•  According to Council of Writing Program Administrators: http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf
• This is connected to Purdue University’s Writing Center (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/)
• This is the website used throughout 11th and 12th grade at Licking Heights High School for reference and teaching material
• Definition: In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledg­ing its source.

• What are the Causes of Plagiarism and the Failure to Use and Document Sources Appropri­ately? 

Intentional Plagiarism = see policy at bottom of the page

Students who are fully aware that their actions constitute plagiarism—for example, copying pub­lished information into a paper without source attribution for the purpose of claiming the informa­tion as their own, or turning in material written by another student—are guilty of academic mis­conduct. Although no excuse will lessen the breach of ethical conduct that such behavior repre­sents, understanding why students plagiarize can help teachers to consider how to reduce the op­portunities for plagiarism in their classrooms.

---Additionally, for example, a student provides a direct quote or summary without an in-text citation provided in the paper after the information, or does not provide a Works Cited page for the material used in the paper, or does not have any in-text citations at all in the paper to properly acknowledge where the information was found.

• Students may fear failure or fear taking risks in their own work.

• Students may have poor time-management skills or they may plan poorly for the time and effort required for research-based writing, and believe they have no choice but to plagia­rize.

• Students may view the course, the assignment, the conventions of academic documenta­tion, or the consequences of cheating as unimportant.

• Teachers may present students with assignments so generic or unparticularized that stu­dents may believe they are justified in looking for canned responses.

• Instructors and institutions may fail to report cheating when it does occur, or may not enforce appropriate penalties.

Unintentional Plagiarism = -25% of the grade

Students are not guilty of plagiarism when they try in good faith to acknowledge others’ work but fail to do so accurately or fully. These failures are largely the result of failures in prior teaching and learning: students lack the knowledge of and ability to use the conventions of authorial attri­bution. --For example, a student has a source on the Works Cited page, but does not have an in-text citation in the paper for the source. The following conditions and practices may result in texts that falsely appear to represent plagiarism as we have defined it:

• Students may not know how to integrate the ideas of others and document the sources of those ideas appropriately in their texts.

• Students will make mistakes as they learn how to integrate others’ words or ideas into their own work because error is a natural part of learning.

• Students may not know how to take careful and fully documented notes during their re­search.

• Academicians and scholars may define plagiarism differently or more stringently than have instructors or administrators in students’ earlier education or in other writing situations.

Licking Heights Plagiarism Policy: found on page 27 under DISHONESTY/CHEATING

• Plagiarism, cheating, or copying: All participants will receive a zero on the assignment(s) or test/quiz and the principal will be notified. In addition, each participant may receive additional discipline consequences.