Cheating & Plagiarism
- Details
- Category: Academic Life
- Published on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 12:37
We also have info on Referencing here.
We also have info on Referencing here.
We’ve all been there; it’s 3am and your essay is due in a few hours and you’re getting nowhere. Then, brainwave – Wikipedia! If that fails, Google! We can tell you now, don’t do it. You will be caught and there’s some nasty penalties when you’re caught cheating or plagiarising.
Under the College’s Code of Conduct it’s a big NO-NO!! Basically, you can be kicked out of the college and if that happens, your chances of getting into another are pretty slim. It can literally be academic death! So please rely on your own brains and avoid it like the plague.
Where a lecturer believes they’ve come across plagiarised work or have found you cheating in any shape or form, the department (and possibly the college) will investigate the case and where a student is found guilty, a penalty will be imposed. If you read anything in the college’s Student Handbook, read the section on cheating and what can happen to you if you’re caught. Alternatively, you can call down to Noel in the SU and he’ll explain it to you.
What is cheating?
If you attempt to gain unfair advantage during an exam, or break any of the college’s exam conduct rules this is seen as cheating. To make sure that you’re not accused of cheating in an exam it’s vital that you do not:
- Copy from another student's exam
- Communicate in any way with anyone other than the exam supervisors (invigilators)
- Bring anything that you’re not meant to into the exam hall, such as pencil cases, notes etc.
- Copy from notes or books while in the exam
- Take any exam booklets from an exam room - even if you haven't written on them
- Take mobile phones into an exam - even if they are switched off
- Break any of the exam procedures set out by the college.
The college takes cheating very seriously. It is considered as a type of 'academic fraud' and an attempt to trick the examiners into giving you higher marks that you may not have achieved otherwise.
What is plagiarism?
Most written work will need to include sections or ideas from other people's work. This is normal in the academic world. HOWEVER, it’s important that wherever you do this the examiner/lecturer is left in no doubt about which words or ideas are your own and which came from someone else. This is done by clearly referencing other people's ideas, text, or diagrams in an assignment or an exam.
If you don’t reference correctly, even by accident, it will be treated as plagiarism.
The college views plagiarism as presenting someone else's work as your own which is a supersized academic negative. This includes text, data, images, sound, performance and also whether or not it’s online or from a physical book. It’s important to remember that if you’ve used someone else's work and not properly referenced that person/source, it is more than likely that you’ll be found guilty of plagiarism.
P.s. Do not underestimate the Academic Gurus that are correcting your work. Chances are they have written the book you are plagiarising from and if they are anyway suspicious all they have to do is Google it. So save yourself the mortification and don’t waste your energy on plagiarising. Plus, if you got kicked out, we would really miss you.
What is Syndication?
Put simply, if you and another student or other students(s) produce a piece of work jointly, or copy each other’s work and pass it off as an individual effort you are engaging in syndication.
You must ensure that the work which you submit has been prepared by you alone unless you are specifically instructed that a piece of work is to be produced jointly with other students.
Obviously, copying someone else’s work without their knowledge is also cheating. If you believe that another student has copied or has attempted to copy your work then you should notify the relevant lecturer or Head of Department immediately in order to protect your own interests.
The SU’s Involvement…
If you are accused of plagiarism then we strongly encourage you to contact the SU for advice. Either Mairéad or Noel can act as a rep for you and support you if you have to meet with a lecturer over plagiarism (or any issue for that matter).