Originality 

As the term “originality” is often used in association with intellectual property, students sometimes gain the impression that the demand on them is to contribute something completely new and utterly unique to academic discussions. This is not the case.  

In fact, many of the thinkers to whom we attribute major ideas today – Charles Darwin, Nicolaus Copernicus, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein – built the revolutionary ideas for which they have become famous upon the ideas of other thinkers.

You are not expected to research, write, and contribute original ideas at the same level as advanced scholars and professional academics. Learning, and by extension, your university education, is a process where writers gain writing skills over time, building on accumulated knowledge to create strong, well-articulated arguments. Throughout this process, writers cite the sources they use to formulate their own ideas.

In the context of academic research, the term “original” is used to describe work that adds to existing knowledge by expanding, deepening, reconsidering, and testing it. However, the origins of this existing knowledge must be acknowledged through appropriate citation practices.