Well, here I am again. I am probably writing the last post of this studentblog before exam. I would be quite surprised if other bloggers could find any time to blog in this busy period. For me, it’s quite hard as well. But, I have just finished submitting my project progress report and I think I can have a little break before writing another report tomorrow. Oh, BTW my exam starts from 17th. Cruel, isn’t it?

I don’t think that I have written so many reports ever in my life. The good part is that it improves my academic writing skills by leaps and bounds. The scariest part in these report submissions is that few students every year are punished for plagiarism. The authority has zero tolerance on this. The department has state-of-the-art plagiarism detection software, which uses lot of statistical measures to find the originality of your report. If there is any plagiarism found, you’ll most probably fail or get very low marks. Of course, cheating is bad. Everybody knows that too. The problem is that you’re not doing any path-breaking research at your undergrad or masters, you forget to include quotations or references and bingo! You’d live the hell!

The authority knows our feelings too. The department each year tries their best (and I mean it) to circulate information on plagiarism. There was a mandatory course that we all needed to pass, after obviously thorough study of the course content. Also, we went through some lecture materials on this. There were repeated reminders about the possible dreadful course of action or how to avoid plagiarism. Project supervisors every now and then stress on the advantages of referencing. In our coursework, it is advised to follow the standard academic writing pattern with due references and quotes. Even the director of our masters program offered to help any students having questions on this. The point is that they all have utmost empathy on our situation, but a rule is a rule!

Anyway, hope we all can come out with our heads held high. Best wishes to everyone for the exam!