Page 267 - Foundations of Learning, 4th Edition (Revised)

When Enough is Enough

One of the most important tips about researching is that you need to know when to stop. You need to write
the assignment at some point, and you can’t do that properly if you have not stopped researching and had
time to analyze and integrate your sources. Remember: Not all the fascinating information you’ve found
on tangential subjects can or should go into your final paper. Even if you’re writing about organic potato
farming, you probably don’t need to detail the dozens of potato varieties grown in Peru, or the conspiracy
theories surrounding the Irish potato famine of the 19th century, right?

Academic Honesty

Most schools have academic honesty codes or policies that place penalties on acts of academic dishonesty
such as cheating and plagiarism. Individual instructors may also adapt the college’s policies to the
assignments in a specific class. Plagiarizing a researched essay, for example, may cause the student to get
a zero on the assignment or even to fail the class. It is important for you to know the academic honesty
policies of your school. The activity following this discussion asks you to do just that.

Much of the learning and writing you will do in college involves “processing” ideas originally conceived by
others, as we have discussed in this chapter. Stealing someone else’s intellectual property does not help you
understand the subject area. If you do not understand the subject, you cannot make your own contributions
to the field. This may not seem crucial now, but consider this: At some point in your college or professional
career, you will have to do research, correctly cite your sources, and integrate these sources with your own
analysis. Why not learn to do it correctly now? Take a moment to look at the cheating process. Students
who opt for this method often spend extra time and effort to avoid getting caught. What is the objective?
It is usually to get a good grade and save time and effort. If the subject matter is important, though, you’ll
ultimately have to go back and learn it at some point anyway. And, you will have spent twice the effort.
Although it may be tempting to plagiarize, most colleges now have plagiarism-detection programs. It’s no
longer even worth the effort to cheat.

The reputation of any school is the shared responsibility of its administrators, faculty, and students. Students
are expected to observe the same standards of scholastic integrity as their academic and professional
counterparts. Maintaining your own reputation and integrity is always in your best interest, as well. A
charge of cheating or plagiarism may follow you farther than you imagine.

PROCEED TO ACTIVITY 10.1 (page 267)

Documentation

Plagiarism is not always an intentional act of academic dishonesty. Sometimes it is the product of incomplete
note-taking, lack of time to proof-read, and lack of knowledge about the rules of documentation. This chapter
has given you several tips on how not to plagiarize, and now we’ll include a brief guide on documentation.
There are now Internet citation programs available; a popular one at my college is Knightcite.com. However,
no system is foolproof. If you do not know the basics of documentation, you will not catch the errors in
any program.

Chapter 10 — Finding and Working with Sources 261