Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. The World Wide Web has become a popular source of information for student papers, and many questions have arisen about how to avoid plagiarizing these sources. You are responsible as a student to educate yourself about plagiarism as much as possible. Students fail courses at and are expelled from Northrise University as a result of committing plagiarism. This information is intended to inform you of what plagiarism is; why it brings severe penalties at NU, and how to avoid it.

Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty or cheating that occurs when a person passes off someone else's work as their own. It comes in many shapes and forms including failing to cite an author for ideas incorporated into a student's paper to cutting and pasting paragraphs from different websites to handing in a paper downloaded from the internet or handing in a paper written by another student.

Please take note of the following:

1) Plagiarism is a serious offense at NU. Instructors utilize tools that enable them to detect plagiarized work and report all instances of plagiarism to the Office of the Academic Dean. In other words, in addition to dealing with the course instructor, students who plagiarize must also deal with the University. Students found guilty of plagiarism will have the incident recorded on their file and may be expelled from the university.

2) All parties to plagiarism are considered equally guilty. If you share your coursework with another student and they plagiarize it, you are considered as guilty as the one who has plagiarized your work, since you enabled the plagiarism to take place. Under no circumstances should you make your coursework available to another student unless the instructor gives explicit permission for this to happen.

3). Students found guilty of plagiarism fail the course. Without exception, any students found guilty of plagiarism fail that particular course. The reason is that they would be missing part of their assessment to fulfill course requirements. A student with a prior record of plagiarism who is found guilty of the same offence will be expelled from NU.

Avoid plagiarism at all costs!

How To Avoid Plagiarism

Cite All Sources Properly - Copying someone's work is the most extreme act of plagiarism. Ensure that you appropriately cite all sources used in your work by using the APA standard of writing. A copy of these standards can be found here

In any specific case, if you are unsure about what is acceptable and what is not, the best thing is to ask your instructor. In general, it is better to err on the side of over-citation than under-citation. Besides, this shows that you are taking seriously your research work.

Develop Your Research and Comprehension Skills - The temptation to commit plagiarism often reflects lack of confidence in one's own skills and knowledge. Once you research a given topic and understand it thoroughly, it becomes easier for you to bring in your own analysis and support it by your research.

For First Year Students Only

Considering that the course ENG102 – Writing Skills is taught later in any Academic Year at NU, the following Plagiarism Policy will apply for first year students:

  1. 1. Students found guilty of plagiarism fail that particular assignment, in other words, zero marks are awarded for the assignment.
  2. 2. The highest grade that a student can attain in that particular course is a “D” or a 50% regardless of how well the student performs in the course.

1Examples of acceptable and unacceptable presentation of academic work:

Here’s the ORIGINAL text, from page 1 of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s by Joyce Williams et al.:

The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the expansion of the population were the three great developments of late nineteenth century American history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization the growth of large cities (like Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived) which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.

Here’s an UNACCEPTABLE paraphrase that is plagiarism:

The increase of industry, the growth of cities, and the explosion of the population were three large factors of nineteenth century America. As steam-driven companies became more visible in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the growth of large cities like Fall River where the Bordens lived which turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as production.

What makes this passage plagiarism?

The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons:

  • the writer has only changed around a few words and phrases, or changed the order of the original’s sentences.
  • the writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts.

If you do either or both of these things, you are plagiarizing.

NOTE:
This paragraph is also problematic because it changes the sense of several sentences (for example, "steam-driven companies" in sentence two misses the original’s emphasis on factories).

Here’s an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the US, they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. Fall River was one of these manufacturing and commercial centers (Williams 1).

Why is this passage acceptable?

This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer:

  • accurately relays the information in the original
  • uses her own words.
  • lets her reader know the source of her information.

Here’s an example of quotation and paraphrase used together, which is also ACCEPTABLE:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. As steam-powered production shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, the demand for workers "transformed farm hands into industrial laborers," and created jobs for immigrants. In turn, growing populations increased the size of urban areas. Fall River was one of these hubs "which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade" (Williams 1).


Why is this passage acceptable?

This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer:

  • records the information in the original passage accurately.
  • gives credit for the ideas in this passage.
  • indicated which part is taken directly from her source by putting the passage in quotation marks and citing the page number.

Note that if the writer had used these phrases or sentences in her own paper without putting quotation marks around them, she would be PLAGIARIZING. Using another person’s phrases or sentences without putting quotation marks around them is considered plagiarism EVEN IF THE WRITER CITES IN HER OWN TEXT THE SOURCE OF THE PHRASES OR SENTENCES SHE HAS QUOTED.

1Accessed from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0afHy5RVT5QJ:www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml+how+to+avoid+plagiarism&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=zm&source=www.google.co.zm

Cheating. Cheating is the actual or attempted practice of fraudulent or deceptive acts for the purpose of improving a grade or obtaining course credit. Typically, such acts occur in relation to examinations. Any student found cheating in an exam will be immediately asked to leave the exam room and their results for that particular course annulled. The reason is that they would be missing a major part of their assessment to fulfill course requirements.

It is the intent of this definition that the term cheating not be limited to examinations situations only, but that it include any and all actions by a student that are intended to gain an unearned academic advantage by fraudulent or deceptive means.

Last modified: Wednesday, 28 November 2012, 2:40 PM