Academic Integrity*
adopted from "AGES Statement on Academic Integrity for Liberal Studies Courses"
 
Why worry about academic integrity?
Integrity is central to a liberally-educated adult. A liberally-educated adult insists that we “do the right thing,” no matter how uncomfortable that is. A person who prospers through cheating and cutting corners in matters of ethics won’t be able to do that.
Integrity is central to communication. It is only possible to communicate effectively over time with a person whose words can be trusted.
Integrity is essential in learning. The purpose for attending college is to learn. When students do not fulfill course requirements with their own work, they are cheating themselves and wasting the opportunity that has been provided for them.
Integrity is central to honest assessment of student learning. It is unfair to all students when a few are dishonest.
Plagiarism
Your name on any written or spoken exercise (e.g., quizzes, exams, papers, project reports, journals, speeches) constitutes a statement that the work is the result of your own thought and study, stated in your own words, and produced without the unauthorized assistance of others, except where you have clearly indicated otherwise.
The most common form of academic dishonesty is often described as "plagiarism," that is, presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own. Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:
- turning in a rewritten copy of a paper that someone else has written;
- turning in a paper that was posted on the Internet;
- quoting as few as two or three words without indicating that you’re quoting them when those words represent an author’s unique or original insight;
- copying text from the Internet;
- using words, numbers or ideas which are not your own without indicating where you got them; or, using the same pattern of organization for sentences, paragraphs, pages or chapters as someone else without citing that person.
*AGES Statement on Academic Integrity for Liberal Studies Courses is heavily influenced by the Honor Codes of a number of institutions. We would like to acknowledge, in particular, the clarity and sensibility of the Codes from Brandeis University, the College of William and Mary and James Madison University whose work has most influenced our own. Their standards, and those of a variety of other institutions, are accessible through the Center for Academic Integrity website: http://www.academicintegrity.org/. |
Augustana College