Transcript What is Plagiarism? - La Jolla High School

I Won’t Cheat
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Why is cheating an issue?
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The following presentation will review the
Academic Honesty Policy at La Jolla High
School.
What is Academic
Dishonesty?
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What is it?
What is cheating?
What is plagiarism?
How can we prevent it?
What are the
consequences?
Definition
Academic Dishonesty:
Acts of academic dishonesty include, but
are not limited to, the following:
Cheating—distribution
or use of external assistance
relating to an examination, test, quiz, homework, project,
or the like, without express permission of the teacher.
Fabrication—falsification or invention of data, citation, or
other authority in an academic exercise.
Plagiarism—use of another's ideas, words, or work as
one's own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the
misuse of published material, internet material, and the
work of other students.
Theft or Alteration of Materials—unauthorized taking,
concealment, or alteration of student or teacher materials.
Is This Plagiarism? Cheating?
“Hey, did you do the homework in
Mr(s). X’s class? Can I borrow it?”
“Sure.”
Then the student copies the
answers and turns them in as his/her
own work.
Is It Wrong?
Copying from Another Student
This is the most difficult form of cheating for
teachers to catch. If the answer for #1 on
the homework is A, or 4x, or George
Washington, or anything that is a short
answer, it is difficult for the teacher to
determine if a student found the answer by
doing the work, or by copying it from a
fellow student.
Did These Students Copy?
Did They Copy?
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Go back and take a look at the “fill in the
blank” at the end of line 3; it’s the part
about the length and form of new shih
poems.
How Can You Prevent It
Listen to your teachers when they tell you:
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don’t share your work.
if you copy, then you are not doing the
brainwork…the brainwork is why you were given the
homework to do in the first place.
the information you did not process (because you
copied) will most likely show up again on a test
you will have to study more because you have spent
your study time copying instead of doing the
brainwork from the beginning
What Teachers May Do…
Teachers can design a variety of assignments so
the majority of your homework assignments are
not short answer or fill in the blank. Teachers can:
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ask students to show work.
grade worksheet or short answer types of
assignments for credit only, then, to ensure students
know the material, give a homework quiz asking
students to answer questions relating to the
questions that they did earlier on their homework.
confront students that teachers see copying
homework while sitting with their friends before
school or before class. Give the copied work to the
student’s teacher.
A Student Example
The prompt asked the student to pick a
place he had visited, ask a question about
the place, and research the answer.
 This student selected the Coliseum in
Rome, but the title immediately indicates
that he has not answered a question
about the Coliseum; he has not
responded to the prompt completely.
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Is This Plagiarism?
Is It, or Not?
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The introduction is a combination of facts
that appear to be written in his own words.
He gives credit to two sources.
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But, does he answer a question about the
Coliseum?
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And what does TurnItIn.com have to say
about it?
TurnItIn.com
Here is the same paper, with the
colored text from TurnItIn.com
that indicates that text has been
taken from another source.
 Different colors mean different
sources (each has a number).
 Overall, the report indicates that
69% of the paper was copied
from Internet sources.
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Know the Assignment
Many writing assignments ask questions
about a topic--it is more difficult to find a
paper on the Internet about “What kind of
engineering did it take to have real sea
battles at the Coliseum?” then it is to find
one about the Coliseum in general.
Therefore, it is better to write the
assignment to match the prompt--and it’s
the right thing to do.
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Be a Writer!
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If you pull facts from various sources,
arrange them in your order, rewrite
them in your words, give credit to your
sources, use direct quotes when
appropriate–then the paper becomes
your own thoughtful work, and not a
copy of someone else’s thought
process.
Example of Sentence Combining
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Practice finding a few facts then combining
the facts into a sentence that you write on
your own.
Actors often had to be creative with
special effects in plays during
Shakespeare’s time, hiding bladders
full of pig’s blood under their costumes
to create bloody fight scenes, or rolling
cannonballs to sound like thunder
(Martin).
Note Taking
Take notes. Writing one fact per notecard,
etc. forces you to paraphrase and creates
fewer chances for you to lift chunks of text
(plagiarize) from your sources.
 Notecards also allow you to combine facts
from various sources. You can
shuffle/organize the notecards by topic,
which is a great way to use synthesis.
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More about Plagiarism
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Plagiarism can occur in situations beyond
writing.
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The College Board has a definition for
plagiarism regarding copying artwork:
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“It is unethical, constitutes plagiarism, and
often violates copyright law to simply copy
a work of art (even in another medium)
that was made by someone else and
represent it as your own."
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The College Board can give a score of 0
on a plagiarized AP art portfolio.
Submit Your Own Work
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A student plagiarized art submitted for an
AP art portfolio in 2012-2013 at another
school, and you can imagine the
embarrassment when this copied work
appeared in the yearly AP Poster, and the
actual artist recognized the original.
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The moral of the story: Always submit
your own work.
What Can Students Do
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This advice is
posted in most
English classes
and in the library.
The poster
advertises a book
by Barry Gilmore
about plagiarism.
Consequences
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In all instances of academic dishonesty, a
referral will be placed in the student's
cumulative folder and parents will be contacted.
Any student guilty of academic dishonesty will
receive a zero on the affected activity. That zero
may not be dropped from the record and will be
averaged into the student's grade. Upon a
second instance of dishonesty in either
semester of that course, the student will be
removed from that course and receive a final
grade of F/U.
Beyond High School
Plagiarism has consequences beyond
high school.
 If you are severely disciplined for
committing plagiarism more than once, it
will affect any recommendations for
college that teachers and counselors at
this school may write for you.
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College Application
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On the Common Application for college,
you must answer the following question:
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“Have you ever been found responsible
for a disciplinary violation at any
educational institution you have attended
from the 9th grade…related to academic
misconduct or behavioral misconduct that
resulted in a disciplinary action…?”
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If you never plagiarize, then you don’t
have to worry about how to answer that
question on your college application.
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Also, keep in mind that if you dare to
plagiarize once you get into college, when
you’re caught, you will most likely be
expelled from college.
Plagiarism…Conclusion
Ask the teacher’s expectations for an
assignment if you are unclear.
 Learn the consequences and expect to be
held accountable. Don’t plagiarize.
 Practice combining/synthesizing facts and
asking research questions; use your own
words, thoughts, and conclusions.
 Note: Here at LJHS we use MLA format
for research papers.
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Presentation by Carole LeCren
La Jolla High School
September 2009
(updated September 2014)