thesis definition in oxford dictionary

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Definition of 'thesis'

Video: pronunciation of thesis

thesis in American English

Thesis in british english, examples of 'thesis' in a sentence thesis, related word partners thesis, trends of thesis.

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In other languages thesis

• American English : thesis / ˈθisɪs /
• Brazilian Portuguese : tese
• Chinese : 论点
• European Spanish : tesis
• French : thèse
• German : These
• Italian : tesi
• Japanese : 主張
• Korean : 논지
• European Portuguese : tese
• Spanish : tesis
• Thai : ข้อสมมุติ, ข้อวินิจฉัย

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[ thee -sis ]

He vigorously defended his thesis on the causes of war.

Synonyms: proposal , contention , theory

• a subject for a composition or essay.
• a dissertation on a particular subject in which one has done original research, as one presented by a candidate for a diploma or degree.
• Music. the downward stroke in conducting; downbeat. Compare arsis ( def 1 ) .
• a part of a metrical foot that does not bear the ictus or stress.
• (less commonly) the part of a metrical foot that bears the ictus. Compare arsis ( def 2 ) .
• Philosophy. Hegelian dialectic

/ ˈθiːsɪs /

• a dissertation resulting from original research, esp when submitted by a candidate for a degree or diploma
• a doctrine maintained or promoted in argument
• a subject for a discussion or essay
• an unproved statement, esp one put forward as a premise in an argument
• music the downbeat of a bar, as indicated in conducting
• See arsis (in classical prosody) the syllable or part of a metrical foot not receiving the ictus Compare arsis
• philosophy the first stage in the Hegelian dialectic, that is challenged by the antithesis
• The central idea in a piece of writing, sometimes contained in a topic sentence .

Discover More

Word history and origins.

Origin of thesis 1

Example Sentences

In “Back Home,” Gil also revisits the nostalgia for the South explored in his Johns Hopkins thesis, “Circle of Stone.”

At least father and son were in alignment on this central thesis: acting “gay”—bad; being thought of as gay—bad.

Her doctoral thesis, says Ramin Takloo at the University of Illinois, was simply outstanding.

Marshall McLuhan long ago argued the now accepted thesis that different mediums have different influences on thinking.

He wrote his Master's thesis on the underrepresentation of young people in Congress.

And indeed for most young men a college thesis is but an exercise for sharpening the wits, rarely dangerous in its later effects.

It will be for the reader to determine whether the main thesis of the book has gained or lost by the new evidence.

But the word thesis, when applied to Systems, does not mean the 'position' of single notes, but of groups of notes.

This conclusion, it need hardly be said, is in entire agreement with the main thesis of the preceding pages.

Sundry outlying Indians, with ammunition to waste, took belly and knee rests and strengthened the thesis to the contrary.

Related Words

• proposition
• supposition

[ ak -s uh -lot-l ]

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: a long piece of writing on a particular subject that is done to earn a degree at a university

: a statement that someone wants to discuss or prove

Full Definition of THESIS

Origin of thesis, related to thesis, other education terms, rhymes with thesis, definition of thesis for kids, learn more about thesis.

• thesis novel
• thesis play

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Essay: The Oxford English Dictionary

by Renee Brown

When Beowulf, the greatest and oldest single work of Old English, was composed, there was no dictionary; when Chaucer wrote the legendary Canterbury Tales, there was no dictionary, when the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, produced his graceful poems and plays, there was no dictionary. The first, what would today be called, “dictionary” was compiled in 1604 by a man named Robert Cawdray; A Table Alphabeticall was only 120 pages. One hundred and fifty years later, Dr. Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary . This respectable publication documented 40,000 words and provided 114,000 quotations. The project took him nine years to complete single handedly (McCrum 117-9). It was not until one hundred years later that a project was begun which would far outperform the work of Johnson. The idea for a new dictionary was proposed by the Philological Society of London; at the time it was titled New English Dictionary , but it would become known to the world as the Oxford English Dictionary .

The OED is the “accepted authority on the evolution of English language over the last millennium” ( Oxford ). The purpose of a dictionary is to encompass a language “in its entirety,” the easy words as well as the hard ones, the common words as well as the obscure ones (Winchester 86). English is a world language, spreading all over the globe, which means that the language is constantly expanding, so all words, written, spoken, and read, should be documented (Winchester 87). The unique aspect of this reference is that it not only gives definitions for terms, like a dictionary is commonly understood to do, but the OED gives the meanings, history, pronunciation, and spelling of every word in the English language, both past and present. It is an etymological analysis of words ( Oxford ). The objective is to record “every word, every nuance, every shading of meaning and spelling and pronunciation, every twist of etymology, every possible illustrative citation from every English author” (Winchester 103). In essence, the OED is a “biography” for every English word (Winchester 105). The noble, yet immense ambition of Dr. James Murray.

When the idea of the dictionary was proposed in 1879, it was predicted to be 6,400 pages which would take ten years to complete; however, five years after the project began, the dictionary had reached only the word “ant” ( Oxford ). Murray was the first editor of the OED . He was born in Scotland and was self-educated. He devoted twenty-eight years of his life to the dictionary before his death in 1915. It was Murray's believe that quotations needed to be in the dictionary in order to “demonstrate the full range of characteristics of each and every word with a very great degree of precision. Quotations could show exactly how a word had been employed over the centuries” (Winchester 25-6). There are several ways to find words to put in a dictionary: listen to words spoken, copy words from other dictionaries, or read (Winchester 94). This final method was to be employed by the Oxford lexicographers. But it was physically impossible for Murray and his associates to read everything ever written, so they asked for contributors to send in words with definitions, quotations, and illustrations to add to the project. Thousands of people answered the call for help, but one individual in particular contributed to the OED like a madman.

Dr. William Chester Minor was born in Connecticut, became a surgeon, and served in the US army during the Civil War (Winchester 13). He suffered from delusions, thinking that the Irish were trying to kill him (Winchester 16). He came to London, and in February of 1872, Minor shot and killed George Merrett, a man who neither knew Minor nor had any contact with him prior to the attack (Winchester 3). Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum became Minor's home and prison (Winchester xiii). After eight years of confinement, Minor heard of Murray's request for contributors to the dictionary, and seeing this as an opportunity for “intellectual stimulus,” he decided to become a contributor (Winchester 113-4). Minor would read the books in his cell and document every word which he found fascinating; in this manner, he stayed a few letters ahead of the men working in Oxford (Winchester 139). Oxford often received hundreds of words from Minor in a single week (Winchester 155). Murray declared that Minor was “the most prolific of thousands of volunteer contributors” (Winchester xi). Neither Dr. Minor nor Dr. Murray lived to see the completed dictionary.

Although his story is far less dramatic than that of Dr. Minor, there was another major contributor to the OED which should be noted. Dr. Fitzedward Hall wrote to Oxford every single day for twenty-two years, making him another memorable contributor to the renowned Oxford English Dictionary (Winchester 167).

Because of the immense size of the project, the OED was published in fascicles. Volume one, A-B was released in 1884 while the final volume took until 1928 to be completed. Many other editors worked diligently on the project. Henry Bradley, born in Manchester, began his work on the OED in 1888 and continued until his death in 1923. William A. Craigie was the third editor. He became editor in 1901, working mainly from the letter N to the end of the alphabet. C.T. Onions claims that he had the last word on the OED because he was responsible for cross-referencing the word “zyxt,” which is literally the final word in the dictionary. Onions also worked on the longest entry in the dictionary, the word “set” ( Oxford ).

The First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is ten volumes, totaling 15, 490 pages. It took the editors seventy years to complete the 252,200 entries. The 2,000 contributors sent in five million quotations, 1,861,200 of which appear in the dictionary (Oxford).

Only five years after the publication of the final volume, Oxford University Press, which had assumed the role of publishing the monstrosity, released the Supplement which updated the OED by adding new words. Four more supplementary volumes were completed between 1972 and 1986. In 1989 the Second Edition was published. There have been three other editors who have worked on updates to the OED. Robert Burchfield was born in New Zealand, and he is responsible for broadening the scope of the dictionary to include words used in North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Pakistan. Many words he assimilated into the dictionary were slang terms. The two current editors are Edmund Weiner and John Simpson ( Oxford ).

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is twenty volumes, consisting of 21,730 pages. This massive reference weights 137.72 pounds and took 6,243 pounds of ink to print a single copy of the completed work. There are 291,500 entries with fifty-nine million words and 350 million characters. The longest entry is the word “set” which has 430 senses, 60,000 words, and 326,000 characters. In the Second Edition are 2,436,600 quotations. The most often quoted work is the Bible with 25,000 references; the most often quoted author is Shakespeare with 33,300 references. Hamlet alone is quoted almost 1600 times in the dictionary ( Oxfor d).

In 1992 the text was printed on CD-ROM. This project included 120 typists and fifty proofreaders. The endeavor prices at 13.5 million US dollars and took five years to complete ( Oxford ). Recently the OE D has gone online. It took eighteen months and 150 typists to input the dictionary into the correct format (Elliott). Five hundred and forty megabytes of memory are used to hold the complete dictionary ( Oxford ). In order to get the software development needed to input the information, Oxford University Press spent over one million US dollars (Elliott). Never has the dictionary been profitable to Oxford University Press which spent approximately fifty-five million US dollars to fund the revision program (Oxford). Today there is a website for the Oxford English Dictionary . There is also a “word of the day” site produced by the OED on the website.

The Third Edition of the dictionary is due in 2020, but until then, the OED is continually updated with the release of Supplements (Sharpiro “Dictionary” par. 25). Some interesting words and phrases which have found a home in the dictionary, although they may seem as though they do not belong are chat room, chick flick, duh, munchies, wedgie, and wussy (Sharpiro “Short List” par. 2-11). Others include Grinch, beltway, lap dance, road rage, and get real (Sharpiro “Dictionary” par. 7). The longest word in the dictionary is forty-five letters long: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a lung disease “caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust” (Sharpio “Short List” par. 13).

The drive to document the history of every English word fueled Dr. Murray and future editors and staff members to work tirelessly on what we now have as the Oxford English Dictionary . It is unarguably the most complete dictionary in the English language, which is being revised daily. The OED is one of the greatest contributions to language yet, and it remains a paradigm of perfection.

Works Cited

Elliott, Laura. “How the Oxford English Dictionary Went Online.” Ariadne. 26 June 2000. <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/oed-tech>.

McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English . 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Oxford English Dictionary . 2003. <http://www.oed.com>.

Sharpiro, Howard. “Dictionary Grows as English Language Evolves.” Philadelphia Inquirer . 4 February 2003.

Sharpiro, Howard. “A Short List of New Words.” Philadelphia Inquirer . 4 February 2003.

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman . New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.

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the fact that people or animals do what they are told to do

Binding, nailing, and gluing: talking about fastening things together

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Information about what plagiarism is, and how you can avoid it.

The University defines plagiarism as follows:

“Presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition, as is the use of material generated wholly or in part through use of artificial intelligence (save when use of AI for assessment has received prior authorisation e.g. as a reasonable adjustment for a student’s disability). Plagiarism can also include re-using your own work without citation. Under the regulations for examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is a disciplinary offence.”

The necessity to acknowledge others’ work or ideas applies not only to text, but also to other media, such as computer code, illustrations, graphs etc. It applies equally to published text and data drawn from books and journals, and to unpublished text and data, whether from lectures, theses or other students’ essays. You must also attribute text, data, or other resources downloaded from websites.

Please note that artificial intelligence (AI) can only be used within assessments where specific prior authorisation has been given, or when technology that uses AI has been agreed as reasonable adjustment for a student’s disability (such as voice recognition software for transcriptions, or spelling and grammar checkers).

The best way of avoiding plagiarism is to learn and employ the principles of good academic practice from the beginning of your university career. Avoiding plagiarism is not simply a matter of making sure your references are all correct, or changing enough words so the examiner will not notice your paraphrase; it is about deploying your academic skills to make your work as good as it can be.

Students will benefit from taking an  online course  which has been developed to provide a useful overview of the issues surrounding plagiarism and practical ways to avoid it.

Forms of plagiarism

Verbatim (word for word) quotation without clear acknowledgement Quotations must always be identified as such by the use of either quotation marks or indentation, and with full referencing of the sources cited. It must always be apparent to the reader which parts are your own independent work and where you have drawn on ideas and language from another source.

Cutting and pasting from the Internet without clear acknowledgement Information derived from the Internet must be adequately referenced and included in the bibliography. It is important to evaluate carefully all material found on the Internet, as it is less likely to have been through the same process of scholarly peer review as published sources.

Paraphrasing Paraphrasing the work of others by altering a few words and changing their order, or by closely following the structure of their argument, is plagiarism if you do not give due acknowledgement to the author whose work you are using.

A passing reference to the original author in your own text may not be enough; you must ensure that you do not create the misleading impression that the paraphrased wording or the sequence of ideas are entirely your own. It is better to write a brief summary of the author’s overall argument in your own words, indicating that you are doing so, than to paraphrase particular sections of his or her writing. This will ensure you have a genuine grasp of the argument and will avoid the difficulty of paraphrasing without plagiarising. You must also properly attribute all material you derive from lectures.

Collusion This can involve unauthorised collaboration between students, failure to attribute assistance received, or failure to follow precisely regulations on group work projects. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are entirely clear about the extent of collaboration permitted, and which parts of the work must be your own.

Inaccurate citation It is important to cite correctly, according to the conventions of your discipline. As well as listing your sources (i.e. in a bibliography), you must indicate, using a footnote or an in-text reference, where a quoted passage comes from. Additionally, you should not include anything in your references or bibliography that you have not actually consulted. If you cannot gain access to a primary source you must make it clear in your citation that your knowledge of the work has been derived from a secondary text (for example, Bradshaw, D. Title of Book, discussed in Wilson, E., Title of Book (London, 2004), p. 189).

Failure to acknowledge assistance You must clearly acknowledge all assistance which has contributed to the production of your work, such as advice from fellow students, laboratory technicians, and other external sources. This need not apply to the assistance provided by your tutor or supervisor, or to ordinary proofreading, but it is necessary to acknowledge other guidance which leads to substantive changes of content or approach.

Use of material written by professional agencies or other persons You should neither make use of professional agencies in the production of your work nor submit material which has been written for you even with the consent of the person who has written it. It is vital to your intellectual training and development that you should undertake the research process unaided. Under Statute XI on University Discipline, all members of the University are prohibited from providing material that could be submitted in an examination by students at this University or elsewhere.

Auto-plagiarism You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted (partially or in full), either for your current course or for another qualification of this, or any other, university, unless this is specifically provided for in the special regulations for your course. Where earlier work by you is citable, ie. it has already been published, you must reference it clearly. Identical pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be considered to be auto-plagiarism.

Why does plagiarism matter?

Plagiarism is a breach of academic integrity. It is a principle of intellectual honesty that all members of the academic community should acknowledge their debt to the originators of the ideas, words, and data which form the basis for their own work. Passing off another’s work as your own is not only poor scholarship, but also means that you have failed to complete the learning process. Plagiarism is unethical and can have serious consequences for your future career; it also undermines the standards of your institution and of the degrees it issues.

Why should you avoid plagiarism?

There are many reasons to avoid plagiarism. You have come to university to learn to know and speak your own mind, not merely to reproduce the opinions of others - at least not without attribution. At first it may seem very difficult to develop your own views, and you will probably find yourself paraphrasing the writings of others as you attempt to understand and assimilate their arguments. However it is important that you learn to develop your own voice. You are not necessarily expected to become an original thinker, but you are expected to be an independent one - by learning to assess critically the work of others, weigh up differing arguments and draw your own conclusions. Students who plagiarise undermine the ethos of academic scholarship while avoiding an essential part of the learning process.

You should avoid plagiarism because you aspire to produce work of the highest quality. Once you have grasped the principles of source use and citation, you should find it relatively straightforward to steer clear of plagiarism. Moreover, you will reap the additional benefits of improvements to both the lucidity and quality of your writing. It is important to appreciate that mastery of the techniques of academic writing is not merely a practical skill, but one that lends both credibility and authority to your work, and demonstrates your commitment to the principle of intellectual honesty in scholarship.

What happens if you are thought to have plagiarised?

The University regards plagiarism in examinations as a serious matter. Cases will be investigated and penalties may range from deduction of marks to expulsion from the University, depending on the seriousness of the occurrence. Even if plagiarism is inadvertent, it can result in a penalty. The forms of plagiarism listed above are all potentially disciplinary offences in the context of formal assessment requirements.

The regulations regarding conduct in examinations apply equally to the ‘submission and assessment of a thesis, dissertation, essay, or other coursework not undertaken in formal examination conditions but which counts towards or constitutes the work for a degree or other academic award’. Additionally, this includes the transfer and confirmation of status exercises undertaken by graduate students. Cases of suspected plagiarism in assessed work are investigated under the disciplinary regulations concerning conduct in examinations. Intentional plagiarism in this context means that you understood that you were breaching the regulations and did so intending to gain advantage in the examination. Reckless, in this context, means that you understood or could be expected to have understood (even if you did not specifically consider it) that your work might breach the regulations, but you took no action to avoid doing so. Intentional or reckless plagiarism may incur severe penalties, including failure of your degree or expulsion from the university.

If plagiarism is suspected in a piece of work submitted for assessment in an examination, the matter will be referred to the Proctors. They will thoroughly investigate the claim and call the student concerned for interview. If at this point there is no evidence of a breach of the regulations, no further disciplinary action will be taken although there may still be an academic penalty. However, if it is concluded that a breach of the regulations may have occurred, the Proctors will refer the case to the Student Disciplinary Panel.

If you are suspected of plagiarism your College Secretary/Academic Administrator and subject tutor will support you through the process and arrange for a member of Congregation to accompany you to all hearings. They will be able to advise you what to expect during the investigation and how best to make your case. The OUSU Student Advice Service can also provide useful information and support. 

Does this mean that I shouldn’t use the work of other authors?

On the contrary, it is vital that you situate your writing within the intellectual debates of your discipline. Academic essays almost always involve the use and discussion of material written by others, and, with due acknowledgement and proper referencing, this is clearly distinguishable from plagiarism. The knowledge in your discipline has developed cumulatively as a result of years of research, innovation and debate. You need to give credit to the authors of the ideas and observations you cite. Not only does this accord recognition to their work, it also helps you to strengthen your argument by making clear the basis on which you make it. Moreover, good citation practice gives your reader the opportunity to follow up your references, or check the validity of your interpretation.

Does every statement in my essay have to be backed up with references?

You may feel that including the citation for every point you make will interrupt the flow of your essay and make it look very unoriginal. At least initially, this may sometimes be inevitable. However, by employing good citation practice from the start, you will learn to avoid errors such as close paraphrasing or inadequately referenced quotation. It is important to understand the reasons behind the need for transparency of source use.

All academic texts, even student essays, are multi-voiced, which means they are filled with references to other texts. Rather than attempting to synthesise these voices into one narrative account, you should make it clear whose interpretation or argument you are employing at any one time - whose ‘voice’ is speaking.

If you are substantially indebted to a particular argument in the formulation of your own, you should make this clear both in footnotes and in the body of your text according to the agreed conventions of the discipline, before going on to describe how your own views develop or diverge from this influence.

On the other hand, it is not necessary to give references for facts that are common knowledge in your discipline. If you are unsure as to whether something is considered to be common knowledge or not, it is safer to cite it anyway and seek clarification. You do need to document facts that are not generally known and ideas that are interpretations of facts. 

Does this only matter in exams?

Although plagiarism in weekly essays does not constitute a University disciplinary offence, it may well lead to College disciplinary measures. Persistent academic under-performance can even result in your being sent down from the University. Although tutorial essays traditionally do not require the full scholarly apparatus of footnotes and referencing, it is still necessary to acknowledge your sources and demonstrate the development of your argument, usually by an in-text reference. Many tutors will ask that you do employ a formal citation style early on, and you will find that this is good preparation for later project and dissertation work. In any case, your work will benefit considerably if you adopt good scholarly habits from the start, together with the techniques of critical thinking and writing described above.

As junior members of the academic community, students need to learn how to read academic literature and how to write in a style appropriate to their discipline. This does not mean that you must become masters of jargon and obfuscation; however the process is akin to learning a new language. It is necessary not only to learn new terminology, but the practical study skills and other techniques which will help you to learn effectively.

Developing these skills throughout your time at university will not only help you to produce better coursework, dissertations, projects and exam papers, but will lay the intellectual foundations for your future career. Even if you have no intention of becoming an academic, being able to analyse evidence, exercise critical judgement, and write clearly and persuasively are skills that will serve you for life, and which any employer will value.

Borrowing essays from other students to adapt and submit as your own is plagiarism, and will develop none of these necessary skills, holding back your academic development. Students who lend essays for this purpose are doing their peers no favours.

Unintentional plagiarism

Not all cases of plagiarism arise from a deliberate intention to cheat. Sometimes students may omit to take down citation details when taking notes, or they may be genuinely ignorant of referencing conventions. However, these excuses offer no sure protection against a charge of plagiarism. Even in cases where the plagiarism is found to have been neither intentional nor reckless, there may still be an academic penalty for poor practice.

It is your responsibility to find out the prevailing referencing conventions in your discipline, to take adequate notes, and to avoid close paraphrasing. If you are offered induction sessions on plagiarism and study skills, you should attend. Together with the advice contained in your subject handbook, these will help you learn how to avoid common errors. If you are undertaking a project or dissertation you should ensure that you have information on plagiarism and collusion. If ever in doubt about referencing, paraphrasing or plagiarism, you have only to ask your tutor.

Examples of plagiarism

There are some helpful examples of plagiarism-by-paraphrase and you will also find extensive advice on the referencing and library skills pages.

The following examples demonstrate some of the common pitfalls to avoid. These examples use the referencing system prescribed by the History Faculty but should be of use to students of all disciplines.

Source text

From a class perspective this put them [highwaymen] in an ambivalent position. In aspiring to that proud, if temporary, status of ‘Gentleman of the Road’, they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society. Yet their boldness of act and deed, in putting them outside the law as rebellious fugitives, revivified the ‘animal spirits’ of capitalism and became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London, a serious obstacle to the formation of a tractable, obedient labour force. Therefore, it was not enough to hang them – the values they espoused or represented had to be challenged.

(Linebaugh, P., The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1991), p. 213. [You should give the reference in full the first time you use it in a footnote; thereafter it is acceptable to use an abbreviated version, e.g. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, p. 213.]

Plagiarised

• Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London, posing a serious threat to the formation of a biddable labour force. (This is a patchwork of phrases copied verbatim from the source, with just a few words changed here and there. There is no reference to the original author and no indication that these words are not the writer’s own.)
• Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen exercised a powerful attraction for the working classes. Some historians believe that this hindered the development of a submissive workforce. (This is a mixture of verbatim copying and acceptable paraphrase. Although only one phrase has been copied from the source, this would still count as plagiarism. The idea expressed in the first sentence has not been attributed at all, and the reference to ‘some historians’ in the second is insufficient. The writer should use clear referencing to acknowledge all ideas taken from other people’s work.)
• Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen ‘became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London [and] a serious obstacle to the formation of a tractable, obedient labour force’.1 (This contains a mixture of attributed and unattributed quotation, which suggests to the reader that the first line is original to this writer. All quoted material must be enclosed in quotation marks and adequately referenced.)
• Highwaymen’s bold deeds ‘revivified the “animal spirits” of capitalism’ and made them an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London.1 Peter Linebaugh argues that they posed a major obstacle to the formation of an obedient labour force. (Although the most striking phrase has been placed within quotation marks and correctly referenced, and the original author is referred to in the text, there has been a great deal of unacknowledged borrowing. This should have been put into the writer’s own words instead.)
• By aspiring to the title of ‘Gentleman of the Road’, highwaymen did not challenge the unfair taxonomy of their society. Yet their daring exploits made them into outlaws and inspired the antagonistic culture of labouring London, forming a grave impediment to the development of a submissive workforce. Ultimately, hanging them was insufficient – the ideals they personified had to be discredited.1 (This may seem acceptable on a superficial level, but by imitating exactly the structure of the original passage and using synonyms for almost every word, the writer has paraphrased too closely. The reference to the original author does not make it clear how extensive the borrowing has been. Instead, the writer should try to express the argument in his or her own words, rather than relying on a ‘translation’ of the original.)

Non-plagiarised

• Peter Linebaugh argues that although highwaymen posed no overt challenge to social orthodoxy – they aspired to be known as ‘Gentlemen of the Road’ – they were often seen as anti-hero role models by the unruly working classes. He concludes that they were executed not only for their criminal acts, but in order to stamp out the threat of insubordinacy.1 (This paraphrase of the passage is acceptable as the wording and structure demonstrate the reader’s interpretation of the passage and do not follow the original too closely. The source of the ideas under discussion has been properly attributed in both textual and footnote references.)
• Peter Linebaugh argues that highwaymen represented a powerful challenge to the mores of capitalist society and inspired the rebelliousness of London’s working class.1 (This is a brief summary of the argument with appropriate attribution.) 1 Linebaugh, P., The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1991), p. 213.

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