Plagiarism & Cheating

It is perfectly natural that students use library books, magazines or the internet for personal research for an assignment. In fact we would encourage students to use these resources, but to do so with care. It is best to make your own notes on the things you read and then use your notes to create a piece of work that you have written.

If you quote directly any information which you have taken from books, magazines, the internet and/or other software programs, then it must be properly documented. This means the information must have quotation marks and a statement of the source of the information. 

We welcome students getting background information to help in their assignment work, what we do not want is work being given in that has been cut and pasted from other sources and then submitted as the pupil’s own. This is dishonest and unfair to both your teacher and fellow students. When you produce an assignment it must be entirely your own work unless you have quoted passages from elsewhere, and indicated with quotation marks what passages they are.

Unfortunately we have seen a number of cases of plagiarism and cheating going on amongst a small number of students, and because of this we need to clarify exactly what we should do in these circumstances.

Firstly, we need to make clear what we mean by the terms plagiarism and cheating.

• The use of ideas or thoughts of a person other than the writer (or of an AI tool) without acknowledging this fact.

• The use of direct quotations or of materials paraphrased or summarized without proper acknowledgement.

• The submission of an essay or an assignment that has been written in part or in whole by someone else.

• Handing in work that has been obtained from the internet (or from any computerized source) with or without minor modifications as if it were your own work.

• The buying or selling of essays, assignments or tests/exam questions.

• The submission of the same piece of work in more than one course or in the same course (without the permission of the teacher).

• The preparation and/or writing of an assignment by someone other than the name on the work.

• Allowing your essay or assignment to be copied by someone else.

Teachers are familiar with the writing styles of their students and will therefore be able to identify attempts at plagiarism or cheating.

Incidents of plagiarism and cheating will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

One or more of the following steps will be taken:

• The teacher will interview the student.

• The student will be asked orally to defend the written assignment, including answering questions about content, ideas and resources.

• The student’s parents will be contacted.

• The school Management will be informed.

• One or more of the following sanctions will be imposed depending on the seriousness of the offence and on whether it is a repeat offence:

• • Written warning.

  • The mark 0 for the assignment 

  • Detention 

  • A replacement assignment 

  • Suspension or expulsion

How to quote from the internet

 “Several other authors obviously influenced William Golding in his creation of Lord of the Flies. His references to Coral Island and the use of the names Jack and Ralph are both derived from Robert Ballantyne's Coral Island.  Golding, however, held a much more negative outlook on human nature, which he expressed in his works, beginning with Lord of the Flies.” 

“Socrates is often a character in the dialogues of Plato.  How much of the content and argument of any given dialogue is Socrates' point of view, and how much of it is Plato's, is heavily disputed, since Socrates himself did not write down his teachings; this is often known as the Socratic Problem.  However, Plato was doubtless strongly influenced by Socrates.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato