Honesty is the Best Policy

Even if it seems like a small thing, academic honesty is taken very seriously by most if not all institutions. When we see a lifeguard along the beach, we trust that person to help us in an emergency. That relationship is based on trust, and trust is based on a person’s credibility. If a lifeguard doesn’t help when there’s danger, we stop trusting him or her. Without that trust, we might not visit that beach again, since it’s much harder to believe that we would be kept safe.

In the academic world, plagiarism is one of the worst things that a writer can possibly do. There are, of course, policies against plagiarism, and Del Mar College has its own formal academic process to address issues of plagiarism. However, plagiarism should not be avoided simply because of the academic consequences. It should be avoided because any academic writer should strive for the highest possible academic standards, instead of taking easy shortcuts.

Plagiarism is taken so seriously because it damages the credibility of everyone involved in the act of plagiarism. Certainly, the writer of the plagiarized essay suffers the most, but not simply because of the penalties involved. The writer is now no longer trusted to deliver honest and accurate research and educated opinions.

Without that credibility, any academic results of the essay are now open to skepticism and mistrust. This undermines the process of scholarly inquiry that is so necessary to advancing discourse and new ideas. An academic audience must, first and foremost, be able to believe that the writer has conducted research in good faith. Part of that lies in knowing what is a new idea, and what was simply borrowed from elsewhere. Plagiarism erodes the integrity of the academic process, and this should be avoided at all costs.

Plagiarism also undermines the credibility of the institution that the student writer represents. An assignment does not just reflect a grade. An assignment embodies your own academic credibility, much as it also represents the academic integrity of the institution that you’re writing for. Plagiarized work reflects badly upon others as well, from the instructor to the department to the College as a whole. Think not just on how your work affects your own credibility, but the credibility of others as well.

That having been said, it is perfectly acceptable to use outside sources as long as you’ve followed the process of crediting them. We use citation styles like MLA and APA to give proper credit to the work of others. Quote as much as you need, but remember that your sources must reinforce your own ideas, not speak for you or substitute for your own original thinking. When cited correctly, the credibility of your sources adds to your own credibility, because you have honored those sources while creating your own work of independent scholarship.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!