Ethical conduct is the obligation
of every member of the Mott College community. Breaches of academic integrity
constitute serious breaches of ethical conduct. Academic integrity requires
that all academic work be wholly the product of an identified individual
or individuals. This policy demonstrates the college’s concern for
academic integrity and guarantees a fair procedure for handling these concerns.
The definitions and guidelines presented here represent
specific policy for the entire institution, but individual faculty members
are encouraged to clarify in their course outlines any policies or procedures
particular to their course. Academic honesty is, nonetheless, always assumed
in an educational institution whether specifically stated or not.
The following acts of misconduct are subject to disciplinary
action. The examples provided are illustrative and do not necessarily exhaust
the scope of these violations.
| A. |
Cheating: Cheating includes, but is
not limited to, (1) use of any unauthorized assistance in taking
quizzes, tests or examinations; (2) dependence upon the aid
of sources beyond those authorized by the instructor in writing
papers, preparing reports, solving problems or carrying out
other assignments; or (3) the acquisition, without permission,
of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of
the college faculty or staff. |
| B. |
Fabrication: Fabrication is the falsification
or invention of any information or citation in academic exercise
without authorization from the instructor. For example, it
is improper to analyze one sample in an experiment and covertly
invent data based on that single experiment for several more
required analysis. |
| C. |
Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: Students
who knowingly or negligently allow their work to be used by
other students or who otherwise aid others in academic dishonesty
are violating academic integrity. |
| D. |
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the representation of the words or ideas of another
as one’s own in any academic exercise. To avoid plagiarism,
every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks
or by appropriate indentation and must be promptly cited in
the text or in a footnote. Acknowledgment is required when
material from another source is paraphrased or summarized in
whole or in part in one’s own work. The correct form
for documenting direct quotations and for acknowledging paraphrased
material may be found in numerous writing manuals or handbooks.
The faculty in English at Mott Community College endorse the
MLA style which is incorporated into and explained in several
texts available in the bookstore or the college library. Other
styles include the Kate L. Turabian Students’ Guide for
Writing College Papers and the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association. Please ask your instructor for guidance
in selecting a style for documenting the words or ideas of
another person. |
| E. |
Denying others access to information
or material: It is a violation of academic integrity to deny
others access to scholarly resources or to deliberately impede
the progress of another student. Examples of offenses of this
type include giving other students false or misleading information,
making library material unavailable to others by stealing or
defacing books or journals or by deliberately misplacing or
destroying reserved materials, stealing another’s paper
or project, or altering computer files that belong to another. |