Academic Integrity Exercises

PLAGIARISM SCENARIOS:

Directions: Read the following writing assignments and student responses and determine whether or not the student work is or would be considered plagiarism. If you do need to cite, determine how you would cite.

Answers to these scenarios are below.

1. RESEARCH PAPER: You are writing your junior thesis on the constitutionality of the death penalty in the U.S. Supreme Court. You go to the web site www.streetlaw.com and there is a documentary video on “The Life and Times of John Marshall.” You watch. You like. You learn. Specifically, you learn that John Marshall created the concept of judicial review in his landmark opinion Marbury v Madison. You have never learned this fact in class or from other readings. You then go to write your research paper and you write that John Marshall conferred the right of judicial review to the Supreme Court in Marbury v Madison. You do not cite the web site.

Is this plagiarism?

2. PERSUASIVE PAPER: You are writing a persuasive paper on whether or not William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice combats or reinforces anti-Semitism. You write the following persuasive paragraph:

It is clear that the Jews in late 16th Century Venice were victims of discrimination from Christians. In William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Shylock suffers from anti-Semitic behavior throughout the play, but always seeks to prove a point about these injustices. Shakespeare expresses the idea of equality to all humans through Shylock. In an attempt to show that all humans are equal, Shylock asks:

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Hew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.

(III, I, 57-67).

At this point in the play, Shylock’s daughter Jessica has run away from him, has taken his gold and precious ring, and has converted to Christianity to marry Lorenzo. Shylock goes out searching for Jessica, when he sees Salarino. Salarino tells Shylock that Jessica left him because she must not have his Jewish blood and that maybe she has good sense. He then goes on to tell Shylock that he must not kill Antonio and forfeit the bond. In this passage, Shylock is telling Salarino that he has no reason to hate Jews. He tells him that they both share the same bodies, senses, and diseases. He tells Salarino that it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Christian because you are both humans. In Jerome Carlin’s “The Case against The Merchant of Venice,” he states that one must not dwell on this speech, because Shylock has 339 other lines that are irrational. He also says that the speech starts and ends with violent expressions. He writes, “it begins and ends with an ignoble expression of the lust of revenge. It is submerged…in the 339 other lines.” It is indeed true that this is only 22 lines of the play and that Shylock speaks of violence; however, because Shakespeare understands the idea that all humans are equal and writes about it through a Jew rather than a Christian, this passages shows us that Shakespeare is not ant-Semitic. By saying, are not Jews “warmed and cooled by the same winter as a Christian is,” this speech could not be a clearer example of an understanding of equality. Also, Shylock had no choice but to be violent because it is quite clear that the Christians were not listening to his words and Shylock had no recourse in a court of law.

Is this plagiarism?

3. ANALYSIS PAPER: You are assigned to write an analysis of the moment when Eve is persuaded by Satan to eat the apple in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. You have a discussion with your tutor (Hugh Ayque), who argues that Eve placed more faith in her senses than in her imagination and that one of Eve’s flaws was her failure to get beyond reason and sensory experience to develop faith in God. Hugh’s idea is an original one, and the teacher and the critical essays read in class did not touch on this point. You consult your notes from this tutoring session and decide to argue in your analysis paper that one of Eve’s many flaws was her inability to imagine toward faith in and obedience to God.

Is this plagiarism?

4. HISTORY PAPER: Below are the original source of a passage and a student’s paraphrase of the passage with a citation. Read both carefully and determine if the student plagiarized.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:

Kerry [was] surrounded by an all-star team of political professionals, including [Jim] Jordan and [Bob] Shrum, a top consultant of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.

But it was also a campaign of uneasy factions and overlapping assignments. Kerry, for example, was advised by two pollsters, two media and advertising experts, and two speech writing consultants. He also had two inner circles: one composed of hired hands in Washington; the other of old friends, family members and longtime loyalists in Boston….People both inside and outside the Kerry brain trust say Kerry himself ultimately bears the responsibility for his sometimes fuzzy message. (Farhi 1).

STUDENT PARAGRAPH:

John Kerry’s campaign, on the other hand, was a disaster. Kerry had an all-star team of political advisors and analysts, but was unable to foster any sense of unity. Kerry never really had a clear leader and lacked basic campaign strategy. Even though Senator Kerry surrounded himself with a phenomenal team of political advisors (some from Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign), he allowed factions to develop within his political campaign: the Washington experts battled for sway with family members and friends from Boston. Ultimately, Senator Kerry bears the responsibility for the fuzzy message that was often the result of trying to appease two advisory camps within his own campaign (Farhi 1-2). John Kerry not only lacked a clear campaign message, but he also lacked a clear personal message. John Kerry was known as a “flip-flopper” and constantly struggled to find his identity. This fuzzy or unclear message ultimately cost Kerry the presidency. Kerry and his advisors were simply unable to match the campaign strategy of George Bush and Karl Rove.

Is this plagiarism?

ANSWERS TO PLAGIARISM EXERCISE:

1. Answer: YES. This is plagiarism. You cannot submit the ideas of others as your own even when you are unsure of the exact language of those ideas. You need to cite the ideas you think you may have gained from watching the documentary on the website.

Here is how unless otherwise instructed by your teacher:

Cite Parenthetically: (first item listed in the Works Cited Page for the web site)

2. Answer: NO. While this careens toward the precipice of plagiarism and academic dishonesty, it is not plagiarism to omit a citation. But it is sloppy academic work. A student cannot submit the ideas of others by just placing the ideas and language of others in quotation marks. S/he needs to cite the passage in which s/he quotes the literary critic.

Here is how to cite this sentence from Carlin:

Cite Parenthetically: (Carlin 389).

He writes, “It begins and ends with an ignoble expression of the lust of revenge. It is submerged…in the 339 other lines.” (Carlin 389).

Works Cited Page:

Carlin, Jerome. “The Case against The Merchant of Venice” The English Journal New York: The English

Journal Press, 1963.

3. Answer: YES. All the ideas you gain from others must be cited, even if an idea is developed from a tutoring session or other scenarios in which you receive new, original ideas you represent in your paper. You do not need to cite ideas developed by the teacher or class discussions.

After you develop the idea that Eve failed to imagine toward faith, you would parenthetically cite as follows:

Cite Parenthetically: (full name, discussion format, date)

(Hugh Ayque, Tutoring Session, February 14, 2009).

Works Cited Page:

Last Name, First Name. Discussion format, sponsoring context if any, location, date.

Ayque, Hugh. Tutoring Session, Lee Pesky Center, Sun Valley, ID, February 14, 2009.

5. Answer: YES. This is plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Even though the essay writer rightly cites the ideas of the paraphrase (see Farhi 1-2), s/he has exact phrases that are not placed in quotations from the original text. For example, the paraphrase “team of political advisors (some from Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign),” is too close to the original “Kerry [was] surrounded by an all-star team of political professionals, including [Jim] Jordan and [Bob] Shrum, a top consultant of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.” Also, the paraphrase “Kerry bears the responsibility for the fuzzy message” is too close to the original “Kerry himself ultimately bears the responsibility for his sometimes fuzzy message. “ And there are other exact phrases in the analysis paragraph.

Solution #1: place quotation marks around the exact phrases and sentences and cite.

Solution #2: paraphrase and cite without using the exact language from the source:

John Kerry’s campaign, on the other hand, was a disaster. Kerry had competent political advisors and analysts, but was unable to foster any sense of unified message from their political advice. Kerry never really had a clear leader and lacked basic campaign strategy. Even though Senator Kerry surrounded himself with political experts, he did not control the different ideas developed within his group of political advisors. Ultimately, Kerry’s failed campaign resulted, not from his inability to speak well (he is a brilliant rhetorician), but from his inability to synthesize the ideas of his political advisory team into a simple message the American people could readily grasp. (Farhi 1-2). Kerry not only lacked a clear campaign message, but he also lacked a clear personal message. Kerry was known as a “flip-flopper” and constantly struggled to find his identity. This unclear message ultimately cost Kerry the presidency. He and his advisors were simply unable to match the campaign strategy of George Bush and Karl Rove.

Cornell University Plagiarism Exercises

Assignment #1 - Review the school’s Academic Integrity Guide here. Then, read the following scenarios, and using the AIG as your guide answer the following questions providing an explanation of your rationale.

Scenario #1:

Frank and Felicity have been best friends since they were six (maybe it is because of the alliterative qualities of their names?). They dated for three hours in middle school, and didn’t talk for a year, but now that they are mature freshmen, they are now speaking to each other. In fact, they have rekindled their friendship by studying together during off periods, and while it gets kind of weird sometimes, they keep it all very professional. Frank is really good at math. Felicity is not. So, being a stand-up guy, he agrees to help her through Algebra class, even though he SWEARS he doesn’t ‘like’ her, or at least not in that way. Anyhow, a big unit test is coming up, and Felicity asks for his help. They begin their studying by using the review sheet each student got from Connor in order to help them prepare. It will be worked on as homework for the week leading up to the test, and will be turned in with the test. 10 points will be added as extra-credit on each students test grade if it is complete and turned in on time. No specific directions were given as to whether or not students can work together on it. In their preparation for the test, Frank helps Felicity with the review sheet, working with her on each problem. However, they run out of time to go through each and every one together, so Frank just gives her the last three answers (out of 20 total), and they both turn in their review sheets completed, expecting the 10 points Connor offered.

Is this a violation of our school’s Academic Integrity policy? Explain.

Scenario #2:

Balki, a new boarding student from the Greek-like island of Mypos, is taking his first Spanish class with Calysta, and wow, what a challenge. Not only is he still learning the ins and outs of English as a second language, but he now has to learn a third? Well, not really, because Balki doesn’t HAVE to take Spanish because it has been waived for him given his native language; however, Balki chooses to take it another language anyway as a personal challenge, and also because he wants to be like an American, and that’s what a typical American boy would do, right? In any case, Balki engages in the Calysta’s class with gusto, never sitting down for even a moment, and always trying to speak in Spanish, thus never getting kicked out of class. By term’s end, he earns all of the available participation points, and just has to do well on the final to get his ‘A’, which will be part take-home test and part oral exam. Balki will do great on the oral exam, he is sure. However, the take-home test, with all of the grammar and vocabulary and ‘stuff’, may require that he need some help. In an effort not to bother his classmates, and to take care of it on his own, Balki decides to use Google Translator while doing his exam, not to define any vocabulary words or anything like that, but in the short answer section to translate some of his native Mypos language to English and then to Spanish. This way, he thinks, he will be able really share his ideas in a way that Calysta will best understand him. Otherwise, he might just sound ridiculous.

Is this a violation of our school’s Academic Integrity policy? Explain.

Scenario #3:

Charlie Dickens has always been a good reader and writer - five-paragraph essays are a breeze, and the Writing Guide #’s 1-50? No sweat. For some reason, it all comes quite naturally, and revisions of papers typically have more to do with expanding ideas and content rather than editing for grammatical and mechanical errors. And then, as fate would incur, came Law and Lit. with Phil. No longer would just a five-paragraph essay do, and while few errors in syntax help to do well on a Phil-paper, it is the ideas and content that matter most - thinking like both a literary critic as well as a lawyer is not easy, and putting those ideas together in a judicial opinion even more difficult, and even for the most talented of readers and writers such as Charlie. Phil’s first paper, one that demands that the student not only interpret Frost’s poem “The Road Less Travelled” for its literary qualities, but also that he/she use the Textualist approach to interpreting texts, a way of reading and interpreting drawn from the legal profession. For Charlie, this would be easy if five-paragraph essay would do, but to pull this off he will need to do something totally different. So, he takes a risk and develops his own organizational style to make it all fit in one argument. He writes a unique but focused thesis based on his class notes, and in his body paragraphs uses direct quotations from Frost’s poem, setting them up perfectly according to the guide. All is well until the conclusion, which after four hours of writing isn’t easy to figure out - Charlie is tired and brain-dead, and just needs to get it done. So, in a quick but focused brainstorm, he remembers a quote that Gary had shared in American History class a weeks prior, a quote by an early Revolutionary essayist on the loss of innocence through rebellion. It is a good one, Charlie is sure, and while he cannot remember who said it or when and where, he heard it in school, so he uses it in his conclusion paragraph, really providing an interesting and unique twist to the paper. There is not citation, and the quote is not at all exact, so he paraphrases it to the best of his ability.

Is this a violation of the school’s Academic Integrity policy? Explain.

Assignment #2:

Find the Community School’s policy on cheating and plagiarism in the student handbook. Then, read the school’s mission statement and guiding principles. In at least one paragraph explain why it is that you believe the school has its policy on Plagiarism given its value system (as shown in the mission and guiding principles)? Lastly, what are the ramifications, both personal and academic, if one were to violate this policy?