Academic Integrity: Principles
Principles: What is a violation of academic integrity or of the honor code?
From The Little, Brown Essential Handbook for Writers, page 144.
"PLAGIARISM (from a Latin word for 'kidnapper') is the presentation of someone else's ideas or words as your own. Whether deliberate or accidental, plagiarism is a serious and often punishable offense.
"Deliberate plagiarism includes copying a sentence from a source and passing it off as your own, summarizing someone else's ideas without acknowledging your debt, or buying a term paper and handing it in as your own."
From the Head-Royce Student Handbook, pages 8-9.
"The School firmly believes in personal integrity and honesty. The taking of, or using the possessions or property of others, including that of the School, without specific permission, is theft. Any student involved in theft, cheating, or plagiarism will be subject to serious disciplinary actions up to and including dismissal.
"Cheating is the act of giving or receiving information. . . on tests, quizzes, or homework. It shows a lack of personal integrity, and the direct academic consequence is failure on that piece of work.
"The School defines plagiarism as the act of stealing and passing off as one's own the ideas or writing of another. The School also recognizes that developing an understanding of appropriate and inappropriate borrowing of another person's ideas is a complex process. . . . [and has] developed policies and procedures to shape the curriculum regarding plagiarism instruction. . . . Students receive formal instruction from the faculty about appropriate and inappropriate borrowing, in writing both fiction and non-fiction, at several key grades in Lower, Middle, and Upper School
". . . . . A student in the Upper School plagiarizing an assignment will fail the assignment and be required to repeat the assignment. Upon satisfactory completion of the assignment, the student will receive a 50 (F). In addition, a student may receive other disciplinary sanctions, up to and including dismissal from the School, depending on the severity of the infraction. After consultation with the family, a letter is written to the student and his/her family explaining the problem and response."
Click here to read the Head-Royce Statement on Plagiarism in full.
Why Is This Important?
Most modern societies agree
that it is good for them to encourage invention and creativity, to encourage
the life of the mind. If we don't encourage people to have good ideas, then
how will society progress? One way that societies can encourage people to invent
new things and have new ideas is to protect the products of those great minds.
In capitalist societies, we call these products "intellectual property."
Modern capitalist societies have developed systems of laws and ethics that try
to protect intellectual property in much the same way that tangible property
(computers, stereos, cars) are protected. If you steal someone's intellectual
property, you are a thief.
In the world of writing and publishing, intellectual property is protected by copyright laws. At schools and colleges, it is protected by rules whose purpose is to teach students that intellectual property should be as inviolable as tangible property.
It is interesting how the debate over Napster's infringement of music copyright laws has dwelled very little on the ethics of intellectual property violation. Instead, the media and the public marvel at how it's become a software game of cat and mouse: who can write software to elude Napster's attempts to block certain songs' distribution? How fast can the MP3 police write software to catch the song title scramblers? Isn't the media missing the point?
Read about the challenges of the Honor Code at the University of Virginia in this New York Times article from May 2001.
And in the world beyond school, people really do get fired for plagiarizing on the job! See this article about a Freelance journalist who was fired by the San Jose Mercury News.
The Danger of Plagiarism
Not acknowledging sources is plagiarizing, even if you do it unconsciously.
From The Little, Brown Essential Handbook for Writers, page 133:
"Accidental plagiarism includes forgetting to place quotation marks around another writer's words, omitting a source citation because you are not aware of the need for it, or carelessly copying a source when you mean to paraphrase."
Click here to go to Practices: How Can You Help Yourself Avoid Academic Dishonesty?