what the government website says, but as I said its legal regulation, thus I am not sure how I could change the words of what the law says?
As I am in my third year, I am very stressed about the outcome of this as it could jeopardise my entire degree.
Any advice or help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.