Lecture notes Week # 9

The lecture was started with the explanation of Academic Dishonesty. Which has nothing in between gray areas, either the work is copied from someone or it is the writers own views.
Prof. Derek Brown mentioned about the George Brown College policy on academic dishonesty. He also mentioned that he understand the problems of students, and he always cooperate with them in every aspects, but regarding academic dishonesty he has no tolerance, his words were as follow :
“ NO TOLERANCE FOR ACADEMIC DISHONESTY ”

Then he discussed how and why academic dishonesty happens in the real life.
Either student - run out of time or
- was sloppy in planning (Time Management)
Then these students don’t see any option other than to cheat. The Golden rule is
Don’t get stuck, plan your time properly

We discuss about the consequences of cheating :
• When one student cheat, he will cheat again
• Cheating means the student has found the short cut to do his assignment. So he is learning nothing, but copying from other sources.
• If one student cheats, then other students may think it is not fair with them, who were working very hard.

Prof. Derek Brown resembles the academic dishonesty with the cancer cell in the society. He explained how this cancer cell can destroy the reputation of the whole institution. Every time student cheats they damage the environment around them. When the number of these students increases it affects the whole college as well as the society.

If the number of students involved in plagiarism increases, so they learned nothing in the college. When employer hires them they think the program is not good. If it happens on the regular basis then it can affect on the reputation of the college. When college gets a bad reputation it means everybody is tart with the same brush.

The whole class did the academic dishonesty quiz.
Answer Yes or No to the following question ( there is no gray area regarding academic dishonesty). After completing the quiz, every question was discussed in the class.

1) On the first day of class you are happy to discover the assigned essay is on a topic you wrote a paper on last term. You print off a new copy and hand it in on the due date with a new cover page. This is OK because it is your own work.

No it is not OK -- it is called “ duplicate submission ”
It will be unfair to the other student. You did nothing new and got the better grade.
Solution : talk with the teacher, if he will allow you to work on the same project, or he may give you another topic.

2) You are placed in groups to work on a large project. The first time your group meets, you discuss the assignment and you each take a piece of the project to complete. After the compiled project is submitted, you are surprised to learn your group is asked to speak to the instructor about potential plagiarism in one of the sections. Can you be charged with plagiarism even if your section is properly referenced?

Yes, because the group work is a single corporate entity. If group is graded equally than they will be penalized also equally. Only possibility is if a member of a group comes forward and accepts, then rest of them will be marked and he will get zero.

3) You are permitted to leave the exam room to go to the washroom. Your cell phone rings and you answer it. When you go to hand in your completed exam, the invigilator asks you to wait until the remaining students leave to speak to you. Could you be charged with cheating?

Yes, because when you are in exam, you follow the exam rules. During exam all phone should be turned off.

4) You are frustrated about not getting the results you should during a lab experiment. You notice others at your lab table are finished and cleaning up their materials. You decided to change your lab results to the expected outcome and begin to clean up your lab area. This is OK because you know what the answers are supposed to be.

No, because you are not understanding some details. If you will change the result then you will never learn that detail.

5) You are to include seven references in your essay assignment. You run out of time and add two articles to your bibliography that you did not use to write your paper. Is this considered dishonest?

Yes, because padding up the non related information is not acceptable.

6) Your roommate asks to review the paper you wrote last year because she is taking the same course this term. She says she wants it only as a guideline to help her get started. You see her finished paper a few days later and notice she copied large section from your paper. You are a bit surprised but really have nothing to worry about. Beside it’s our friend’s problem, right?

No, because you need to safeguard your work, and not to allow anyone to copy.

7) You cannot locate the internet site where you found a quote for your term paper. You think you know where you might have taken it from and include the citation in your paper. Is this a smart decision?

No, because the address should be sited properly, try to be organized from the beginning.

Your friend agrees to edit your paper. She re-writes sections of your paper and you think her changes to your paper are excellent. She was able to write what you were unable to clearly explain. You hand in your paper confident of a high grade. Is this considered academic dishonesty?

Yes, because she is suppose to help you but not to rewrite your paper. Even if someone will dictate and you write it is also a plagiarism.

9) You reach for a Kleenex in your sweater pocket while writing your midterm exam and discover the study notes you were reviewing on the bus ride to school. Could you be charged with bringing in unauthorized materials into an exam?

Yes, because as per exam rule don’t bring anything in the exam. Check and double check and make sure no notes in the pocket.

10) You are stumped on an assignment while working in a computer lab on campus. You notice two of your class mates discussing the same assignment behind you. You join them and work through the assignment together while one student types in the information on his computer. You each copy and paste the assignment onto your own disks and print off copies of the assignment to hand in to the instructor. Students are supposed to form study groups and help each other learn so this type of collaboration is fine.

Yes, work together, or study groups are OK. English Forum is made for the student to work together, as long as not one assignment is submitted for all. There can be five students in a group, but work should reflect their own words.

11) You are ill and see your family doctor. She provides you with a medical certificate because you unfortunately missed your last final exam. When you look at the documentation on the way to your faculty office, you notice your doctor wrote in the wrong dates. You find a similar color pen and make the changes. Could you be charged with document falsification?

Yes.

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We talked on the Annotated Bibliography. In comparison to the bibliography, the annotated bibliography provides a concise summary of each source. Then the class was asked to search themselves more information about annotated bibliography as a part of the assignment.

Class was explained how to do the assignment, and its requirements.
3 books
6 periodicals
3 electronic sources and
2 films or other source type

Then the class was divided into four groups. Each group has picked the topic from the bowl randomly. The group discussion started. The purpose of the discussion was to narrow the field of the topic. Some internet searching was also involved. After narrowing the field, every member of the group was assigned its duties. In the end group members communicated with their contact information.

WOW!!! Excellent in-depth class notes, thanks for taking the time to post!!!