In the Department of Romance Languages at Penn, we have had to deal with an increasing number of cases of plagiarism (notably cutting and pasting from the Web) as well as inappropriate use of outside help (from friends and tutors). All too often, when an instructor spoke to a student about work that was clearly not the student’s own, the student would claim to not realize that a particular practice constituted plagiarism or academic dishonesty.

In order to address the issue, we put together this Guide to Academic Integrity. All instructors go over the document in detail during the first week of classes, and the document is posted on the Blackboard site for the course.

As a result, instructors feel more comfortable dealing with cases of academic dishonesty more firmly, since students can no longer claim lack of knowledge or understanding of our policy.