Academic Dishonesty - Avoiding Cheating and Plagiarism
Feeling overwhelmed by academic pressures? The following strategies may help you avoid academic dishonesty:
Set aside enough time to do assignments and prepare for tests
Get to know your professors; ask for help with difficult assignments, get clarification when in doubt about an assignment
Get clarification when in doubt about any acceptable practices for your courses; do not rely on friends, classmates, or assumptions
Respect the rules and course expectations, especially as expressed in the syllabus or verbally by the instructor
Get a tutor, join a study group, visit the Academic Success Center
Cheating checkpoints
Do not take notes, book, or other items into a test or exam unless expressed permission has been granted
Do not communicate with another student during a text or exam. If you need something, communicate with the instructor or proctor
Turn your text, exam, or assignment in by the due date
As much as possible, physically distance yourself from others during test or exams
Do not permit another to take a test for you
Avoid assisting
Do not lend your work to others. This might constitute "assisting" which is considered a form of academic dishonesty
Do not lend your work to others who might use it as their own
Do not collaborate - work with others on an assignment - without specific, expressed permission by your instructor or by the course syllabus
It is a violation of Oregon State Law to create and offer to sell part or all of an education assignment to another person (ORS165.114)
Do not take a test for someone else
Plagiarism prevention
Reading something that seems perfect for your assignment? Be sure to use your own words. If you use another's words - even only two or three words - quote it and cite it
Another's words, even if imaginatively rearranged, are still considered borrowed; quote and cite
Identify all sources of information, ideas, and inspiration
Keep copies of your assignments that you turn in for a grade. Keep drafts and notes until the final grade is applied
If you found it on the internet so can your instructor
If you produced work for one course don't submit it for another unless you have expressed permission to do so
Visit the avoiding plagiarism page for examples of acceptable and unacceptable borrowing and paraphrasing
