Academic Integrity, Copyright, Fair Use and Plagiarism
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity exists when students and faculty seek knowledge honestly, fairly, with mutual respect and trust, and accept responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions.
- Without academic integrity, there can be no trust or reliance on the effectiveness, accuracy, or value of a University's teaching, learning, research, or public service activities. ..UC Davis
This is a UC transferable credit course. In this course you are working at a level comparable to what would be required to pass an equivalent class at a UC. If you are copying something - say so. The original author has a right to the credit. That is what academic integrity is all about.
Direct quotes
It is tempting to just copy and paste the description of a site from information on the site. If you do this you must put it in QUOTES. Otherwise you are guilty of plagiarism.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism refers to using other peoples' words and ideas as your own, either verbatim or by close paraphrasing without providing necessary quotation marks and/or citations. If you quote or closely paraphrase material from the textbook, Internet or other material, you must use quotation marks if appropriate and cite the source.
Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic integrity and will not be tolerated. Many students are uncomfortable posting their own words but that is no excuse to copy the words of others and not acknowledging that these are the words of others.
If you are not clear on what plagiarism is, here are several references to good information and directions for proper citations.
Copyright and Fair Use
Copyright protects the creator or producer of a work. In general the originator must give permission, be credited, and in some cases compensated for the use and redistribution of their work. As a student, you have certain rights, too. This is known as Fair Use.
Research
Many of the assignments in this course require finding and discussing current web articles related to the current topic. You need to be able to find web resources that apply to the topics being discussed.
- Recommended Search Strategy: Analyze your topic & Search with peripheral vision
Citations
For this course, I need to know where you got your information. Did you make it up or did you get it from a reliable source? Did you get all the information from one place or did you include information from multiple sources? If some of the opinions were controversial, were they your own or someone else's. Citations in APA (preferred) or MLA format must accompany your research. Including citations is important and factored into the grade. The format is not graded but noted.
If you are considering transferring to a 4 year college, you will be expected to know how to write a formal paper with citations. There are at least 2 styles of citations - MLA and APA. These are usually "taught" and required in the transfer English courses.
There are lots of good reference books and online tutorials available. The DeAnza Tutoring Center or the library will be happy to help you learn more.
However, what I really want is your personal description of why YOU think this site is important. You are providing the link so others can go to the site and read the information there. Why is it worth my time to check out the site that you are recommending?
