For the purposes of this course on the conventions of standardized college writing and of Geneseo’s writing seminar, where our focus is on helping new academic writers join existing intellectual conversations confidently by using appropriate conventions and strategies, academic honesty arises from following the guidelines and understanding the principles we discuss in these courses. Your instructors and the Geneseo community want you to succeed at what are often new skills, playing out in a new environment. Sometimes, misunderstandings, cultural differences, or mistakes occur to upset the ideal situation, and academia has terminology for those situations. If you’re uneasy ethically about a move you’re contemplating making because you’re stressed or worried, please talk to your professor and let them explore other solutions with you. You aren’t alone in feeling academic anxiety, and your professors are often more sympathetic than you might guess.
Essentially, academic dishonesty or academic misconduct is any type of cheating that occurs in relation to a formal academic exercise. It can include
- Plagiarism: The adoption or reproduction of original creations of another author (person, collective, organization, community or other type of author, including anonymous authors) without due acknowledgment.
- Fabrication: The falsification of data, information, or citations in any formal academic exercise.
- Deception: Providing false information to an instructor concerning a formal academic exercise—e.g., giving a false excuse for missing a deadline or falsely claiming to have submitted work.
- Cheating: Any attempt to obtain assistance in a formal academic exercise (like an examination) without due acknowledgment.
- Bribery or paid services: Giving assignment answers or test answers for money.
- Sabotage: Acting to prevent others from completing their work. This includes cutting pages out of library books or willfully disrupting the experiments of others.
- Professorial misconduct: Professorial acts that are academically fraudulent equate to academic fraud and/or grade fraud.
- Impersonation: assuming a student’s identity with intent to provide an advantage for the student.
