Permissible discussion builds your skill; completing assessed work replaces it. A useful test: after the conversation, could you explain every choice in your work and say why you made it? If someone else made the choices, the work is no longer yours.
This lesson belongs to integrity and responsible assistance. Your school and Cambridge decide the exact rules for your task, so treat what follows as a thinking tool, not a ruling.
What is the difference, step by step?
Think of any piece of assessed work as four layers.
- Ideas: what you choose to investigate and why.
- Evidence: the sources and data you find and judge.
- Reasoning: how you move from evidence to a conclusion.
- Wording: the sentences that appear on the page.
Discussion usually helps with the first three by asking questions, such as “what would a person who disagrees say?” Completing the work happens when someone else produces the content of any layer for you and it goes into your submission.
A second test: who is doing the thinking? If the helper asks and you answer, you are thinking. If the helper answers and you copy, they are.
Worked example (invented)
Fictional student Daniel is writing about public transport and air quality in a made-up town called Riverbend. He asks a teacher for help. Here are four things the teacher might do.
- A. Asks, “What evidence would show the buses actually cut pollution?” Daniel thinks and lists two kinds of data. This is discussion, because Daniel supplies the content.
- B. Says, “Your second source is a company page, so check what it wants readers to believe.” Daniel re-reads and adds a note about the source’s viewpoint. This is feedback on a skill.
- C. Reads Daniel’s conclusion and replaces it with a stronger paragraph. This is completing the work, because the teacher supplied the wording and judgement.
- D. Gives Daniel a finished list of five sources for his topic. This replaces his research layer.
A and B build skill. C and D replace it. If Daniel wants help like C or D, a better route is to ask the teacher to show the same technique on a different invented topic, then write his own.
A mistake to avoid
A common slip is thinking “I changed a few words, so it is mine.”
Mistaken thinking: The tutor wrote the paragraph, but I reworded it, so it is my work.
Rewording keeps the tutor’s ideas and structure. The thinking still came from someone else.
The correction is to put the paragraph away and write it again from your own notes, then ask for feedback on what you wrote. Feedback on your draft keeps authorship with you.
Check yourself
All people and places are invented.
1. Fictional student Siti asks a helper, “Can you tell me whether my claim follows from my evidence?” The helper explains what a gap in reasoning looks like. Is this discussion or completing the work?
Show answer
Discussion. The helper explains a skill and Siti must still judge and fix her own claim.
2. A helper sends Siti a finished paragraph “to use as a model” and Siti pastes it into her report. What is wrong?
Show answer
The wording and ideas now come from the helper, so Siti has submitted someone else’s thinking. A model is useful for studying a method, but she should write her own paragraph.
3. Write one question you could ask a helper that keeps you doing the thinking.
Show answer
Examples: “Which part of my argument is weakest, and why?” or “What would someone who disagrees ask me?” Both leave the answer to you.
Where this leads next
Once you can spot the line, learn to document assistance according to the applicable school rules. Then test yourself with the integrated practice set.
Some students understand the idea but find it hard to use in the moment. Our teachers can practise research and reasoning skills on separate examples in online one-to-one Global Perspectives tuition.