Why Is
Cheating/Plagiarism Wrong?
1. It is unfair to honest students who work hard for good grades.
2. It devalues our degrees. If KSU gets a reputation as a school where
cheating is common & is tolerated, employers and other schools will not
value it and will not hold our graduates in high esteem.
3. Cheating students succeed w/out learning, penalizing themselves and
everyone who depends on them for the knowledge they lack. (example-
brain surgeon who cheated his way through college & med school-how would
you feel if you knew this person would operate on you or a loved one?)
4. Acceptance of cheating (ignoring it or considering it a trivial
issue) creates a norm of dishonesty that spreads through the school and
ultimately into society. (Examples- business frauds-Enron, WorldComm,
etc)
5. Cheating is a betrayal of the trust of one’s teachers and classmates.
6. Plagiarism (whether it’s deliberate or accidental) is stealing the
academic work of others and passing it off as your own.
What Exactly Is Plagiarism?
Section II A of the KSU student code of conduct states, “No student
shall receive, attempt to receive, knowingly give or attempt to give
unauthorized assistance in the preparation of any work required to be
submitted for credit as part of a course (including examinations,
laboratory reports, essays, themes, term papers, etc.). When direct
quotations are used, they should be indicated, and when the ideas,
theories, data, figures, graphs, programs, electronic based information
or illustrations of someone other than the student are incorporated into
a paper or used in a project, they should be duly acknowledged.”
1. Deliberate Plagiarism
- Buying a paper
- Getting someone else to write a
paper for you
- Deliberately not acknowledging
sources so that the teacher will believe the writing is yours
- Thinking that a few words or lines
taken from another sources really don’t matter; that they’re trivial
& don’t need to be acknowledged
2. Accidental Plagiarism (Sometimes
called Misuse of Sources) Is Still Plagiarism and Will Get You in
Trouble.
- Forgetting to put quotations
around direct quotes (often happens with careless Internet “cut &
paste” work)
- Paraphrasing too close to the
original writing. (Just changing a few words isn’t sufficient)
- Thinking that if you list all
sources in a bibliography or works cited page you don’t need to also
cite within the body of the paper
- Not knowing the rules of the
citation style book you’re supposed to follow
3. Too many direct quotations linked by
a few sentences written by you may not be plagiarism, assuming you use
quotation marks and cite properly, but it’s a poorly written paper (you
need to do your own work and show your own thoughts & ideas) and will
probably cause you to earn a bad grade.
What Can You Do To Avoid Plagiarism?
Ask for help on checking citation style from the KSU Writing Center
(English Bldg. #242) or from your teacher before submitting the paper.
Also, see the Purdue University Writing Lab website.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01
How Do Faculty Members Detect Plagiarism?
1. Teachers recognize your style of writing.
2. Online Services such as Google can be used to check for the source of
unusual phrases or ideas. If you can find something online so can your
teacher.
3. Services such as Turnitin.com are available. The program will
generate a report color coding materials taken from other sources and
giving a list of the sources. A quick visual scan will then let your
teacher know if each source has been cited. Some professors will use the
service so you can submit your paper before turning it in. That way you
can see if you omitted citations or used too many direct quotations or
improper paraphrases and correct yourself before turning it in.
What Will Happen If I’m Accused of Cheating/Plagiarism?
This is what I usually tell faculty about how to handle plagiarism and
other forms of cheating. Members of the faculty should confront and
report academic dishonesty. To ignore cheating and plagiarism is to
undercut the central mission of the university to educate.
• Professor detects alleged academic misconduct.
• Professor contacts Department of Student Conduct and Academic
Integrity (SCAI) for advice and information about student’s prior
record. Phone: 770-499-3403 or email: Diane H. Walker, Director of SCAI
dwalker@kennesaw.edu or
Michael A. Goodwin, Coordinator of SCAI
mgoodwin@kennesaw.edu
• Professor may conduct disciplinary conference with student by
him/herself or with the help of a facilitator from SCAI Department.
• Professor sets disciplinary conference with student (this may take
place at SCAI conference room, suite 253 student center, if coordinated
with SCAI Department.
• Professor or facilitator explains the structure of the meeting.
• Professor reviews the section of the Student Code of Conduct the
student has allegedly violated and explains the nature of the
accusation, providing all available evidence.
• Accused student receives opportunity to explain the situation and
provide any evidence relevant to the explanation.
• Professor should wait until the student is finished to ask clarifying
questions, providing reciprocal courtesy for the student’s silence
during the initial charge explanation.
• If student denies misconduct, professor determines if the explanation
is satisfactory, in which case charges may be dropped. Educational
dialogue should still usually take place prior to adjourning meeting.
• If student accepts responsibility, professor moves to educational
dialogue on academic misconduct prior to discussion of sanctions.
• Educational dialogue should address the specific allegations as well
as broader issues of academic misconduct.
• Following the dialogue, the professor states the academic sanctions
deemed appropriate to the offense and explains the decision, taking the
student’s cooperation in the conference into consideration as a factor
in determining severity.
• If student accepts responsibility, both sign the incident form and
professor sends it to the SCAI Department (Mail drop #0506). Professor
explains purpose of centralized records.
• If student denies misconduct and professor remains unconvinced, the
meeting is immediately concluded and the matter referred to the
Department of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity for a formal
hearing.
• If the student is found responsible for academic misconduct after a
formal hearing before a hearing officer or the SCAI panel, then the
minimum sanction is a one semester suspension, usually even longer for a
repeat offense. |
