Academic (dis)Honesty
Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else's words or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
Do NOT do it.
In academia, this practice will likely earn you a zero and worse.
In the professional world, it's considered a crime.
Oak Park High School Academic Honesty Policy
Protect the integrity of your own work, and please be aware of the formal consequences for academic violations per our school guidelines.
Review the Oak Park High School Student Handbook's policy below. (Text in parenthesis added by English Dept. for clarity):
A student is considered to be in violation of school policy on Academic Honesty when they participate in any of the activities included in, but not limited to, the list below:
Copying another student’s answers on a test, quiz, or homework, or supplying them to another student. Note: All assignments shall be considered to be individual assignments (and not worked on with others) unless specifically stated otherwise by the teacher.
Securing a copy of a class test or quiz beforehand or taking one to pass it on.
Getting answers or questions from students who took the test or quiz earlier.
Giving answers or questions to students who will take the test or quiz later.
Copying homework or any class assignment from any source (including the Internet), or allowing another student to copy one’s own work. (Plagiarism of any kind will be considered academic dishonesty).
Willfully falsifying data and presenting it as one’s own research or work.
Having unauthorized test aids and not following test or assignment protocol. Note: Any use of a cell phone whatsoever during a test may be considered a violation of the academic honesty policy.
Unsanctioned use of Artificial Intelligence technologies in order to represent that the contents of an automatically generated prompt result is the student’s original work is strictly prohibited. Students are cautioned to evaluate the soundness of their prompt results and warned that the final product remains their personal responsibility. Students in all regards are cautioned to utilize Artificial Intelligence technologies ethically and with the greatest degree of integrity. (If you aren't sure what is or might be allowed, ASK YOUR TEACHER).
The teacher’s professional judgment in consultation with administration shall determine whether or not a student has cheated.
It is the responsibility of the student to avoid any situation or action that may cause teachers to believe that this policy has been violated. The teacher will also determine whether the assignment involved is considered minor or major. While there are no degrees of honesty, we acknowledge that there are degrees of transgression and therefore recognize a progressive disciplinary policy whereby more serious infractions and subsequent violations result in progressively more serious consequences.
Advice for avoiding plagiarism
To avoid plagiarism, one must give credit by providing a reference to that source to indicate where the original information came from either with an attribution (as done, below) or an in-text citation (such as MLA). Using AI to generate text or ideas without citation or explanation is also plagiarism.
The way you, the author, give credit depends on the expectations of the teacher and the parameters of the assignment. If the assignment is formal/analytical, then an MLA citation would be appropriate. If the assignment is more casual, such as a blog post or slide deck, then an attribution with link is more appropriate.
Either way, when you use someone's words or ideas, you MUST give credit.
According to Vega García's "Understanding Plagiarism: Information literacy guide,"
"There are many ways to avoid plagiarism, including developing good research habits, good time management, and taking responsibility for your own learning. Here are some specific tips:
Don't procrastinate with your research and assignments. Good research takes time. Procrastinating makes it likely you'll run out of time or be unduly pressured to finish. This sort of pressure can often lead to sloppy research habits and bad decisions. Plan your research well in advance, and seek help when needed from your professor, from librarians, and from other campus support staff.
Commit to doing your own work. If you don't understand an assignment, talk with your professor. Don't take the "easy way" out by asking your roommate or friends for copies of old assignments. A different aspect of this is group work. Group projects are very popular in some classes on campus, but not all. Make sure you clearly understand when your professor says it's okay to work with others on assignments and submit group work on assignments, versus when assignments and papers need to represent your own work.
Be 100% scrupulous in your note-taking. As you prepare your paper or research, and as you begin drafting your paper, one good practice is to clearly label in your notes your own ideas (write "ME" in parentheses) and ideas and words from others (write "SMITH, 2005" or something to indicate author, source, source date). Keep good records of the sources you consult, and the ideas you take from them. If you're writing a paper, you'll need this information for your bibliographies or references cited list anyway, so you'll benefit from good organization from the beginning.
Cite your sources scrupulously. Always cite other people's work, words, ideas, and phrases that you use directly or indirectly in your paper. Regardless of whether you found the information in a book, article, or website, and whether it's text, a graphic, an illustration, chart or table, you need to cite it. When you use words or phrases from other sources, these need to be in quotes. Current style manuals are available at most reference desks and online. They may also give further advice on avoiding plagiarism.
Understand good paraphrasing. Simply using synonyms or scrambling an author's words and phrases and then using these "rewrites" uncredited in your work is plagiarism, plain and simple. Good paraphrasing requires that you genuinely understand the original source, that you are genuinely using your own words to summarize a point or concept, and that you insert in quotes any unique words or phrases you use from the original source. Good paraphrasing also requires that you cite the original source. Anything less and you veer into the dangerous territory of plagiarism."
Source: Vega García, S.A. (2012). Understanding plagiarism: Information literacy guide. Iowa State University. Retrieved from http://instr.iastate.libguides.com/content.php?pid=10314. [Accessed January 3, 2017]