Dulwich College Libraries

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

“The attitude of approaching your academic work honestly, by completing your own original work, attributing and acknowledging your sources when necessary and not relying on dishonest means to gain advantage.”

University of Kent. ‘Academic Integrity.’

URL:http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ai/students/glossary.html#aigloss

[Date accessed: 05/06/2009]

The key to academic integrity is honesty: completing your own work, in your own words and acknowledging your sources when applicable.

This means that you should not plagiarise the works of others.

CIE give the following examples of plagiarism:

• Failing to acknowledge quotations (or images/diagrams/data)

• Using particular phrases or sentences from another author without giving them credit via inverted commas and a footnote

• Writing something that is only very slightly different (e.g. a few words altered) to another author's work (i.e. paraphrasing it)

• Buying a project from an internet site and presenting it as your own

• Downloading and pasting text or images from an internet site (“copying and pasting”)

• Getting somebody else to write all or part of your work for you

Why is academic integrity important?

It will help you to learn. Looking at a variety of sources, making notes, synthesising information/ideas and writing in your own words will enable you to understand and remember.

By acknowledging your sources it gives authority to your own work and acknowledges the contributions of others.

Plagiarism is cheating. You may not get away with it as it is usually fairly easy to spot work that has been plagiarised. Penalties can be severe – work might not be accepted by an exam board or it might be given zero marks. You may also be disqualified from sitting examinations.

Remember:

• Give yourself enough time to complete a piece of work – this will avoid the last-minute temptation to “cut and paste”

• Keep a record of all of the sources that you use including website URLs

• Always put direct quotes in quotation marks

• Always acknowledge the source of quoted text, images etc.

• If you use an idea in your work which is clearly someone else’s, acknowledge this

• Even if you think that you have not made direct reference to someone else’s work, always list the sources you have consulted at the end of your essay or coursework in a bibliography. This includes websites!

Further information on how to reference your sources and compile a bibliography are available on the Libraries web site (click here) or in leaflets available from the Wodehouse Library.

 

further documents:

GUIDELINES FOR BOYS IN THE LOWER SCHOOL

COLLEGE POLICY & GUIDELINES: FULL DOCUMENT

 

 

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