Your work should be your work, not
a friend’s work, not the result of
collaboration, and not cut and
pasted from printed or electronic
sources.
Be honest in your work.
Maintain your teachers’ trust in
you.
Unless otherwise stated, work you do for your
teacher should involve you and the piece of
literature. Our goal is to teach you to read for
a deeper understanding of the work and the
author’s craft. We need to see what you think
and we need that work to be yours. If you
show us someone else’s work, then we will
have a false sense of your abilities and you risk
not getting the help that you need.
Sites that are not acceptable include, but are not
limited to, the following:
• Sparknotes
• Enotes
• Book Rags
• Cliffnotes
• Gradesaver
• Yahooanswers
If you are required to do research, do the
following to prevent committing plagiarism:
•
•
•
•
Take careful and complete notes while you read.
Document the source, page, ideas and wording.
Start your project early and work in stages.
Don’t delay or procrastinate; you will compromise the quality
of your work.
• Use the resources, both printed and electronic, that your
teachers and the librarians show you.
• Create a bibliography as you read, take notes, and draft your
research paper.
Remember, honesty, truth,
integrity, and respect are
qualities that you want to
cultivate.
Plagiarism is defined as
• representing someone else’s work as your
own work.
• representing someone else’s ideas as your
own ideas.
• rewording or paraphrasing a source but not
giving credit.
• failing to give credit for an idea or wording to
the correct source.
Source
Gilmore, Barry. Plagiarism: Why It Happens.
How it Prevent It. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann, 2008.