Comments on: Shades of grey http://www.carleton.ca/fass/2012/shades-of-grey/ Carleton University Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:32:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2 By: johnosborne http://www.carleton.ca/fass/2012/shades-of-grey/#comment-824 johnosborne Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:41:07 +0000 http://carleton.ca/fass/?p=7226#comment-824 Thanks, Emma. Yes, I agree tha most matters of academic integrity are reasonably clear. But that is because the “rules” are clear, at least to academics. Sadly, most other aspects of life don’t have rules, or a least none that command universal agreement.

]]> By: Emma M. http://www.carleton.ca/fass/2012/shades-of-grey/#comment-823 Emma M. Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:04:14 +0000 http://carleton.ca/fass/?p=7226#comment-823 While it’s true that there are many shades of grey in a number of “moral” issues, I would still argue that issues of academic integrity are pretty clear cut: either the student produced original work or he/she didn’t.

Having spoken with a number of my professors in a number of departments who have also taught at other universities, I have learned that another common issue is that academic integrity policies are not enforced with any particular strength. When I was in high school (granted, that was 10 years ago), my class was told that if we plagiarized in any fashion on a university assignment, we risked being expelled from the institution and being banned from applying to any other Canadian university for a minimum of 5 years. However, the practice seems to be more like a slap on the wrist, with many students not even having to take a zero on the assignment. Perhaps the reason that students who are caught in such cases feel little more than annoyed because there are no consequences that will give the student a reason to stop and think before plagiarizing.

Thoughts?

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