Plagiarism Policy

English + Academic Programs + Academics
The Random House Dictionary defines plagiarism as follows: “the appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and thoughts of another author, and representation of them as one’s original work.” The most obvious form of plagiarism is copying directly from printed materials without using quotation marks and/or proper documentation. Similar to this is maintaining the sentence structure of the source material while merely substituting synonyms for an occasional word or phrase, or changing the order of sentences around a little while retaining the source’s wording. A less obvious form of plagiarism, but one equally serious, is summarizing or paraphrasing the ideas of an author without citing the author as the source. Additionally, a third type of plagiarism that students must be aware of is using an editor—whether a friend, family member, or tutor—beyond the point of propriety. In this instance, the student’s paper does not reflect the knowledge, voice, and/or style of the student author.

Improper or inadequate documentation of sources will lower the grade on an assignment. However, plagiarism is a serious offence, as theft of ideas is no different from theft of tangible objects which the Bible condemns (Lev. 19:13a; Ps. 50:10; Jer. 2:26; Ep. 4:28; I Pe. 4:15), and it therefore carries severe penalties: certainly failure of the assignment itself, and possibly failure of the course with official notice of a violation of academic integrity placed in the student’s college records. In order to protect both students and faculty members, the following procedures have been put into place.
 
  1. Proven Plagiarism. In cases where the printed source of the plagiarized work is available as proof of plagiarism, the following steps will be taken:
    1. The instructor will determine if the plagiarism is intentional or inadvertent. This assessment is based NOT on the student’s declaration of motive, but on the extent and type of plagiarism and the instruction available to the student concerning documentation of sources.
    2. If the plagiarism is determined to be intentional (written by someone other than the student or copied directly from an outside source, including the Internet, and submitted as original), the student will automatically fail the course. A memo to that effect will be sent to three persons: the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and the Dean of Students in the Student Life Office for inclusion in the student’s files, and the Registrar, as a student is not allowed to withdraw from a course following a violation of academic integrity.
    3. If the plagiarism is determined to be inadvertent (improper or inadequate documentation of sources used in original work by the student), the student will receive an “F” on the assignment UNLESS it is rewritten in an acceptable manner. If the assignment is not rewritten, the student will fail the course.
  2. Suspected Plagiarism. In cases where the instructor strongly suspects plagiarism but does not have a printed source from which to prove the violation, the following steps will be taken:
    1. The instructor will indicate his suspicion and the reasons for it to the student, informing him that the assignment will receive an “F”.
    2. The student may appeal the instructor’s decision to the English Department Chair.
    3. The Department Chair will have the student write a similar assignment under strict supervision. (In cases of assignments about works of literature, the topic assigned will be on the same work that the student explored in the original assignment.)
    4. The Department’s designated readers will determine if the second paper parallels the first in sophistication of ideas, knowledge, syntax, punctuation, voice, diction, and style.
    5. If the designated readers agree that the original assignment does not reflect the work of the student, the assignment will receive an “F”. On the other hand, if the readers agree that the two assignments have been written by the same person, the instructor will award appropriate credit for the original.