Speaker 1: Well, hello there, and welcome to another episode of Village School Public Service Announcements. In today's episode, we are going to be looking at the wonderful world of academic honesty. Middle school me, what you got there? Oh, just some things I've been working on for school. Oh, that's great. Can I see them? Sure. Let's see what we have in here. Oh, this is my novel for English class. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Middle school me, I don't think you wrote this. I think this is from a book by Charles Dickens. No, I wrote it. See, it's in my handwriting. Right there. Okay, well, what else do you have? Let's see. Oh, here's some scientific formulas I've come up with. I think you'll find they're pretty advanced. Middle school me, you did not come up with E equals MC squared. That's Albert Einstein. I don't even think you know what that means. What? I do too know what that means. And what's that? Oh, this is just a little side project for art. This one's definitely mine. See, there's my signature. Okay, that's enough middle school me. Don't you know that what you're doing is called plagiarism? Plagiarism? What's that? Well, it can mean different things to different people. Why don't you go ask and see what other people have to say? So middle school me, what did you learn? Well, plagiarism is taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. It's not using your own original thoughts to express what you know. That's great. Hey, what are you listening to? Oh, it's the song I wrote. I call it Beethoven's Follies. I plagiarized it. Middle school me, have you learned anything? Yes, I learned what plagiarism is and how useful it is when you need to finish a project. Ah, okay. Well, now you need to understand that plagiarism is wrong. When you plagiarize or copy a friend's work, you're stealing their intellectual property. Intellectual property? That's not a thing. Actually, it totally is. Your thoughts are unique to you. You own them just like you'd own a cat or a game or a cheeseburger. They're your property. Claiming an idea is yours when it's not is like stealing, but with ideas. Like a thought burglar. Exactly. Now, plagiarism comes in a bunch of different forms. Some of them are intentional and others are unintentional. Let's break them down. Intentional plagiarism includes copying your friend's work or assignment, copying and pasting text from a source on the internet without giving credit, or buying or borrowing someone else's paper. Unintentional can be excessive quoting, using careless or minimal paraphrasing, and failing to cite a document correctly. Do you understand now, middle school me? I have no idea what any of that means. Well, this is going to be a little harder than I thought. Okay, we need to break these things down even further. Let's look at them on the plagiarism severity meter. Identity theft. To steal, copy, or purchase another person's entire document or part of their document and take full credit for it being yours. This also includes paying someone to do the work for you. So what does that look like? Let's take a look at this. Dramatic reenactment. Wow, this history assignment about the Revolutionary War is taking a long time. What do we have here? I found a website that says exactly what I want to say. It would be so easy if I just copy and pasted it into this Word document and told my teacher that I wrote it so that I'd have more time for cat videos. Pause. This is stealing and it's wrong. It's never okay to copy and paste anything into a document and claim that that is 100% your work. Next is wandering eyes, which is looking at someone else's test or homework and copying. This also includes asking someone for help on a test if that person has already taken the test and can tell you what questions appear on it. Let's take a look at this. Dramatic reenactment. Pause. This is cheating and it's wrong. A test or an assignment should be a reflection of what you know, not what your partner knows. Taking someone else's work doesn't help your teacher evaluate your knowledge, which makes it hard for them to help you grow and help you be a better learner. Cherry picking is choosing a few terms or phrases to change but keep the rest of the text or ideas from another person's work mostly unchanged and didn't give them credit. This is basically abusing paraphrasing. Here's another. Dramatic reenactment. There, now it's in my own words. Pause. This is a misuse of paraphrasing and it's wrong. Paraphrasing is the complete rewording of someone else's work but maintaining their core idea. Here's an example of what paraphrasing looks like. As you can see, the idea is the same but the wording is different. Paraphrasing can be tricky. Your teachers will help you develop that skill more. Last but not least is mosaic. Citing everything correctly but use very little of your own thoughts. Your paper is almost entirely quotes. Here's another. Dramatic reenactment. Finally, the perfect paper. I've cited everything correctly. Pause. Even if you cite everything correctly, if your paper is a hodgepodge of someone else's words, the only thing you did was an internet search to find their words. It's important to use their quotes as support for your thoughts, not a substitution for your thoughts. Man, all of this is really complicated. Maybe I shouldn't write anything ever again. Oh, middle school me. You just have to make sure you do it correctly. All you need to learn is how to cite. Oh, no, no, I know how to use cites. That's what got me in trouble in the first place. No, not cites. To cite. It's how you give credit to work that someone else has done that you'd like to feature or refer to in your paper. You're not plagiarizing if you give credit where credit is due. Well, okay, how do I cite a source? Oh, there are lots of ways to cite a source. Internal citation, which is citing a source in parentheses next to the quote. Introduction citation, which is something like according to Dr. Smith of Harvard and then telling what he believes. And footnote citations, which looks like this and can be done with Google. There are all kinds of formats, too. MLA, Chicago, and APA. Oh, my. I know, it's a lot, but relax. Your teachers are here to help you learn more. Well, all right, but what happens if I plagiarize again? Now that you're armed with the knowledge of what plagiarism is, why it's wrong, and how it can be voided, there will be some consequences. If you are caught plagiarizing the first time, you will receive a warning on plagiarism and parent notification, as well as a requirement to redo the assignment. If you are caught plagiarizing a second time, you will receive partial credit with the redo, lower grade for the work, lower life skills grades, and a parent notification. If you are caught plagiarizing for a third time, you will receive a zero for the work, a lower life skills grade, and a parent conference with the directors. Any further offenses of plagiarism could result in a meeting with the head of school. But why do we take it so seriously? Well, in the real world, if you plagiarize something, there are very, very serious consequences. Plagiarism can lead to destroyed reputations, millions of dollars, and even jail time. So yeah, it's pretty serious. When in doubt, it's better to over-cite your source than to under-cite your source. Well, that concludes today's episode of Villa School Public Service Announcement's Academic Honesty. Remember, cheating is a choice, not a mistake. Villa School Public Service Announcement Academic Honesty Villa School Public Service Announcement Academic Honesty Villa School Public Service Announcement