(Archive) Results withheld/ deferred

@vinessen - of course you should respond and say that you did not receive the Turnitin report (as otherwise you cannot comment on the similarities). I expect they forgot to attach it but if you politely point out that you haven't got this with the email I am sure it will be sent. The report shows all the sources (some of these should be fine if you have referenced properly so you can ignore). It is the match to student papers you need to concern yourself with - these will be in different colours depending on how much has come from each source (according to the program). As I mentioned in my earlier post if students use the same source then it will often match it. The SLS should in theory have very few matches apart from the questions and the occasional phrase as it is supposed to be unique to each student's experience.

HI Trephena, i got the Turnitn report from the ACO. can you explain me how it work this report. all I'm seeing is lots of different types of colors highlighted in the report. I seen some paragraph in my analysis which i had written by myself has been highlighted. can you please explain me in details what does these colors means. I'm really confused right now. Thanks & Regards

@vinessen - Obviously I can only comment on from what I know about this program and they may have used a different version/ or report format from what I have seen but usually every source is shown in a different colour/ shade. The largest match will always be shown in red and each time this source is appears it is prefixed by a red number 1, the second largest match is in green and passages will be prefixed by a green 2 and third largest in blue and they have a blue 3 (then there will be other colours for smaller percentage matches each with a different number). There should either be a section at the beginning or the end of the report that shows the overall score and then this is broken down into percentages for Internet sources, publications and student papers, followed by a list that breaks down the sources with a score for each source. If your work is a resubmission then the red text would normally be matches the system has found to your previous submission(s) so obviously this would not be wrong but lots of red would be suspicious in a first submission. Text that the system believes is original is shown as black text. So any sources given a large percentage in the breakdown other than to your own previous work are probably what the ACO are interested in, or if your Turntin report is coloured like a rainbow. In this last case even if each source is listed with a low individual score the fact that there is so much colour indicates that the sentences and passages have been taken from elsewhere (and where there is a bit of text in say orange followed by a couple of words in black and then more orange it tells them that the student has just substituted a word or two here or there but essentially has imported the passage from the source identified by the prefix for the orange source). What I am saying is that students who think they can make up a story and say they just looked a someone's work for a few ideas just won't wash - the evidence of similarities when the percentages are large is more or less proof that they couldn't have just 'looked' but copied or reworded. You probably don't need to worry too much about the publications score (this represents books and journals) - focus on internet and student papers and the red, green and blue text. If they have sent you the detailed individual breakdown this may show you the actual source it has matched your work to but normally unless they have told you the student reg. no. you can't tell who it is (but they can). The other thing that you won't be able to see/do from the report (but they can do on the program) is call up the other papers your work is matched to and I think they can actually then view them side by side and see exactly who the other student is. They also of course have full electronic copies of everyone's submissions that they can call up and see everything that student has ever submitted (you have to agree when you submit that the University can retain your papers) so they can then compare reference lists, spreadsheets and Presentations.

I still havnt received any email from my ACO, is this normal for them to take this long?

Hi Trephena, I received a mail from ACO and they are saying overall match is 38% but they have highlighted two names to which one is 18% and 4% match. The 18% match is to someone i know but i have not copied his work at all. Although we had same companies but i have done all my research work myself. I have evidences to proof that. Only question i want to ask you is that should i mention that i know him? Pls help me. Thanks in advance.

@uzma8814 - did you copy and paste passages from articles into your report? This is bad academic practice (as I point out in my article on Referencing). This then becomes a problem if another student has done the same as Turnitin will have seen the similar passages and matched each of these passages and you find youself in the situation you now find yourself in. There is also a potential problem if you have the same mentor as it will look like the mentor assisted you both. Do you see the problem now that copying and pasting passages into your work causes? Did you reference them all? In your case say you did the research yourself, send examples that relate to some of the longest passages to show this. Admit you did not realise that you should not have taken passages straight from the source but you now realise that you should have expressed the passages in your own words and where you were using these quotations you should have made sure you used quotation marks like "this" to show the words were not yours. Hope for the best you might just then be failed for bad academic practice or academic negligence. If you really didn't' use the other guy's work then you shouldn't say anything but if you did then own up as the sooner you do so normally the less severe the penalty. If you have the examples from your research for most of the passages you may be ok. If the passages are in the SLS then this is far harder to prove because how come the passages are the same? Your statement should be unique to you and only a few sentences here and there realistically would be the same.

@trephena. Thanks for your reply. No we had different mentors. Only one article i took from the same source. Rest all referencing used was different. Yes i did use some passages and rephrased them. Basically only the intro part. Is that a big problem now? For sls, i did some rephrasing as we living in same country faced same limitations. But rest of my research work was my own. I m really scared now!

@uzma8814 - well that is more hopeful if it is mainly the Intro. Are you at the same college? or did you use the same study manuals? Did you have a session where your mentor gave you notes or ideas for the intro part? Some mentors copy stuff from other mentors (I am sure there are students out there who are being given material by their mentor that I have written but the students have no idea it came originally from Open Tuition and was written by me) What I would do is: 1. state your sources for the Intro 2. apologise for the passages you used and say you tried to rephrase them but as English is not your first language it is not so easy for you as it probably would be for a native speaker, 3. Give examples of your research particularly to back up the really long passages 4. Point out that it is mainly the Introduction and it seems you and the other guy chose the same company (and if some of that Intro is company background you can say he probably accessed the company website like you did and found and used the same material) 5. Say if you had any group mentor sessions and any info that was given to everyone e.g. about what content to put in each section. I think it will depend on how much similar work is in the SLS - again if your mentor made suggestions then you need to say this is what you were told to do. As I said earlier you can be failed for referencing under bad academic practice for quite a lot of cutting and pasting The next charge up is a total fail for academic negligence for really heavy cutting and pasting . Then comes Academic Malpractice which is a zero grade -the difference between this and negligence is you fail and don't get any feedback. After that the charges become far more serious if they think you copied from another student and it can considered to be Misconduct which is a zero grade, you cannot resubmit on the same topic and company + ACCA are told about your case. Let me know how you get on.

@Trephena Please tell me if its ok to receive mail from tge ACO this late as i havnt received any yet

@trephena. Thanks for the help. U mean to say my degree and ACCA is gone!!

hi Trephena, I had gone through my Turnitin report and say it has a 46% match to other people work. sincerely speaking I had done my project on my own and I had not copied the work from other people. The ACO did not mentioned that my work is same to same to other dissertation. As I gone through the report I noticed that the way I had done my references were not good. Some of my references I had used were corresponding to others work. for example for my literature review I read lots of books and articles and my mistakes were instead of referencing the book itself I took out the reference from the referencing list same applies for articles also. but the good news is that all my figures computation and analysis there were no plagiarism on them. only on my literature review and my referencing. My mistake again is that I did not gone through the referencing guide given on open tuition and the BSC oxford brooks. I want to confess it to the ACO and redo my project. Can you advice me how to proceed it please. Is this a major offence from my part? will I be able to resubmit my dissertation for this period.?kindly advice Thanks

@vinessen - I am not sure quite what you mean by; "Some of my references I had used were corresponding to others work. for example for my literature review I read lots of books and articles and my mistakes were instead of referencing the book itself I took out the reference from the referencing list same applies for articles also." are you saying you forgot to include these in your Reference list? If so what I would now do is go back to the list you submitted and put them in - use a red font so that they stand out ( and put them in the right order in the list) and when you reply to the ACO include this new list. This will show you know where they came from. You can say that you did not realise how important referencing is as this is the first time you have done any academic work but have now read the Guides. (This also means you should direct any friends and family thinking of doing the RAP to our Opentuition site so they don't have this problem) Obviously I cannot say what the ACO will decide but hopefully they may go for negligence or malpractice which though both are faills malpractice is more serious and unfortunately means you don't get feedback. Regarding resubmitting in P31 - would you need to update because of financial statements? is your evaluation strong -read my article on this. Can you do good self-reflection now? Work on all these things while you wait to hear. If you do get a zero grade for Malpractice then it might be worth asking if although you get no feedback would the ACO be kind enough to tell you the sections failed. Some markers fail for understanding (section 2 if you have just copied and pasted passages into your work (see golden rule 10 in my Referencing article) S/he might although they don't have to. Also don't forget you now need a listed mentor. Please let me know what happens

@uzma8814 - no it does not mean that. It means if they examine all the evidence and believe that you copied then they could conclude that it is Academic Misconduct. However if you follow the advice that I gave you earlier and have given to Vinessen then they will look at your examples and all the facts to decide whether they think the similarities are more accidental (malpractice) or deliberate i.e. copying and Misconduct. Malpractice = a zero grade and no feedback and you can resubmit (but your failed attempt counts as one of your submissions Misconduct = as with malpractice - you can resubmit but it will have to be a different Topic and company + ACCA are informed (it is then up to ACCA if they take this up with you) Serious Misconduct = all of the Misconduct penalties above + a formal hearing before the University Misconduct Committee (normally this is reserved for the most serious cases - buying a project, mentor writing a project, lying to the ACO officer, withholding information, a second offence etc). There is a likelihood if found guilty by the UMC that ACCA will take action. I understand that they are really cracking down on unscrupulous mentors - the reason they now have to be listed so that if a mentor has been offering too much assistance and writing bits of the RAP and SLS that mentor could be banned and reported to ACCA.

@farankhan111 - As I mentioned previously different ACOs seem to operate differently and I expect where their case load is high it could take a while to get back to some students. I have been told that the guy who co-ordinates the ACO cases has been off sick but they have 5 ACO officers so they are doing their best to deal with cases as quickly as possible. As you can see some students on here seem to have been told what the issues with their work are. All I can suggest is that you focus on your own Referencing and instances where you may have taken long passages from articles and copied and pasted these into your work as these seem to be the 'normal' problem areas. That way when you hear from the ACO you may be able to respond quickly as you have already looked at some of the issues and that could speed up your case. (Read all my advice to Vinessen and Uzma8814 too) Be patient but if you haven't heard in 10 days then it is reasonable for you to contact them...but inevitably someone is going to be the last person on the list....

Hi Trephena, like i said earlier plagiarism are arising on my references and literature review i now know that the way i referenced my work was wrong. as i told you i ddnt conduct the oxford pack and open tuition for guidance. i conducted some thesis and project for my references i thought it was the right way. for examples i downloaded lots of articles and thesis and read about how they did the literature review then i took the relevant phrases put them in my own words then took out the relevant reference from the referencing list of the articles or thesis. it was my first submission and i did not had any one to guide me i did the project on my own. then i came to know about the opentuition guidance and some friends of mine who already passed the BSC told me that the way i referenced my work was not good thats why my project is corresponding to others. that why im teeling that i want to resubmit my project this November. As i will be more inform on the guidance of open tuition. please advice me how should I proceed this matter to the ACO. my big concerned is will I be able to resubmit a new project or will i be punished severely and not given the chance to do a resubmission.. please advice sir

@vinessen - well the best thing is to now write back to your ACO officer and tell him/her exactly what happened that way your case can be decided quickly. Use the info you have posted here as your response. I think using the thesis was the big error as if you did not acknowledge the writer of this you are guilty of plagiarism (passing someone else's work off as your own). If you did put the Thesis down as a source this would make it a more minor offence especially if your part 3 is clear of major copying or 'cut and paste sections'. I think you are looking at either Malpractice or Misconduct but Malpractice being the less serious charge would enable you to resubmit on the same company and topic. If the ACO Officer however considers it to be Misconduct then you will have to go for a new Topic and company (in which case consider T17 as most of our students seem to pass that if they follow our advice on the Forum). It will probably depend on how much you have copied and how the ACO normally deal with similar cases.

ok thank you Trephena

@Trephena. Thank you. I m so much relieved now. I am facing one problem. When I m trying to open my link some other page is opening. I have used business recorder as my link and it was working perfectly well during that time..but as for now...it shows something else in that link...some news not related to the company.can u guide me what can I do in this case?

@farankhan - I suppose it depends on the ACO case load - they try to get through the cases quickly but if some cases are complicated then it can take a while to go through them I understand. I was told that guy who coordinates the cases is off sick but they have 5 case officers who conduct the enquiries so are doing their best. Quite a few cases have already been sorted and as you can see from some of the students on here they are being dealt with. I realise that doesn't really help you but I am sure you will be contacted soon. If you haven't heard within 10 days I think you could contact them to see what is happening but it is best to be patient. Learn from my replies on here what the problems are likely to be and perhaps go through your work and look at the referencing - as you can see this is often the problem area - then you may be able to respond quickly once they do contact you.

I have not copied as my financial years are different from my friend. The only source which was same was again an online source, it was for limitation of a model. My only concern is rephrasing few passages in rap and Sls.

HI Trephena, i replied to the ACO and told him everything you advice me above. "Thank you for your response. I'll give your case further consideration and contact you again as necessary." This is the mail he replied me. Do you know approximately how much time HE will take before giving me a final decision?. Because, i am considering of re-submitting my project before the 18th of this period. Thanks

@vinessen. Did you receive any reply yet?

Hi Sir, yes i just checked my mail and the ACO sent me a mail in which a letter is attach of malpractice. as part of the letter he stated this" This is a breach of Student Conduct Regulation 2.2.1 and I have imposed a penalty of a Zero grade for your Research and Analysis Project. If you are eligible you may re-submit a new RAP, which should be on a different organisation or topic. You should undergo mentoring again. However, in this instance, I will not be referring the matter to the Undergraduate Misconduct Committee or ACCA for further disciplinary action." most important for me is that im eligible to go for a re-submission. but i will re-submit my project next year in MAI. Can you give me some more advice sir. thanks

@vinessen. Thanks for ur reply. I m really scared for my project. Lets see what happens. Goodluck for your submission!

@vinessen - I am holiday. Malpractice was the best you could have hoped for in the end and I bet you are glad the stress is over! My advice to you and all other ACO cases (especially if you get a zero grade and thus no feedback): consider submitting a RAP on T17. Students following my guidance on the T17 forum have had some great results. Ensure you understand the Referencing requirements and do a reasonable SLS and you should be successful in May with T17. Good luck! Trephena PS - I am 'madam' not sir!

HI Trephena, sorry for calling you sir..yes i am happy i can go for re-submission. i thank you so much for your advice.

@uzma8814. you are welcome..huh sorry for the misunderstanding above i thought it was trephena who wrote to me that's why i wrote "sir". As far as your project is concerned i wish all the best and hope you get a good respond from the ACO. I can understand what you going right now as i was in the same boat it's really hard for me but i am someone who never give up so now that i will go for a 2nd submission i keep on telling myself that this time you will get it and i will do all what i can to get my degree, failure form parts of life we learn from our mistakes and its not the end of the world. i wish you all the very best.

@vinessen. Thank you! I hope so too... Atleast i also get a chance. So scaredd!!!

HI Trephena, i got something to ask you about the letter sent to me by the ACO. "If you are eligible you may re-submit a new RAP, which should be on a different organisation or topic." my concern is that if i do another topic can i proceed with the same organisation which i did on my first attempt? Thanks

Hi Vinessen, As Trepehna is on holiday, we are doing a little covering for her (and hope we can do as good a job!) Yes, purely by the wording of the examiner (he used OR). It should be fine as they essentially are disregarding your earlier project and wish that u start on a new one. A new topic will require new information and content so it will serve the examiner's purpose. All said, we suggest dropping OBU a follow up email with your query to get a confirmation. 5 minutes of typing out an email, in return, u sleep peacefully at night. That's a good deal. Irwin The Learning Luminarium