Using someone else’s ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as our own either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is literary theft. 

“Ideas or phrasing” includes written or spoken material, from whole papers and paragraphs to sentences, or even phrases, but it also includes statistics, lab results, and artwork. “Someone else” can mean a professional source, such as a published writer or critic in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal; an electronic resource such as material we discover on the World Wide Web; another student at our school or anywhere else; a paper-writing “service” (online or otherwise) which offers to sell you written papers for a fee; a tutor; parent, sibling, or other family members. Any time you use someone else’s work, you must explicitly give them credit using standard methods of attribution, either in the body of your work or as a citation which refers to a Works Cited page or bibliography. 

At Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, students are expected to express their ideas in their own words, using the skill they have been taught over the years. Students are also, however, encouraged to research the words or ideas of others. If students choose to use those words or ideas in their own writings, they are expected to give credit (in the form of parenthetical documentation and/or bibliographic citation) and thereby avoid the act of plagiarizing.  The temptation to plagiarize can be significant, especially with increased access to technological advances such as the internet and other computer-accessed sources of information. The consequences for plagiarizing, however, are not worth the risk.

At Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, a student caught plagiarizing or cheating will participate in a parent/administrator meeting resulting in a referral to the Dean’s Office, and a letter in their College Office file. In addition, the plagiarized work or test on which the student cheated will be assigned a grade of zero or fail.  This may seem harsh; however, the consequences of plagiarizing or cheating only escalate as students ascend the educational ladder (college, graduate school, etc.). Learn this lesson NOW!

Do not:

• Submit anything orally or in writing as representing your own words or ideas, when, in fact, it does not
• Participate in the plagiarizing acts of others
• Lend your work to, or borrow work from, another student 

Remember to:

• Provide formal credit for words or ideas taken from outside sources, or any source that is not you
• Provide formal credit for individuals who contribute to your work
• Use quotation marks when using another’s exact words
• Always question yourself as to your literary ethics, and ask your teacher if you are in doubt as to the validity of your work
• Be proud of the work you have accomplished and the knowledge that you have gained, particularly that you have done it on your own
   

Whether or not a student intends to plagiarize will not be considered as part of the plagiarism discipline process. Cardozo students are responsible to give appropriate credit to ideas that belong to others.

This contract will be held in the English/ENL Office; however, I understand that it is a schoolwide policy, and I will be held to the same standards and consequences in all subject areas.