Academic Integrity
You've probably seen many academic integrity statements before, so why are we taking your time to revisit a well-known topic? Everyone can use a refresher!
Academic integrity is about honoring the norms of scholarly practice within a particular institution, discipline, or academic program. This assignment aims to make sure you're aware of the particular norms in place at Penn State. We're not going to nit-pick your assignments about rules for citations, references, and quotations. However, we do have certain reasonable expectations. This assignment will state those expectations as simply and clearly as possible and will quiz you on your understanding of them. Clarifying expectations is worthwhile because it helps to avoid misunderstandings, and lays the groundwork for a relationship built on trust. In addition, attention to academic integrity protects your investment in your education, since your degree is worth more if it has a reputation for rigor. We will be using TurnItIn to review certain assignments. Understanding the expectations below will ensure that your assignments pass the test.
Expectations
In written works produced for this course, we expect students to:
- State original thoughts or common knowledge without citations or references.
- Build upon your original thoughts and common knowledge by paraphrasing the thoughts of others properly. Recognize an inadequate paraphrase and explain why it's inadequate.
- Where appropriate, quote the statements of others properly to strengthen your own thoughts, knowledge, and paraphrases. Recognize over-reliance on quotations versus paraphrased text.
- Include graphics to strengthen your writing. If you use a graphic created by someone else, acknowledge them, including their copyright, permission and/or license to use. If no permission or license is available, claim Fair Use properly for educational use only.
- Cite paraphrases, quotations, and graphics adequately and consistently. Although we don't prescribe any particular citation style in this course, an adequate citation includes enough information to find the associated reference in a reference list or footnote.
- Reference cited works adequately and consistently. We don't prescribe any particular reference style in this course. An adequate reference includes author name(s), publication dates, publication titles, and a URL or other information needed to find the original version of the cited work in a library or online.
- Explain why it's wrong to produce a written work that does not fulfill the first six objectives.
- Recognize the penalties that the University authorizes for violations of academic integrity.
Assignment
PSU Academic Integrity Certificate
- Study Penn State's Academic Integrity Training. Try to earn a certificate of completion by scoring at least 80 percent on the Final Assessment. It's harder than you may think!
- Earn credit by uploading a copy of your certificate to the Academic Integrity Certificate Assignment. If you have already completed the training as part of another class, make a screen capture of the certificate and upload that for credit.