Option One: Academic Honesty In Society

ACADEMIC HONESTY IN SOCIETY Your Name Course Professor UNIVERSITY Academic Integrity Seminar Academic Honesty Research Project ACADEMIC HONESTY IN THE SOCIETY 1.0 Introduction Academic dishonesty in our society has reached near epidemic levels. Yet, academic honesty and integrity remains the fundamental pillars upon which our academic systems are built. The continued prevalence of academic dishonesty in our society has been abated by the rapid growth in cyber technology which has introduced new methods of cheating. Academic dishonesty can be presented in diverse forms ranging from falsification of borrowed ideas, information or data to support ones point of view without accrediting the original source. It goes beyond using other people’s ideas and claiming them to be your own, as it promotes a culture of mistrust and unethical behavior. This paper sets out to discuss academic honesty in our society, and it will primarily focus on academic honesty in learning institutions. 2.0 Background and Overview Simply referred to as plagiarism, an act of academic dishonesty promotes a culture of impunity as it hinders development of creative ideas. Still, plagiarism destroys the integrity of one’s academic accomplishment, rendering them unreliable and questionable (Witherspoon, Maldonado & Lacey, 2012). It amounts to violation of the intellectual property rights as it is an infringement on the ownership rights of the original author. Subsequently, it hinders intellectual productivity and the true process of learning in academic institutions. Additionally, it goes against the fair use policy as it accords the cheating students a false advantage at the expense of the honest students. Still, it erodes the public trust in the academic institutions since their credibility of an academic qualification is primarily hinged on the public confidence in the educational system (Ananou, 2014). Based on this argument, it would seem academic dishonesty eliminates the public confidence vested in academic institutions thereby rendering their academic qualifications useless. Academic dishonesty is a grave academic offense that is punishable by academic institutions and can lead to prosecution in a court of law. 3.0 Academic Dishonesty & Plagiarism The term plagiarism has diverse meanings even though the most common definition is that it entails using another person’s ideas or information without properly accrediting or citing the original author (Wheeler & Anderson, 2010). It has also been defined as the use of borrowed ideas and information or general misrepresentation of facts in the pretext that you are the original author. Thus plagiarism entails misrepresentation that can occur in different forms and is not limited to information, data, ideas or any other form of creativity (Patel, Bakhtiyari & Taghavi, 2011). To avoid plagiarism, it is important that all borrowed ideas, facts or information be attributed to the owner through proper citation and referencing. Plagiarism occurs in different forms and can encompass passing an entire paper written by someone else as your own, or copying segments or portions of someone else’s work, altering it and subsequently submitting it as your own work(Manly, Leonard & Riemenschneider, 2015). Still, there are other severe cases of plagiarism that encompass purchasing an academic paper or subcontracting ghost works to undertake the task on your behalf. Despite the fact there exists several forms of plagiarism, academic dishonesty can be avoided. Students can avoid common cases of academic dishonest that are not limited to using another person’s ideas, words or phrases and passing them as your own. These common forms of plagiarism can be avoided by accrediting the sources used through in text citation and proper referencing of all sources at the tail end of the writing task (Langa, 2013). Although severe cases of dishonesty are complex, rare and difficult to detect, attention should be channeled toward the most common forms that are preventable. 4.0 What Constitutes Academic Dishonesty? Academic dishonesty can take different forms and this section is devoted to discussing how students commit plagiarism. Apart from the above definition, plagiarism can be defined as using another person’s ideas or words, whether spoken or written, either knowingly or unknowingly without properly accrediting the original source, regardless of whether the presented information is altered or paraphrased(Ballor, 2014; Langa, 2013;Wheeler & Anderson, 2010). However, given that instructors understand the original facts and ideas, they are able to distinguish between a student’s own work and borrowed ideas based on the quality of argument used and the optimal expectation for the course. Another preventable form of academic dishonesty is copying from other previously submitted work or tests answers of other students (Patel, Bakhtiyari & Taghavi, 2011). It can also include receiving any form of unlawful assistance during the completion of an academic assignment. This form of unlawful help could encompass a student directly copying from his own previously submitted work, or gaining access to and using any unauthorized information during sit-in exams or while completing takeaways, coursework or homework (Wheeler & Anderson, 2010). What constitutes academic dishonesty is not limited to commission of an offense of plagiarism, but it could also encompass abating or helping someone to commit an academic offense. Therefore, any kind of assistance given or received that is not authorized by the institution or the course instructor could constitute plagiarism (Ballor, 2014). Although it’s permissible to ask for academic assistance, the assistance must be done with authorization from the relevant faculty member. Academic dishonesty could also involve collusion between a student and a faculty member or other university staff members aimed at providing the student with undue advantage in an exam, research, coursework or any type of assignment (Langa, 2013). Academic dishonesty could also take the form of getting an unauthorized person to sit in and complete and academic task on your behalf, in which case you receive credit for the work. Besides, it may involve two or more students submitting the same work or largely similar work for academic evaluation in one or more academic disciplines without the right permission from the concerned professor (Wheeler & Anderson, 2010). Therefore students should not present the same work in two different courses whether at the same time or at any other time. Last but not least, academic dishonesty can further involve students sharing passwords and other system authorization information that can give them unauthorized access to information that can give them undue advantage during any form of academic evaluation (Ballor, 2014). 5.0 Perfect Forms of Academic Dishonesty Plagiarism can still happen even in the face of proper citatio...