The English Department considers the following practices to be plagiarism:

• the intentional or unintentional omission of quotation marks when citing any portion of a print or electronic text;
• the intentional or unintentional omission of a bibliographic citation when using any portion of a print or electronic text;
• the intentional or unintentional use of ideas taken from a published conventional or electronic text in writing you claim as your own;
• the intentional or unintentional use of ideas or words from unpublished sources, such as your friends or tutors, in work you claim as your own.

Your name on your paper claims all the words and ideas to be your own, and any abuse of intellectual property constitutes a serious violation of our Honor Code.

A: The answer depends on whether you and your friend worked together on understanding a text or whether you and your friend developed answers, claims or specific responses to the assignment. There is a big difference between discovering ideas together and borrowing someone else’s interpretations or using someone else’s approach on an essay. So while it is OK to ask a friend, "What does this mean?" it is not OK to ask, "What are you going to say?" It is certainly never permissible to ask, "What should I say?" While we encourage you to talk to and work with friends while developing an understanding of a text, ultimately your response to an assignment must be an expression of your own thinking about a topic.

A: Having someone provide feedback for you about what is or is not clear and convincing about your argument is fine; the problem arises when other individuals start suggesting specific stylistic or intellectual changes or when others generate ideas and/or text that you then present as your own work. If your teacher holds peer editing sessions during class meetings or if you show your work to anyone else, be clear that you are looking for an evaluation and not for editorial suggestions or new ideas.

A: As a department, we discourage you from consulting other sources, including the internet, because we recognize the difficulty of being able to differentiate your own ideas from the influence of other sources. We do not assign research papers in English because we believe that one of the most valuable skills we can teach you is how to develop ideas about a text on your own. After researching your topic on the internet, you may find it nearly impossible to differentiate between what you have read and what you have thought, thereby putting your academic integrity at risk. To intentionally or unintentionally take ideas or words from any source--internet, print, or unpublished--and to present them as your own is a serious violation of our honor code. Ultimately the work you turn in must reflect your personal perspective and thinking about the topic.

You can always avoid plagiarism if you develop ideas on your own and avoid other sources while working on an assignment. Although it is common for students who are in a class together to have some similarities in their ideas, these similarities do not constitute plagiarism. A student’s work will always retain his or her unique perspective and style when the student has independently developed a response to an assignment without consulting outside sources.

If you do consult someone else on your paper, be sure to ask only for feedback on whether ideas or wording is clear, convincing, or logical. Do not ask others how they would say something or how they would interpret or answer questions; comments at this stage should be descriptive, not prescriptive.

If you use an idea or words from someone or somewhere else, be sure to:

· use quotation marks where appropriate,

· include your source in your list of works cited,

· include a parenthetical citation detailing the source of any printed ideas that did not originate with you (or a footnote, in the case of a tutor, parent, or friend).

If you are having trouble completing an assignment or are feeling overly stressed by the process or timing of an assignment, don’t panic! There are always alternatives to plagiarism. You can:

· make an appointment with your teacher,

· negotiate a late deadline with your teacher (or accept a partially lowered grade),

· turn in whatever you have and discuss rewriting it later with your teacher.

Teachers understand that occasionally everyone is stumped or blocked by an assignment and are always the most helpful resource you can turn to. It is the teacher’s job to help you, but it is your responsibility to ask for help.

The Harvard-Westlake Upper School Student/Parent Handbook states: "Outside tutors are not always a good idea for students in the Upper School. The student may become passive in class and avoid one-to-one sessions with the teacher because he/she anticipates seeing the tutor later. In the long run, this rarely works to the student’s advantage" (35). The English Department agrees with this statement and actively discourages outside tutoring.

Tutoring is particularly ineffective in raising student performance in English for the following reasons:

• Our papers are designed as opportunities for students to try out, develop, and sharpen writing techniques and analytical skills. Using a tutor circumvents this process and leaves students dependent on outside help.
• Tutoring at best only affects students’ performance on out-of-class assignments, which constitute considerably less than half of a student’s overall grade.
• Tutoring is likely to impact negatively on a student’s performance during in-class writing because the student has not fully developed the ability to write on his or her own. It also tends to highlight the student’s weaknesses to the instructor because the strength of a tutored out-of-class assignment can significantly exceed the student’s in-class performance. In such cases, tutoring can also set up unrealistic expectations for parents and students about the student’s current potential for success in the course.
• Tutoring leaves a student vulnerable to unintentional plagiarism, and thus puts his or her academic standing at risk.

In cases where students have remedial needs, such as demonstrated weaknesses in grammar and mechanics, tutors can occasionally be appropriate. Students should consult their teachers and their deans to best determine how outside help can supplement the Harvard-Westlake English Department’s curriculum.