Academic Dishonesty

Academic Dishonesty

Courtney Lee

National American University

Academic Dishonesty

        This policy is set in place to inform students on the requirements of academic honesty. It outlines how cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication and falsification are not allowed. Everyone enrolled is expected to show good reflection of honesty and integrity while attending the university. Everyone is responsible for their own academic content as well as their own work. All students should read this policy after enrollment to be sure they have a clear understanding of what is not tolerated and the penalties they face. If there is something that you don’t understand you should contact a faculty or staff member to get the answers you need.

        Cheating is when someone uses unauthorized assistance or material in examinations or other academic work. Copying someone else’s work or an exam before it’s given and working with others without consent are also considered cheating. Also altering exam answers and resubmitting the exam for a better grade is cheating. I will always confirm with my professor when it is ok to work with other students on different assignments. I will not cheat or even give the perception that I have cheated. If I was in a situation where another student tried to connect with me for this reason I will be sure to inform the professor of what’s happening.

        Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s work as your own. When you use someone else’s work and ideas you should always cite the source of the information. You should use quotation marks to quote other people’s words and phrases where needed. Misrepresentation of another person’s work as your own is plagiarism. At a pervious university I was accused of plagiarism. It was an honest mistake. The article that I used had to be downloaded to my computer, so when I went to submit my assignment I submitted the wrong thing. I didn’t realize that I had made that mistake until that assignment was graded. After speaking with the Dean and the professor I was able to resubmit my correct paper but I learn a hard lesson. After this happened I make sure to pay close attention to all my work and not rush to get it in.

        Fabrication and falsification is submitting altered information. Examples of this are making up data, research results, and reporting false information. While in high school I was in a childcare class where we were required to document babysitting hours and also going to the younger age classes to assist the teachers. There was a group of girls that always skipped school and at the end of the class decided to all make up times and copy the same times on their logs. Unbeknownst to them the teacher started to verify the logs and noticed that the group of girls had all the same times and classes logged. They all ended up failing the class and was disciplined for their actions. In my opinion this is the worst case of dishonesty. It’s never ok to falsify documents to receive credit for work that you didn’t complete. I wouldn’t even take the risk of doing such a thing. It ultimately hurts you more in the long run. I would just take the chance of turning in incomplete work first.