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Statement on Academic Honesty

Department of English and Communications

California State University, Bakersfield

Revised September 6, 2000

    California state law, the California State University, Bakersfield General Catalog, common sense, and simple ethics make students responsible for documenting properly— that is, acknowledging specifically—the borrowing of another writer's phrasing, wording, opinions, ideas, or interpretations. First of all, the student is bound by the General Catalog statement on "integrity of Scholarship and Grades":

    The principles of truth and honesty are recognized as fundamental to a community of teachers and scholars. The University expects that both faculty and students will honor these principles and in so doing will protect the integrity of all academic work and student grades. Students are expected to do all work assigned to them without unauthorized assistance and not to give unauthorized assistance.   Faculty have the responsibility of exercising care in the planning and supervision of academic work so that honest effort will be positively encouraged.

    There are certain forms of conduct that violate this community's principles.  ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (CHEATING) is a broad category of actions that use fraud and deception to improve a grade or obtain course credit.   Academic dishonesty (cheating) is not limited to examination situations alone, but arises whenever students attempt to gain an unearned academic advantage.  PLAGIARISM is a specific form of academic dishonesty (cheating) which consists of the misuse of published or unpublished works of another by claiming them as one's own.  It may consist of handing in someone else's work, copying or purchasing a composition, using iedas, paragraphs, sentences, or phrases written by another, or using data and/or statistics compiled by another without giving citation.  Another example of academic dishonesty (cheating) is the SUBMISSION OF THE SAME, or essentially the same, PAPER or other assignment for credit in two different courses without receiving prior approval.

    When a faculty member discovers a violation of the community's principles, the faculty member is required to give a failing grade to the student of the course.  In addition to assigning the final grade, the faculty member also notifies in writing the Dean of Students and the relevant school dean that an act of academic dishonesty has occurred and a grade of F has been assigned.  The student receives a copy of this letter.

    The letter becomes part of the studnet' permanent file.  If a second act of dishonesty occurs, the student is administratively dismissed from CSUB.

    Under the Student Academic Grievance Procedures, a student may appeal any sanction employed by faculty or the University based on an allegation of academic dishonesty.  The initiation of the grievance must occur within fifteen (15) school days after notification of the grade is mailed or personally given to the student.  Copies of these procedures are available in the offices of the school deans (53).

Furthermore, the student should be aware of Title Five of the California Administrative Code, which gives legal sanction to the plagiarism penalties in the General Catalog; according to state law, "Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a state university" may cause the student to be "expelled, suspended, placed on probation, or given a lesser sanction."

    What specifically is plagiarism? According to James D. Lester, it is the "offering of the words or ideas of another person as one's own" (47), whether intentionally or unintentionally. Good intentions are irrelevant—unacknowledged borrowing is plagiarism even if done in ignorance. The following are specific kinds of academic dishonesty or plagiarism:

    1. Using another student's work, anything from borrowing one phrase to an entire paper.

    2. Submitting a paper or report (or any portion of such a paper) purchased from a commercial     source.

    3. Borrowing the exact words of another writer without acknowledging the debt by quotation marks and either a citation or an overt, explicit reference to the source in the body of your paper (for example, "according to Northrop Frye in Anatomy of Criticism . . ."). Always put direct quotations in quotation marks.

    4. Borrowing the ideas of another writer by paraphrasing or rewording without stating in a citation or in the paper itself that you are borrowing someone else's ideas. IMPORTANT: Two kinds of paraphrases constitute plagiarism even if cited. The following passage is a selection from a scholarly essay; following it are two examples of illegal paraphrase. First the original source as it appeared on page 264 of John E. Hart's article, "The Red Badge of Courage as Myth and Symbol" (note that the style of documentation in the example is different than the one used in this statement):

When Stephen Crane published the Red Badge of Courage in 1895, the book created an almost immediate sensation. Crane had had no experience in war, but in portraying the reactions of a young soldier in battle he had written with amazing accuracy. As one way of reexamining the Red Badge of Courage, we would want to read it as myth and symbolic action. Clearly, the construction of the story, its moral and meaning, its reliance on symbol follow in detail the traditional formula of myth. Crane's main theme is the discovery of self, that unconscious self, which, when identified with the inexhaustible energies of the group, enables man to understand the "deep forces that have shaped man's destiny (Campbell 256). The progressive movement of the hero, as in all myth, is that of separation, initiation, and return (Campbell 30). Within this general framework, Crane plots his story with individual variation. Henry Fleming, a youth, ventures forth from his known environment into a region of naturalistic, if not super-naturalistic wonder; he encounters the monstrous forces of war and death; he is transformed through a series of rites and revelations into a hero; he returns to identify his new self with the deeper communal forces of the group and to bestow the blessings of his finds on his fellow comrades.

_________________________

1See Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New York, 1949), 3. Campbell defines myth as "the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." As cited in Sculley Bradley, et al., eds., The Red Badge of Courage, Norton Critical ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962), 264.

Note that examples are in boldface here, to show how they appeared in their original form and to distinguish them from the use of long quotations in this "Statement on Academic Honesty." When directly quoting more than four typed lines, continue to doublespace, but indent the quotation ten spaces from the left margin without using quotation marks. Do not indent for paragraphs unless more than one paragraph is quoted, which requires an extra indentation of three spaces. Citations follow the final punctuation mark (for example, see page two of this statement).

    To paraphrase the quotation into the form below is illegal. The paraphrase is illegal because the student uses direct quotations (indicated here by capital letters) without quotation marks, thus passing off another writer's original phrasing as his own:

Reading the Red Badge of Courage AS MYTH AND SYMBOLIC ACTION reveals the structural use of THE TRADITIONAL FORMULA OF MYTH. The theme of self-discovery is developed by means of the protagonist's PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT from separation from his familiar surroundings to initiation into an unfamiliar and threatening milieu, that of battle, danger, and death. At the story's end, Henry Fleming's return shows that he has gained a new understanding of himself and an allegiance to THE DEEPER COMMUNAL FORCES OF THE GROUP to whose welfare he now feels an obligation to dedicate himself.

    A second type of illegal paraphrase does not use direct quotations but instead borrows the grammatical structure of the original. In the example below, for instance, the writer has lifted the sentence structure and paragraph development from the original, as well as the direct quotation from Joseph Campbell, with no parenthetical citation:

At the time Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was printed in 1895, it aroused a prompt, enthusiastic response. Crane had never been in the army, but showing the behavior of a youth under fire he had depicted war with surprising authenticity. A way of restudying the Red Badge of Courage would be to approach it symbolically, in terms of its mythic plot. Obviously, the structure of the narrative its message and significance, its dependence on symbol follow in many particulars the established mythic patterns. Crane's central idea is the realization of selfhood, that submerged identity, that, associated with the unlimited vitality of collective man, allows him to comprehend the "deep forces that have shaped man's destiny."

    Both the above types of paraphrase are illegal and constitute plagiarism. The proper method of paraphrasing the original source is in the example below. Here the student makes a completely proper and legitimate use of another's writing by assimilating the ideas of the original source, putting these ideas in his own words and in his own style, and then acknowledging the borrowing in a footnote:

The structure of Crane's novel is mythic. Like the mythic hero, Crane's hero searches for his identity and then shares his identity with the group, thus gaining strength. The story thus follows the mythic patterns of "separation, initiation, and return" (Hart, 264). Henry Fleming thus leaves his comfortable world, stumbles through the terrifying and distorting world of war, is transformed through mythic ritual into a hero, and then returns to share this transformation with his fellow soldiers. (Hart 264)

    Note that not only must the direct quotation be put into quotation marks but the entire passage still requires a footnote, as do all borrowings, whether informal, analytical, or evaluative.

    Although facts such as dates, statistics, biographical data, etc., which are common knowledge and not the result of another writer's original research need not be footnoted, another writer's interpretation of these facts or his own particular wording of these facts cannot be borrowed without documentation. In the following original source, the sections in capital letters are original interpretations or original phrasings and must be documented

Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey. The family lived in Jersey City, Bloomington, and Paterson, New Jersey, and in Port Jervis, New York, GIVING HIM THE EXPERIENCE OF SMALL-CITY AND SMALL-TOWN LIFE THAT HE UTILIZED IN HIS WRITINIn 1880 his father, a clergyman, died, and AFTER SEVERAL REMOVALS the family settled in 1882 at Asbury Park, a New Jersey resort town. An older brother, Townley, ran a news-reporting agency and GAVE STEPHEN CRANE HIS FIRST NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCE, as a reporter of vacation news. He attended school atnearby Pennington Academy and later (1888-90) the Claverack College and Hudson River Institute, New York. His baseball APPRENTICESHIP on sand lots and at preparatory school LED, in college, TO BRIEF ATHLETIC DISTINCTION. After a term each at Lafayette and at Syracuse (1890-91), he BROUGHT HIS COLLEGE DAYS TO AN END AND RELIEVED HIS FAMILY OF A FINANCIAL BURDEN. (Hart vii)

    Note that you need not document such a fact as Crane's birthdate, the fact he was an athlete, or that he dropped out of college. Buy you must document the capitalized portions, through quotation and citation if directly quoted or through citation alone if paraphrased. Some of the material above could be correctly used in a paper as follows:

Born in 1871, Crane lived in several small cities and towns in New Jersey and New York, and according to Sculley Bradley, he utilizes this experience of small-city and small-town life in his writings (Hart 64). In college he attained "brief athletic distinction," as Bradley puts it—brief because he spent only one term at each of two colleges. (Hart 64)

    Plagiarism, in summary, is the borrowing without documentation of another writer's phrasing, opinion, interpretation, idea, or theory. Remember to put quotation marks around all direct quotations—even short ones—and cite your source in parentheses. If you paraphrase ideas from the source, change the original wording completely into your own style and then cite your source.

    Each piece of borrowed information, whether direct quotation or paraphrase, must be cited, even if several appear in the same sentence. The purpose of documentation is to indicate clearly what you have borrowed from another so that your reader may find that original information for himself or herself. Much plagiarism in student research is the result of accident or a misunderstanding of proper documentation style.¹ To be safe and accurate, follow these guidelines:

    1. Provide a citation in parentheses after each borrowing. These citations direct your reader to the end of your paper and its list of "Works Cited," where completed publication information is given. "Usually, the author's last name and a page reference are enough to identify the source and the specific location from which you have borrowed material" (Gibaldi and Achert 136). The parenthetical citation in this paragraph means that this quotation appears on page 136 of the book written by Gibaldi and Achert, which is listed alphabetically at the end of this paper. If the authors' names had appeared in the text, only the page number would be given in the parentheses.

    2. Citations tell your reader where a borrowing ends, but sometimes the reader can be confused about where the borrowing begins. Where confusion might arise, introduce the borrowing with the name of the source:

Margaret Gold argues that Travesties represents "a new chapter in the history of ideas" (59), and John William Cooke calls the play "Stoppard's theater of chaos" (525); this chaos of ideas is precisely his concern, for, as Craig Werner observes, by "centering his attention on the interaction of the mythologies of Art . . . Stoppard unveils the limitations" of our century's code of values. (228)

Note that the exact words of Gold and Cooke, as well as the words and ideas of Werner, have been used in this example. If two different works by the same author were used in this paper, the parentheses would also carry an abbreviated form of the title to distinguish it from any others. The article referred to by Cooke is titled "The Optical Allusion: Perception and Form in Stoppard's Travesties," and had the paper used another work by him, the citation above might have appeared as ("Optical Allusion" 228).

    3.  Remember that quotation marks mean you are using material from a source exactly as it appeared in the original,² while all paraphrases must be in your own words and your own style. Both require citations in parentheses when the borrowing ends.

    4.  Remember to list each work that you use in your paper in your list of "Works Cited," listed alphabetically by the first author's last name (if more than one) or by the first word in the title (except a, an, or the) if the work is anonymous.

    If, following scrupulously the directions given in this statement and your handbook, you find you are citing virtually everything, you may legitimately suspect that your paper is of dubious value. Research materials should be thoroughly digested and then used with discrimination by the effective writer. A "cut and paste" approach that joins together a series of quotations and paraphrases but presents no evidence of independent thought on the student's part is simply a synthesis or résumé of scholarly sources. It does not provide the instructor with evidence of a student's ability to handle problems of analysis or evaluation. This is what the Expository Writing Program at Harvard calls "a plastic model of the Titanic," for such a project is like building a model ship (one doomed to sink), for the builder spends much time assembling the model, but contributes nothing new or original (Marius 83).

Notes