Helping Versus Cheating
When you ask someone to "help" you by writing part of your paper for you, you're cheating. Getting ideas, feedback, and an extra set of eyes to spot typos is OK. Getting someone to write anything that you later say is your work is cheating.
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Video
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Here's a summary of what's covered in the video and the downloadable document regarding the topic of "helping" versus cheating.
Examples of what good writers do:
- Having someone proofread your paper, point out the mistakes, and then you fix them.
- Asking someone to give you some ideas about how to organize what you’re going to write.
- Asking someone to read your paper and tell you if it flows logically. They tell you what they think is weak. You go back and rewrite it so it flows better.
Examples of what’s CHEATING – (NOT “GETTING HELP”):
- Finding something well-written online and copy-pasting it into your paper. This is not only cheating, it’s plagiarism.
- Bringing up your paper on your computer, sitting your older sister down at the computer, and having her find and fix all of your typos.
- Having your mom sit at the computer and type what you say, adding words as she sees fit to “clean up” what you’re saying.
- Telling your dad that “you don’t know what to write” and have him type out a paper that looks like it might have come from you while you spend most of your mental energy checking out your friend’s Facebook posts.