Academic Ethics
Every member of the Collin College community is expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. Collin College may initiate disciplinary proceedings against a student accused of scholastic dishonesty. Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, statements, acts, or omissions related to applications for enrollment or the award of a degree, and/or the submission of one’s own work material that is not one’s own. Scholastic dishonesty may involve, but is not limited to, one or more of the following acts: cheating, plagiarism, collusion, use of annotated texts or teacher’s editions, use of information about exams posted on the Internet or electronic medium, and/or falsifying academic records. While specific examples are listed below, this is not an exhaustive list and scholastic dishonesty may encompass other conduct, including any conduct through electronic or computerized means:
Plagiarism is the use of an author’s words or ideas as if they were one’s own without giving credit to the source, including, but not limited to, failure to acknowledge a direct quotation. [see below]
Cheating is the willful giving or receiving of information in an unauthorized manner during an examination; collaborating with another student during an examination without authority; using, buying, selling, soliciting, stealing, or otherwise obtaining course assignments and/or examination questions in advance, copying computer or Internet files, using someone else’s work for assignments as if it were one’s own; or any other dishonest means of attempting to fulfill the requirements of a course.
Collusion is intentionally or unintentionally aiding or attempting to aid another in an act of scholastic dishonesty, including but not limited to, failing to secure academic work; providing a paper or project to another student; providing an inappropriate level of assistance; communicating answers to a classmate about an examination or any other course assignment; removing tests or answer sheets from a test site, and allowing a classmate to copy answers.
See the current Collin Student Handbook for additional information.
Plagiarism
Derived from the Latin word plagiarius ("kidnapper"), "Plagiarism" refers to a form of cheating that has been defined as "the false assumption of authorship: the wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind, and presenting it as one’s own" (Alexander Lindey, Plagiarism and Originality [New York: Harper, 1952] 2). Plagiarism involves two kinds of wrongs. Using another person’s ideas, information, or expressions without acknowledging that person’s work constitutes intellectual theft. Passing off another person’s ideas, information, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some other advantage constitutes fraud. Plagiarism is sometimes a moral and ethical offense rather than a legal one since some instances of plagiarism fall outside the scope of copyright infringement, a legal offense. [MLA, 2.1, 6th ed.]
· you took notes that did not distinguish summary and paraphrase from quotation and then you presented wording from the notes as if it were all your own.
· while browsing the Web, you copied text and pasted it into your paper without quotation marks or without citing the source.
· you presented facts without saying where you found them.
· you repeated or paraphrased someone’s wording without acknowledgment.
· you paraphrased someone’s argument or presented someone’s line of thought without acknowledgment.
· you bought or otherwise acquired a research paper and handed in part or all of it as your own.
You can avoid plagiarism by
· making a list of the writers and viewpoints you discovered in your research and using this list to double-check the presentation of material in your paper.
· keeping the following three categories distinct in your notes: your ideas, your summaries of others’ material, and exact wording , paraphrases, ideas, arguments, and facts.
· checking with your instructor when you are uncertain about your use of sources.
[MLA, 2.8, 6th ed.]
NOTE: Anyone who is caught plagiarizing the work of another will fail the course. Plagiarizing is dishonest, it is theft, and it will not be tolerated.