According to the SAU Student Handbook, "plagiarism is the act of taking and/or using the ideas, work and/writings of another person as one’s own. According to the SAU Department of English, plagiarism can be defined as even taking the general structure, or argument of a person and passing it as one’s own. To even leave off one set of quotation marks on a quote, and not cite the work is plagiarism. To list a single paragraph, sentence, or turn of a phrase, without citation, is also considered plagiarism. Also, not only is plagiarism unethical, it is illegal as well.

With regard to incidents of plagiarism, the University requires me to do one of the following:

1. Rewrite the item; possibility of lowering the grade as well.
2. Give the student a failing grade on the item
3. Give the student a failing grade on the item, and file documentation of the offense in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs — permanent record.
4. Give the student a failing grade in the course, and file documentation of the offense in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs — permanent record.
5. Recommend University sanctions against the student, including disciplinary suspension, dismissal or expulsion from the University.

If the offense is recorded, then repeated, the student WILL be suspended, dismissed or expelled from the University.