All students—whether enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences or in another school of the university—are expected to adhere to the College of Arts and Sciences Academic Conduct Code. Trust between teacher and student is essential to a successful learning environment. Cheating and plagiarism represent not only a serious violation of academic ethics, they also represent a breach of that essential trust. I will report all such incidents to the student academic conduct committee of the College of Arts and Sciences; cheating and/or plagiarism in any form will also result in a final grade of F for the course.
Sometimes students don't realize that in "loosely borrowing" or adapting an author's words (that includes a classmate's words) they may be engaging in plagiarism. Since ignorance is no excuse, please spend some time looking over the definition of plagiarism on the CAS Academic Conduct Code page, which includes detailed examples of inappropriate borrowing.
August 10, 2009