Personal Ethics
Introduction
All institutions of learning usually give out specific rules and regulations for their students to follow in order to facilitate their smooth learning. Most of the regulations are characterized by dos and don’ts such that what is expected of the student in addition to what is not required is indicated. The regulations include the code of conduct during class sessions as well as conduct during examinations and other academic activities. The ethical conduct of students at all instances is outlined such that each student is expected to behave in the most appropriate manner to avoid punishments as well as penalties when they behave otherwise. Among the many rules are avoiding any case of plagiarism also called “academic theft” in addition to adhering to the most appropriate format stated by the instructor when presenting academic work. All this attributes are aimed at upholding the integrity of the learner so that he/she is able to achieve his/her goals.
Discussion
Personal ethics in Avoiding Plagiarism APA Tutorial
According to the instructions indicated in this tutorial, plagiarism is obtaining information from a foreign source then incorporating it into a personal assignment or essay. When such information is directly inserted into the text without paraphrasing it, the work is said to be plagiarized and a heavy penalty is associated with such events (University of Phoenix. 2007)Similarly, using other person’s words when writing academic work is also referred to as plagiarism and most instructors rarely grade such work (University of Phoenix, 2005).Therefore to avoid such heavy punishments, all academic work containing other people’s words should be paraphrased so as to make them appear original in addition to improving the quality of work.
Consequently, using direct quotes which are not paraphrased is also referred to as plagiarism hence there is need to be careful when using quotations. Some students argue that after citing the source of the information, the text ceases to be plagiarized but this is not the case as the wording will not change (University of Phoenix, 2005).As a way of avoiding plagiarism, a comprehensive understanding of the topic and foreign information is necessary so that a student is able to analyze relevant materials from other sources then seek the best way of incorporating it into the text. Similarly, a better understanding of the assignment is essential in making it easier for the learner to paraphrase the foreign work so that it fits into the context (University of Phoenix. 2007).
Personal ethics on APA Reference & Citation
Ethics in the APA style of writing indicate that the student should cite any other author’s work which is used in the text. In this case it is wrong when a student does not acknowledge the contribution of the author in his/her work. When citing book excerpts, the student is supposed to indicate the surname of the author, year of the books’ publication and the exact page(s) where the information is obtained from. This applies for direct quotes while the paraphrased quotes demand that the surname of the author and year of publication should be included. The page number(s) may not included as the student could have extracted the information from inconsistent parts of the book (University of Phoenix, 2005).
Similarly, journal articles require that the student includes the specific pages in the citations as the journal could be holding several articles. Citations which are composed of several authors are written in such a way that the first time the citation appears, all names are listed but subsequent citations require that only the first author is indicated (University of Phoenix. 2007).The APA code of ethics demand that after citing all the sources in the course of writing an academic assignment, the same citations should appear in the reference page. Therefore, students who compile a long list of references which are not reflected in the body of the text are violators of the APA code of ethics. Hence it is important to include only those citations which are present in the body of the assignment in the reference page (University of Phoenix. 2007).
Personal ethics in electronic reserve readings
Web sources usually include the authors name in addition to the year of posting although page number(s) are rarely indicated. The same case applies for newspaper articles as well as speeches given during a press release or forum (University of Phoenix, 2005).However, not all sources of information are academic as some instructors require that students use academic sites only. Examples of non-academic sources of information include Wikipedia which contains information which in not initially meant for scholarly activities. Some journals as well as newspapers also fall into the category of non-academic sources. Sites such as Google Scholar are regarded as academic and any information obtained there is meant for scholarly uses (University of Phoenix, 2005).
Conclusion
The student ethics are meant to provide guidelines to aspiring scholars so that they are able to achieve their academic pursuits without and discrepancies. Hence it is important for any focused student to understand the various regulations as well as ethical measures to avoid hurting their grades.
References
University of Phoenix, (2005), South California Campus, policies and procedures.Retrieved on June 17, 2010 from: www.phoenix.edu/…/maintaining-academic– integrity-online.html
University of Phoenix. (2007). Student code of conduct. Retrieved from AxiaCollege, GEN/105 on June 17, 2010 ‘” Skills for Learning.
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