Academic integrity scenarios

These scenarios represent reasonable examples of situations with which you might be confronted
during your academic career. What do you think? What would you do?

1. You’re in the third year of your degree and are given an essay question which is very similar
to one you were given last year in a different course with a different lecturer. You got a High
Distinction for your essay last time, so you decide to submit the same essay for the current
course.

Is this an issue? Why, or why not?

2. You’ve been asked to write a research report. You and your friend decide that it would be
good to share any interesting articles you find, so you set up a Google Drive to share these
with each other. You also regularly catch up to talk about your work, and discuss your ideas
with one another. A couple of days before the work is due, you and your friend decide to
proofread each other’s work, and you both notice that your responses are really similar
to each other, even though you hadn’t been looking directly at each other’s work while
writing.

Is this an issue? Why, or why not?

3. You’re writing a report on the common cold for a public health course, and you include in
your section on risk factors for the common cold that being outside in the rain and cold
weather can contribute. None of the journal articles or textbooks you have looked at say this
directly, but you decide to leave it in your work anyway as it’s common sense
and shouldn’t need a reference.

Is this an issue? Why, or why not?

4. Your friend is worried about their spelling and grammar, and asks you to proofread their
essay for them. You notice a lot of issues with prepositions and tense use, so you fix these
for your friend. There are also a few places where your think the sentences could be clearer,
and you think you know what your friend meant, so you fix these too.

Is this an issue? Why, or why not?