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Rules and Regulations: For Students

Writing Program Attendance Policy

The Writing Program follows the University’s policies and procedures regarding class attendance, which can be found at http://www.umass.edu/registrar/gen_info/class_absence.htm. Put simply, we expect our students to be present at, and come fully prepared for, every class meeting. Since this course emphasizes peer review, in-class writing exercises, and other activities designed to enable students to generate material and revise their essays effectively, the course cannot function if the students are not there. The Writing Program’s attendance policy allows students up to one week’s worth of absences with no penalty (that is, 3 meetings on a MWF schedule; 2 on a MW or TTh schedule). Grade penalties for unexcused absences in excess of that are laid out in the standard syllabus for College Writing. Students who accrue unexcused absences exceeding 25% of the semester’s classes cannot receive a passing grade for the course. Missing a scheduled instructor conference without a good excuse also counts as an absence if the conference is held in lieu of a class meeting.

Although the Writing Program does not have a formal policy on late work, each teacher should establish a policy. Your late policy should be stated clearly and in writing to all students at the beginning of the semester.

Although attendance appears to be a clear-cut issue—students are either in class or not—it isn’t. There are times when you will need to make exceptions to the policy, some of which are detailed below. You will need to use your judgment and offer students reasonable opportunity to complete academic work unavoidably missed. If you are unsure how to handle a specific attendance issue, discuss the problem with your Course Director, a Resource Center staff member, or any Writing Program staff member.

Exceptions to the Program’s Attendance Policy

There are certain University and civil rights guarantees that must supersede the Writing Program’s attendance policy:

Handicapped/Learning Disabled Students: If a student has been identified through the appropriate University agencies as handicapped or learning disabled, instructors should cooperate with whatever special requirements that office outlines for the student including absences that last beyond the week’s allotment and extended deadlines for papers. The Office of Disability Services will contact you at the beginning of the semester about a student’s special requirements.

Student Athletes: When students on University athletic teams are required to participate in games or meets that conflict with scheduled classes, you may not penalize them for the absence. However, student athletes are responsible for meeting all class requirements, and an extensive study hall/tutorial support network is available to athletes to help them make up class work they have missed. Please note, however, that when athletic events conflict with more than 20% of the scheduled meetings of a course, the student is required to drop either the course or the activity.

Student Absence for Religious Observance: State Law (Chapter 375, Acts of 1985) requires that the University excuse any student who is unable to attend classes or participate in any examination, study, or work requirement because of religious observance. It is, however, students’ obligation to inform their instructors in advance of the days they intend to be absent.

If you have any questions about these exceptions, feel free to discuss them with your Course Director or any member of the WRiting Program staff.

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

Most of our students are entering a new and far more complex world of writing and research than they have yet encountered. Therefore, it is not surprising that many do not fully understand how to correctly summarize, paraphrase, quote, and cite sources—key moves in academic literacy. Moreover, they often do not recognize the seriousness of academic dishonesty, or even what forms it can take: for example, why they cannot submit the same paper for different courses or hand in work done for a previous class without significant revision and permission of the instructor. Some of them don’t realize that fabricating sources is unethical; and many need to be taught how to take accurate notes in order to cite sources correctly and create a Works Cited page. Explaining your expectations for how students should use the words and ideas of others, defining academic honesty, and discussing proper summary, paraphrase, quotation, and citation practices are essential parts of your teaching duties in the Writing Program. Careful instruction about these issues can, in many cases, prevent plagiarism in your classroom and can help ensure academic honesty in students’ other courses at UMass Amherst.

Fortunately, Basic and College Writing are structured and designed in such ways that plagiarism is incongruent and unwelcome. Our focus on learning and process rather than grades and products can go far in preventing plagiarism. As Rebecca Moore Howard has put it, “Forget about policing plagiarism. Just Teach” (Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 16, 2001, B24). And your own example as a teacher and writer, modeling “honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility” can also be effective in these matters (see the Center for Academic Integrity at
www.academicintegrity.org/fundamental_values_project/index.php).

But we have a responsibility to talk about plagiarism with our students. To assist you in that task, plagiarism is explicitly addressed in the standard syllabus for College Writing; if you alter this statement in a modified syllabus, be sure to mention that students’ papers may be put through the plagiarism detection device Turnitin.com. It is only ethical to warn students that you may be using such a technological aid in assessing plagiarism. The Writing Program also includes a formal statement about plagiarism in the opening pages of our custom edition of The Penguin Handbook. The Penguin Handbook also includes an excellent chapter on plagiarism (ch. 21), in addition to sections on research techniques and MLA citation formats; these sections raise critical issues and should be assigned as part of your curriculum. Review the Program’s statement early in the course and refer to it again beginning with Unit II, as you call students’ attention to the sections on documentation in The Penguin Handbook, particularly with regard to examples of acceptable and unacceptable summaries and paraphrases, signal phrases, and techniques for integrating quotations into their own texts. More information about preventing and dealing with plagiarism can be found at www.umass.edu/academichonesty.

Just reading these materials together is probably not enough, though. You also need to have a discussion with your students about plagiarism. The Program recommends that you devote time in class to the following issues:

What is plagiarism? (e.g., failure to acknowledge the contribution of others to the facts, ideas, words, or form of one’s own writing)
What are some examples of plagiarism? (e.g., handing in work written for another course, forgetting to put quotation marks around words written by others, using someone else’s facts or ideas without attribution, cutting and pasting from the Internet without attribution, fabricating sources, using part or all of a paper written by another, etc.)
Why is plagiarism a serious matter? (because it’s dishonest and deceptive, unfair to other writers, disables readers who want more information, fails to take advantage of the appeal to authorities, etc.)
What is the University’s policy on plagiarism? (see website below – also listed in the standard syllabus)
How do teachers detect plagiarism? (in most cases with ease; Turnitin.com may also be used)
How will plagiarism be handled in this classroom? (talk with student; possible penalties range from failed paper to failure in course to worse; mandatory referral to Academic Honesty Office)
How to avoid plagiarism (don’t procrastinate, talk to your teacher, be scrupulously honest, quote and cite accurately even in drafts, etc.)

While plagiarism can occur at any point during the course, it is most likely to occur in Unit III: Adding to the Conversation, when students are often working in an entirely new way with others’ texts. You might therefore want to have the discussion above sometime early in this Unit, perhaps after the Unit III library visit but before the conference (at which time you can ask if the student has any questions about plagiarism). But it is important to talk about these issues throughout Unit III. The University expects students to become acquainted with these topics, as well as its definition of academic dishonesty, in College Writing. Make a note in your attendance record of the dates when you talked about plagiarism, and make sure you review this material with any students who were absent on those dates.

Occasionally, a student may submit a paper that appears markedly different in style, content, or level of analysis from other work that student has done. Particularly if such a paper is submitted without generative writing and/or previous drafts or if the preliminary drafts seem very polished and show only minor revision, there may be reason to suspect either deliberate or inadvertent academic dishonesty. Insisting that papers move through distinct drafts that include significant revision in each makes it far less likely that academic dishonesty will occur.

What to Do if You Suspect Plagiarism

Should you suspect that a paper may be plagiarized but are uncertain whether academic dishonesty has occurred, promptly seek assistance from your Course Director or a member of the Resource Center staff. If it appears that there is a legitimate case, you should meet with Pat Zukowski before discussing the charge with the student. Also, if you wish to check the paper using a service like Turnitin.com, please see Pat first. She can help you check the paper and also interpret what can be misleading results from such a service. Allegations of academic dishonesty are fraught with legal considerations. And any accusation, no matter how mild, may irreparably damage the teacher-student relationship. It is extremely important that we conclude the case is legitimate and strong before questioning a student.

Once we have determined that academic dishonesty has occurred, we need to bear in mind that the University takes such dishonesty very seriously and that it has a single, centralized, and uniform policy for the entire campus, with all charges, formal and informal, reported to the Academic Honesty Office. There are two options for dealing with a case of academic dishonesty: the Informal Resolution and the Formal Charge. The Writing Program hopes that most cases of academic dishonesty in our courses can be resolved through Informal Resolution since that procedure can help students new to college-level academic writing avoid having a formal charge of plagiarism on their permanent record. Informal Resolution occurs when the teacher and student meet to discuss the issue, and the student is willing to acknowledge the charge and accept the teacher’s penalty, which could range from re-doing the assignment to failing the course. The teacher then fills out an Informal Resolution Form. Note that the form must be signed by both the teacher and student and submitted to Pat Zukowski, who will send it to the Academic Honesty Board. Once the student signs the Informal Resolution, the case cannot be appealed. The form will be kept on file, but no report of the case will appear on the student’s permanent record, as long as the student does not exceed two such Informal Resolutions. A third Informal Resolution will result in the University calling a hearing and proceeding to formal charges.

Instructors please note: an “Informal Resolution,” in spite of the name, is still an official University process. Therefore, you MUST speak with Pat Zukowski before approaching the student about filing an Informal Resolution. ALL Informal Resolutions MUST be reported to the University Academic Honesty Board.

Should the student object to the charge, the penalty, or both, then the instructor must file a Formal Charge and advise the student that he or she has the right to request a formal hearing. Pat Zukowski will help you through this process because it is essential that the student understand his or her right to appeal, and a formal charge is more complex. Detailed information on the University’s Academic Honesty Policy can be found at:
http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/codeofconduct/acadhonesty/.