Department of Literature and Languages
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Policy #12
March 14, 2003
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Preamble. Students at Texas A&M University-Commerce are expected to maintain high standards of integrity and honesty in all their scholastic work. Faculty members are expected to employ teaching practices that encourage academic honesty.
1. Academic Dishonesty Defined. Texas A&M University-Commerce defines “academic dishonesty” in the following way (Procedure A13.12 “Academic Honesty”):
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism (the appropriation or stealing of the ideas or words of another and passing them off as one's own), cheating on exams or other course assignments, collusion (the unauthorized collaboration with others in preparing course assignments), and abuse (destruction, defacing, or removal) of resource material.
2. “Plagiarism” Further Specified. The Department of Literature and Languages builds on the university definition of “plagiarism,” given in 1, in the following manner (taken from “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA [Council of Writing Program Administrators] Statement on Best Practices,” undated, pages 1-2, 12 March 2003. <http://www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf>):
Plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s
language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without
acknowledging its source. [. . .] Ethical writers make every effort to acknowledge
sources fully and appropriately in accordance with the contexts and genres of
their writing. A student who attempts (even if clumsily) to identify and credit
his or her source, but who misuses a specific citation format or incorrectly
uses quotation marks or other forms of identifying material taken from other
sources, has not plagiarized. Instead, such a student should be considered to
have failed to cite and document sources appropriately.
3. “Collusion” Further Specified. Collusion specifically includes selling
academic products. According to the Texas Penal Code (Title 7 Offenses Against
Property, Chapter 32 Fraud, § 32.50 Deceptive Preparation and Marketing of
Academic Product), an “‘academic product’ means a term paper, thesis,
dissertation, essay, report, recording, work of art, or other written,
recorded, pictorial, or artistic product or material submitted or intended to
be submitted by a person to satisfy an academic requirement of the person.”
The Texas
Penal Code also specifies that person commits a Class C misdemeanor offense
“if, with intent to make a profit, the person prepares, sells, offers or
advertises for sale, or delivers to another person an academic product when the
person knows, or should reasonably have known, that a person intends to submit
or use the academic product to satisfy an academic requirement of a person
other than the person who prepared the product.”
4. Responsibility. Matters of academic dishonesty are handled initially by the instructor. If the instructor feels the problem warrants more attention, it should then be pursued through the department head. If the department head and instructor wish, it should be brought to the attention of the dean of the college for study and review before being referred to the University Discipline Committee (adapted from Texas A&M University-Commerce Procedure A13.04, “Plagiarism”).
Instructors may also choose to refer cases directly to the University Discipline Committee (Texas A&M University-Commerce Code of Student Conduct 6.a[2]).
5. Statement for Course Outlines. Instructors of record in the Department of Literature and Languages are required to include an Academic Honesty statement in all course outlines. The following language is suggested for that statement:
Instructors in the Department of
Literature and Languages do not tolerate plagiarism and other forms of academic
dishonesty. Instructors uphold and support the highest academic standards, and
students are expected to do likewise.
Penalties
for students guilty of academic dishonesty include disciplinary probation, suspension,
and expulsion. (Texas A&M University-Commerce Code of Student Conduct 5.b[1,2,3])
6. This Policy
supersedes Department of Literature and Languages Policy #12,
“Plagiarism,” dated October 10, 1990, and will be effective until further
notice.
7. The Head of the Department of Literature and Languages is responsible
for maintaining this policy current.
Department of Literature and Languages
xc: Dean
of Arts & Sciences
Provost and Vice
President for Academic Affairs and Student Services