Academic
Honesty
a guide for TASOK
students and parents
Introduction
As an IB candidate school, we value
people who are principled. This
means we believe all members of
the community should act with
integrity and honesty, with a strong
sense of fairness, justice and
respect for the individual and
groups. This also means respect for
the work of others.
Academic Honesty
Academic honesty is an integral
part of the ethics of our school.
Copying the homework of another
student, knowingly allowing the
work of others to be copied, or
plagiarizing the work of others are
all examples of academic
dishonesty.
“Plagiarism” comes from the Greek
root word meaning “to kidnap”. It is
the act of passing off the work,
words, or ideas of someone else as
your own work.
-- Fort Dorchester Media Center
South Carolina, USA
Updated Sept. 2015
Prepared by C. Chalier, MLIS, M.Ed
The academically honest student:
 acknowledges in an informal
manner help from parents,
other students, friends and
tutors
 acknowledges the source of
direct quotations
 acknowledges in an informal
and formal manner,
information taken from books,
CD-ROMs, the internet, etc.
 knows what constitutes
cheating and abides by the
rules
 conducts him/herself
correctly in exams and
assessment tasks
 practices the skills of
paraphrasing, summarizing,
and notetaking
 practices the skill of
referencing (called
bibliographic citation)
Plagiarism
Plagiarism means the failure to give
credit to the sources of our
information, ideas, words, etc.. It
can be intentional or unintentional,
but the result is the same. Students
are taught to give credit to their
sources by writing a bibliography.
Bibliography
A bibliography, or “Sources cited,”
is an alphabetical list of all sources
consulted to write or produce an
assignment or research task. The
sources may be in any format
(print, non-print, internet, etc.) and
the student work may also be
presented in any format (handwritten, typed, movie, posters,
mobiles, glogster, etc.).
Why do we need a
bibliography?
-
-
to acknowledge the source
to give the teacher (or reader)
enough information to
consult the source
independently
to verify the source at a later
date
to show academic honesty
How do students
write a bibliography?
In secondary school and at
university, students are required to
use a specific bibliographic format.
To prepare for this, TASOK
elementary students begin by
identifying the details needed for
bibliographic citation (at an ageappropriate level). Next, students in
Grade 3 are introduced to a simple
bibliography worksheet. A more
detailed version is introduced for
Grades 4 and 5. These are based on
MLA.
Many online databases and online
encyclopedias provide the citation
(already formatted) to students.
These can be copied and pasted into a
bibliography!
Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism, and
Terms You Need to Know (or What is
Common Knowledge?).
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphle
ts/plagiarism.shtml
(Gr. 6 & up)
In secondary school at TASOK,
students create bibliographies
electronically with EasyBib (which
automatically generates the correct
format, based on MLA).
On order for 2017 :
Further reading
What is plagiarism?
Chris may not know it, but copying
information about sharks and pasting it
into his own report is called plagiarism
and it can get him into a lot of trouble.
Find out what Chris doesn't know about
this type of cheating and what you
need to know about taking someone
else's words and using them as your
own.
http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/scho
ol/plagiarism.html
(Gr. 3 – 5)
Plagiariam : what it is and how to
recognize and avoid it
Indiana University's Writing Tutorial
Services offers an online pamphlet on
recognizing and avoiding plagiarism. It
is arranged under the following
headings: How to Recognize
Unacceptable and Acceptable
Paraphrases (An Unacceptable
Paraphrase, An Acceptable Paraphrase,
Another Acceptable Paraphrase),
Plagiarism and the World Wide Web,
A novel nightmare : the purloined
story / Jan Fields
Until now Uncle Dan has only used
classic books in his program, so being
commissioned to turn a new
manuscript into a virtual reality world
sounds exciting--but while they are
testing the program, Isabelle realizes
that the book is plagiarized from The
purloined letter, and it is up to Carter
to teach the author a lesson. (Gr. 3 – 6)
Power chord / Ted Staunton
Fourteen-year-old Ace starts a band
and learns a tough lesson about
plagiarism.
français: Accord de puissance / Ted
Staunton (Gr. 5 – 8)
When in doubt: cite!
Sources:
“Plagiarism.” Fort Dorchester Media Center.
[undated]. <http://www.ddtwo.org/>
Statement on academic honesty. McGill
University. 29 Apr 2009.
<www.mcgill.ca/integrity>
Victoria Shanghai Academy. “ Student
Handbook 2007-2008.” VSA : Hong Kong,
2007.