Referencing

Academic misconduct includes "presenting/submitting academic work that has involved significant assistance from a third party (person(s) or application), unless this has been specifically allowed in the Course Outline" (University of South Australia, 2023, p. 2).

When you produce an assignment, it is expected that the assignment is your own work. If you submit work that has involved significant assistance from another person, it would be considered misconduct. Assistance for assignments does not only relate to writing, but can include solving problems, doing calculations, writing computer code, and designing creative work and images.

Examples of significant assistance can include, but are not limited to:

• paying someone to write, rewrite or produce your assignment
• asking anyone to write, rewrite or produce your assignment
• receiving assistance to the extent that it no longer resembles your original work
• doing assignments with others when this is not specified as part of the task - this is known as 'collusion'.

However, if your course outline states that the assignment is a group task which requires input from the group members then collaboration is acceptable. 

While it is also acceptable to ask someone to read your work and provide feedback, it is unacceptable for them to provide feedback to such an extent that they are rewriting your assignment. The picture below illustrates the differences between acceptable feedback, such as pointing out simple grammar and expression errors and providing suggestions to make meaning clearer, and unacceptable feedback, which involves significant rewriting of material by the reader.