In the afternoon of September 9th, the ninth graders entered Zhentao Building Lecture Hall to listen to the academic-integrity speech delivered by Grade-9 English teacher Porter Yelton. This was a continuation of the lecture given earlier last week, educating students on the introduction of academic integrity and types of accidental plagiarism.

Mr. Yelton emphasized on the zero-tolerance policy of violations of academic integrity at SHSID and colleges, explaining the importance of understanding all the rules beforehand. Severe consequences would be set forth if plagiarism was caught, no matter if the plagiarism was intentional or unintentional, and teachers would meet with students to assess the situation.

He first introduced the methods of correctly making a claim, quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. For making a claim, Mr. Yelton connected to the poem “Medusa” by Carol Ann Duffy from students' homework. He displayed how quotes could be altered to fit a text’s purpose. In paraphrasing and summarizing, both methods require citations and should avoid too much repetition from the original text.

When taking evidence from a source, students were told to always give credit through the forms of in-text citations. Mr. Yelton then continued with the four types of plagiarism. He noted how claiming another student’s work on a team project was also a type of plagiarism, which is something students often accidentally do.

The speech ended with a big round of applause from the students for Mr. Yelton’s informative and thought-provoking speech. Mr. Yelton reminded the ninth graders that academic integrity was something they should always be mindful about. Learning how to obey the rules of academic integrity was not only essential to high-standard institutions like SHSID but was also necessary for their growth and development as a student. At last, Mr. Yelton encouraged students to feel free to ask for help understanding, and provided his email as a resource. Mr. Yelton and many other SHSID teachers are here to guide and support students as learners and scholars.

(Written by Cana 9(12) Pictures by 9(7) Jasmine Supervised by Meijun Shi Reviewed by Qian Zuo)