It is not Mistake not to Know but It is Mistake to Know What is Wrong.

To sum up the concept of academic integrity, it is to keep the promise, to follow the

rule in academic community, and guarantee the students’ right to protect their works in school

(George Mason University, n.d.). All the students who are beloning to George Mason

University have to agree with Mason’s Honor Code which indicates ‘No Cheat, No Steal, No

plagiarize, or No Lie’. By following this agreement, students can protect their own rights to

do academic works in safe without any infringement(George Mason University, n.d.). In the

Case #2, Monica is described that she has great passion in her major in G.M.U. However,

compared with her enthusiasm, she has some problem in her language and attitude. Due to

the habitual problem, she was pressed for time to prepare the assginment in EAP 505 course.

While she was doing the assignment, she found that previous assignment in other course is

almost same as EAP 505’s assignment. Thus, she changed the prior one a little bit and

submitted it. She got a good grade on that. Later on, her friend who takes the same class

recognized the fact that Monica reused other course’s material in EAP 505. In this case, there

are two main problems violating Mason Honor Code. First, she did cheating. Second, she did

self-plagiarism.

First of all, she used almost same material which is submitted to other course. She

might thoughs that it could be possible to use the thing which she wrote herself. Bradford

Barnhardt(2016) said that “The incidence and moral implications of cheating depend on how

it is defined and measured”(p.330). The definition of cheating could be variable depends on

the situation. In this case, she violated third subcategory, Duplicate use of a student’s prior

work, on the cheating in Academic Integrity. The reason why she broke the rule might be her

personal trait problem. She has felt tired due to the continuous contact with her home country
friend until late night and even sometimes until early in the morning. This should be

influential to her habit and it made her pressed for time. To avoid the violation of academic

integrity, first, she should have managed her time very well. Before submitting the

assignment, she had enough time to finish it. Even though she already knew that, she put off

the assignment until the last day of due. If she had done it in advance, she would have not

chosen such a wrong way. Second, she should have asked if she could use her prior work in

other course to EAP 505 course. Although she is from the different country, it looks obvious

that using one assignment in more than two courses is act of violation in academic integrity.

She also should have confirmed Mason honor code to avoid this situation. In orientation, all

we have heard of Mason honor code and we are asked to observe it.

Moreover, she also used the same material without any citation. In Mason honor

code, there is a definition of plagiarism. Mason honor code (n.d.) says that “It also includes

using prior work that has been submitted for credit or published in another venue as a new

submission without citation”(para. 6). The reason why she did plagiarism is same as first one.

Thus, she should be recommended to taking ‘Time-Management seminar’ which can give

some information about how to managing the time well and also some tool kit to practice

time managing. A lot of students are not accustomed to time managing. Thus, we should learn

about not only academic disciplines but also how to manage time to be successful in their

school life. The most interesting thing is that we can get to know about the order of priority in

our academic situation. As a result we can see the whole things that we have to do according

to priority at a glance and can avoid congestion or procrastination.

In conclusion, whether Monica had any intention or not, it is obvious that she

violated the academic integrity. Therefore, she should have be more cautious about Mason

honor code and if she had been careful about it, she would not have done cheating and
plagiarism. To remind Institutionalized system about honor code to the students is helpful to

reducing the cheating in university (Garner, 2017). Thus, university should mention about

honor code frequently in the middle of the semester. I agree with that some people can make

violation in their field when they are pressed for time. However, if I had enough time and if I

were well aware of Mason honor code, violating something will not happen. I found that I am

also doing homework in urgent. I will have a habit of doing everything in advance not at the

end of due date.

 REFERENCES

Barnhardt, B. (2016). The “Epidemic” of Cheating Depends on Its Definition: A Critique of

Inferring the Moral Quality of “Cheating in Any Form”. ETHICS &

BEHAVIOR, 330-343.

Garner, B. (2017, 1 1). How does ethics institutionalization reduce academic cheating?

Journal of education for business, pp. 29-35.

George Mason University. (n.d.). The George Mason honor code statement. Retrieved from

https://oai.gmu.edu/mason-honor-code/full-honor-code-document/