Understanding Plagiarism & Academic Dishonesty Policies: USC Academic Integrity Tutorial, Study notes of Humanities

Download Understanding Plagiarism & Academic Dishonesty Policies: USC Academic Integrity Tutorial and more Study notes Humanities in PDF only on Docsity! UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 1 Video Audio Hello and welcome the Academic Integrity Tutorial After completing this short tutorial, you will have confidence knowing: - Why academic integrity is critical to your college experience - How to be more skillful in accessing resources that help you avoid plagiarism and other Honor Code violations - And finally, what to do if you find yourself in the position you never thought you would: feeling desperate at 2 AM and feeling tempted to cheat UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 2 Academic Integrity is very important to the Carolina Community. As a community of scholars, we take pride in earning our degrees the right way. We hope this tutorial will help you understand why academic integrity is important to our community, and also help you navigate your obligations as a student. The first question you may ask is why academic integrity is important in our community. At Carolina, we care about your integrity as a student. Your integrity is essential to establishing a relationship of trust between you and your professor, and this in turn, creates the best learning environment. Personal and Academic Integrity are so important that they are listed in the Carolinian Creed, the values statement for the entire University! Think about reputation when you consider violating our Academic Integrity policies! Rampant cheating at a university calls into question the value of your university degree. Also, think about your own academic reputation. You don’t want to be known as the student who cheats his or her way through school. We also care about fairness here at Carolina. We want a level playing field as students to perform. It is not fair for someone to achieve good UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 5 Plagiarism Unauthorized Assistance Unauthorized Materials Unauthorized access to test Interference Bribery And Lying Our tutorial will go over these policies in detail. Let’s start with Plagiarism. More plagiarism cases are reported to the Office of Academic Integrity than all of the other Honor Code policies combined. What is plagiarism, you may ask? The University of South Carolina defines plagiarism as the use of another person’s work or ideas without proper acknowledgement of the source. We prohibit plagiarism because we believe in giving credit where credit is due. UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 6 Next, you may be thinking about you can avoid plagiarism. First you want to identify the proper citation style for your assignment. The most common citation styles used at the University of South Carolina are the Chicago Manual of Style, the Modern Language Association Style, and the American Psychological Association Style. Some academic disciplines commonly use one particular style. For example, the Modern Language Association, or MLA style, is commonly used in the humanities. If you are unsure about what citation style to use, seek guidance from your professor. After considering what your citation style should be, next consider how you will properly credit your sources. Although the citation styles vary, in general, you will need to take the following steps to properly acknowledge your sources: First, you need to recognize when you need to cite material UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 7 Second, you need to properly cite any material taken directly or verbatim from another source Third, you need to know how to properly paraphrase any ideas that you get from your source UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 10 Next, let’s consider how to properly cite material that you take verbatim or directly from another source. To distinguish your words from the words you are directly taking from another source, you use direct quotations. Anytime you take language directly from a source, you must use quotation makes and insert an in-text citation according to the writing style you are using. Take a look at the example of the correct use of a direct quote. Often times, you will find yourself wanting to use some else’s work or ideas. You can do so as long as you still give credit back to the source. When paraphrasing, you do not need to use quotation marks, simply insert a proper in-text citation. Review the following example of how to properly paraphrase as another person’s work. UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 11 As we discussed earlier, anytime you use another person’s work or ideas, whether you are direct quoting or paraphrasing, you must insert an in-text citation at the end of the sentence. The format of your in-text citation will depend on the writing style you are using. Be sure to take note of the differences between common writing styles. In addition to in-text citations, you must include a source listing at the conclusion of your work. Again, the format of your source listing will depend on the writing style you are using. To help you gain a better understanding of source listing, University Libraries has prepared a guide to help you understand how to do this. UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 12 Keeping these citation tips in mind, let’s discuss the most common plagiarism issues at USC. They include copying and pasting someone else’s work without using citation or the proper citation style, using another student’s work without attribution, buying a paper online and submitting it, or slightly modifying that paper and submitting it, poor paraphrasing, lack of citation or failing to cite properly. These common plagiarism issues are often detected through a software program called SafeAssign. Your professors use SafeAssign to scan for matches against another student’s papers, internet sources, a large database of previously submitted papers, and other online databases. Now that you have a better understanding of plagiarism, let’s discuss the other forms of academic dishonesty included in the Honor Code. UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 15 A word on cell phone use during the exam. Using your cell phone during the exam is almost always going to be considered a violation—the presumption will be that you are using it for dishonest purposes. So leave it in your book bag or at home. Finally, and this is obvious, but unauthorized notes will be a violation of this policy. Examples include taping equations to your calculator cover and writing definitions on your legs. Again, read your syllabus to find out what you can have in the testing room and strictly follow that guidance. Moving on, let’s talk about let’s talk about unauthorized access to a test before its administration. Getting the publisher’s copy of the test or getting a copy of the test from a friend or other source is an egregious violation of the Honor Code. Your professors work hard to ensure a fair evaluation process of your work. By having the answers in advance, you receive an unfair advantage over the other students in your class UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 16 Next, let’s look at the policies of bribery and interference. The policy of bribery is fairly straightforward. Exchanging or offering to exchange money, or other things, such as football tickets, to gain an academic advantage will be considered bribery. It will NOT be a defense to this charge that you were just joking. Interference is a policy that is fairly straightforward too. It includes any act that is intended to interfere with your professor’s ability to assess your competency or performance in an academic setting. Finally, let’s talk about lying. When you lie about your work or misrepresent the truth, you lose your professor’s trust and your risk your credibility. This includes fabricating documents and altering documents, telling little “white lies,” and signing your friends in for class, or asking a friend to sign you in for class. UofSC Academic Integrity Tutorial Script 17 Every student at USC has a responsibility to engage in a high level of academic honesty. However, at different points in your career you may find yourself making poor choices. When students are involved in an Honor Code violation, more often than not, poor time management can lead to poor decision making and policy violations. Consider these seven time management tips as you prepare for your next paper or exam. I find the following three tips to be most helpful” Try to Combine Activities: Bring your psychology notes to study while you are waiting on your laundry. Self-Care: Make sure you have time to eat and sleep properly. Use distributed learning: study in short time blocks, with short breaks in-between.