Academic Dishonesty

Academic Dishonesty & Plagiarism
Copyright © 2010, Henry J. Sage

POLICY

All written work submitted for this class must be the original work of the student who submits it. Copying from another source—including from other students or from the Internet—without giving proper credit is considered plagiarism. Loaning a paper to another student for copying is also plagiarism, as is submitting the same paper for credcit in two different courses, whether taken at the same time or not. Students who plagiarize will get no credit for that assignment and may fail the course.

When you receive a grade for a course, the college certifies to the world that you have done the work required and have absorbed the information or skills taught to the degree that your grade suggests. In order for that grade, and ultimately your degree or certificate, to have any meaning, it must be reliable. That means that both students and instructors must see to it that the coursework is conducted in an environment of honesty and integrity.

For students it means that they must submit their own work on tests and papers. For instructors it means that they must do their best to ensure that the work submitted to them has been done by the student, and that their responses to their students are an accurate reflection of their judgment about the student's performance.

Submitting work other than one's own is plagiarism, regardless of the source from which it comes. It makes no difference whether a copied work is copyrighted, uncopyrighted, published or unpublished, or who the author may be, even if no author of the work can be determined. An anonymous author is still another author, and anonymous works cannot be submitted as one's own. When you use material from another source, you must cite that source in your paper. You must rewrite the content in your own words—making a few changes here and there is not sufficient. When you use the exact words from a source, put them in quotation marks.

The definition of academic honesty in the NVCC student handbook includes the following:

Cheating on an examination or quiz, including the giving, receiving or soliciting of information and the unauthorized use of notes or other materials during the examination or quiz.
Buying, selling, stealing or soliciting any material purported to be the unreleased contents of a forthcoming examination, or the use of such material.
Substituting for another person during an examination or allowing such substitution for one's self.
Plagiarism. This is the act of appropriating passages from the work of another individual, either word for word or in substance, and representing them as one's own work. This includes any submission of written work other than one's own.
Collusion with another person in the preparation or editing of assignments submitted for credit, unless such collaboration has been approved in advance by the instructor.

It is no defense against a charge of plagiarism to say that others have done it or gotten away with it. Just as there are students who are dishonest in their work, there are also professors who lack the integrity to follow up when they suspect that a student has been dishonest. The world of the Internet makes it easy to copy material from another source. You should be aware as a student, however, that it is also relatively easy for a professors to discover the source of copied work. You should also understand that experienced teachers will quickly recognize the difference between professionally written work and that done by a student. If a student is smart enough and writes well enough to write like a pro, that student is very unlikely to plagiarize.

In my history 121 and 122 courses, if I find evidence of cheating on any piece of work, the student will get no credit for that submission. This will almost certainly cost at least one grade for the course. In aggravated cases—and I reserve the right to decide what is aggravated—the student will get an F for the course or, if I feel it is warranted, the case will be referred to the appropriate dean, which may jeopardize your position at the college.

Bottom line: cheating is dumb—it's not worth the risk. Even if you get away with it, you still lose, for what you have learned will not serve you at all in your future academic life or in your professional life beyond.

Do your own work: It will pay big dividends in the long run.

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Updated January 7, 2010