Those of us who teach here are proud of this reputation and strive to enhance it. Understandably, we have, in recent years, become concerned about a small, but increasing, tendency among some students to submit plagiarized work and to make double submissions. These practices, whether done in innocence or not, are considered unethical. Students who engage in these practices defeat the purpose of a university education, undermine the spirit of trust between teachers and students, and ultimately devalue the degree awarded by the University. The distinction between proper and improper academic conduct is not always clear, but students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with basic standards of conduct.
Plagiarism is the practice of submitting work or ideas other than one's own as being one's own.
Submission of an entire work that has been purchased, borrowed or copied is a form of plagiarism. So, also, is the inclusion of a single, unacknowledged sentence that has been copied from another source. Indeed, the incorporation of ideas and concepts of others which have not been acknowledged with proper citations constitutes plagiarism, as does the unacknowledged paraphrasing of outside sources. The practice of submitting a single piece of work for credit to more than one course is as serious an impropriety as plagiarism. Double submissions are occasionally permitted when a student wishes to undertake a particularly demanding project and where both the instructors of the courses involved agree that such an arrangement is suitable.