I have at least 2-3 students per class plagiarize the definition of plagiarism on an assignment I give to get them to read the syllabus and read the academic dishonesty documents I provide. Now that is irony! :)
Life loves its ironies, doesn't it? When I was an undergraduate in the '70s, my education was marred by professors who were abusing their tenure, by coasting to retirement. They hadn't done any research in 20 years, and wouldn't you know, they taught us a whole bunch that was out of date.
I have tenure now, but I think I do a pretty good job of staying active and current. I knock myself out to make opportunities available to my students: and I have no shortage of students who squander whatever I can do for them!
And yes, I've seen students discussing how to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted software on a listserver paid for by a nationally funded research program. As one of the other professors commented, "I see that class on ethics didn't take..."
Although it's usually up to 1/3 of the class, in my experience, who will plagiarize the university statement on plagiarism in an assignment to get them to learn NOT to plagiarize.
@Meanest-And then when I fail their asses on that little 10pt assignment, they have the NERVE to bitch. I try to explain that they did EXACTLY what the statement said NOT to do. As time goes on, the number of students plagiarizing the definitions is slowly creeping up. To add insult to injury, they then plagiarize on their papers from the text and then claim they didn't know that it "counted" since it was the text. Yeah, since you wrote the text there, Skippy...**Head/Desk**
Oddly enough, *my* first assignment on testing their understanding of plagiarism is also worth 10 points! Then, when they invariably plagiarize later (as your students seem to as well), they claim ignorance of the rules.
So, they didn't learn from me, the university policy, or either of the 2 required course books (one a $20 style manual, the other a $40 textbook). And, yet, it's still never their fault.
My favorite excuse though has always been "it was an accident." Forgetting a comma, one set of quotation marks, or a parenthesis on a citation is an accident. Using exact words for a sentence or paragraph without a citation or reference is incompetence.
Anyone ever get any students who plagiarize sentence structure yet try to argue it's not plagiarism? At least they get use out of their thesauri!
"But I put it in my own words." I get that one at least once a term despite the fact we go over structural plagiarism and the art of the paraphrase. Maybe that's a lesson I need to rework for this fall.
My most recent offender actually plagiarized one of her classmates' posts by taking the entire first half of the post word for word and then rephrasing the rest of the main idea in her own words. This was then followed by what was obviously her own material attempting (incorrectly) to explain what the classmate had said. Her classmate was incensed about being copied and immediately emailed me before I'd even had a chance to log into the thread the same day. Perhaps that's the best way to get them pissed off about plagiarism--it's different when someone else takes credit for your work!
+ sarcastic comments about irony.
ReplyDeleteI have at least 2-3 students per class plagiarize the definition of plagiarism on an assignment I give to get them to read the syllabus and read the academic dishonesty documents I provide. Now that is irony! :)
ReplyDeleteLife loves its ironies, doesn't it? When I was an undergraduate in the '70s, my education was marred by professors who were abusing their tenure, by coasting to retirement. They hadn't done any research in 20 years, and wouldn't you know, they taught us a whole bunch that was out of date.
ReplyDeleteI have tenure now, but I think I do a pretty good job of staying active and current. I knock myself out to make opportunities available to my students: and I have no shortage of students who squander whatever I can do for them!
And yes, I've seen students discussing how to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted software on a listserver paid for by a nationally funded research program. As one of the other professors commented, "I see that class on ethics didn't take..."
BitchyProffie, I have seen the same thing!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's usually up to 1/3 of the class, in my experience, who will plagiarize the university statement on plagiarism in an assignment to get them to learn NOT to plagiarize.
It's maddeningly ironic.
@Meanest-And then when I fail their asses on that little 10pt assignment, they have the NERVE to bitch. I try to explain that they did EXACTLY what the statement said NOT to do. As time goes on, the number of students plagiarizing the definitions is slowly creeping up. To add insult to injury, they then plagiarize on their papers from the text and then claim they didn't know that it "counted" since it was the text. Yeah, since you wrote the text there, Skippy...**Head/Desk**
ReplyDeleteLOL@BitchyProffie.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, *my* first assignment on testing their understanding of plagiarism is also worth 10 points! Then, when they invariably plagiarize later (as your students seem to as well), they claim ignorance of the rules.
So, they didn't learn from me, the university policy, or either of the 2 required course books (one a $20 style manual, the other a $40 textbook). And, yet, it's still never their fault.
My favorite excuse though has always been "it was an accident." Forgetting a comma, one set of quotation marks, or a parenthesis on a citation is an accident. Using exact words for a sentence or paragraph without a citation or reference is incompetence.
Anyone ever get any students who plagiarize sentence structure yet try to argue it's not plagiarism? At least they get use out of their thesauri!
"But I put it in my own words." I get that one at least once a term despite the fact we go over structural plagiarism and the art of the paraphrase. Maybe that's a lesson I need to rework for this fall.
ReplyDeleteMy most recent offender actually plagiarized one of her classmates' posts by taking the entire first half of the post word for word and then rephrasing the rest of the main idea in her own words. This was then followed by what was obviously her own material attempting (incorrectly) to explain what the classmate had said. Her classmate was incensed about being copied and immediately emailed me before I'd even had a chance to log into the thread the same day. Perhaps that's the best way to get them pissed off about plagiarism--it's different when someone else takes credit for your work!
My mom once stole an ethics textbook. Trufax.
ReplyDelete