Sunday, December 26, 2010

IMPORTANCE OF ACADEMIC INTERGRITY. TOOLS ANDS TRATEGIS NEEDED TO ENSURE COMPLAIANCE

IMPORTANCE OF ACADEMIC INTERGRITY
 TOOLS ANDS TRATEGIS NEEDED TO ENSURE COMPLAIANCE


1 - Introduction
The intention of this paper relies on comprehension of the tools available to the students to prevent them from committing plagiarism and to make the students understand the consequences in cases when plagiarism is committed.
2 - Plagiarism (why individuals cheat)
Below is a list of four basic motives why people cheat, [Tippitt, et al (2009]
a) Competition, being more successful than the others.
b) Laziness and unwillingness to make affords on academic preparation.
c) Unawares of plagiarism is wrong.
d) Thrilling effect of not being caught.
2 - 1 What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is considered a fraudulent act, which involves not just stealing someone’s work but also lying about it afterwards (3).
According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, "plagiarize" means:
To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own,
to use (another's production) without crediting the source ,
to commit literary theft,
to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.
2 - 2 What is considered plagiarism?
Any of the actions below is considered plagiarism (2).
1-Submit a work as your own when it is not.
2-Not crediting the work of others while copping their ideas and words.
3-Not using quotation in quotation marks.
4- Informing in incorrect way about the source quotation.
5-utilizing different words while copied the same structure of the sentence without giving credit.
6-Copying a considerable amount from the source (words, ideas) (it does not matter if credit is given or not.
2 - 3 Preventing Plagiarism
In our modern world of education, plagiarism is been detected as an increasing concern by the academic community.
In 2000, Americans realized that education and decline in ethics had become the top 2 biggest problem of the society, they both ranked above crime .poverty and drugs (2).                                                                                 
While planning the research paper prevention of plagiarism can be accomplished by:
a) Serial consulting with the instructor
b) Advanced planning of research paper
c) Continuously keeping helpful notes (2), (3)
While writing the research paper preventation of plagiarism can be accomplished by: cite sources if not sure, clearly state who said what, have knowledge of paraphrase, carefully asses
the source (2), (3)
College faculties, scientists, administrators and even students are continuously working together to find ways, technologies, solutions to preventing plagiarism (2).
Turnitrin, Writecheck, and APA are currently playing an important emphasis on preventing plagiarism (2).
3 - Turnitrin.com
Turnitin.com is plagiarism prevention service. The foundation of company goes back to 1996 and its first name was iParadigms. At first, iParadigms was created with the purpose to monitor the recycle of research paper within undergraduate students but later improved to plagiarism service and it changes its name to Plagiarism .org. In our days the above company is known as Turnitrin. Popularity and reliance of Turnitrn in the plagiarism prevention process is
undeniable (4).
3 - 1 Purpose of Turnitrin
Turnitrin’s services are focused on:
1-Detecting and preventing Plagiarism
2-Increasing students engagement in writing process, and streamline the workflow of student writing, feedback and assessment.
In order to achieve the above purposes Turnitrin utilizes three interconnected services of WriteCycle:
a) Originality Checking, b) Grade Mark, c) Peer Review.
 Turnitin it is recognized for its role on academic improvements, written work integrity increase, and reduction on submissions of unoriginal work (4).

4. WriteCheck
WriteCheck is also popular solution in not just detecting the originality of research paper but also on preventing plagiarism.
Creators of Turnitrin developed WriteCheck under the recommendation and pressure of high school and college, teachers, instructors of various disciplines.
The essence of write check consists on: spell checking, grammar checking, and originality checking.
5. APA editorial style.
With the intent to ease reading comprehension a group of psychologists, anthropologist, and business managers gathered on 1929 and decided to create simple set procedures that would codify components of scientific writing (5).
APA editorial  style assists us to: express  the main  factors of quantitative outcome, pick the graphic form that suits our analyses the, best, critically report details of our research, give credit to individuals with accuracy and respect (5).
5 – 1. Elements of APA
APA as an editorial style is concerned with elements such as (5), (6):
1-Title page
2-Selection of headings, tone, and length
3-Parenthetical citation-in text citation
4-Referencis
5-Appendixes
6-Qyality of writing

5 – 2. Citation, why should we cite sources?
The main reason to cite is to respect and give credit to the original author (5)
 Listed below there are more reasons to cite such as:
a) To assist readers with further information about our ideas and where they came from.
b) To assists readers to evaluate the source (bad or good).
c) To display the extensive research we have done.
d) To expose the support of our ideas by other authors.

5 – 3. When do we cite
Cites are required every time we borrow words or ideas as an act of acknowledgement of the source (5)
1-when we use quotes.
2-when we paraphrase.
3-when using an already expressed idea by someone else
4-when specific references are made to someone’s work.
5-when developing our ideas we critically utilized someone else’s work.
5 – 4. Citation style
Citation style differ by priorities to: style, concision, readabilities, dates, authors, publications (5)
Two major divisions exist within the citation style:
a) Documentary –note style which is a standard form of documenting sources. This style includes footnotes or endnotes and intents to increase the readability without interference
b) Parenthetical style is known also as:”author-date style” or “in-text style”. In this style references are included to the body of the research by using parentheses.
Besides citations APA gives precious guidelines on how to quote materials, how to list references, and how to paraphrase.
6. Academic Integrity
According to Tippitt, et al (2009), academic integrity is a commitment face of to five fundamental values:
1-Honesty
2-Trust
3- Fairness
4-Respect
5-Responsibility

It is important that academic integrity is introduced and discussed with students during the educational process (8).
On the other hand though, application of sanctions is necessary when plagiarism occurs (9).


7. Keiser’s University policies on plagiarism and grievance
According to Kaiser Universities’ policy every student is required to be driven by honesty in every work submitted for credit or other works assigned by the instructors (7).
 In cases when cheating has taken places and/or assignment contains some plagiarism penalties would be:
First occurrence: automatic:”F”
Second occurrence: automatic “F”
Third occurrence: automatic dismissal
When copying an entire paper
Penalties would be:
First occurrence automatic”F”
Second occurrence automatic dismissal
Keiser university course home plagiarism
Any student that is disciplined by university administration has the right
to be heard and appeal (7).
8. Conclusion
It is a fact that students for various reasons have been and will continue to be tempted to commit plagiarism. Therefore utilizing tools like APA editorial style, Turnity service, WriteCheck will assist student and instructors to prevent plagiarism. Awareness of academic integrity and discipline are also necessary to prevent plagiarism from being committed.
                                                               References

1 - Tippet, M. P. & Ard, N. et al.(2009). Creating Environments that Foster Academic Integrity.
     Nursing Education Perspectives. New York: 30, 239-245.
2 - Facts about plagiarism. PlagiarismdotORG. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from
3 - Student resources.WriteCheck. Retrieved  September 10, 2009 from
4 - About us.Turnitrin. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from http://www.turnitin.com
5 - APA Style. American Psychological Association. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from
6 - Home course, APA work shop. Keiser University Graduate School.
     Retrieved September 9, 2009 from http://keiserugradschool.org
7 - Home Course, Plagiarism. Keiser University Graduate School.
     Retrieved September 9, 2009 from http://keiserugradschool.org
8 - Academic Integrity. Empire State College. Retrieved September 9, 2009  from
9 - Scanlan, C. (2006).Strategis to promote a climate of academic Intergrityand Minimize student
     cheating and Plagiarism. Journal of Allied Health. Washington: 35, 179-186

No comments:

Post a Comment