What is Plagiarism?

Academic dishonesty is a serious offense. College of DuPage stipulates that any violation of academic integrity requires an appropriate disciplinary response. Academic dishonesty can seriously affect a student’s record.

According to The Little, Brown Handbook, plagiarism, one form of academic dishonesty, “is the presentation of someone else’s ideas or words as your own” (Fowler and Aaron 680). I have listed below several forms of plagiarism.

Plagiarism includes:

* Copying a phrase, a sentence, or a longer passage from a source and passing it off as one’s own.
* Cutting and pasting a piece of writing or any portion of it from the Internet or e-mail without using quotation marks and properly documenting the source.
* Typing in a piece of writing or any portion of it from a book or printed source without using quotation marks and properly documenting the source.
* Failing to place quotation marks around another writer’s words.
* Summarizing or paraphrasing someone else’s ideas without acknowledging your debt by documenting the source.
* Omitting a source citation for another’s idea because you are unaware of the need to acknowledge the idea.
* Submitting a sentence, phrase, or longer passage from someone else’s work as a paraphrase without substantially changing the original language.
* Buying or acquiring a paper and handing it in as one’s own.
* Working on a project in a group and then submitting that project individually as one’s own independent work with no acknowledgement of the other group members.
* Submitting either a portion of or a whole project prepared by another student and claiming the work as one’s own.
* Failing to secure one’s original work. Students are responsible for the security of their own work. When a student’s work is submitted and claimed by another student, both the originator of the work and the person who fraudulently submits it as his/her own are guilty of academic dishonesty.

Any of these offenses may be punishable by failure in the course. If I deem the plagiarism accidental, I will fail the student for the assignment. If I deem the plagiarism deliberate, I will fail the student for the course and report the student to the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs for disciplinary action. A hold will be placed on the student’s record to prevent withdrawal from the course. Whether the plagiarism is deemed deliberate or accidental is entirely my prerogative. Students suspected of accidental plagiarism will be informed, and any subsequent incidents of plagiarism will be treated as deliberate. In all cases, it will be the responsibility of the student to establish his/her authorship.

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