Academic Honesty and Dishonesty

WCC STUDENT HANDBOOK 

VII. ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY
Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery,
plagiarism, and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the College’s educational mission
and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Westchester Community College
students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work and to uphold the
ideal of academic integrity. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the
academic process will be sanctioned. Cheating harms the college community in many
ways. Honest students are frustrated by the unfairness of cheating that goes undetected
and therefore unpunished. Students who cheat will skew the grading curve in a class,
resulting in lower grades for students who have worked hard and did their own work.

DEFINITION OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research, or writing as your own work. Examples include:
1. Copying another person’s actual words without both the use of quotations and
documentation.
2. Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without documentation.
3. Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the source.
4. Using a paper-writing “service” or having a friend write the paper for you.

Note: The guidelines that define plagiarism also apply to information secured on Internet
websites. Internet references must specify precisely where the information was obtained
and where it can be found. You may think that citing another author’s work will lower
your grade. In some unusual cases this may be true, for instance, if your instructor has
indicated that you must write your paper without reading additional material. But in fact,
as you progress in your studies, you will be expected to show that you are familiar with
important work in your field and can use this work to further your thinking. Your professors
write this kind of paper all the time. The key to avoiding plagiarism is that you show clearly
where your own thinking ends and someone else’s begins.

For more information on the topic of plagiarism please visit our library’s website at:
www.sunywcc.edu/plagiarism.

Cheating

Cheating is the attempted or unauthorized use of materials, information, notes, study aids,
devices or communication during an academic exercise.

Examples include:

TESTS AND EXAMS:
1. Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy
your work.
2. Using unauthorized notes during a closed book examination.
3. Using unauthorized devices during an examination.

4. Asking or allowing another student, or anyone else, to take an examination for you.
5. Changing a corrected exam and returning it for more credit.
6. Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an
examination.
7. Taking an examination for another student.
8. Taking an examination or any examination material out of an examination room
at any time without the expressed permission of the instructor who created that
examination.

TAKE-HOME TESTS AND INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS:
1. If tutors or others aid the student in the preparation of an assignment, the submitted
assignment should represent the student’s current level of ability.
2. Unauthorized collaborating on a take-home assignment or examination.
3. Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to two classes without consulting the
second instructor.
4. Using a paper-writing “service” or having someone else write the paper for you.
5. Preparing an essay or assignment, or allowing one’s essay or assignment to be copied by someone else.
6. Borrowing all or part of another student’s paper or using someone else’s outline to write
your own paper.
7. Intentionally citing inaccurate or nonexistent source materials.

COLLABORATIVE (GROUP) ASSIGNMENTS:
1. Failure to acknowledge group members on homework and lab assignment.
2. Turning in another group members work as an example of your individual work.

Notes: Group projects require careful division of responsibility and careful coordination
to control the quality of the final product. Group work calls for a different kind of effort,
not less of it. When group projects are assigned, the instructor is usually interested in the
mastery of group process, as well as the subject. Ask the instructor to clarify individual
responsibilities and suggest a method of proceeding.