Plagiarism Policy

Chicopee Comprehensive High School & Chicopee High School

What is plagiarism?  Plagiarism comes from the root word plagiary, a word that has roots in Latin [plagiarius,  “kidnapper”].  While this meaning of the word is obsolete (i.e., no longer in common use), its implied meaning goes to the heart of what plagiarism is:  stealing and passing off as one’s own (the ideas or words of another), as Webster’s third New International Dictionary defines it. 

Plagiarism is theft of intellectual property - - stealing the ideas of another person and claiming those ideas as one’s own. 

Excuses for this kind of fraud range from “Everyone does it” to “Who’s gonna catch me?”  Neither excuse holds up in school or in legal battles that have to be settled in court.  Plagiarism is a serious offense, and students who plagiarize will receive no credit for the copied work. 

Examples of plagiarism include

• not properly citing data, statistics, and ideas presented verbatim (word for word) or through paraphrasing;
• passing off the entire text of another person’s work as one’s own original work;
• passing off large sections of another person’s work as one’s own original ideas;
• copying another person’s work (any work, including homework, essays, math problems, chemistry lab processes) whether that person be a student here or in another school;
• having someone else other than you make major revisions in the thoughts and analysis included in any work;
• If you are working together on a project, you may be permitted to share ideas; however, if you are working on a project outside of class, or if you have a take-home essay, math problems, or other kinds of assignments to do outside of class and the teacher has not give explicit instructions about working together, then you need to ask the teacher whether you can work on the assignment together.  If you do not have explicit permission to do so, and you do anyway, you are plagiarizing. 
• Cheating is plagiarizing.  Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to
  • Downloading music, graphics, images, movies, works of art from Internet sites
  • Copying, faxing, e-mailing, or in any way duplicating assignments that are turned in, wholly or in part, as original work;
  • Exchanging assignments with other students
  • Using any form of memory aid during tests or quizzes without the expressed permission of the instructors
  • Using a computer or other means to translate an assignment from one language into another language and submitting it as an original work
  • Giving or receiving answers during quizzes or tests
  • Taking credit for group work when you have not contributed an equal or appropriate share toward the final result
  • Accessing a test or a quiz for the purpose of determining the questions in advance of its administration
  • Using summaries or commentaries (Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, other similar on-line resources) in lieu of reading the assigned materials. 
  •  

(Note:  All the examples above are from a combination of sources, Chicopee High School and Manchester Essex Regional High School, North Hunterdon High School of Annandale, New Jersey, and the English Department at Chicopee Comprehensive High School.  All outside sources have given their permission to use the examples cited.) 

Plagiarism falls under the heading of violating Academic Ethics.  Students who plagiarize interferes with the assessment and feedback process that is necessary in order to promote academic growth.  Plagiarism defrauds the instructor with a false view of a student’s strengths and weaknesses and may prevent further instruction in areas of weakness and delay the student in reaching his or her potential. 

Plagiarism may lead to the following:

§         a student can be labeled a cheater;

§         the student’s participation in sports, student government, and honor societies could be jeopardized;

§         teachers may refuse to write letters of recommendation for students who plagiarizes can be denied scholarships or other kinds of awards.

How to avoid plagiarism: 

Ø      Ask your teacher for direction before, during, or after class if you have any questions about how to give credit to an outside source.

Ø      Allow enough time to write papers that require outside research. 

Ø      Downloading anything from the Internet and giving the source credit isn’t enough to avoid plagiarizing.  Students need to interpret what they use to support their projects.  Students need to do more than just present another’s work, give that person or site credit, and think that they’ve avoided plagiarizing.  Students need to read and examine what they are using, think about what’s valuable, and then offer their own insights into why the support is solid or not. 

Ø      E-mail the creator of the site.  For example, Josh Simpson is a local artist who has gained an international reputation for his sculptures and creations in glass.  Simpson has a web site that includes images of his work.  Before incorporating any of these examples into a brochure, a person would contact the site manager (usually there’s a “Contact us” tab at the top of any web site page).  The person would explain why he or she wanted to use the images and ask if there was a limit on how many he or she could use in any one brochure (sometimes there are limits). 

Penalties for those who plagiarize: 

Please refer to the respective student handbooks for Chicopee Comprehensive High School and Chicopee High School associated with penalties for Plagiarism.

Return to Chicopee Home Page

Return to ELA Curriculum