On the Meaning of Honor in Writing Papers

11 September 2002

Joseph S. Lappin

for Psychology 115W, "Human Knowledge Acquisition"

Your days as a member of the Vanderbilt community are still few, but already you have heard several times about Vanderbilt’s Honor System. You have been told that the Honor System is an important part of Vanderbilt traditions, and you have been given information about the Honor Code and the Honor Council. Many of the ideas below may seem familiar, but they merit attention once again as you plan your first paper for this course. Perhaps your first paper is a useful opportunity to consider the meaning of honor; perhaps it is the first opportunity to use this concept. Perhaps the concept of honor is also especially relevant to this course on “Human knowledge acquisition” because honor, truthfulness, and trust are critical to the processes for acquiring knowledge.

Some years ago, in a talk to a freshman class at Vanderbilt, then-Chancellor Alexander Heard made the following remarks about the value of honor:

“At Vanderbilt, as I have said before and as you may hear me say again, our first concern is the human intellect, but our ultimate concern is the human being. If we had to make a choice among human values we would choose Honor over learning, over skill, over understanding. Our concern for Honor — for integrity (honesty, accuracy, logic) — extends beyond the classroom to all things students do.”

(from the Vanderbilt web page on the “Faculty Guide to the Honor System”; http://www.vanderbilt.edu/HonorCouncil/f01.htm)

Why should honor be placed above other basic values of the Vanderbilt community? A brief answer is that honor — honesty, integrity, accuracy, reason — is crucial to the vitality of our community, vital not simply to the Vanderbilt community but to democracy in general. Perhaps it is fitting to reflect on the meaning of honor today, on the anniversary of the dramatic events a year ago that have challenged American democracy. The development, nourishment, and exchange of ideas, the encouragement and celebration of creativity and discovery, the evolution of knowledge and the correction of misunderstandings, the evolution and maintenance of equitable and effective public policies, the resistance to tyranny and oppression — all of these democratic processes require honesty and honor in our interactions with one another.

Another reminder of the fundamental role of honor in human affairs may be provided by the recent financial crises caused by dishonesty in the accounting reports of large companies. We see that when business statements are used to mislead and to disguise the financial operations of a company the damage may grow cancerously widespread. These financial disasters have reminded us of the degree to which the economic community at large depends on trust. We have understood that business and capitalism thrive on competition, but we are reminded that the sustainability of that competition and the sustainability of businesses, financial savings, and jobs depend ultimately on honor and trust.

Still another reminder of the crucial importance of honor may be found in the “Vanderbilt Community Creed” which was written and adopted by Vanderbilt students in 1997. This creed lists seven basic values critical to the Vanderbilt community: scholarship, honesty, civility, accountibility, caring, discovery, and celebration. Underlying all of these values is honor — honesty, integrity, accuracy, and reason. All of these values involve honesty and honor in our exchanges with one another — respect and honor for the ideas of others, and our own honor and integrity as implicit in our statements of what we believe to true. As the Creed states in its elaboration of the meaning of honesty, "Recognizing that dishonesty undermines community trust, stifles the spirit of scholarship, and threatens a safe environment, we expect ourselves to be truthful in academic endeavors, in relationships with others, and in pursuit of personal development." Related expressions of the pervasive necessity for honor may be found in the Creed's elaborations of the other six values.

How do these abstract ideas about the importance of truthfulness and honor apply to writing papers? Useful comments on this issue are offered by Chancellor Gee in his introduction to the "Faculty Guide to the Honor Code":

“Vanderbilt’s Honor System has been part of the University since 1875. It was born with the University, and remains part of our very soul. From the beginning, the Honor System has defined what Vanderbilt was intended to be, and it continues to define us to this day.

Our adherence to the Honor Code will determine what Vanderbilt University is and will continue to be — a community in which independent intellectual work will always be encouraged and protected. Our continued attention to the Honor Code communicates to our scholars not only that the ideas of others are worthy of protection, but that their own ideas are as well.

This is sometimes a difficult concept to convey to a young freshman, who may feel that much of the work she does in this early part of her scholarly career does not count, because no one besides her instructor will ever see it. That members of the faculty explain the philosophy behind the Honor Code is crucial to their students’ understanding of the Code. It is not a mere legalism or a trap to catch the unwary. It is a manifestation of respect — a respect that is paid not only to the work "protected from" the student, but also to the student’s own. This concept, perhaps, may be too subtle for a student to see at first, but we must emphasize it, as we explain the Honor Code to our incoming classes. They need to see that their work, too, is worthy of honor from others.

Students are no longer required to pledge their honor as "gentlemen" — our times have changed far beyond that — but the ethical underpinnings of that ideal should remain constant. Students pledge their honor as scholars, as active minds with their own integrity. They act and work with respect and understand that others will have the same respect. Without this understanding and trust, Vanderbilt University could not function as a community.”

(from the Vanderbilt web page on the “Faculty Guide to the Honor System”; http://www.vanderbilt.edu/HonorCouncil/f01.htm)

How, then, does one's 'honor' apply to a paper? The basic principle is simply this: A paper should express the truth as well as one can tell it. Our descriptions of events may be mistaken; our reports of others' ideas may be incorrect; our reasoning and our conclusions may be flawed; and our opinions and beliefs may reflect incomplete knowledge; but regardless of these shortcomings that never can be fully eliminated, we can and should always aim to tell the truth as best we understand it. Indeed, truthfulness is all the more important because we may be mistaken. Our mistakes and misunderstandings can be minimized only by an open and honest presentation of alternative ideas, evidence, reasons, and so forth.

What, then is plagiarism? How does plagiarism constitute a violation of honor? Familiar as the words "Honor Code" may be at Vanderbilt, recurring evidence suggests that students sometimes fail to comprehend and appreciate how concepts of honor apply to their own beginning efforts at scholarship. Plagiarism is, unfortunately, too common a basis for reports to the Honor Council; and students charged with plagiarism too often appear to misunderstand how plagiarism applies to them. If one wishes to be honest in one's reports and accurate in one's reason, then might such honesty be served by duplicating as well as one can what another expert has written?

As indicated in the discussions above, however, honor also involves a respect for the ideas and expressions of others. When papers are submitted for a class (or to any other audience, for that matter), then they are submitted with the implicit understanding that we have distinguished between our own ideas and words and those of other writers. Regardless of whether one is being graded for the supposed originality of one's ideas, scholarship , civility, and honesty require that what we submit as our own words and ideas are indeed our own and not those of someone else. Clear citation of the words and ideas of another author exemplifies good scholarship. Using someone else's words and ideas as if they are one's own is plagiarism.

Plagiarism is also confusing to the reader. As a reader, one wishes to identify the evidence that supports an author's conclusions and opinions, one wishes to distinguish which are the conclusions and opinions of the author and which are those of some other writer. Adequate citations for the origins of ideas, opinions, and such are necessary for the reader's understanding.

More complete guidelines about the procedures for citation may be found in the Vanderbilt Student Handbook, which is available through the Vanderbilt web site.