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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
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
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
BEHAVIOR, 330-343.
Garner, B. (2017, 1 1). How does ethics institutionalization reduce academic cheating?
George Mason University. (n.d.). The George Mason honor code statement. Retrieved from
https://oai.gmu.edu/mason-honor-code/full-honor-code-document/