| |
|
Freshman English Plagiarism Policy
|
FRESHMAN ENGLISH PROGRAM
STATEMENT ON PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC FRAUD
Working Document, Last Revised: January 15, 2004
KEY TERMS AT A GLANCE
Academic Misconduct:
1. Providing or receiving unauthorized
assistance including:
-
Writing someone else's
paper
-
Sharing answers during
an examination
-
Collaborating on assignments
or projects without instructor's consent [or outside of the
instructor’s guidelines]
2. Submitting the ideas, findings, or
words of others for academic evaluation without proper acknowledgement.
3. Submitting the same academic work
in multiple courses without prior consent from the instructor.
To avoid misconduct full
and proper acknowledgment of all sources is necessary.
Full and Proper Acknowledgement:
The unambiguous identification
of the sources of all ideas, language, and other materials that
are not one’s own. There are many different methods of identifying
a source [MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.], depending on the discipline’s
academic conventions. Students must consult with their instructors
to determine which method is appropriate for the course. [For English
courses, use MLA Style.]
Failure to acknowledge
properly the source of an idea and/or specific language presented
in a paper at any stage in the writing process, including drafts.
Plagiarism is a violation of academic codes of conduct and generally
results in serious penalty. The severity of the penalty depends
on an individual instructor’s assessment in consultation with
the Director of Freshman English.
An extreme degree of plagiarism,
academic fraud is the theft of another’s ideas, specific language,
or other media, and the presentation of that material as one’s
own, at any stage of the writing process, including drafts. The
Freshman English Program takes academic fraud very seriously. Any
student who commits academic fraud will receive a grade of “F”
for the course in which he or she has committed the fraud. The Freshman
English Office and the Dean of Students Office will keep the student’s
name in a permanent record of students who have committed academic
fraud. The Dean of Students will also determine whether or not further
penalties, including expulsion from the University, are warranted.
PROGRAM STATEMENT
Mike Rose, in his description
of academic writing, touches on an important dynamic in the ongoing
study of plagiarism and academic fraud:
Virtually all the writing
academics do is built on the writing of others. Every argument proceeds
from the texts of others. [Students are] only partially initiated
to how this works: [They are] still unsure as to how to weave quotations
in with [their] own prose, how to mark the difference, how to cite
whom [they use], how to strike the proper balance between [their]
writing and someone else’s—how, in short to position
[themselves] in an academic discussion. (180)
Until very recently, scholars
have labeled any failure to attribute the source of an idea properly
as “plagiarism.” Yet in light of what Rose observes
about the difficulty students may have while “position[ing]
themselves in an academic discussion,” the ubiquitous term
“plagiarism” is too vague to encompass the many different
degrees to which a person might fail to acknowledge another’s
ideas. It also fails to acknowledge a student’s intent, her
varying degrees of proficiency in incorporating source materials,
or the way her proficiency evolves as she develops as an academic
writer. In light of these observations the Freshman English Program
makes a distinction between plagiarism and, to use Rebecca Moore
Howard’s term, “fraud” (475). We believe that
plagiarism rises to the level of academic fraud—an infraction
warranting adjudication—only in extreme cases.
In an effort to eliminate
much academic fraud in the Freshman English Classroom, and deal
more justly and directly with plagiarism, the Freshman English Program
directs instructors to discuss with students the academic implications
and consequences of plagiarism and academic fraud early and often
in the term. **Instructors should consult The Freshman English Program
Guidelines for Addressing Plagiarism and Responding to Academic
Fraud, available in the Freshman English Office, CLAS 162.** However,
STUDENTS, both with their instructor and outside the classrooms
have a responsibility to become familiar with department and University
policies regarding plagiarism and academic fraud and to behave ethically
as writers. Students should ask questions, and always be vigorous
and diligent in using sources.
Technically speaking, any
failure to acknowledge the source of an idea is an act of plagiarism.
However, the Freshman English Program at the University of Connecticut
makes an effort to address the varying degrees to which a student
might fail to acknowledge the source of ideas presented in his paper.
The Freshman English Program
also requires its instructors to arrange a conference with any student
who fails to acknowledge the sources of his ideas properly. During
this conference the instructor should try to determine the reason
behind a student’s lack of proper citation. If a student has
failed to acknowledge his sources because of a lack of proficiency
in incorporating sources, then his instructor may choose to work
with the student, to teach him the way academics share information
and develop knowledge.
In most cases of plagiarism
the instructor will assign a penalty based on his assessment of
the infraction’s severity. In all cases the instructor will
consult with the Director of the Freshman English Program and supply
the Freshman English Office with photocopies of the plagiarized
paper and, if available, the source from which the work was plagiarized.
If the instructor determines
that a student has committed academic fraud, then he has the right
and responsibility to fail the student for the entire class, and
report him to Director of the Freshman English Program. **Instructors
should consult Responding in Writing to Academic Fraud, available
in Freshman English Office, CLAS 162.** Instructors will notify
students in writing of the penalty and of the student’s opportunity
to appeal. The Director of Freshman English will submit the student’s
name to the Dean of Students, who will then add the student’s
name to a database that catalogs instances of academic misconduct.
The Dean of Students will carry out any further adjudication, if
deemed necessary. Academic fraud completely undermines the academy’s
ongoing efforts to share and develop ideas, and it cannot be tolerated
under any circumstances.
For the sake of clarity we
have listed possible scenarios for academic fraud. A student is
guilty of academic fraud if he does ANY of the following:
-
“Cuts and pastes”
printed or electronic text (from the Internet or elsewhere) into
his paper, and presents it as his own.
-
Retypes material from
a printed or electronic source into his own paper, and presents
it as his own.
-
Submits a paper written
by someone else, including a tutor, while claiming to be the author.
-
Submits a paper he or
she has written in another course.
-
Puts another person’s
ideas “in his own words,” without documenting the
source.
-
Takes another person’s
expressions--a key word, a phrase, or a longer passage—without
telling the reader precisely what has been done. This is considered
academic fraud even when the student’s own ideas are being
expressed.
GUIDELINES TO
AVOID PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC FRAUD
Because “virtually
all the writing academics do is built on the writing of others”
(Rose 180), and academics need to know an individual writer’s
contribution to a subject, they have established certain conventions
for attributing the source of an idea. Academic conventions dictate
that a writer must provide full and proper acknowledgment of all
ideas and expressions that are not his own. To provide full and
proper acknowledgment, a writer must do all of the following:
-
Indicate clearly where
direct quotations within a paper begin and end by using quotations
and introductory phrases.
-
When paraphrasing, make
it clear to the reader that the ideas expressed are someone else’s,
by using introductory phrases and/or transitions.
-
Include internal documentation
of the source quoted or paraphrased. (For documentation in English
papers use the most recent MLA guidelines, which can be found
in any recent writing handbook.)
-
When citing from the
Internet or another electronic source, follow citation conventions,
as they are articulated in any recent writing handbook.
-
Include a “Works
Cited” page at the end of the paper. (A Works Cited page
alone is useful, but it is not full and proper acknowledgment,
since it does not tell the reader precisely what parts of the
paper present another person’s ideas.)
-
When in doubt about citing
sources and documenting them, a student should consult his instructor,
as the penalties for plagiarism and academic fraud are severe
and strictly enforced. If a student has any doubts about plagiarism,
academic fraud, or academic misconduct after reading this document
and speaking with his instructor, he should consult The University
of Connecticut’s Policy on Academic Misconduct, available
on the University’s Web page: http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~ml201vc/misconduct.html.
Works Cited
Howard, Rebecca Moore. “Sexuality,
Textuality: The Cultural Work of Plagiarism.” College
English 62.4 (2000): 473-491.
Rose, Mike. Lives on
the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements
of America’s Educationally Underprepared. New York: Penguin
Books, 1989.
Resources
Freshman English
Office of the Director (CLAS 126, 486-2866)
Office of the Assistant Director (CLAS 162, 486-2859)
University
of Connecticut Writing Center (CLAS 159, 486-2143)
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~engadm12/wrc.htm
University
of Connecticut Academic Misconduct Faculty Handbook
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~ms170vc2/2001webpage/misconduct-examples.htm
Council
of Writing Program Administrators
“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Promising
Practices.”
http://www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf
|
|
