Wake Forest operates on an Honor Code, which provides the University’s ethical standard and code of conduct:
“The honesty, trustworthiness, and personal integrity of each student are integral to the life and purposes of the Wake Forest community. This statement is embodied in one of our oldest traditions, and that is the honor system (honor code). When a student signs an application for admission to Wake Forest, they agreed to live by the honor system at Wake Forest. In specific terms that means that you and every other student have agreed not to deceive (lie to) any member of the community, not to steal from one another, not to cheat on academic work, not to plagiarize academic work, and not to engage in any other forms of academic misconduct. It means that we can trust each other, and that we willingly accept responsibility for our own conduct and activities. This is a tradition that goes back to the founding of Wake Forest, and with your participation, it continues to be a cornerstone of our community and our interactions with one another.”
Unless you work in higher education yourself, sometimes it’s hard to understand why academic misconduct such as plagiarism is a serious issue to universities.
Imagine for a moment that you are an inventor and you invented a wonderful new soft drink – something totally new and unlike any other on the market. Imagine you shared a taste of it with some of your colleagues – who then stole the recipe, marketed it as their own, sold it and profited from it. It was your invention, but your colleagues stole it, then took all the credit and the benefits that came with it. You would likely call it theft.
Though some professors – particularly on the medical or technical side – deal in the creation of tangible products, many academics don’t create tangible products but rather ideas. Fear of “idea theft” led to the creation of intellectual property and copyright laws. Academics take “idea theft” or “plagiarism” extremely seriously and work hard to help students understand that ideas are not free “commodities” that anyone can claim. It’s important to reference where those ideas have come from and to whom the credit is due:
“Reputations in academia are made on the basis of creating new knowledge: discoveries of new facts, new ways of looking at previously known facts, original analysis of old ideas ….
A plagiarist receives credit for expression or analysis that was improperly taken from someone else. In this view, the plagiarist commits fraud, by claiming the work of other people as the plagiarist’s own work….
Respect for these academic values is also reflected in licensing for professions (particularly law and medicine), employment on the basis of academic credentials, and esteem from one’s colleagues.”
(From “Plagiarism in Colleges in USA,” Copyright 2000 by Ronald B. Standler: )
Professors’ academic reputations and employment opportunities are created via the ideas and knowledge they generate. Faculty members have worked hard to acquire their knowledge, with years of rigorous study and discipline. If a student takes another person’s idea and uses it as their own, it is essentially stealing that person’s idea – just as the colleagues in our earlier example stole the recipe for the new soft drink the inventor created.
Aside from the unethical issue of plagiarism is the fact that students who plagiarize aren’t truly learning on their own. Ronald B. Sandler explains it this way:
“A fundamental goal of education is to produce students who can evaluate ideas – both analysis and synthesis – and who can produce significant original thoughts. Plagiarism is simply repeating words or thoughts of other people, without adding anything new. Therefore, submitting a plagiarized paper – in addition to the wrongful conduct – does not demonstrate the level of understanding and skill that an educated person is reasonably expected to have.”
(From “Plagiarism in Colleges in USA,” Copyright 2000 by Ronald B. Standler: )
The Internet is filled with vast amounts of information – often with varying levels of quality. Students can – and should – use the Internet, as well as traditional libraries and books, as they research papers for class or other academic projects. The key is to reference those ideas or quotations properly and give credit where it is due.
Wake Forest expects its students to know and abide by all aspects of the Honor Code. Parents, you can help reinforce the Honor Code by expecting honorable behavior from your students. You can be the University’s partner in reinforcing to your students the importance of adhering to principles of honesty and integrity in their academic work and personal behavior.
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Want to see what your students are seeing and hearing about the Honor Code? Watch the student-created video on YouTube.
