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Student Handbook on Plagiarism

“A student who cheats or plagiarizes has committed a major school infraction. The student will receive an F on the assignment, be placed on disciplinary concern, and may be suspended or expelled. Should another infraction of a similar nature occur, the student may be suspended or expelled. A student who cheats or plagiarizes will not be eligible for that trimester’s academic or effort honor roll or high honor roll. A student who cheats or plagiarizes at any point in his or her upper school career may be ineligible for induction into the Cum Laude Society or to receive an award at the May Honors Day assembly.” (Student Handbook, pp 43-44).

Evaluating Sources

How do you know if a source you find is good? Dr. Waugh recommends the CARS method.

Credibility

  • Who wrote this source? Who is the author? 
  • If the author is not a person but an organization, do we have reason to trust them?
  • Do they have expertise in this area?
  • EX: Dr. Waugh has a PhD in Library Science. If she were to write a medical blog under the name Dr. Waugh, it would not be credible. If she wrote an article about teaching citation, that would be credible.

Accuracy

  • Is this article or source up to date? If it is not recent, how out of date is it? How relevant is the publication date to your topic (i.e. very important in fields like technology or medicine, more wiggle room in history)
  • Is the source complete? Are there aspects left out or is it comprehensive?
  • Is the source correct? Sometimes a source may simply be wrong. You should be particularly cautious with online sources. 

Reasonable

  • Is the source unbiased? 
  • If the source is biased, how and why? Sometimes you want to use a source with a point of view, but it is very important to know when that is happening. 
  • Is the source truthful? 

Support

  • Can you verify the source's information?
  • Is there a bibliography?

Casey, C. "Evaluating Websites." Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsense.org/education/lesson-plans/evaluating-websites. Accessed September 26, 2019

 

 

 

 

Noodletools image and hyperlink

Use NoodleTools to organize your research, save your sources and take notes. Remember that Dr. Waugh can help you with NoodleTools if you need it. Click login, then use your SAES email and click "login with Google." This guide also contains a tab on tips for using NoodleTools effectively.