Mill Valley Middle School

Plagiarism and Cheating Policy

 Students and parents need to be aware of the importance of academic honesty at MVMS. Academic honesty means not cheating, plagiarizing or using information unethically in any way.

 Plagiarism includes:

·        Submitting some one else’s work as your own, including that of tutors, friends, parents or siblings or paraphrasing without giving credit to the source.

·        Turning in purchased papers or papers from the Internet written by someone else.

·        Helping other plagiarize by giving them your work, even if you don’t think it will be copied.

·        Using someone else’s idea without giving credit to the original source.

 Note: You can use other people’s ideas and even paraphrase or quote their words, but you MUST give them credit. Use phrases such as “According to…,” and “In the book…” and cite ALL of the sources you got information from in a bibliography.

 Cheating includes:

·        Copying assignments that are turned in as original work

·        Trading assignments with other students, even if you don’t think they will be copied.

·        Using unauthorized notes or technology, such bringing notes into a test or using a computer program to translate an assignment and turning it in as your own.

·        Sharing answers before, during or after quizzes or tests. Students must be responsible for their own papers and make sure other cannot copy their work.

·        Using summaries or commentaries (Cliffs Notes, etc.) instead of reading the assigned material.

 How to avoid plagiarism and cheating:

1.      Plan ahead. Rushing to get your work done the night before a big project is due may make it more tempting to cheat or plagiarize.

2.      Be sure you understand the assignments. Don’t always rely on your friends for information about what is required.

3.      Don’t read someone else’s paper or homework before you do your own work. If you get any ideas from them, you would have to cite that person as a source.

4.      Make sure to ALWAYS cite your sources. This means saying where you got the information you are using. 

5.      Keep a list of the sources you use (including the author, title, publisher and copyright date) as you use them and make sure to note which information you got from which source. 

6.      When in doubt about what you need to do to avoid cheating or plagiarism, just as your classroom teacher or the library media teacher.