The Grinnell Page on Academic Honesty

CC Psych Dept Page on Plagiarism, Quotations, and Paraphrasing

You may not have thought too deeply on this issue, but your arrival at CC means that you have chosen to join a community of scholars, and while you may not think of yourself as an apprentice scholar, your professors will view you as such. As in any social structure, there are rules of interaction that protect the fabric of the community. In academia, there is really only one inviolate Rule, simple in concept but maybe difficult at times in execution- the Rule of Academic Honesty. This Rule can be stated in a number of ways, and you need to be flexible enough in your understanding that you can see it at work in every discipline at this college.

The Rule is simple:

Never take credit for the intellectual product of someone else's work.

Yeah, that is pretty straightforward as a statement, but the multitude of scholarly experiences you will encounter at CC may, at times, require its application in ways that are new to your thinking. The Rule is so important to our community that we have codified how we protect it and enforce it into something called the CC Honor Code. And while everyone in our community is charged with actively maintaining the standards of that code, reported violations of it are adjudicated before a council of students, the CC Honor Council. Break the Rule and get caught- you will be judged by your peers. The CC Honor Code is spelled out in your Pathfinder. Read it and understand it.

Before we talk about how you can live by the rule, let us present what can happen if you violate the rule.

(a) you may receive a failing grade on product that is part of a course.

(b) you may receive a failing grade for a course.

(c) you may be dismissed from CC.

(d) you will lose credibility and the respect of your colleagues in the community.

Ignorance is probably the most used defense. It is also a most useless defense. Only you have the responsibility for protecting your academic integrity. A claim of ignorance means you have not taken your responsibility seriously, yet in our community there is nothing more serious or important.

So none of these lines will be of benefit if you find yourself before a professor or the Honor Council:

(1) I just did not know...

Unless you find a case where the boundaries of intellectual ownership are so murky that they have not been covered in any of the academic honesty material we present to you, this statement simply means "I did not care enough to learn and understand the central Rule which governs the community of which I am a member." Expect an appropriate consequence if this is your defense.

(2) This is how we did it in high school....

This is really just another version of (1) above, and whether true or not, you are in a new community so you need to check out our understanding of Academic Honesty. We are not saying that high schools do not teach this concept, and whatever you have learned to date may be perfectly consonant with the CC Honor Code. We are saying it is your responsibility to "compare and contrast" what you already know from high school with what we expect here in college. Assume nothing.

(3) My project partner did that section of the work...

Another variation on (1) above, but this time you are saying "My part of the product conforms to code, but my colleague may have erred...". Not relevant if your name is on the finshed product. Anything with your name on it will be construed as your intellectual product, and the action (or inaction) of others in a group project can compromise you. Imagine yourself a scientist who contributes data for a figure in a paper, while other colleagues construct the rest of the article. Imagine that one of those colleagues falsifies some of the data. The paper is published. The fraud is later discovered (it always is). You are now branded as an academic fraud at worst, or as one who cares not what your name is on as long as you get a publication. You might as well start selling Amway door-to-door, because your scientific career is pretty well shot, and not through any direct action on your part.

If your name is on the product, make sure that all of the product meets your standards for academic honesty. No one else will be as vested in protecting your credibility as you.

(1) Read carefully the material you will find in the links on this page.

Make sure you understand it. If not, ask questions of your professors and mentor. Start with the CC Honor Code in the Pathfinder. Examine the Grinnell page closely and bookmark it, for it will be quite useful when you are writing papers that include quotations from others.

(2) On exams, always assume that, unless stated otherwise, you may only access paper, pencil, and your mind.

You need to be careful here. Of course accessing information from someone else's exam or notes or a text during an exam is known as cheating. But what if you have to write an essay during the exam, and being a product of the computer age, you write better with a keyboard, so you pull out your laptop and crank out the essay. Unless the exam instructions specifically allowed use of a computer, you have just innocently violated the Rule by your action. Your professors will try to be complete in their list of allowed materials for exams, but if ever in doubt, ASK THE QUESTION! Never assume anything, because it is just not worth the possible consequences should you make a mistake.

(3) Learn how to cite other's work correctly.

You will have ample opportunity to argue an intellectual position on paper, using the words of other scholars to bolster your argument. Not so much in a class where fiction writing is the central theme, but most definitely in other courses. NEVER use another person's words without complete citation of their work. "Forgetting" to do this is not relevant; you will still be liable for code violation. Go back and read the possible consequences list above and choose which one you would like to endure.

(4) Do your own work and do it in a timely manner

Sort of goes without saying. But if you let things slide, you may be tempted to rewrite an essay that you purchased online or borrowed from a friend. If you take what we are trying to do here seriously, you will be much more pleased with yourself when you get a C- on a paper you rushed because of too much Frisbee in the afternoons than when you get an A- on a paper for which you did no intellectual work. If you can live with the latter condition... well, that is why dismissal from our community is one of the possible consequences for a breach of academic integrity.

(5) Do not Recycle.

Every professor expects original work in the context of their course. While the theme of a paper you wrote in one course may be suitable for another course, do not re-edit and submit the same paper for a new grade. Talk with the professor, show your first paper and explain how you will expand upon your original thesis, creating a newer and better work. Get permission.

(6) Always ask the Question if ever in doubt.

Again, never assume anything if the area is murky. "Can I do this...." is a great question when it comes to navigating the waters of Academic Honesty.