Students sharing academic work

In the spirit of collegiality, students often share their academic work with each other.

Be careful, though, that neither of you copies the other’s work, or you could potentially both be charged with the academic offence of unauthorized assistance on an assignment. 

If you do wish to cite or reference your friend’s material, the original work and student author must be cited. Outright copying of your friend’s paper is not permitted, and can lead to an offence for both of you.

For example, Student A shares an old essay with Student B. In her new essay, Student B decides to reference Student A’s excellent paper. Student B paraphrases a few paragraphs of Student A’s old essay, using her own words. Student B must also cite Student A’s essay in her footnotes or “works cited” section, to give credit to the person that originally came up with the ideas.