Communicating ethically is a responsibility we owe to others and to ourselves. In most circumstances, we communicate in an ethical manner with little or no conscious thought. However, there are times when we are faced with difficult situations, too much work and too little time, or other stress inducing things. During these times, it is tempting to cut corners, stretch the truth, or flat out lie. In other words, communicate in a less than ethical manner. In an academic community and in this building specifically, ethical communication is a mandate, not an option. To help foster and encourage such ethical communication, the Department of Communication Studies is a Zero Tolerance zone for unethical communication.
The purpose of this policy statement is to help clarify what sorts of behaviors will not be tolerated or accepted within the Department of Communication Studies. Additionally this policy statement will set forth penalties for unethical communication. The examples included in this statement are meant to help you understand what sorts of behaviors will be subject to penalty; however, the statement cannot cover every possible situation. If you find yourself in a questionable situation that is not illustrated within this policy, talk to your professor. Also, remember that everyone who works in the department is subject to this penalty - including your professors. We are not asking you to do anything that we ourselves don't do.
EXAMPLES OF UNETHICAL COMMUNICATION
Unethical communication behaviors in this policy are broken down into three categories: plagiarism, cheating, and lying. While we have attempted to account for every situation likely to occur, this list is not meant to be exhaustive.
PLAGIARISM
The most basic definition of plagiarism is taking someone else's work and presenting it as your own without crediting the original creator. In other words, plagiarism is more than copying another work exactly. Examples of plagiarism include (note that all quoted material in the following materials is taken from Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vantage.): - Copying another's work verbatim and presenting it as our own. While writing about the way we exercise social power on ourselves, you find the following: "Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power." You then include this sentence in your paper without quotation marks and/or a parenthetical citation to Foucault.
CORRECT WAY: "Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power." (Foucault, 1977 p. 197)
- Changing the wording in another's work and presenting it as our own. While writing about the way we exercise social power on ourselves, you find the following: "Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power." You write in your paper: The most significant effect of the panoptic system is to induce in the inmate a state of permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. You do not enclose this sentence in quotation marks or provide a parenthetical citation to Foucault.
CORRECT WAY: The most significant effect of the panoptic system is to "induce in the inmate a state of - permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power." (Foucault, 1977 p. 197)
- Copying another's idea and presenting it as our own. While writing about the way we exercise social power on ourselves, you find the following: "Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power." You write in your paper: The most significant impact of the panoptic system is to cause the inmate to feel like they are constantly being watched. You include this sentence in your paper without a parenthetical citation to Foucault.
CORRECT WAY: The most significant impact of the panoptic system is to cause the inmate to feel like they are constantly being watched. (Foucault, 1977 p. 197)
It's important to remember that there is never an excuse for plagiarizing. Saying that you forgot the citation is not an excuse. You have an obligation to remember to include the citation. It is better to include too many citations than not enough. Also, remember that any text can be plagiarized: books, articles, websites, pictures, graphics, etc. The text in question does not have to be academic. For more information, see the BC plagiarism policy (Appendix A).
CHEATING
Cheating is one of those acts that we're all tempted to do at some point. In fact, most people have probably cheated on something at some point in their life. The prevalence of cheating in our society, though, does not mean that it is an acceptable behavior. Like plagiarism, cheating occurs in many forms - some more obvious than others.
Examples of cheating include: - Copying all or part of another person's work. (Note that depending upon the circumstances, this could also be considered plagiarism.) Cheating is not determined by the amount of work that you take. Even if you only take one answer or portion of another person's work, that is cheating.
- Having someone else do your work for you. When you put your name on an assignment, test, or anything else, you are saying that this is your work. It is okay to ask others for help, but the final product should be your own work.
- Asking someone else to do your work or for answers. Cheating is not solely defined by the end result. Even the act of asking for answers is a form of cheating. Saying that you were only joking does not excuse the behavior.
- Working with someone else. Unless you are working in a group situation or have been told that working with others is acceptable, it is assumed that all of the work you do will be your own. Sharing or taking research from others is not doing your own work. Even if each of you writes your own paper, test, etc. you have still cheated.
- Creating research. Pretending that you conducted an interview is cheating. Making up quotes is cheating. Creating statistics is cheating. Whenever you present research of any form in an assignment, this research must exist somewhere. If you conduct an interview, you should tape it so that you can provide documentation if you are asked to do so. Again, cheating is not determined by the amount of research you make up. Making up one statistic is cheating.
LYING
We are told from the time that we are very young children that lying is wrong. We also learn that lying is one of those behaviors that we can get away with most of the time. However, lying is still unethical communication. Examples of lying include: - Any of the behaviors included as plagiarizing and cheating.
- Making up a reason why you miss or are late to class. For example, your alarm clock goes off and you turn it off without getting out of bed thereby missing your 9:00 class. You then tell your professor that you're really sorry you missed class, but you had to take your roommate to the hospital.
- Making up a reason that your assignment is late. For example, you put off a 7-page paper until the night before it's due and then realize that you can't complete it in time. You then tell your professor that your computer crashed and you lost your paper but you will get it turned in as soon as possible.
- In class discussion, giving a false example of something that happened to you. For example, in your oral communication class you are discussing communication apprehension and you share a story about a girl in high school who would vomit each time she had to give a speech. This girl and this behavior never existed.
PENALTIES FOR UNETHICAL COMMUNICATION
As stated above, this is a zero tolerance policy. What this means is that if we think you have committed plagiarism, cheating, or lying you will be subject to the penalty. We will not try to determine what happened. We will not consider the fact that only 1% of your paper is affected. We will not look at the fact that you are having a stressful semester. Whenever we are faced with a situation of plagiarism, cheating, or lying we will turn the matter over to the Honor Council for further investigation and punishment if necessary. We will abide by the decision of the honor council without question.
When a situation like this is presented to the Honor Council, they investigate the circumstances, including talking to you, your professor, and anyone else involved. If they find that the act in question has occurred, the matter is then taken to an Honor Council hearing. This hearing is kind of like a mini-trial where evidence is presented and witnesses are called. If, after the hearing, the council determines that the act in question did occur they will assign a penalty. An example of a penalty for plagiarizing is: receiving an F in the course, being put on probation for up to the remainder of the student's time on campus, having a notation of "Honor Code violation" included in the student's transcripts, requiring rehabilitative measures be taken by the student. You will have the right to appeal, but the matter is generally not retried. All phases of the process are confidential.
The way to avoid this situation from ever occurring is to be honest in all that you do. Also, talk to your professors. It is always best to ask about these issues instead of assuming that you are ok - or that we will not find out. If you are having time management problems or other stressful issues in your life, talk to your professor about things you can do. Very often, your professor will be able to help you find a way to get your work done on time and in an ethical manner. Most importantly, be honest with us. Let's say that you oversleep for class. What's the worst thing that can happen? You have to listen to a lecture about the importance of meeting your obligations? Realistically, your professor will probably empathize with your situation and help you figure out a way to prevent it from happening again. One of the nice things about a small campus like BC is that you have the opportunity to meet face to face with your professors and to get to know them. Take advantage of this benefit.
APPENDIX A
Ethics in Academic Work
Being part of an academic community means taking responsibility for one's actions as a student, thinker, writer, and speaker. The Bridgewater College community has adopted "Christian values, high standards of integrity and excellence, affirming and challenging each member," as described in the Mission Statement. Supporting this mission, the student Code of Ethics asks that students "demonstrate respect" for themselves and the community, "take responsibility for [their] actions," and "uphold the standards and policies of our community."
Members of this academic community "demonstrate respect" for themselves and others by recognizing and acknowledging the use of their intellectual property -- the ideas, facts, and wording discovered through research. Members "take responsibility" for [their] actions" by including accurate documentation of others' ideas, facts, and wording used in any writing they do. Members "uphold the standards and policies of our community" by demonstrating ethical practices in using others' ideas, facts, and wording, as well as by not cheating on tests.
Defining Plagiarism
Plagiarizing is considered "cheating, stealing, and lying" because it involves presenting someone else's work as one's own.
Plagiarizing means presenting someone else's argument, definition, interpretation of events, interpretation of a text, or factual information as though they were one's own, whether or not one uses the exact wording of the source. It is the presentation of such information, rather than the author's intention, that constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism may appear in the wording of a paper written for a class or a classroom presentation (including visual aids and Power Point) or a Web page or a newsletter; it may appear in the use of graphics created by anyone other than the author. In short, any time that a student uses materials written or produced by someone else, it is the student's responsibility to document the source of such materials.
Documentation typically requires all three of these elements: (1) use of quotation marks around wording that is not the student writer's (or indentation of long quotations); (2) with citation following any quoted, summarized, or paraphrased material as well as specific facts gleaned from a source (in the form of parenthetical citation or footnote or endnote); and (3) a bibliography that indicates complete publication information for the source.
All of the following examples constitute plagiarism: - the deliberate act of putting one's name on a paper written by someone else or putting one's name on text copied from a Web page and pasted into a document;
- the presentation of factual information without citing the source from which the information was obtained (with the exception of "general knowledge" as defined within specific classroom situations);
- the use of someone else's words to present ideas, information, or analysis without use of quotation marks and citation;
- the use of someone else's ideas or argument without attribution;
- the presentation of graphics (including pictures, tables, charts, etc.) without attribution , unless these materials are in the public domain.
Use of Sources without Plagiarizing
To incorporate material from a source into a paper, presentation (including Power Point), Web page, or other text, one may quote the source, summarize the source (with citation), or paraphrase the source.
A paraphrase is the representation of another writer's text, explanation, argument that is about the same length as the original. A paraphrase is substantially different in sentence structure as well as wording. The length of a paraphrase distinguishes it from a summary, since a summary is a restatement of significantly shorter length than the original.
When one paraphrases, one should: - use alternative wording to the author's throughout the paraphrase;
- enclose any phrases from the source in quotation marks;
- present the ideas of the original using one's own sentence structure as well as one's own word choice (following the author's sentence structure, even if the writer uses alternative wording, is considered plagiarizing);
- cite the source, even if one does not use a direct quotation from the source;
- introduce the topic in one's own words when including a paraphrase, still making it clear that one is presenting someone else's ideas.
In the final analysis, members of an academic community expect texts to be characterized by originality of thought and expression. Research-based writing can be held to this standard. The fresh perspective a writer brings to the selection and presentation of information is his or her own. The point a writer makes is his or her own. A Bridgewater College student can take pride in demonstrating a high ethical standard by making fair and honest use of others' intellectual property. Bridgewater College Writing Center
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