AVOIDING ACADEMIC SUICIDE: REMARKS ON PLAGIARISM

PLAGIARISM (Quoted from the UL-Lafayette Undergraduate Bulletin):

V. Academic Honesty

A. Introduction An essential rule in every class of the University is that all work for which a student will receive a grade or credit be entirely his or her own or be properly documented to indicate sources. When a student does not follow this rule, s/he is dishonest . . . the responsibility rests with the student to know the acceptable methods and techniques for proper documentation of sources and to avoid cheating and/or plagiarism . . .

B. Definitions of Cheating and Plagiarism

1. Cheating, in the context of academic matters, is the term broadly used to describe all acts of dishonesty committed in the taking of tests or examinations and in the preparation of assignments. ***

2. Plagiarism is a specific type of cheating. It occurs when a student passes off as his or her own the ideas or words of another person, when s/he presents as a new and original idea or product anything which in fact is derived from an existing work, or when s/he makes use of any work or production already created by someone else without giving credit to the source. In short, plagiarism is the use of unacknowledged materials in the preparation of assignments. Thus, the student must take care to avoid plagiarism in research or term papers, art projects, architectural designs, musical compositions, science reports, laboratory experiments, and the like.

C. Penalties The University considers both cheating and plagiarism serious offenses. The minimum penalty for a student guilty of either dishonest act is a grade of “zero” for the assignment in question. The maximum penalty is dismissal from the University.

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To illustrate plagiarism, here is a passage from the book Faith in Politics, by A. James Reichley, Brookings Institution Press, 2002, pp. 104–105:

Though convinced of the need, both spiritual and political, for religion, most of the founders had at the same time concluded that government, at least at the national level, should be kept largely secular. The first reason for this conclusion was the practical fact of religious pluralism. Although a substantial majority among citizens of the new nation had roots in some form of Puritanism, no single denomination approached majority status. Under the circumstances, designation of a single denomination of the established national church was simply out of the question. Conviction that the national government should remain secular also resulted from concern, derived from direct experience or from study of history. Most had decided that even a multidenominational direct relationship between church and state and the national level would be harmful for both. Finally, the founders held the belief that religious liberty is itself a primary religious value within the moral and spiritual tradition from which the United States had grown. Coerced religion, they were persuaded, was an impediment rather than an aid to genuine faith.

Below are some dishonest and honest uses of the material in student term papers on the topic of separation of church and state.

A. Term Paper Excerpt from Student 1: The people who founded our country did not establish a national religion in our U.S. Constitution. This is because most of the founders had at the time concluded that government, at least at the national level, should be kept largely secular. The founders then added the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives us our religious freedoms.

THE SECOND SENTENCE IS PLAGIARISM. The source material is quoted from the first sentence of the first paragraph of the aforementioned passage, but no quotation marks and no citation are used to indicate either that the material is quoted or the source of the quote.

B. Term Paper Excerpt from Student 2: The people who founded our country did not establish a national religion in our U.S. Constitution. “This is because most of the founders had at the time concluded that government, at least at the national level, should be kept largely secular.” The founders then added the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives us our religious freedoms.

THE SECOND SENTENCE IS PLAGIARISM. Although quotation marks are used, no citation has been given to indicate the source of the quote.

C. Term Paper Excerpt from Student 3: The people who founded our country did not establish a national religion in our U.S. Constitution. This is because most of the founders had at the time concluded that government, at least at the national level, should be kept largely secular (Reichley 2002, 104–105). The founders then added the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives us our religious freedoms.

THE SECOND SENTENCE IS PLAGIARISM. Although a citation is provided, the source material is directly quoted, but no quotation marks are used to indicate the wording is not the student’s wording.

D. Term Paper Excerpt from Student 4: The people who founded our country did not establish a national religion in our U.S. Constitution. This is because a majority of the framers of the Constitution then believed that our national government should remain secular. The founders then added the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives us our religious freedoms.

THE SECOND SENTENCE IS PLAGIARISM. Although the student has now paraphrased the source material into the student’s own original wording, the factual assertion/idea comes from the source material and not the student, but no citation has been provided to indicate the source of the idea is not the student.

E. Term Paper Excerpt from Student 5: The people who founded our country did not establish a national religion in our U.S. Constitution. This is because a majority of the framers of the Constitution then believed that our national government should remain secular (Reichley 2004: 104-105). The founders then added the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives us our religious freedoms.

THIS IS NOT PLAGIARISM. The student has honestly acknowledged the source of the paraphrased (reworded) material.

F. Term Paper Excerpt from Student 6: The people who founded our country did not establish a national religion in our U.S. Constitution. This is because “most of the founders had at the same time concluded that government, at least at the national level, should be kept largely secular” (Reichley 2004: 104-105). The founders then added the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives us our religious freedoms.

THIS IS NOT PLAGIARISM. The student has honestly acknowledged the source of the quoted (directly copied) material.

*** I HAVE READ THIS HANDOUT, ASKED ANY QUESTIONS I HAVE, AND FULLY UNDERSTAND ALL OF IT***.

Signed _____________________________ (Clearly Print full name) ___________________________________ Course_________ Date______