If I search answers online for an essay topic, is it cheating?

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hopeforfaith

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I have a question that I don’t know how to answer, and the textbook didn’t give much information on it, so I asked my mom about it as well as searching online for the answers. Am I cheating?

Also, if I look up literary analysis online and I agree with their interpretation and use it during exam, does it count as cheating? What if I say like one many feel, readers may find… Such wordings and not I think?
 
So as long as you wrote the concept of the words by yourself, in your own way. That is not cheating. I know plenty of teachers both back in my highschool days and up till now who encourage kids to make use of the internet as a tool for research along with everything else.

Our time is not called the information age for nothing. 👍
 
I am not completely sure what your question is. Are you asking about finding a topic that interests you or are you asking about borrowing ideas from some piece of writing you found? If you were simply looking for a topic to use, I don’t see any problem, though it would be better if you changed the wording of the topic you found. If you will borrow ideas or even words and phrases from something someone else wrote, that is a different matter. If these ideas in the piece of writing you found are commonly used in other writers, you don’t have to worry about simply using them yourself. If you are going to use someone’s ideas or words when they are his own, you should indicate this in your own writing by a footnote at least. Standard sources that explain how to cite someone else’s writings show how to cite something you found on the internet or elsewhere. If you don’t know the citation form to use, you can go to your school library and ask the librarian. If you don’t identify the source of a source you use and simply act as if it is all from you, that would be plagarism, and some teachers would dislike this very much.
 
hopeforfaith said:
I have a question that I don’t know how to answer, and the textbook didn’t give much information on it, so I asked my mom about it as well as searching online for the answers. Am I cheating?

Also, if I look up literary analysis online and I agree with their interpretation and use it during exam, does it count as cheating? What if I say like one many feel, readers may find… Such wordings and not I think?
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Pretty much, yeah. If you are supposed to formulate your own ideas using the textbook and other materials from the class, and you go searching online, then you are using other people’s opinions, etc. However, if the question is one about life, that you are inexperienced in, I think it is valid to ask others for their own views, then formulate your own. The best thing to do is ask the teacher what sources are OK to use.

Literary criticism is another matter entirely. That’s why most teachers forbid Cliff’s Notes or other synopsis or critical materials. You will start spewing out stuff that doesn’t look at all like something you will have written yourself, and your teacher will spot you like a peacock trying to hide in a chicken coop. You are hedging with the wordings you are using and the teacher will see through that, never fear. If you use any literary criticism, you MUST source it plainly. You risk getting a -0- otherwise. Frankly, coming up with your own idea about a piece of literature, even if it is not the most intellectual, is always preferable to parroting someone else’s work.
 
hopeforfaith said:
I have a question that I don’t know how to answer, and the textbook didn’t give much information on it, so I asked my mom about it as well as searching online for the answers. Am I cheating?

Also, if I look up literary analysis online and I agree with their interpretation and use it during exam, does it count as cheating? What if I say like one many feel, readers may find… Such wordings and not I think?
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It is cheating if you break the rules. The teacher makes the rules for his class. Ask the teacher to clarify. None of us knows what your teacher wants.
 
If you quote the essay and where you found it in your bibliography (the list of books, journals, magazines, website you have used to research your coursework) then it isn’t cheating at all because you are acknowledging someone else has done that work. Using the proper Havard Referencing system in your essay, officially quoting the source and website is not cheating 😃

but if you are just copying it, even a paragraph then it is plagerism and that is simply cheating because its not your work yet you are trying to pass it off as your work. 🙂
 
The teacher didn’t specify and this essay isn’t counted. In our report cards, but we have to hand it in. I am not going to copy directly, I am just finding the points of the essay. Anyway, I guess if I add a reference I should be fine but everyone will think I am weird. No teacher ever specifies we need to cite sources in our school. My lit teacher encourages us to read professional literary analysis. That essay I am working on is geography. I mean, it’s all facts…

Also, I’d like to ask, what if I, in an exam, encounter a question I’ve done before? If I remember the answer and wrote it, is that cheating?

Besides, what should I do now that I know the answers? If I come up with some by myself, how do I know it’s not from my memory?
 
hopeforfaith said:
The teacher didn’t specify and this essay isn’t counted. I am not going to copy directly, I am just finding the points of the essay. Anyway, I guess if I add a reference I should be fine but everyone will think I am weird
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How will anyone know what is in your essay? Do you have to present it verbally?

:confused:

Regardless of whether the teacher specified, just ASK. 🙂

If the essay is supposed to be YOUR OWN viewpoint on a topic, then discuss it with others, and THINK, and form your own viewpoint. I would still not read literary criticism because it will color what is supposed to be your original thought.
 
Before the internet people went the the library or asked their parents or mentors for thoughts and ideas. I don’t think its cheating, I think its the process of learning.

The only thing is, if you do directly take someone elves words, you have to site that. Even if you say "many agree that…"I your might have to give citation of who the “many” might be.

Sometimes when you research, the answers you find do lead you to other thought s that you didn’t find. This is just sharpening your critical thinking.

If you are able to use your textbook but it isn’t helpful, I see no reason you can’t find a better source of info, unless the teacher said not to.
 
Okay… So I think just to be on the safe side, I’ll state the references. But how can I include my mother? Like “References: mother”? Also, if I ask my mom for reassurances on my own elaborations, do I have to reference her too?
 
hopeforfaith said:
Okay… So I think just to be on the safe side, I’ll state the references. But how can I include my mother? Like “References: mother”? Also, if I ask my mom for reassurances on my own elaborations, do I have to reference her too?
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Your mother’s thoughts aren’t documented and copyrighted, like the essays on the internet are. You need to cite all references that have been put into print, including textbooks, magazines, newspapers and those published on the internet. Doesn’t matter if your teachers now require you to cite your sources, better get into the habit because your college professors will require you to do so and you can be expelled for plagarism if you don’t properly document your sources in any paper you write.

My daughter, 7th grade, forget one source in a geography paper she wrote and the teacher docked points because she forget to include a source for the paper. Anytime you use some other report, even the factual ones, document it in your paper.
 
hopeforfaith said:
Okay… So I think just to be on the safe side, I’ll state the references. But how can I include my mother? Like “References: mother”? Also, if I ask my mom for reassurances on my own elaborations, do I have to reference her too?
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If it’s something that personal, you don’t even have to. Just pull a Forrest Gump. 👍
 
Haha, forest gump? What’s that?

By the way, I decided to send the teacher an email and asked her about it. Hopefully, I will get that reply before the due date!
 
You actually can quote your mom, but only if she can remotely be considered an expert in whatever the topic is. The APA guidelines, which can be found online, will show you how to cite personal conversations or emails. But it sounds like its unneccesary in your case.
 
I’ve been thinking, what about exams? Like if I read some essays, I don’t think I have to say “according to sparknotes” right? But I have read some professional criticism. The teacher encouraged us to read them, but she didn’t say whether we have to qoute which essayist was it from during exams. I’ve looked at public past papers as well, they all didn’t specify that candidates have to state or cite their source. In my region, references are only for thesis or research.

So how should I put it in my exam when I had gotten ideas from another source? Is “many have stated”, or “like some critics said…” or “one may feel” okay? Because I have no idea When they are inspirations and when I have copied them.
 
hopeforfaith said:
I’ve been thinking, what about exams? Like if I read some essays, I don’t think I have to say “according to sparknotes” right? But I have read some professional criticism. The teacher encouraged us to read them, but she didn’t say whether we have to qoute which essayist was it from during exams. I’ve looked at public past papers as well, they all didn’t specify that candidates have to state or cite their source. In my region, references are only for thesis or research.

So how should I put it in my exam when I had gotten ideas from another source? Is “many have stated”, or “like some critics said…” or “one may feel” okay? Because I have no idea When they are inspirations and when I have copied them.
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Listen, you REALLY need to discuss these questions with your teacher(s), preferably openly during class time. It is very likely that other students have similar questions. Try to make it clear to your teacher that you want to understand, not that you are trying to see how much you can get away with.

Remember, what is cheating depends on what the rules are for that particular situation. Using your book during an exam is not cheating if it is an open book exam, it is cheating if you are not supposed to be using a book, even if you don’t intend to cheat.
 
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