Faculty Policy on Plagiarism

	 	    (From the Faculty Guidebook)

	    One of the purposes of a college education is to develop 
intellectual honesty.  Consequently, plagiarism is considered a serious 
offense at Thomas College.  According to Webster's New World Dictionary, 
plagiarism is defined as "taking the ideas, writings, etc., of another and 
passing them off as one's own" (qtd. in "You May Be Guilty" 350).  
To avoid plagiarism, students should follow these guidelines:

	a. 	Acknowledge the source when the information is not 
common knowledge (Meyer 94).  Cite a source for facts you were unaware 
of prior to your research  (Spatt 372).
 
	b.	Paraphrase another writer's ideas by using your own 
sentence structure and word substitutions (Turabian 50) and indicate the 
source ("You May Be Guilty" 350).

	c.	Enclose a direct quote in quotation marks and document 
the source by placing an in-text citation (author's last name and page in 
parentheses) at the end of the quotation (Meyer 95).  If quotations are longer 
than four lines, indent the quoted passage ten spaces and eliminate quotation 
marks.

	At the end of the quotation, cite the source (Lester 115-16).  Avoid 
extensive quoting (Kennedy and Smith 83), because it may reveal that you 
have not mastered the material (Turabian 52).

	d.	Follow the paper with a "Works Cited" page that lists every 
source "referred to in your paper" (Lester 190).

	e.	Submit your own paper/project/computer program rather 
than someone else's (Kennedy and Smith 190).

	f.	Hand in a newly-written paper for each assignment unless 
permission to admit the identical paper is granted by your professor (Kennedy and 
Smith 190).

	Ignorance of these guidelines will not serve as an excuse for plagiarism.
The consequences of plagiarism will be established by the individual professor.

	Works Cited

Kennedy, Mary Lynch, and Hadley M. Smith.  Academic Writing. 
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:  Prentice-Hall Inc., 1986.

*Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers.  5th edition.  
Glenview, Illinois:  Scott, Foresman and Company, 1987.

Meyer, Michael.  The Little, Brown Guide to Writing Research
Papers.  Boston:  Little, Brown and Company, 1987.

Spatt, Brenda.  Writing for Sources.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1987.

Turabian, Kate L. Student's Guide for Writing College Papers.  
Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press, 1976.

*This is the standard guidebook for the college.