Academic Dishonesty in the Electronic Age
My staff in the media center -- we no longer refer to ourselves as a library -- have grown increasingly concerned about some new threats to academic integrity. In particular, I refer to the proliferation of materials available to students on the Internet which seem to be showing up with regularity as enhancements of, or outright replacements for, student work.
I would like to ask your committee to convene to discuss the situation at its earliest convenience. Specifically, I would like your input on how widespread the problem seems to be in your disciplines and your suggestions for a modification of our academic policies statement in the catalog which will send a clear message to students about Huxley's expectations for academic integrity and honesty.
Instant Brilliance at Huxley College
Marcus Overhill, assistant professor of sociology at Huxley College, has a problem. One of his students, Maria Lopez, has been struggling in his class and has not yet earned anything higher than a C+ on an exam or paper. In particular, Maria's writing skills appear to be weak. She has trouble composing paragraphs that are coherent and well organized; she makes numerous spelling and grammatical errors that Dr. Overhill attributes to the fact that English is not her native language. He has asked her to re-write two papers and has had to take points off on the essay portion of the first exam. Maria appears to be hard worker and has attended every class. She contributes eagerly to discussion and has accepted Dr. Overhill's constructive criticism in a very positive manner.
On the latest assignment, a 4-page reaction paper to an assigned book, Maria has submitted a paper which is outstanding both in content and in writing style. Professor Overhill admits he would have awarded an "A" to a graduate student who turned in a work of such quality. Unfortunately, he finds it almost inconceivable that Maria produced the paper herself and suspects that she "lifted" it from a published source or may have purchased it from an internet term paper service. At the very least, she must have received an inappropriate amount of assistance before turning it in.
Although he suspects plagiarism, Professor Overhill has no proof and is wary of making an accusation without evidence. He also finds Maria to be very promising as a student and he has been eager to help her improve her writing skills to the point that she might even major in sociology some day.
Marcus knows he has to confront the problem, but he is unsure of what to do. He's almost afraid to check published sources for fear that he will find out for sure that her paper was written by someone else.
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