Catalogue 2008 Book - Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

�POLICIES AND GENERAL INFORMATION�
STATEMENT ON STUDENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Student rights are ensured by faculty and the board of trustees, and these rights are
listed in the Bylaws, Faculty Manual, Student Handbook, and the Seminary Catalogue.
Student responsibilities are set forth in the same documents.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Academic honesty is essential to the spirit of Christian community in a seminary
environment. Such integrity is requisite to productive collegiality among students
and faculty as well as for genuine and creative learning. All members of Austin
Seminary are expected to practice academic honesty and to hold one another faithful
to this mark of scholarly inquiry. No form of cheating, collusion, or plagiarism will
be tolerated. Students who disregard the basic requirements of academic honesty by
any such acts are liable to course failure and possible dismissal from the Seminary.
Modern scholarship in most fi elds rests upon the work of many individuals,
depends upon a great body of common knowledge, and is highly dependent upon
the achievements of people who are no longer credited with them individually.
Nevertheless, research work, such as that represented by essays, projects, and term
papers, is expected to acknowledge indebtedness to the published work of others,
as well as to any unpublished sources.
When written work is submitted under an individual’s name, it is implied that
the ideas, form of expression, and supporting arguments are his or her own, unless by
footnote he or she acknowledges indebtedness to another for an idea, an argument,
or for the verbiage employed.
It is incumbent upon every writer to acknowledge her or his indebtedness fully,
in order to assist the reader to pursue the matter further, and in order to make clear
his or her own sense of obligation to others.
There are various forms of indebtedness in scholarly writing. General indebtedness
can be acknowledged in a prefatory note, in the bibliography attached to the work,
or in the body of the essay.
Particular indebtedness for materials such as quotations, phrases, ideas, and
sentences which originated with someone other than the essayist, must be indicated
in footnotes. Acknowledgment of indebtedness should disclose the exact source of
the material adduced.
All essays should be considered incomplete until a full bibliography of all the
sources used has been attached, including unpublished sources such as a professor’s
lecture, or an unpublished essay by the author herself or himself or by someone else.
All sources referred to in footnotes should be listed in the bibliography.
When a project or essay is being used to satisfy the requirements of two separate
courses, this fact must be clearly stated on the cover of the essay.
The Modern Language Association Handbook should be used to ensure that
footnotes, bibliographies, etc., are in adequate form to acknowledge all indebtedness
to the work of others. Faculty and students are referred to the MLA Handbook
(Chapter 2, Sixth Edition) for an understanding and examples of plagiarism.
Therefore, when a student at Austin Seminary submits an essay, it will be
understood that the paper, apart from the obligations indicated, is presented as his or
her own work and has been written with full recognition of the above standards.
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