In her last blog for The Journal, Anna Barnes examines the importance of proper referencing and further reading.
It is the end of the road for me on The Journal, as this is my final blog. As I have spoken about tips and tricks throughout my blogs, which I hope you have found helpful, I thought it would be useful to also delve a little into plagiarism as it is an important topic to consider when writing assignments.
A lot of people believe that plagiarism is just copying someone else's work, but it actually also includes copying someone else's ideas and using those ideas without citing the source.
It can be quite overwhelming when trying to write an assignment in your own words, so I would firstly read the Coursework Assessment Guidelines and Instructions document, which is available with every exam you do on the CII website. It covers both plagiarism and referencing, by explaining in detail how to reference within the assignment or in your bibliography, as well as providing examples.
This is particularly important, as using a different style of referencing than requested could lose you marks. It also covers paraphrasing, collaboration and how referencing can make a difference in the marks awarded for your assignment.
FURTHER READING
As discussed in the last blog, 10% of your final exam mark is allocated to evidence shown of further reading so, although it is important to cite sources, these sources must be reliable.
Each revision book has a reading list across one or two pages, which can assist you with your studies -- from books and journals, to websites.
I must stress the importance of reading additional sources and not just the revision book you are given, because of both the percentage awarded for it and also the fact that additional reading can help you understand the question more.
In addition to this, I would also suggest having a look on the CII website under the knowledge tab, as this will provide you with a number of online resources such as the eLibrary, research databases, journals, magazines, reports and statistics.
As this is my last blog, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all those who have been reading my missives. I hope that my blogs have been of value and entertainment, and that you have learned a little something -- even if that means I have helped just one person.
Anna Barnes is compliance & technical services assistant at Munich Re