· Put this in the “History Skills” section of your binder
· Note: the exact rules included in this handout apply only for Mr. Waterman's classes. Ask your other teachers before following these rules for their classes.
What is the difference between plagiarism and collaboration?
Plagiarism: If you copy an answer from someone else (a classmate, the internet, etc.) and pretend that the answer came from you, that is plagiarism.
Collaboration: If you work together with someone else by bouncing ideas off of them, hearing their opinions, and offering them your opinions, and then use what you learned to create your own answer, that is collaboration.
What if I am participating in a group project?
If you are working with a small group to answer a question that you will turn in together and receive only one grade for, you may, as a group, come up with just one answer for all of you. Every member of the group should still give their input into creating that answer.
What if I am completing an individual assignment, like homework?
Even if you are completing an assignment that you will hand in individually, you may still collaborate with someone else. However, you may not create one answer together and then turn in identical answers. You also may not ask a classmate what they wrote, and then try to re-phrase the same response using different words.
Suggested steps to effective collaboration on homework or classwork:
1) Read all of the assigned text individually
2) Read the questions and decide what you think
3) Discuss what you think with another student who has already done steps 1 and 2 – tell them what you think, and ask them what they think
4) Go back and write your own answer individually based on what you learned from the reading and your discussion with your classmate (you may also continue collaboration at this point by asking for opinions on what you wrote)
Note: As a general rule of thumb, never give me any reason to suspect that you are plagiarizing instead of collaborating. If I get two almost identical responses on a homework assignment, I will notice and I will punish both students equally (both the person copying and the person who allowed copying).