Academic Honesty
A quick look at this site's weblog
establishes that colleges and universities take
the issue of plagiarism extremely seriously. Students
at all levels should acquaint themselves
with the various practices that constitute plagiarism, including:
- Submission of academic work that is not the student's own original effort;
- Use of the same work for multiple courses without prior consent of the
instructors;
- Unacknowledged references to sources beyond those authorized by the instructor
in preparing papers, constructing reports, solving problems, or carrying
out other academic assignments;
- Inadequate, incorrect, or mistaken citation of any source.
Most people do not deliberately commit plagiarism. Usually, it results
from:
Procrastination: It is important to set aside adequate time to
complete your assignment. When using sources, you should get in the habit
of citing them in full as you write. Filling in page numbers,
making footnotes, or making
a works
cited
page
or bibliography after you have finished writing often leads to inadvertent
mis-citations or omissions.
Incomplete understanding of original material: Avoid using
any source with which you are not completely comfortable. As a general
rule, if you cannot restate the main idea of a passage in your own
words without referring to the original source, then you should
not
use
this
source
for your
own work.
Citation Errors: Common errors that lead to accidental plagiarism
include: using words or passages from the original source without using
quotation marks and/or without citing the source; using different citation
formats within the same assignment; or using a citation format incorrectly.
Poor note-taking: Inexperienced students often forget to put
quotation marks around notes taken directly from text, or find that their
notes
are
disorganized. As a result, they cannot tell which notes came from
which source when they are in the stages of writing up their assignment.
Professors assign papers/projects to determine your own analysis
and ideas on a topic; they already know what the established sources have
to say and are instead looking for fresh perspectives.
If you
are
able to take academic risks by introducing new and insightful ideas about
a topic, you are far less likely to commit accidental plagiarism because
the foundation of your work will be your own. Learning to develop your
own insight on a topic is, after all, one goal of a college education.
Understanding the Complexities of Plagiarism
It is important to understand that plagiarism is not always
a cut and dry issue. It is not only committed by students, and when it
occurs it is often defended on the basis that it was not intended (see
the weblog's recent entries
for discussion
of
the
case
of Doris
Kearns Goodwin). Inadvertent plagiarism is nevertheless plagiarism.
Familiarizing yourself
with
the
following concepts and practices should help you come to terms with what
is plagiarism so that you can avoid it:
- Overview of Plagiarism: Common Types of Plagiarism
- Common Knowledge
- Note taking
- Citing Sources
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