Plagiarism 

My Plagiarism Policy

All students who commit plagiarism, intentional or accidental, will face the following consequences:

• GRADING PENALTY: The student will receive a zero on the assignment. This assignment may not be made up.

• DOCUMENTATION: The student will have a non-disciplinary write-up about the incident that is formally documented in SchoolTool. If they were to plagiarize or cheat in my course or another course, consequences would be elevated.

• REMEDIATION: The student will complete coursework about plagiarism to demonstrate that they understand what it is and how to avoid plagiarizing in the future. 

• REFLECTION: The student will write an email to me (and CC'ed to the Dean of Students) that reflects on the incident. In the email, the student will: how they plagarized; why they plagiarized; what they have learned from the incident; how they will ensure they do not plagiarize in the future. This email will be forwarded to their parents/guardians. 

What constitutes plagiarism? 

The following information is from The Office of the Dean of Students at Bowdoin College. Please note that even if plagiarism occurs due to a misunderstanding, ignorance, or forgetfulness, it is still plagiarism. 

The Common Types of Plagiarism

There are different types of plagiarism and all are serious violations of academic honesty. We have defined the most common types below and have provided links to examples.

Direct Plagiarism 

Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone else’s work, without attribution and without quotation marks. The deliberate plagiarism of someone else's work is unethical, academically dishonest, and grounds for disciplinary actions, including expulsion. [See examples.]

Self Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes parts of previous works, without permission from all professors involved. For example, it would be unacceptable to incorporate part of a term paper you wrote in high school into a paper assigned in a college course. Self-plagiarism also applies to submitting the same piece of work for assignments in different classes without previous permission from both professors.

Mosaic Plagiarism

Mosaic Plagiarism occurs when a student borrows phrases from a source without using quotation marks, or finds synonyms for the author’s language while keeping to the same general structure and meaning of the original. Sometimes called “patch writing,” this kind of paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is academically dishonest and punishable – even if you footnote your source! [See examples.]

Accidental Plagiarism

Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or misquotes their sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups of words, and/or sentence structure without attribution. (See example for mosaic plagiarism.) Students must learn how to cite their sources and to take careful and accurate notes when doing research. (See the Note-Taking section on the Avoiding Plagiarism page.) Lack of intent does not absolve the student of responsibility for plagiarism. Cases of accidental plagiarism are taken as seriously as any other plagiarism and are subject to the same range of consequences as other types of plagiarism.

My Policy on Literary Study Guides: 

Study guides, like SparkNotes, LitCharts, etc., do have a place in our classroom. They may be used as comprehension aids, not analysis aids. You may use these sites to preview or review summaries of chapters, characters, and other basic recall elements.  Previewing and reviewing are excellent strategies if you struggle with comprehension or want to check what you recall and understood about a text. It helps you focus your mental energy on WHY and HOW things happen in a text instead of WHAT happens in a text. 

These sites, and others like them, are NOT to be used to develop "your" analysis of a literary work. That is plagiarism; you would be taking someone else's ideas and presenting them as your own. I want to know what YOU understand and think about the text. If you are stuck, you need to ask me, as your teacher and guide, for help. 

Be wary of the resources you consult for literature help; many are not credible. Do not use anything other than the sites listed (and other sites I may present during a unit).

My Policy on AI:

AI is not acceptable and its use on assignments is plagiarism.