Academic Honesty
The Center for English Language and Culture for International Students wants to help Â鶹´«Ã½s understand the standards for academic honesty that are used in most American institutes of higher education including Â鶹´«Ã½.
There are six types of behavior that are not acceptable in CELCIS classes and in WMU classes.
Cheating
Cheating means using help that is not permitted by the teacher during a class activity or homework assignment.
This means that it is not acceptable to:
- Look at another Â鶹´«Ã½'s paper during a test.
- Write information to help you on a test on small pieces of paper, on your body, or on tissues.
- Text another person for answers to an activity, quiz, or test.
- Use non-verbal signals from other classmates to answer the questions.
You must ask for the instructor’s permission before you may use books, cell phones, notes, or help from a person other than the instructor during a test. It is not acceptable to copy answers from another Â鶹´«Ã½'s homework paper.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism means using information that was written by someone else without showing who wrote it. It means:
- Copying ideas or words from books, magazines, or websites.
- Not showing that the information came from that source.
It is not acceptable to take ideas or words from published or unpublished sources unless the Â鶹´«Ã½ shows that information comes from that source. A Â鶹´«Ã½ can take information from a source if he or she quotes or paraphrases the information and then cites the source. The Â鶹´«Ã½ must use quotation marks (" ") with words taken from a source. When either quoting or paraphrasing the source, you must state who gave the information and when and where it was published.
Complicity
Complicity means helping another Â鶹´«Ã½ to commit a dishonest act in class. That means that it is not acceptable to:
- Do homework for another Â鶹´«Ã½.
- Allow another Â鶹´«Ã½ to copy your work.
- Text answers to another Â鶹´«Ã½ during an activity or a test.
- Non-verbally signal answers to classmates.
Fabrication, Falsification, and Forgery
- Fabrication means inventing information that is used for an academic assignment. This means it is not acceptable to make up ideas that are used for a class assignment when the assignment requires that you collect information from sources. For example, if the Â鶹´«Ã½ is asked to interview others about a topic, he or she may not invent the answers to those interview questions.
- Falsification means changing a grade or score. That means that it is not acceptable to erase a grade or score and write a different one on an academic paper.
- Forgery is imitating another person's signature. That means that it is not acceptable to write a teacher's name or a doctor's name on a report or a letter that they did not sign.
Multiple Submission
Multiple submission means when a Â鶹´«Ã½ submits the same work for more than one class.
For example:
- If a Â鶹´«Ã½ wrote a paper for one class and received a grade, it is not acceptable for him/her to hand in the same paper or use parts of it for a different class.
- If a Â鶹´«Ã½ prepared a presentation for one class and received a grade, it is not acceptable for him/her to hand in the same presentation or parts of it for a different class.
Academic Computer Misuse
Using computer software to do work that the teacher has told the Â鶹´«Ã½ to do without the help of a computer is known as computer misuse.
That means it is not acceptable for a CELCIS Â鶹´«Ã½ to:
- Write a paper in his or her native language and use translation programs to translate the paper into English.
- Use alternative forms of content for an assignment which the teacher told the Â鶹´«Ã½s to complete in a particular way. For example, to complete a listening assignment, a Â鶹´«Ã½ may not use transcribing software that would allow him/her to read the text instead of listening to it unless the teacher approves such an alternative format.