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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
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
Finally, Alicia says: Lots of classes are curved—not only are you cheating yourself but also you are hurting those students who worked hard for the curve. Now that we know why academic integrity is important, let’s talk about the University policies regarding academic integrity. The University of South Carolina has adopted an Honor Code. This Code prohibits any dishonesty, fraud, or deceit in connection with your academic work. Although all forms of academic dishonesty are prohibited under the Honor Code, the policy addresses seven types of academic dishonesty, including:
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.
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
Next, you need to understand how to correctly cite your sources in-text or through the use of footnotes and endnotes And finally, how to list your sources on a reference, works- cited, or bibliography page
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.
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.
The Unauthorized Assistance policy prohibits: “giving or receiving unauthorized assistance, or attempting to give or receive such assistance, in connection with the performance of any academic work” Most students violate this policy on homework assignments, during tests, or when collaborating on an assignment. On homework assignments, students often violate this policy by sharing homework when it is not permitted. Avoid sharing your homework or lab answers with other students, because you never know when a student will copy your work and submit it as his or her own. Of course, the students receiving the assistance also violate this policy. Concerning test cheating, students will violate this policy by looking off someone else’s exam for the answers or by assisting another student in providing the answers. If you tend to look around while you are thinking about the answers, here’s a tip: ask to be seated in a location during the exam where you cannot see other student’s papers if you look around, such as a
location never a wall or on the front row. Finally, students violate this rule by collaborating when it is not permitted, or through poor collaboration. Students who collaborate share an equal or roughly equal division of labor and effort. If a student merely copies another student’s work or writes down answers as directed by another student, then that student may have received unauthorized assistance. Next, let’s consider unauthorized materials The policy prohibits unauthorized use of materials or information of any type of the unauthorized use of any electronic or mechanical device in connection with the completion of any academic work Students may violate this rule in online classes by using materials not permitted for an online exam. Remember, just because the test is online doesn’t mean you can use whatever materials you would like. Review the syllabus and seek guidance from your professor about what materials can be used for the exam and strictly follow that guidance.
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.
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.
