Academic Dishonesty

I write, therefore I cite.

Sarah Ettarrass & Bouchra Mhainina (Ling.)

I NTRODUCTION
As final year undergraduate students, we are expected to write a final year project. Accordingly, our submissions are expected to be an original work. So in addition to our academic performance, we are expected to demonstrate honesty and integrity. But sometimes, we get engaged in some incidents of academic dishonesty that we may or may not be aware of. This may happen intentionally, by copying a friends work, buying or borrowing papers, cutting and pasting blocks of text from electronic sources without documenting, or unintentionally by careless paraphrasing, poor documentation , quoting excessively or failure to use our own voice. This may result in receiving a failing grade in the course and in appropriate disciplinary action being initiated.

A C ADEMIC D ISHONESTY
To begin with, Academic dishonesty is any type of cheating that occurs in relation to a formal academic exercise. It can include: Fabrication: The falsification of data, information, or citations in any formal academic exercise. Deception: Providing false information to an instructor concerning a formal academic exercise e.g., giving a false excuse for missing a deadline or falsely claiming to have submitted work. Cheating: Any attempt to give or obtain assistance in a formal academic exercise Bribery: or paid services. Giving certain test answers for money.

P LAGIARISM
His words 'I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED express his incredibly strong will and no-nonsense attitude. From a student paper 'I came, I saw, I conquered! These words express the incredibly strong will and no-nonsense attitude of one of history's most famous men. Students unacknowledged source: http://myron.sjsu.edu/rome/web/EMPCONT/e022.html
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Plagiarism Plagiarism is derived from two Latin words; plagiarius which means an abductor, and plagiare which means to steal. It is defined as passing off a sources information, ideas, or words as your own by omitting to cite theman act of lying, cheating, and stealing. according to the Harbrace College Handbook. In Writing with Sources.

Categories of Plagiarism:
There are different types of Plagiarism but mainly they are divided into following categoryies: Category 1 - Unauthorized and/or unacknowledged collaborative work: While students are expected to do their own research and writing, instructors also understand that students may discuss their own research projects with other students in the same course. Ending up sometimes with the same or similar phrases, quotations, sentences, and/or parallel constructions appear in two or more papers on the same topic.

Category 2 - Attempting to pass off a whole work or any part of a work belonging to another person as your own work: This includes borrowing, buying, commissioning, copying, receiving, downloading, taking, using, and/or stealing a paper that is not your own. Submitting an entire work which is not your own also constitutes research or academic fraud. That's why original student work should comprise at least 80 percent of any written assignment and not padded out with borrowed materials. Within this category, four specific types of plagiarism can be identified. 2.A - Using such material without any attribution, citation, acknowledgment and/or without quotation marks is plagiarism: You must use quotation marks on ANY amount of text taken directly from another source, even from the course textbook; moreover, such material must be cited correctly. 2.B - The use of such material with false attributions/citations and/or the use of deceptive or fabricated citations to disguise direct plagiarism is still plagiarism. Students who intentionally plagiarize often attempt to disguise the plagiarized material in their papers with fake or inadequate citations. 2.C - The use of such material with quotation marks but without any attribution, citation, or with inadequate/improper attribution/citation is considered plagiarism.In the following example, the student used quotation marks and seems to cite the quoted text but, by neglecting to refer to the page from which this quotation was taken, has failed to cite properly. 2.D - The use of such materialcorrectly attributed and properly citedbut without quotation marks is plagiarism. In the following example, the student cited material that was copied, in large part, directly from the source text but the student failed to indicate the quoted material by using quotation marks. Category 3 - The use of ANY AMOUNT of text that has been IMPROPERLY PARAPHRASED constitutes plagiarism. Suggesting an improper reliance on a single source, this includes mosaic plagiarism or cut-and-paste plagiarism. To paraphrase improperly is simply to put the words of a source text in a different order or form while retaining the main idea that is the intellectual property of the original author/translator. When you simply alter the text itself (but not the authors idea), all that you have done is to eliminate the obvious need for quotation marks; In the previous example, the student assumed that by simply changing a few words in the source text there was no need to use quotation marks in the paper. the structure of the source text is followed too closely as well. Students tend to have more problems when they write while researching on the Internet (often because they are working at the last minute): It goes something like this: OK, here's a good site, I'll use some of this: cut, paste. Here's another good site, I'll use some of that: cut, paste... As the student writes the paper, they often forget to insert the quotations marks and citations, intentionally or accidentally mixing sources and therefore, plagiarizing .

Reasons why students plagiarize

One of the most common reasons students plagiarize is because they feel overwhelmed. It's difficult to juggle the demands of several classes and have a social life. Many students also experience tremendous anxiety about writing assignments and research projects. Students engage in plagiarism for a number of other reasons as well, including: fear of asking for help with assignments, difficulty in finding and analyzing research materials, belief that unfair or unsympathetic treatment from a professor justifies cheating, or they get trapped into searching for the "one right answer." Unfortunately, a small number of students plagiarize out of laziness or surrender to the mistaken notion that "buying" a paper is not any different than paying for an education. However, plagiarism is never justified.

Effects of plagiarism

Cheating in academia has a host of effects on students, on teachers, on individual schools, and on the educational system itself. For instance, students who engage in neutralization to justify cheating, even once, are more likely to engage in cheating in the future, potentially putting them on a road to a life of dishonesty. Indeed, one study found that students who are dishonest in class are more likely to engage in fraud and theft on the job when they enter the workplace. Students are also negatively affected by academic dishonesty after graduation. Academic dishonesty also creates problems for teachers. In economic terms, cheating causes an underproduction of knowledge, where the professor's job is to produce knowledge. Moreover, a case of cheating often will cause emotional distress to faculty members, many considering it to be a personal slight against them or a violation of their trust. Ultimately, Academic misconduct can also have an effect on a college's reputation, one of the most important assets of any school. An institution plagued by cheating scandals may become less attractive to potential donors and students and those applying for jobs. REFERENCES:

Wikipedia , " Academic Dishonesty", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty Lars R. Jones, Academic Integrity & Academic Dishonesty Retrieved November 27, 2011 from www.fit.edu/current/documents/plagiarism.pdf

Helpful Strategies, Retrieved November 27, 2011 from www.fit.edu/current/documents/plagiarism.pdf