Academic Honesty Handbook

HARPUR COLLEGE FACULTY ACADEMIC HONESTY HANDBOOK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction
II. Prevention and Detection of Academic Dishonesty
III. Academic Honesty Procedures

Appendices:
1. Policy and Procedures
2. Admission of Dishonesty Form
3. The Use and Acknowledgment of Sources
4. Rules Governing Academic Life (UniversityBulletin)
5. Committee Members

Return to top     I. Introduction      II. Prevention and Detection of Academic Dishonesty      III. Academic Honesty Procedures
Appendices:   1. Policy and Procedures      2. Admission of Dishonesty Form      3. The Use and Acknowledgment of Sources
4. Rules Governing Academic Life (UniversityBulletin)     5. Committee Members

I. INTRODUCTION

The Harpur College Academic Honesty Committee affirms the principles of academic honesty as integral to the integrity of the University.

As in any university, the faculty and the students of Harpur College depend on mutual honesty and respect to carry out their joint task. Students learn and faculty teach, and students achieve their grades, credits and degrees by proving to faculty, with exams, reports and papers, what they, the individual students, have learned, discovered, calculated and composed. When students collaborate on projects beyond what is permitted for the particular course, each one is presenting another's work or collective work for individual credit. A copied exam, a fudged laboratory report, a purchased or plagiarized term paper: each of these is an academic fraud for profit, an attempt to get academic credit for work that the student has not really done, or for knowledge that the student does not really possess.

When faculty feel that there is a dishonest academic culture and a lot of cheating, they can turn cynical or suspicious, and either attitude lessens the value of their teaching for all their students. When students feel that many or most of their peers cheat, they can despair of getting the best grades without cheating too, and they can see their whole academic endeavor as cheapened. Either attitude makes them weaker students.

Because students and teachers are harmed and hampered in their cooperative activity by acts of dishonesty and by an atmosphere of academic distrust, we owe it to each other to build the culture of trustworthiness, in which honesty is assumed on both sides and in which dishonest acts stand out and are treated with disapproval by students and faculty alike, without personal feelings, group prejudice, or embarrassment.

The need to promote academic integrity in the university culture is so important that the joint writers of this handbook want to share our practical experience of academic honesty issues with the teaching faculty. We hope that Section II will be useful to you to forestall, prevent, and detect dishonesty. For the worst case, when you must take formal action against a student for dishonesty, the procedures used by the Academic Honesty Committee are described in Part III.

II. PREVENTION AND DETECTION OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

INFORM STUDENTS

THE SYLLABUS: The course syllabus is an effective way to inform students of what constitutes academic dishonesty. Your clear statement about academic honesty expectations can be spelled out in one section of this document. This section will be most effective if it also does the following:

defines academic dishonesty in the context of your course
outlines the actions you will take if such is discovered
mentions the serious consequences of proven academic dishonesty

HANDOUTS: You may find it helpful to distribute the Writing Center publication, "The Use and Acknowledgment of Sources," relevant pages from Rules and Expectations, and any excerpts from this Handbook you feel are pertinent (see pages 17-22).

CLASS DISCUSSION: To emphasize and clarify the material about academic honesty/dishonesty in the syllabus, you should discuss it with the class and invite their comment. By providing specific guidance as to appropriate academic conduct, you are taking action to promote honest behavior. If collaboration on an assignment is allowed or encouraged, be very clear about your expectations, reinforcing your class discussion with written instructions for assignments. Experience tells us that students who commit acts of dishonesty are often experiencing significant stress from personal or family life. It may be helpful to acknowledge this in your class discussion and to name campus resources such as the University Counseling Center, the Writing Center, the Center for Academic Excellence, Faculty/Staff mentors, and your own office hours, to help a student address these problems without resorting to academic dishonesty. The consequences for proven academic dishonesty are serious, resulting in penalties that have far-reaching effects on a student's future.

ACADEMIC CONDUCT STATEMENT: By including an academic conduct statement on a test or examination, or as part of paper or assignment, you are reminding your students of the importance of honest academic behavior, and of the serious penalties that can result from dishonest behavior. When you ask students to sign a statement, they are making a specific commitment to honest academic conduct. The following are sample statements for a test or exam, which you can use or adapt as appropriate for your own course (see page 6 for sample statements on plagiarism):

I have not used nor attempted to use any unauthorized materials, information or study aids during the administration of this examination, nor have I provided any other person with such materials, information or study aids.

__________________
(Signature)

Caution: Use of unauthorized materials, information or study aids during the course of this examination can result in serious academic penalties.

CONTROL OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHEATING DURING EXAMS

Although it is difficult to completely prevent premeditated cheating by students who are determined to cheat, there are several measures you can take to minimize opportunites for cheating.

PHYSICAL SETTING:

Assign random seats when possible
Assign seats based on discussion sections, with teaching assistants monitoring their section
Preplace exams on desks, ordered alphabetically by names or numerically by social security numbers. Vary the order from exam to exam.
To prevent observation of another student's work, have students skip a seat, rearrange chairs, offset seating in the lecture halls, etc.

TESTING PROCEDURES:

Pre-test plan...Plan to---

Distribute one exam and one blue book/answer sheet only per student; provide and collect scrap paper.
Accept no exams after students have exited the room.
Prepare new exam questions for each test, unless questions are more than five years old. Never re-use an entire exam.
Hand out several versions of the same exam, randomly distributed.
Color code blue books in a way that cannot be easily reproduced (with a stamp or colored marker) and accept only these specially marked books.

Test Day Rules

Require students to place all materials (closed) under their seat
Ask students with brimmed hats to remove them
Require students to turn in all test materials before leaving the room
Ask students to remove headphones
Inform students they may only leave the test room for emergencies, and then only with a proctor
If possible test questions are handed out in advance, in writing make clear to students your expectations vis-a-vis collaboration

Determine student identity Determine student identity

Control entry and exit to the classroom
Check I.D's placed on each student's desk; check I.D's when exams are turned in
Seat students from large classes by sections
Require signatures on exam booklet for signature verification, if necessary

Proctor

Use adequate number of proctors
Assign proctors to specific sections of the classroom
Train proctors to monitor the testing environment

Grading

Compare answer sheets by sector of the classroom

Take Home Exams

Provide written instructions as to permissible resources and rules for discussion/collaboration with others
Consider using an academic conduct statement, to be signed by the student. (see pages 2-3)

DEFINING AND PREVENTING PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is defined in the University Bulletin and in "Rules and Expectations" as

taking and passing off as one's own the ideas, writings, computer-generated materials, etc., of others: that is, the incorporation into one's written or oral reports of any unacknowledged published, unpublished, or oral material from the work of another.

Instructors should review with students the Writing Center handout ("The Use and Acknowledgment of Sources", page 17) prior to the first written assignment. This handout discusses proper citation and other useful information. Recent experience with academic honesty cases indicates that many students do not understand the basic rules about acknowledging the work of others. In your discussion,

Define explicitly what you consider to be plagiarism (e.g. minimal word strings, similarity in structure and organization,etc).
Encourage students to ask questions to ensure that they have an understanding of plagiarism that you find acceptable.
If you expect students to discuss their papers among themselves or to collaborate on an assignment, explicitly state the limits of this discussion or collaboration and the danger of accidentally or intentionally incorporating another's ideas into the assignment.
Discuss the use of Internet resources, and direct them to proper citation guidelines for these resources.
Reinforce any class discussion or oral instructions with specific written instructions for each assignment. Discuss the concept of an Academic Conduct Statement if you plan to use one for papers and other assignments (see below).
Students should be made aware of self plagiarism: they may not submit the same paper to more than one class.
Refer your students to permissible resources for assistance, i.e. your office hours, the Writing Center, EOP Tutorial Center, or the Center for Academic Excellence.

It is helpful to vary writing topics over a three- or four- year cycle. If this is not feasible, try to change the specifications of the assignments, so as to make them noticeably different from previous years. You might inform the students that they are to retain copies of their sources, to be produced if you request them. You may also request submission of draft copies to compare later with the final papers. Do not encourage any discussion among students regarding their papers if you have not made clear the amount of the discussion or collaboration you consider appropriate for the class.

Teaching assistants who grade written assignments should be instructed in various methods of detecting plagiarism. They should be familiar with all course-specific and departmental instructions regarding plagiarism, and the available resources on campus if a student is experiencing difficulty with the course. They should be alert to the use of strange phrases, unusual spelling, technical jargon, or uncharacteristic choice of words or style. Given the increasing student use of the Internet, you may wish to instruct your teaching assistants to conduct a search for key words (author or title, literary concepts, etc.) that are the subject of the assignment.

You should keep the term papers submitted for your course. One strategy is to ask students to submit two copies of their paper, one for your files and one to return to them. The next time you offer the same course, review these copies prior to grading papers. This will allow you to compare the papers to those from previous years, so as to detect resubmission of the same paper.

Another tool in preventing plagiarism is to require that students sign an Academic Conduct Statement on papers and assignments they submit for your course. The following sample statement can be used or adapted, as appropriate for your course:

This assignment (paper) represents my own work. I have not incorporated into this assignment (paper) any unacknowledged published, unpublished, or oral material from the work of another.
_____________________
(Signature)

Caution: The incorporation of any unacknowledged published, unpublished, or oral material from the work of another constitutes plagiarism, which can result in serious academic penalties.

III. ACADEMIC HONESTY PROCEDURES

When evidence of academic dishonesty is found, faculty have discretion to address the dishonesty in several ways, taking into account the circumstances, the student, and act(s) of dishonesty. The Harpur College Academic Honesty Committee has responsibility for hearing cases, reporting to the Dean and the Harpur College Council, and educating the college community. Results of the Committee's actions for the previous year are published in fall issues of the Pipe Dream and Inside, and the Committee undertakes projects such as this handbook to help the university community better address the problem of academic dishonesty.

If you need help deciding on how to address an instance of academic dishonesty, the Chair of the Academic Honesty Committee is available to discuss the situation. It is important that you collect and preserve all written evidence of the dishonesty, instructions that students received, and dated notes or memoranda of conversations with faculty, teaching assistants and the student involved

INFORMAL PROCEDURES

CONFRONTING THE STUDENT: When academic dishonesty is identified, your first step may be to confront the student with your suspicions, as soon as possible after the dishonesty is discovered. Although confronting the student is generally the first step, it is not required before bringing a case to the Committee. Examples of situations in which it may not be appropriate to confront the student include: when the student has already left on break prior to the discovery of the dishonesty, when the student already has been warned by you for a prior incident of academic dishonesty, or when the student already has a record with the Committee.

INFORMAL SANCTIONS: After confronting the student, you may decide that you do not want to take formal action through the Committee. Instead you may choose to have the student repeat the assignment, do extra work, exact a penalty through grading, or other action. In a few cases, these informal sanctions may be appropriate, however the Committee feels strongly that some formal action is necessary in most cases to preserve the integrity of the academic institution. A laissez faire approach to academic dishonesty impairs the academic environment for faculty and students alike.

FORMAL PROCEDURES

ADMISSION OF DISHONESTY FORM

The Admission of Dishonesty form is like a plea bargain arrangement, whereby the student admits guilt in return for your promise not to bring the case before the Committee. Once signed by the student and faculty member, the Admission of Dishonesty is given to the Chair of the Academic Honesty Committee, to be maintained in a confidential file. Harpur College Council procedures (see page 15) govern the use of this confidential file in subsequent proceedings involving academic dishonesty involving the same student.

The Committee feels strongly that the Admission of Dishonesty form should be used only with first time offenders. It may be appropriate for a freshman student with limited writing experience who commits plagiarism, but not for a senior English major. If you are considering using the form, check with the Chair of the Academic Honesty Committe to verify that the student has no prior record of academic dishonesty. Because an Admission of Dishonesty is kept on file for six years following a student's departure from the university or until a student graduates, this process helps to inform other faculty members and the Committee if another incident occurs involving the same student. A student with an admission form already on file should be brought before Committee at a hearing.

HEARING PROCEDURES

Preparation: If you determine that academic dishonesty has occurred and that the situation warrants a hearing by the Committee, you should contact the Committee Chair to review your case. Typically, this would occur after you have confronted the student or determined that confrontation is not appropriate. The Chair will provide you with specific information as to the handling of the situation. You will be asked to collect and annotate the evidence for submission to the Committee.

In cases of alleged plagiarism, you should provide a comparison of the source document with the plagiarized document. Actual similarities in wording should be coded with matching letters or numbers so that the reader can easily identify the plagiarized passages. You should address similarities in structure and other general issues in an accompanying cover letter. Please provide copies of all pertinent written instructions given to students for the assignment and course, and document any class discussion held regarding plagiarism.

In cases of alleged cheating, you should annotate the source and the assignment or examination on which the cheating occurred, in the manner described above for plagiarism. If you have confiscated cheat sheets, please provide annotated copies for the Committee. For other issues involving cheating, please provide as much written evidence as possible as to the instructions provided to students for the assignment/examination in question. For instance, where inappropriate collaboration among students is alleged, it is important to provide the Committee with documentation of the ground rules for the assignment or examination. If departmental or class rules specify that the use of certain equipment or materials (i.e calculators) during an examination constitutes prima facie evidence of cheating, please provide specific written documentation of all instructions given to students regarding the rules. Evidence regarding the observations of other faculty or staff (i.e. proctors or teaching assistants) should be submitted in the form of a signed letter or memorandum to the Committee.

Letter to the Committee: Once you have gathered the evidence and completed the annotations, you should write a letter to the Committee Chair setting forth the specific charges against the student. At a minimum, the letter should contain:

the name of the student
title and number of the course
date(s) and semester of the alleged dishonesty
how you identified the dishonesty
your observations of actions involving the dishonesty (i.e. cheating during an examination)
a summary of conversations you had with the student , in chronological order beginning with your discovery of the dishonesty and ending with your submission of materials to the Chair
a summary of the observations of teaching assistants or others who may have observed the dishonesty (these may also be included as additional letters or memoranda)
documentation of all written instructions and/or class discussion during the course pertaining to academic dishonesty

Whenever possible, you should file charges expeditiously once academic dishonesty has been discovered. Because of the time involved in providing notice to the student, preparing the hearing packets, and handling previously scheduled hearings, there is an inevitable delay before the hearing can be held. University holidays and other matters may cause further delays. It is much easier on all concerned when honesty hearings can occur as promptly as possible.

Notification of Student: The Chair will notify the student in writing of the charges and hearing, according to the procedures established by the Harpur College Council.

The Hearing: The Chair conducts the hearing, at which at least four Committee members, including at least one student and one faculty member, constitute a quorum. The hearing has three parts:

Part One: Initial presentation of evidence and discussion of charges. The Chair verifies that the student has been informed of the charges and the hearing procedures. Faculty and teaching assistant(s) are asked to review the charges and evidence submitted to the Committee.
Part Two: Discussion of evidence. The student has the opportunity to make a statement to the Committee, and the Committee may questions of both the student and faculty or teaching assistant(s). The student may bring an adviser to the hearing.
Part Three: Assessment of evidence and decision of the Committee. Once the discussion phase is completed, the Chair will excuse the student and faculty involved in the case and the Committee will begin its deliberations. The Committee will make a recommendation, which is sent to the Associate Dean with the minutes of the hearing.

In recent years, teaching assistants have figured prominently in a number of cases heard by the Committee. Because they are often closer to the situation involving the dishonesty, testimony (or lack thereof) by a teaching assistant can often be critical to the case. Where teaching assistants are involved with the alleged dishonesty, require your teaching assistant(s) to participate in the process, and check their schedules when you arrange for a hearing date with the Chair.

The student has a right to bring an adviser to the hearing. The adviser can be a friend, fellow student, parent, or attorney. Because it is an administrative hearing, the student's adviser will not be allowed to speak directly to the Committee. On rare occasions, a student will retain an attorney who will be present at the hearing. Beyond the inconvenience of the recording equipment and extra people, this should not alter your presentation and general conduct. The university attorney will be present when the student brings an attorney.

Committee Recommendation: The Committee makes its decision on a recommendation to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs during Part Three of the hearing, based upon an open, majority vote of all members in attendance. According to Harpur College Council policy, the following recommendations are available for consideration:

No action to be taken against the student(s) involved
A letter of reprimand to be sent to the student(s)
The student to be placed upon disciplinary probation
Denial of registration for a specific time period
Expulsion
Additional actions (such as followup interviews with the Committee)

Decision: The Committee's recommendation is sent to the Associate Dean, who will review the evidence and recommendation and make a decision. This decision will be communicated to the student and faculty member who brought the charges. Ordinarily it takes several weeks from the hearing date to receive this communciation from the Associate Dean. For all cases heard by the Committee, except those resulting in expulsion, records are kept in the Committee's files for six years following the student's departure from the university. For cases resulting in expulsion, a record is kept permanently.

Grading Policy: According to university regulations, the actions of the Committee and of the Associate Dean have no bearing on the grade you assign to the student(s) in question. Grading remains the prerogative of the instructor.

THE HARPUR COLLEGE ACADEMIC HONESTY COMMITTEE

POLICY AND PROCEDURES

PREAMBLE

The Harpur College Academic Honesty Committee is not a legal or judicial body but an administrative one. The Committee hears and deliberates on cases involving academic dishonesty but renders no binding verdicts, judgments or decisions. After evaluating a case, the Committee sends to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, non-binding recommendations as to the action the Dean might choose to take. The final disposition of a case is not within the jurisdiction or power of the Committee.

I. MEMBERSHIP

The Committee shall consist of three faculty members, two student members and one administrative member to be selected in the same manner as the members of any other Harpur College standing committee. The Chair shall be selected in the same manner as the Chair of any other Harpur College standing committee.

II. QUORUM

A Committee quorum shall consist of four committee members with the proviso that at least one of these be a student and one be a faculty member. Any member of the Committee who brings a charge is automatically disqualified for that hearing, and, before a hearing begins, if any one involved in that case accuses a member of being prejudiced, the other members of the Committee shall decide, by a secret ballot, whether that member shall be disqualified for that hearing.

III. INITIATION OF ACTION

Either faculty members or students may submit charges of plagiarism or cheating against students. Upon receipt of a signed charge against a student, the Chair shall convene the whole Committee at the earliest convenient time.

Students who feel that they have been unjustly accused of academic dishonesty or feel that they have been unjustly penalized for alleged academic dishonesty, by a faculty member, may request that the case be heard by the Committee. All such requests shall be granted and shall be handled as in IV-VI below.

IV. NOTIFICATION OF STUDENT

The Chair or the Chair's designee shall notify the student or students of the charges under consideration. This notification shall be in writing and shall become a part of the record. This notification shall inform the student of the following, with sufficient particularity and in sufficient time to insure opportunity to prepare for the hearing.

The specific charges brought.
The time and place to appear before the Committee for a hearing.
The privilege to have one person of the student's's own choosing appear in an advisory capacity.
The right to be present to any portion of the meeting when evidence is heard with respect to the case.
The right to request that any person involved in the case be present at the time the student appears before the Committee.
The right to challenge the impartiality of any member of the Committee in accordance with II above.
The right to cross-examine witnesses.
The right, after the Committee has met and made its recommendation to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, to appeal the Associate Dean's decision to the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Students electing to appeal the decision of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs must notify the Associate Dean within 30 days of the decision of their intent to appeal. The Associate Dean will then provide information necessary to filing the appeal.
The procedures and policy of the Academic Honesty Committee as outlined in the present document.

V. THE HEARING

The hearing shall consist of at least three parts:

The initial presentation of evidence and discussion with parties bringing evidence. (If a teaching assistant was involved in discovering the alleged academic dishonesty, both faculty member and teaching assistant should be present.)
Discussion with the student (and the student's adviser if an adviser is present).
The assessment of the evidence by the Committee and the formulation of its recommendation to the Associate Dean.

The student and the student's adviser have the right to attend part one and part two of the committee meeting. If the student does not appear for the hearing, the case may be heard in absentia, but only after the Committee has made efforts to ascertain the reasons for the student's absence and to encourage the student to attend. No one other than committee members shall be present during part three and no new evidence my be introduced at that time. As soon as the student appears before the Committee, the Chair shall review the student' rights and privileges as per paragraph IV above and acquaint the student with the purpose of the meeting, namely, to assess the evidence in the light of the full context in which the alleged dishonesty occurred in order to render a fair and equitable recommendation.

VI. DECISION OF THE COMMITTEE

The decision of the Committee will take place in part three of the meeting. The decision will be based on an open vote by all members of the Committee in attendance. The recommendation shall be based on a vote of the majority of the members present. Those members of the Committee who do not concur with the majority decision have the right to append a minority report to the recommendations.

A record of the hearing will be made with sufficient particularity to allow for review by the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and the Dean of Harpur College, but a verbatim record is not required.

The Committee can recommend to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs any of the following:

No action be taken against the student or students involved.
A letter of reprimand be sent to the student.
The student be placed on disciplinary probation and in the event the student is found guilty of any other acts of academic dishonesty, a more stringent penally could result.
Denial of registration for a specified period of time.
Expulsion--No opportunity to return to Harpur College.
Additional actions such as follow-up interviews with the Committee.

The Committee shall be notified in writing of the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs' disposition of each case. For all cases heard by the committee except those resulting in expulsion, records shall be kept in the committee's confidential files for six years following the student's departure from the institution whether as a graduate or not. For cases resulting in expulsion, a record shall be kept permanently.

VII. INCIDENTS OF ADEMIC DISHONESTY NOT FORMALLY HEARD BY THE COMMITTEE

A faculty member who has detected academic dishonesty may decide not to bring a formal charge of dishonesty to the Committee, but rather to notify the Committee that this dishonesty has occurred. The committee chair will keep such information in its confidential files until the student's graduation, or for six years following the student's departure from the institution, provided both the faculty member and the student sign a document testifying that the student has reviewed the Procedures of the Harpur College Academic Honesty Committee, that the student is aware of the right to a hearing before the Committee, that the student waives this right to a hearing, that the student admits dishonesty, that the faculty member agrees not to file a formal charge with the Committee, and that the students is aware s/he will receive a letter of reprimand from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. When all these conditions are met and the document is signed by faculty member and student, the student has 30 days to reconsider and to request a formal hearing before the committee. All such documents will be kept in the committee Chair's confidential files to be introduced.

If the student for some subsequent act is charged with academic dishonesty. At which point, the student's admission of guilt would only be introduced after the issue of the student's guilt or innocence was determined and only for the purpose of determining the recommended penalty.
If a faculty member (at some subsequent point in time) alleges to the Chair of the Committee that this student is guilty of dishonesty, the Committee Chair would inform the faculty member that a record of dishonesty already exists for the student and therefore a charge should be brought before the Committee.

VIII. ANNUAL REPORT

The Committee will publish an annual report for Harpur College Council, will also disseminate the activities of the body through other means, and will encourage and coordinate ongoing educational activities in the college community.

APPROVED BY HARPUR COLLEGE COUNCIL 2/94

2. ADMISSION OF DISHONESTY FORM

This document is designed to reflect and record the procedures stated under Section VII of the committee's Policies and Procedures. This document is available through the Chair of the Harpur College Academic honesty Committee; questions concerning this document should be directed to the Chair.

The Admission of Dishonesty Form has been newly updated for Fall 2004. Click here to download it: Admission of Dishonesty Form
(Note: you will need Adobe Reader to view the document. Click here to download Adobe Reader.)

3. THE USE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SOURCES

A primary task of the undergraduate student is to learn how to use sources effectively and acknowledge them appropriately. Like all scholars, you--the beginning scholar--must build upon the work of those who have gone before you, using it to extend your own knowledge and to develop your own thinking; like all scholars, you must acknowledge in your writing any materials which you found in other writings.

Critical Reading

This is your crucial first step, once you have located your printed sources. You need to read actively, asking questions of the text, identifying its main points, noting the point of view or bias, considering the validity of its logic, testing it against other sources and against your own knowledge, and taking notes that will provide an accurate presentation of your reading as you develop your thinking and write your paper.

Taking Notes

Observe that "taking notes" is included above as part of the process of critical reading. Simply xeroxing parts of your texts and/or highlighting important passages cannot serve your purpose adequately. Record your reactions to your reading as you read, for they are essential to your study. Besides your own analysis and critique of your sources, your notes will include summaries of important points, some paraphrase, and, occasionally, exact quotation.

There are various systems for recording notes. Whatever system you use, you must follow two practices meticulously: (l) record clearly and accurately the reference of each note, i.e., the work from which it comes and usually the page number; (2) enclose in quotation marks anything you copy from a source, and copy it exactly in every detail, including punctuation.

Writing a Draft of Your Paper

As you think about your reading and review your notes, you may be so daunted by the authority and superior prose of the sources you have read that you question your own ability to write an original and worthwhile paper on the subject. But learning to deal with your material in your own language is exactly what mastery of the material entails. At this point you will be glad that you have read critically and kept good, accessible notes, especially of your analysis. If you find it hard to get started, consult your instructor or go to the Writing Center, where tutors will help you explore possible approaches.

Documentation of Sources

In order to make your documentation clear and useful to your reader, you must choose one of the standard forms and follow it consistently. Be guided in your choice of form by your instructor's preference. The MLA Handbook is usually recommended for undergraduate papers in the humanities; the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is often used for papers in the social sciences; and A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, by Kate L. Turabian, is also widely used. These reference works and others are stocked by the University Bookstore, and the Writing Center has copies for students to use in the Center.

Plagiarism

Failure to document sources is plagiarism, a serious violation of ethics and a failure to achieve the very purpose of the assignment. Binghamton University's Rules and Expectations defines plagiarism as "the incorporation into one's written or oral reports of any unacknowledged published, unpublished, or oral material from the work of another." In order to avoid even unintentional plagiarism, you should observe the following principles scrupulously:

Place anything you copy exactly from another writer--whole sentences, phrases, or even a single distinctive critical term--within quotation marks and identify its source, usually in a note.
Indicate the source, again usually in a note, of any idea or information that you take from another writer and that is not common knowledge. You should do this even though you restate the idea or information in your own words and don't use quotation marks. When in doubt about whether to credit a source, you should err in the direction of too much rather than too little documentation.
When paraphrasing (restating material in your own words), take care that you actually do restate. Retaining sentence structure of the original source, substituting some synonyms, and/or deleting some phrases is not true paraphrasing. The following examples demonstrate the difference between appropriate and inappropriate use of a source:

Original: Englishmen of the educated classes today enjoy the reputation for unusual reserve and exceptional self-control under the most provoking circumstances. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tempers were short and weapons to hand. The behaviour of the propertied classes, like that of the poor, was characterized by the ferocity, childishness, and lack of self-control of the Homeric age, and unless we can grasp these basic psychological premisses we cannot hope to understand the true dimensions of the Tudor problem. Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy: 1558-1641(London: Oxford University Press, l967), p. 108.

Version A: Educated Englishmen of today have a reputation for unusual aloofness and self-control, but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries men were short-tempered and always had their weapons handy. The propertied classes, like the poor, behaved with the fierceness, childishness, and lack of self-control characteristic of the Homeric age. Unless we understand these psychological principles, we cannot understand the exact nature of the Tudor problem (Stone 108).

(The author of Version A uses a parenthetical note to indicate that the ideas in this passage are not original with him or her, but by not using quotation marks, the author suggests the writing is his or her own. If the author had not cited Stone, this would clearly be plagiarism. However, even with the citation, this passage follows Stone's organization of ideas, sentence structure, and vocabulary too closely to be a true paraphrase.)

Version B: According to Lawrence Stone, in order to understand the "Tudor problem," we must first realize that wealthy sixteenth and seventeenth Englishmen were quick to anger and lacking in self-control (108).

(This is a more appropriate treatment of the source. The author employs his or her own words to summarize Stone's ideas. The author uses the phrase, "According to Lawrence Stone . . . ," to indicate that what follows was taken from Stone's work and places the one phrase he or she takes directly from Stone, "Tudor problem," within quotation marks. The author places a parenthetical note after the entire sentence in order to indicate the complete source of the information contained in it.)

A final word: Plagiarism is most likely to result when your paper emphasizes the ideas of others rather than your own. Your research papers should never consist of a loosely-connected string of undigested quotations and ideas from other authors. Instead, you must interpret research material, integrate it with your own ideas, and develop your own controlling idea and organizational structure. You should refer to other sources, using them to support and develop your own ideas, rather than rely on them as a substitute for your own thoughts and analyses.

The Writing Center
LN 1209

4. RULES GOVERNING ACADEMIC LIFE (from the University Bulletin, 1998-99)

Academic Integrity

The faculty assumes that themes, term papers, studio work, results of laboratory experiments, examinations, and computer-generated material submitted by the student represent the student's own work. The presentation for academic credit of the same work in more than one course is prohibited, unless a joint project receives the express and prior consent of the instructors involved. The following remarks are intended to clarify this for all students:

Cooperation in Preparing Course Material

Cooperative study of course work is one of the legitimate ways to master a subject. Joint discussion of problems is, therefore, encouraged. Sometimes instructors encourage collaborative methods of learning, including peer review of papers. This too can be a productive way of mastering material and promoting one's writing abilities. Students should be aware that wherever such learning results in an instructor's evaluation, they are responsible for acknowledging their membership in the group fostering their learning.

Written Work

Much course work is assigned to students individually rather than in groups. In carrying out such assignments, a student may ask others for criticism of a piece of writing. Effective learning is often fostered by cooperation and assistance. Nonetheless, such assistance should never be so complete or so detailed that the piece of writing becomes more the work of the person assisting than of the student. That would be a form of misrepresentation. Similarly, a student may occasionally feel the need for preliminary aid in understanding the principles involved in various problems and the methods to be used in solving them (for example, in mathematics and foreign language courses). Such aid is legitimate, but in every case the student must be responsible for the preparation and presentation of assignments. Without these precautions, the student may unwittingly become involved in collaborative work so extensive that it may be considered plagiarism.

Laboratory Experiments

Although students may be permitted or required to cooperate with one or more other students in a laboratory experiment, many experiments are to be done by the students independently, and all require some independent work. For students to submit the results of another's experiment as their own, or to accept unauthorized help in an experiment, constitutes academic dishonesty.

Credit

All sources of assistance-published or unpublished-are to be scrupulously acknowledged in every piece of writing and in oral reports.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty refers to acts of plagiarism, cheating, and falsification of research data. Plagiarism is taking and passing off as one's own the ideas, writings, computer-generated material, etc., of others: that is, the incorporation into one's written or oral reports of any unacknowledged published, unpublished, or oral material from the work of another. It is the right of the faculty member to whom such reports are submitted to decide whether plagiarism has been committed. Obviously, no faculty member makes such a determination without evidence. Factors contributing to that determination include the degree of dependence on unacknowledged outside material, inadequate acknowledgment, or the presence of misleading references. In any particular course, students should contact the
individual faculty member for information about acceptable and appropriate methods of acknowledgment.

Cheating is using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.

Falsification of research data involves the intentional misrepresentation of circumstances, procedures, participants, and/or results of research projects. For additional information on what constitutes plagiarism, contact the Writing
Center, LN 1209.

Adjudication

Cases of alleged plagiarism, cheating, and falsification of research data reported by faculty members are referred to the appropriate committee for adjudication, e.g., the Harpur College Academic Honesty Committee.

5. HARPUR COLLEGE ACADEMIC HONESTY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

First Edition 1994: Thomas Brandon, W. Thomas Langhorne (Chair), Julia Miller (Secretary), Karen Niovitch, Norman Stillman, Yin-Jen Su, Daniel Williman

Second Edition 1998: Philip Goldstein, Randall McGuire, Julia Miller (Chair), Christopher Nolan, Anton Schick, Heather Struck (Secretary), Grant Webster