David is running out of time to complete his assessment, so he asks a friend, Sarah, for a copy of their work. David really likes the way Sarah has explained the content, and copies a few paragraphs.

Is this academic integrity or academic misconduct?

Question

David is running out of time to complete his assessment, so he asks a friend, Sarah, for a copy of their work. David really likes the way Sarah has explained the content, and copies a few paragraphs.

Is this academic integrity or academic misconduct?

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

In this scenario, David copies paragraphs from Sarah's work after asking for a copy and liking how it’s explained. This touches on the keys of academic honesty and originality.
Option 1: 'academic integrity' — This would mean representing someone else’s work as your own while upholding honest and ethical standards. The act described involves taking explicit material from another student and presenting it as part of David’s own work, which violates rules against plagiarism and academic honesty.
Option 2: 'academic misconduct' — This term encompasses violations of academic policies, including plagiarism, cheating, and unauthorized use of others' work. By copying paragraphs, David engages in plagiarism, which is a form of academic misconduct, because it misrepresents authorship and fails to give proper credit.
Why the second option is the more accurate characterization: the behavior directly contravenes established expectations for originality and citation. It involves reproducing someone else’s writing without attribution, which is a commonly defined misconduct in academic settings.
Why the first option is incorrect: while integrity is the overarching ideal in education, the described action does not align with integrity principles. Rather than demonstrating honesty and crediting sources, it shows a departure from those standards by presenting borrowed text as if it were David’s own work.
Additional nuance: policies on integrity typically require proper paraphrasing, quotation with attribution, or use of permissible collaboration, all of which are not observed in this case. The lack of attribution and the direct copying point clearly toward a misconduct category rather than integrity.

UTS College HELPS Academic Integrity Compulsory Quiz

David is running out of time to complete his assessment, so he asks a friend, Sarah, for a copy of their work. David really likes the way Sarah has explained the content, and copies a few paragraphs. Is this academic integrity or academic misconduct?

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