PLAGIARISM Back to Home
Plagiarism (and other forms of cheating) is, to my mind, the most serious academic offense that a student can commit. Failure to study, skipping a class, doing badly on a test or paper--nothing comes even close to this as an academic crime. When you plagiarize a paper, you do a number of things that corrupt the academic process.
First, you cheapen the efforts of everyone who sincerely tried to do a good job. You treat them as fools who are too stupid to take the obviously easy way out, and you call all their sincere efforts into question.
Second, you treat your teacher as a fool. You tell him that his assignments are worthless, that his time means nothing to you, and that his class is merely an annoyance to be overcome while you garner the most possible points for the least amount of work.
Third, you shortchange yourself. It sounds idealistic and preachy, but it's true. You are in school to learn, not to get grades. Grades are merely the currency of academia, the way that effort is rewarded. We cannot give you a salary, as you will earn after graduation, but we can reward you with performance points. These can only be legitimately awarded for effort that is actually yours. After all, how would you feel taking a paycheck for someone who spent 40 hours a week working at a checkout counter while you watched TV? Plagiarism is the same thing.
Because I sincerely believe that the above points are true and valid, I am defining plagiarism below and outlining the penalties for those who commit it:
DEFINITION OF PLAGIARISM:
Quoting an outside source without either using quotation marks or providing a citation. Every single time that you quote ANYONE, even if only for a few words, you must put quotes around the words and cite the source. Otherwise, the only conclusion we can draw is that you meant these words to be taken as your own. That's stealing.
Using another's ideas without giving proper credit. If you say that it seems that there may be flaws in Einstein's Theory of Relativity regarding the behavior of subatomic particles, you had better cite your source. It's pretty obvious that, unless you're Stephen Hawking, that wasn't your original thought. Give credit where it's due.
Copying all or part of your paper from another student's work. Whether it's from an encyclopedia or from Bobby Smith in homeroom, a paper that's not yours is still a paper that's not yours.
Finally, remember this MOST IMPORTANT POINT!! You do not have to have copied the WHOLE PAPER for it to be plagiarized. A single paragraph is more than enough. Remember what we always tell you about true / false answers? If part of it is false, it's all false. That goes for your papers. After all, if you get an apple with only one worm in it, do you declare it a perfectly good apple except for the worm? I doubt it. To you, the whole thing is ruined and goes in the garbage.
PENALTIES FOR PLAGIARISM:
You get a zero on the paper with no possibility of making it up or rewriting it.
You must tell your parents what you did, and we must have a meeting with your guidance counselor.
If you are a member of or are applying to National Honor Society, I will make sure you get thrown out or are never inducted.
If I have written a college or employment letter of recommendation for you, I will write a follow-up letter stating what you did and asking that your applications be withdrawn from consideration.
Stroudsburg High School has passed a new plagiarism policy this year (2004-2005) that you must be aware of. Every offense is to be documented. The first offense, in any course, results in a zero for the assignment in question. The second offense results in failure for the whole quarter for the course in question. This, of course, could translate into failure for the entire year. Be aware of this policy.
THERE WILL BE ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS POLICY. I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE THE VALEDICTORIAN AND THE CITIZEN OF THE YEAR. IF I CATCH YOU, YOU'LL PAY.