Activity 1: Plagiarism and Cheating

1. You are asked to summarize the plot of a chapter from Madame Bovary. You copy the chapter description from the online Spark Notes Web site and don't cite your source. Is this plagiarism?

2. You take a sentence from a professional journal and reorder the phrases, keeping the meaning and most phrases intact. You do not cite your source. Is this plagiarism?

3. You find a paper online that answers your assignment instructions exactly and submit it as your work. Is this plagiarism?

4. You and a friend decide to work together on a lab assignment. Because you are in two different sections of the same course, you print out two copies of the completed report, and each submit it as your own individual work. Is this plagiarism?

5. Your roommate took the same math course last year that you are taking now. To save yourself some time, you copy your roommates old homework assignments and turn them in as your own. Is this cheating?

6. You copy another author's ideas to compare and contrast with your own ideas. You indent the text, identify the author, and use quotation marks when stating the author's ideas. You also provide a citation of the work you copied in the bibliography of your paper. Is this plagiarism?

7. You copy and paste text from a Web site into your paper and don't cite the original author because everyone knows that material on the Web is free for anyone to use. Is this plagiarism?

8. For your Geology class you have been assigned to groups and given lab assignments to complete as a group. Your group completes the lab and you each turn in a copy of the same lab report with your individual name at the top of the page and your lab-mates names listed in the first paragraph. Is this cheating?

9. Your friend in Biology class has been sick for a week and is behind with her work. You feel sorry for her and offer to help her with the assignment that is due tomorrow. After reviewing your class notes with her, you lend her your report to copy. Is this considered cheating?

10. If I take a passage from one of my sources and rework the ideas into my own words I don't have to give the original source credit.

11. Using an online translation service or engine is an acceptable way to complete my French composition.

12. Plagiarism is wrong because it deprives someone else of due credit for their work.

13. An acceptable excuse for committing plagiarism is that you ran out of time and forgot to put all of your citations in the bibliography.

14. Forgetting to cite a source isn't plagiarism as long as you have the citation information in your notes.

15. Failing to familiarize yourself with the University's policies does not constitute an adequate defense for violation of those policies.