The following academic policy is quoted directly from the
2017-2018 St. Xavier Student Handbook.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a form of cheating. Plagiarism is a serious form of academic dishonesty. What is plagiarism? Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s ideas as if they were your own. It occurs when you:
Copy the actual words or work (computer program, graph, illustration) of another without giving credit to the author
Use ideas, information, or even a pattern of organization without giving credit to the author
Warning! Substituting a few of your own words or modifying the program/graph/illustration do not make it your work. You still must give credit to the author. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the “rules.” Ignorance is not a valid excuse.
How do you give credit to the author?
For direct quotes credit is given by using quotation marks around the words that have been taken from your source and indicating through endnotes/footnotes where each can be found.
For paraphrases/computer programs/graphs/illustrations, credit is given by indicating through endnotes/footnotes where each can be found.
When citations are not required: If you use facts that are found in a source but are also common knowledge (i.e. George Washington was the first president), you do not need to cite them. (When in doubt, cite.)
Teachers may require students to submit their written work to a service selected by the school that compares students’ written work to texts stored in the service’s database. First, the service advises students about significant similarities between their written work and the texts in its database. Students have an opportunity to rectify the identified possible plagiarism before submitting their work to their teachers. If students submit their work to their teachers without rectifying it, the service will notify the teacher about the possible plagiarism. By their signatures affirming their agreement to abide by the provisions of this handbook, each student and his parents or guardians grant St. Xavier High School the right to release a copy of the student’s written work to the service described in the preceding paragraph; grant this service the right to keep a copy of the student’s work; and grant this service the right to make a copy of the student’s work in order to illustrate similarities between the student’s work and someone else’s work.
When to Cite?
How to Cite?
(you will need password - hint: StX______)
How to double check yourself?
If you...
then you have intentionally plagiarized. These are very serious issues of academic integrity.
According to studies posted on Plagiarism.org, nearly 60 percent of U.S. high school students have admitted to plagiarizing.
http://www.plagiarism.org/article/plagiarism-facts-and-stats
Many of these incidents did not stem from a student's willful decision to cheat. Some resulted from:
PLAGIARISM MAY NOT BE INTENTIONAL:
"Plagiarism or memory glitch?"
American Psychological Association article on crytomesia
by Siri Carpenter
Whether a student intends to plagiarize or not, plagiarism reflects on their academic integrity and can result in serious consequences.
When the Internet revolutionized education, plagiarism climbed to epidemic proportions on the high school and college levels. Professional careers have also been ruined when plagiarism is viewed as a combination of fraud and theft. The New York Times Learning Network article "Skills and Strategies: Understanding Plagiarism in a Digital Age" by Anderson and Schulten probes this complex issue.
What Can I Do to Prevent Accidental Plagiarism?