Resources
Request a Workshop
The Undergraduate Honor Council collaborates with Student Accountability to offer custom workshops on topics related to academic integrity. Possible focus areas include avoiding plagiarism, seeking help, and abiding by the Honor Code. Please complete the Request a Presentation form or contact honor.council@vanderbilt.edu to request a workshop for your class, student organization, or group.
Campus Resources
Center for Student Wellbeing
The Center for Student Wellbeing offers skill-building workshops, academic coaching, and other services to support student wellbeing and success. “Through academic coaching, students can polish study skills and learn to manage their time in order to apply those skills effectively. While academic coaching is helpful to students who are experiencing academic difficulties, it is also beneficial to anyone who wishes to enhance their academic effectiveness” (Center for Student Wellbeing, 2022).
Center for Teaching
Faculty members may seek support in promoting academic integrity in their classes by working with the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. The Center for Teaching seeks to promote teaching strategies that lead to meaningful student learning (Center for Teaching, 2022).
English Language Center
The Vanderbilt University English Language Center helps students from international backgrounds to reach their academic goals by providing “innovative, high quality, individualized English-language instruction” (English Language Center, 2022). In addition to 1:1 coaching, the ELC offers several writing resources that help students apply the principles of the Honor Code, including a tutorial called How to Avoid Plagiarism.
Student Care Coordination
Student Care Coordination supports Vanderbilt students by serving as a first point of contact following life events or other circumstances that may interfere with their academic performance or personal wellbeing. SCC offers 1:1 consultations, drop-in hours, off-campus referrals, and connections to specialized campus support services (Student Care Coordination, 2022).
Tutoring Services
Vanderbilt Tutoring Services offers individual and group sessions for STEM courses ranging from chemistry, biological sciences, and neuroscience to physics, mathematics and economics (Tutoring Services, 2022).
Writing Studio
The Writing Studio provides free, confidential writing consultations to undergraduate students, graduate/professional students, and faculty. At the Writing Studio, students can expect to receive constructive feedback on specific products while developing transferrable skills for future writing assignments (Writing Studio, 2022).
University Libraries
The librarians at the Jean and Alexander Hearst Libraries offer research and writing support to students by helping them find sources, evaluate information, and cite evidence appropriately (Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, 2022).
Professional Associations
Center for Academic Integrity
“The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) was founded in 1992 by Don McCabe, a professor at Rutgers University, to combat cheating, plagiarism, and academic dishonesty in higher education. Its mission has since expanded to include the cultivation of cultures of integrity in academic communities throughout the world. ICAI’s core beliefs focus on the six Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity. These values serve as a touchstone for our organization and our members” (ICAI, 2022).
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
“Established in 1991, the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to advancing scholarship, education, and practice in practical and professional ethics. APPE fosters moral reasoning skill development, works to promote ethical conduct in all sectors of our daily lives, nurtures the next generation of ethical leaders, and seeks to advance civil public discourse on diverse ethical issues” (APPE, 2022).
Style Guides and Citation Manuals
APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)
The APA Formatting and Style Guide, published by Purdue Owl Writing Lab, is a free resource that offers basic information on general formatting, in-text citations, and reference lists from the APA Manual. The full Publication Manual of the American Psychology Association can be found here.
MLA Formatting and Style Guide (9th Edition)
The MLA Formatting and Style Guide, published by Purdue Owl Writing Lab, is a free resource that offers basic information on general formatting, in-text citations, and reference lists from the MLA Handbook. The full Modern Language Association Handbook can be found here.
Chicago Formatting and Style Guide (17th Edition)
The Chicago Formatting and Style Guide, published by Purdue Owl Writing Lab, is a free resource that offers basic information on general formatting, in-text citations, and reference lists. The official Chicago Manual can be purchased online.
Avoiding Plagiarism
The following examples illustrate the kinds of problems that may arise when a student has not exercised careful citation practices.
A student turned in a paper with the following paragraph:
“The characters in Othello are both allegorical and realistic at once. Characters like Iago and Desdemona are recognizable both as persons and at the same time devils, demigods and forces in nature. It is Shakespeare’s achievement as an artist that he is capable of creating visions of life as people live it at the same time that he is able to understand life in terms of social and cosmic symbols. In this paper I will discuss the allegorical elements in the play, the skeleton of ideas and actions with which the characters give meaning to the play.”
The instructor gave the paper to the Honor Council, citing this paragraph as evidence of plagiarism. The instructor presented the following paragraph from Introduction to “The Tragedy of Othello” by William Shakespeare, edited by Alvin Kernan. Copyright © 1963 by Alvin Kernan.
“Here is the essence of Shakespeare’s art, an ability to create immediate, full and total life as men actually live and experience it; and yet at the same time to arrange this reality so that it gives substance to and derives shape from a formal vision of all life that comprehends and reaches back from man and nature through society and history to cosmic powers that operate through all time and space. His plays are both allegorical and realistic at once; his characters both recognizable men and at the same time devils, demigods and forces in nature. I have discussed only the more allegorical elements in Othello, the skeleton of ideas and formal patterns within which the characters must necessarily be understood. But it is equally true that the exact qualities of the abstract moral value and ideas, their full reality, exist only in the characters.”
The instructor delineated four examples of plagiarism:
(1) A change in wording:
STUDENT: The characters in Othello are both allegorical and realistic at once. Characters like Iago and Desdemona are recognizable both as persons and at the same time, demigods, devils and forces in nature.
KERNAN: His plays are both allegorical and realistic at once; his characters both recognizable as men and at the same time devils, demigods and forces in nature.
The instructor explained that this is plagiarism because the ideas presented in both cases are the same, with the student adding only a few of his own words to alter Kernan’s original phrasing.
(2) Use of a catchy word or phrase:
STUDENT: In this paper I will discuss the allegorical elements in the play, the skeleton of ideas and actions with which the characters give meaning to the play.
KERNAN: I have discussed only the more allegorical elements in the play, the skeleton of ideas and formal patterns within which the characters must necessarily be understood.
The instructor stated that this sentence constitutes plagiarism because the student used the catchy phrase “the skeleton of ideas.” Again, the student retains Kernan’s phrase and his ideas, changing only some of the wording.
(3) Undocumented paraphrasing:
STUDENT: It is Shakespeare’s achievement as an artist that he is capable of creating visions of life as people live it at the same time that he is able to understand life in terms of social and cosmic symbols.
KERNAN: Here is the essence of Shakespeare’s art, an ability to create immediate, full and total life as men actually live and experience it; and yet at the same time to arrange this reality so that it gives substance to and derives shape from a formal vision of all life that comprehends and reaches back from man and nature through society and history to cosmic powers that operate through all time and space.
This, the instructor said, was paraphrasing, and unless acknowledged, it is also an act of plagiarism. Students must clearly indicate each use of paraphrasing with a citation suitable to the instructor.
(4) Word-for-word copying:
STUDENT: . . . are both allegorical and realistic at once . . . recognizable . . . devils, demigods and forces in nature . . . the allegorical elements in the play, the skeleton of ideas . . .
KERNAN: . . . are both allegorical and realistic at once . . . recognizable . . . devils, demigods and forces in nature . . . the allegorical elements . . . the skeleton of ideas . . .
The instructor noted that had the student put Kernan’s words in quotation marks and properly cited them, there would have been no offense.
Plagiarism extends to preparation materials as well. For example, should the student forget to note on research cards the source of material and then fail to cite the source when the paper or report is prepared, the student is still committing a plagiaristic act. Not knowing how or when to cite is not considered a sufficient excuse.
Proper Citation
Students are expected to follow the general rules of citation for each discipline. One citation is not sufficient if additional material from the same source is included in a student’s work. Citations should express the extent of ideas or expressions of others that are used. All direct quotes must be in quotation marks or in block quote format. Simply providing a citation without using quotation marks or block quote format is a violation.
Material found on websites or other Internet sources can–and should be–cited. Students should consult a citation manual or the course instructor for the appropriate format.
For further information about citation styles, refer to the Jean and Alexander Heard Library’s online guide to Plagiarism, Citation, Copyright, and Fair Use.
Any student who is uncertain about the application of the plagiarism and citation rules should consult the instructor. A student who plagiarizes out of ignorance is still guilty of an Honor Code violation.