1. Sally is writing a term-paper for her class. She asks Bill to
proofread the paper for her. Is Sally academically dishonest?
2. Matthew takes notes on many different books while writing his
term paper, but does not note the sources as he is taking the
notes. When he is writing the paper he draws on some of his notes,
but forgets what is his own thought and what is borrowed;
unintentionally he quotes some other sources without attribution
and his instructor notices this. Will the fact that his action is
unintentional make this offense less serious?
3. Dr. Rodgers gives students a list of questions and tells them
that some of the questions will be on the final examinations.
Several students study together and help each other formulate
answer to the questions. Are they being academically dishonest?
4. Carlos is given a class project to interview ten people to
survey their feelings about a particular topic. After getting the
same response from the first five people, he reports that all ten
people gave the same response. Is this academically dishonest?
5. On the first day of of classes 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. Is this considered dishonest?
6. 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?
7. 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?
8. Your roommate asks to review the paper you wrote last year
because she is taking the same course this term. She says she
wanted it only as a guideline to help her get started. You see her
finished paper a few days later and notice she copied large
sections from your paper. Could you be changed with dishonesty if
the professor remembers your paper?
9. You are stumped on an assignment. While working in a computer
lab on campus, you notice some of your classmates 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. Could this collaboration be called into question?
10. You have been working on a major class project when you find
solution related material on a university computer network. The
solution is for the problem as assigned in the course during a
previous semester, but it would form a good basis for solving the
problem you are working on. Is it wise to copy the solution and
use it?
11. It is late at night and your paper is due at 9:00 am the next
day. You used a lot of material from a couple of books, but you
didn't quote anything and, therefore, you didn't include any
footnotes. Is this plagiarism or just sloppy work?
12. You have had a tough semester and are having trouble focusing
on a term paper you must write. You have acquired "research
material," a paper from the World Wide Web on your topic,
that will get you started with information and organization. With
all the other pressures, it seems tempting to make a few minor
changes and turn the paper in. Should you?
