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How big a problem is academic dishonesty at Grinnell?

According to the College Registrar, the numbers of cases brought and students found guilty of academic dishonesty have been as follows:

How can we talk about owning ideas? Aren't ideas part of the culture, part of all of us?

Good question. Indeed, some cultures view ideas differently than others. For example, in some cultures, in order to honor the words and thoughts of ancestors, students memorize long portions of the ancestor's exact words. In such a culture, being able to reproduce such words may represent a way of honoring the ancestor. And citation may be unnecessary because the culture at large understands where the words come from.

But remember that the culture in which you exist is twenty-first century academic culture. Academics do not regard it as an honor to be quoted without attribution; indeed, they regard it as a violation. Traditionally, academic culture regards words and ideas as able to be owned, and academic reputation depends in large part on owning a lot.

Doesn't the whole idea of ownership of ideas reek of capitalism?

Well, yes. The language of "stealing" "crediting" being in debt, and "owning" ideas relies heavily on capitalism for its imagery. Before the printing press made writing capturable, words, stories, and legends were passed down in an oral tradition, where memorizing and reproducing were needed skills, and attribution was generally unnecessary.

But we live in different times, and ever changing ones. Ownership of ideas became important when the invention of the printing press replaced the oral tradition. In our present era, the Internet offers us new challenges to figuring out who owns ideas. In the popular culture, borrowing of words and ideas is a frequent topic of disagreement and discussion-whether of popular historians plagiarizing other sources; of the ethics of sampling music and lyrics; of the ethics of ghost-written "autobiographies."

While popular culture may dispute the notion of ownership, academia has firmly embedded that notion. Further, as a matter of common politeness, you should try to give credit to the originators of ideas, difficult though that task is.

How do I know what citation format to use?

Look at your syllabus. Ask your professor. If for some reason neither of these is an option, remember that at Grinnell, the following formats are common:

Sociology: American Sociological Association format
Psychology: American Psychological Association format
History: Chicago Manual of Style
English: Modern Language Association
Anthropology: Guidelines for Student Papers
Biology: Investigations Booklet

What is common knowledge? What has it got to do with issues of citation?

Common knowledge is information that is so well known and uncontroversial that there is no need to cite a source for it. For example, if you are writing about the arrival of Columbus at the North American continent, you could assume that the basic facts of this events are common knowledge. However, when you discuss the controversies involving that information, for example, whether Columbus was engaging in an exciting voyage of discovery or a cruel colonizing effort or some amalgam of the two, you need to cite your sources.

How do I know what is considered common knowledge?

By working hard, listening carefully, and reasoning clearly. As you study the material in your courses, particularly in introductory courses, think about whether a particular paradigm or view is expressed by several, is described as a common part of the literature, or whether it seems to be attributed to one person. Paying attention to sources should be part of your reading process.

Generally, introductory courses explain the assumptions of such disciplines; that is, they reveal to you both the arguments and the fault lines. As you learn more about the discipline and the questions it explores, you should begin to understand better what that discipline commonly understands and accepts.

Do I have to cite something that happened in class?

Generally, it's a good idea to keep track of where you learned things, so the default answer to this question is yes. Since you should take notes in class, you should note the person, the date, and the context in which a particular view was given. This guideline applies as well to blackboard or listserv discussions. Check with your professor for a definitive answer for each of your courses.

Do I have to cite myself?

If you published an idea previously (and in this context turning in a paper for a class may be thought of as publishing), then you should cite yourself when you use the same idea in a later paper.

Do I have to cite a newspaper article? A conversation with another person?

Again, on the general presumption that it's best to cite all your sources, the answer is yes.

If I'm getting a whole paragraph or couple of paragraphs from one source, how often do I have to cite the source? Is once at the end enough?

You should cite it as often as you need to in order to make clear to your reader where it comes from and whose idea it is. Think about being the reader of such a paragraph or set of paragraphs. How often would you have to see a source to know what the source of each statement is? Where would you as a reader like to have guideposts as to whose idea you are reading? The answer is probably more than just at the end of a paragraph or a set of paragraphs. Think about a reader asking constantly "Whose idea is this?" and arrange your citations so as to answer that question.

When I have a long quotation or paraphrase that comes from one source, what do I do if I put a new idea in the middle of it?

Keep in mind that, if you have an idea yourself that you put in the middle of those of the other author, the reader must be able to figure that out. It's a good idea to think about bracketing the sentences that represent the ideas of one source: that is, acknowledge the source both at the beginning and the end of the section.

If I download a paragraph or two directly from the Internet, can I just put it in quotation marks, cite the source, and use it in my paper?

Doing so may indicate that you have been honest in a technical kind of way, but it will also show that, as a writer, you have been lazy or careless.

What's the difference between citing and quoting?

Citing means acknowledging the source of the idea and indicating its location so your reader can consult that work. Quoting refers to using the exact words of another source in your writing. When you quote, you must use quotation marks or indention to indicate that the words are not yours, and you must also cite the source.

Why do some professors criticize my papers for using lots of quotations when others seem to like such use?

Some disciplines focus on language: others value ideas more than language. For example, if you are writing a paper for an English course, chances are that the material you will be analyzing will be a particular use of language. Therefore you will have to quote at least that piece of language under analysis.

On the other hand, if you are survey of the previous research for a biology class, chances are that you will spend your time paraphrasing the findings, and you will use few or no direct quotations, although you will of course cite your sources.

Why do different disciplines use different formats for citation?

The answer to this question has to do with what different disciplines value. You can see in the differences between systems of citation that different disciplines emphasize different characteristics of the sources.

For example, note that in the APA format, the date is listed in a much more prominent place than in MLA: APA puts the date immediately after the author's name while MLA puts it after the name, title, and publication information. This difference may indicate that the disciplines differ in their emphasis on when something was published: APA regards that information as more important than does the MLA