ACADEMIC HONESTY

Academic honesty is a set of values and skills that promote personal integrity and good practice in teaching, learning and assessment.  It is influenced and shaped by a variety of factors including peer pressure, culture, parental expectations, role modelling and taught skills. Academic honesty is very important at MacNeill Secondary School and any involvement in academic misconduct violates what we value as a learning community. 

PLAGIARSIM 

Learning and research includes examining and referring to the thoughts and writings of others; however, when another person’s ideas, words or creations are used, the author must be properly acknowledged. Writing responsibly is neither purposely nor accidentally misleading people into thinking someone else’s ideas or writing are your own. If you do, you may be guilty of plagiarism - the act of presenting someone else’s ideas as your own. In word for word plagiarism, a researcher repeats the exact words of a source without giving the necessary credit. Paraphrase plagiarism occurs when a researcher says basically the same thing as an original source with just a few words changed.  Spot, patchwork or mosaic plagiarism is taking ideas, phrases or paragraphs form a variety of sources and joining them together without carefully identifying each source. Lazy plagiarism is the result of sloppy note-taking or research shortcuts that include inadvertent use of another’s language, sloppy and inadequate footnoting or page references. Self-plagiarism involves a student reusing a writing assignment from one course to satisfy the requirements of another course, without the approval of the teacher.

Submitting work partially or completely cut and pasted from the Internet, written, created, or copied from another student, tutor, parent, friend, etc. as your own is plagiarism. Tutors are not permitted to write, re-write or significantly edit sections of work for a student. It is the student’s responsibility to avoid deliberate or accidental plagiarism and to verify all of his/her own writing.

CHEATING 

Cheating is a broad term that encompasses any attempt by a student to dishonestly or unfairly use, give or obtain information or material for a school test or assignment.  Some examples of cheating include:

• Unauthorized possession of a test or questions/details of a test or assessment before it happens. 
• Supplying/using information or work to/from another student in the knowledge that it may be copied or used, even if there is an expectation that the copy will be changed to conceal this fact. 
• Copying another person’s test and/or knowingly allowing another student to copy from your test. 
• Using unauthorized notes or equipment (including cell phones and other devices) during a test.
• Unauthorized communication of any kind during a test or assessment. 
• Being absent from a test or assessment and then consulting classmates before making up the test or assessment

THE CONSEQUENCES 

Academic misconduct will be dealt with in a serious manner.  If a teacher believes that there was intent and that the severity of the misconduct is significant, the teacher will involve the appropriate school administrator, and an investigation will occur. Parents will be contacted, and the student(s) will provide a written statement as part of the process to determine the causes and consequences of the academic misconduct.   The work in question may not be evaluated and/or students may be required to re-write the work.  Substantial or repeated incidences of academic misconduct can involve more serious consequences.