Technical and Professional Communication

Academic Honesty Policy

This is simple, really. You cheat, you fail.

Actually, to be more accurate, this used to be simple -- in a traditional writing classroom, there were fairly cut-and-dried standards and definitions of "cheating" and "plagiarism." Interactive collaborative writing environments like the WWW, which we will be using in this class, challenge the very foundation of what we mean when we talk about "owning" a text. We will spend some time in class discussing the "rules" for linking and borrowing code on the Web, and issues surrounding ownership of writing in public electronic forums, and how this relates to professional communication in the workplace.

I assume that you are in this class in order to learn how to better communicate through writing in professional situations. Communication is an individual process; we gain no real benefit from "borrowing someone else's style" -- or text, for that matter.

That said, the fact remains that cheating is a cancer in education; if you plan to engage in any misrepresentation of work as your own, I suggest you drop this class immediately. The work you submit for this class must, unless you are explicitly given permission otherwise, represent your own words, thoughts, research, and organization. If you use another person's work without crediting the author, you will receive a failing grade for the course and be referred for Institute-level disciplinary action. You will at times collaborate  on certain projects, and we will discuss in class the differences between collaboration and plagiarism, and between citation and plagiarism.

For further information about academic dishonesty, see the Rensselaer Handbook.