FYCSG 05/06 REV2 - Faculty of Arts - York University

academic honesty
Academic honesty refers to the requirement that you, as a student in the Faculty of Arts, conduct yourself in an
ethical way. For example, you are expected not to cheat on an examination, either by obtaining a copy of it in
advance or by copying someone else’s answer. Similarly, you are not allowed to submit an essay that you have
bought or borrowed. Also, you are not allowed to have someone else write an exam for you. Cheating and impersonation
are obviously unethical and are treated as very serious academic offences. Equally serious is the falsification of an
academic document or a doctor’s note.
Plagiarism is another kind of academic dishonesty. Some of its forms are also obvious: you are not allowed to copy
out somebody else’s published words and present them as your own. Another form of plagiarism is failing to
acknowledge the use of somebody else’s ideas; specifically, you are not permitted to change the wording of an idea
and present it as if it were your own.
In your academic work, it is often essential that you do use other people’s words and ideas in the form of direct
quotations and paraphrases. The crucial factor is the proper use of citation. Generally, direct quotations need to be
acknowledged with both quotation marks and citations of sources, while paraphrases and summaries of published
ideas need to be acknowledged with citations. These general principles apply in all your courses, although particulars
of the methods for citing sources vary somewhat from subject to subject.
Another kind of dishonesty is submitting the same paper in more than one course. You can only do this if you
get written permission from the instructors involved. Normally, you are not allowed to “double-count” work,
but instructors may give approval, if you change the focus of the assignment and/or cover additional issues.
If you have questions or are in doubt about your use of sources you should:
1. discuss the specifics with your professor or tutorial leader,
2. consult a writing instructor in the Centre for Academic Writing at S329 Ross Building,
3. take the short non-credit course on documentation of sources offered by the Centre for Academic Writing.
For additional information about Academic Honesty, please refer to the Senate Policy which is published
in the Faculty of Arts New Students’ Handbook (2005-2006).