Dear student. Did I "get your paper"? Well, I received the paper you sent me. Alas, it's not exactly your paper is it? I seem to recall getting the exact same paper last semester from another student. At least when people plagiarize via Copy N Paste they put some effort into it. All you did was put your name on a paper I graded just a few months ago. This isn't just plagiarism, it's insulting!
On the plus side, you now have time to put more effort into your other classes.
I share your misery on this one. Though I know it isn't personal, I always feel insulted when students plagiarize, especially when they do so in such a blatant way. I always ask myself, "Do they think I am so stupid that I wouldn't know?" When I remember the answer is, "It doesn't matter because that's one less student in class, which means less work," I usually feel better.
ReplyDeleteI do like how the response ends on a happy note. Must do that in all my emails.
ReplyDeleteAnd wondering if they think *I'm* that stupid is giving way too much credit to their thinking processes.
One of my friends sent this to me the other day.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great example of snowflakery in politics concerning plagiarism.
http://blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com/politics/2011/04/05/vermont-state-rep-s-house-floor-speech-wasnt-all-his/
@Mestopholita
ReplyDeleteIt may not be personal ...
I am enduring a crop of students who cannot be bothered to write something original but ALSO are too ignorant/lazy to utilize the anti-plagiarism service -- left open to them for just this reason -- and see the oh, so colorful report detailing precisely what and from where their "writing" comes.
But .. there's more ... they THEN wail long and loud about how they "didn't know" or "were sure all writing was original."
Leaves me just banging my head against my desk wondering who ever let this sort of lunacy go unchecked before?
Here's another good case study of how these things work in the real world, from the Washington Post, which suspended a veteran, Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist after she was found to have plagiarized in stories written about the Tucson shooting earlier this year:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/washington-post-suspends-reporter-for-plagiarizing-stories-on-tucson-shooting/2011/03/16/ABzKfHh_story.html .
I haven't yet had the chance to use this in class discussion, but two paragraphs that strike me as especially useful include a description of what happened, and the writer's response to her suspension, in which she takes full responsibility:
Horwitz electronically cut and pasted material from the Republic and then placed it in a lengthy Microsoft Word document with other notes she had taken about the shooting, according to people familiar with the matter. Under deadline pressure, she transferred some of this material to her stories, delivering it to her editors as if she had written it.
In a statement Wednesday, Horwitz said: “I am deeply sorry. To our readers, my friends and colleagues, my editors, and to the paper I love, I want to apologize.” She added: “Under the pressure of tight deadlines, I did something I have never done in my entire career. I used another newspaper’s work as if it were my own. It was wrong. It was inexcusable. And it is one of the cardinal sins in journalism. I apologize to the Arizona Republic and its reporters and editors. I accept the punishment that The Washington Post has given to me. And I am grateful the paper will allow me to return. I hope to come back a better journalist and a better person.”
So it's a twofer: a good example of plagiarism, and a good example of classy, responsible, un-snowflakey behavior on the part of everyone involved (including the editor of the Arizona Republic, who stood up for his reporters firmly but without undue drama).
@CC: "But that's in the real world. This is just for a class."
ReplyDeleteCan you ding the student who let this one copy his/her paper? I would if I had any recourse to do so.
ReplyDeleteI've caught two cheaters in the past, but this semester... I swear I have two more, but can't find evidence (online or via Blackholeboard's facilities).
ReplyDelete!@#$%$#@!
Dr. D:
ReplyDeleteOnly 4? EVER?
Christ, I used to get 4 in every section on each assignment when I taught writing classes.
@T_M: Just two with irrefutable proof... Probably more that I couldn't snag.
ReplyDeleteThe funniest was the one on... ethics!
Anyway, I give a plagiarism talk twice (first night and then after the mid-term). It does a "Scared Straight" at least for some.
I had a student submit an entirely plagiarized paper to one of my adjuncts in which said student didn't even bother to change the fonts from the websites that were cut and pasted.
ReplyDeleteSaid student had the gall to protest the grade (F).
Actually, the full story was even more hilarious.
First, student missed deadline. Then told instructor that she had left paper with the financial aid office and asked them to get it to the instructor for her.
Then, when instructor informed student of obvious plagiarism, told instructor that she must have mistakenly submitted "rough draft".
@issyvoo: I had one roommate copy another's paper in the same semester, in the same section, once. That got really unpleasant, since the culprit refused to confess, leaving her poor innocent roommate (it was very easy to tell who was the guilty party once I'd talked to each of them in my office) distressed and distracted in the middle of exams.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I prefer internet plagiarism, though no plagiarism at all would be even nicer.
This just proves what I've been saying, which is that you proffies need to direct your students to professional resources that help them get 100% original paper. Once again, I direct your attention to the following helpful articles by Bestessays.com, an organization that helps students achieve professional writing quality.
ReplyDeleteNo More Plagiarism
How Not to Become the Victim of Plagiarism
I blame the public schools.
ReplyDeleteI was taught from seventh grade, "You do not have an original thought. All papers you submit are the result of reading or 'research' you have done and everything must be cited."
My freshman English class was a struggle because I couldn't find a "source" for the assignment "Write about your impressions of a place you have been." I asked if my sources needed to be in APA or MLA and the instructor looked at me like I had a third ear growing out of my forehead. "You can't cite your feelings or impressions of a place; just write it down." It was a struggle to "unlearn" that not everything required citation. (citation needed)
Viva.
ReplyDeleteI had a student once try to say that it's really hard to remember where she got everything from when she was writing.
I wanted to smack her, but instead I remained myself and simply told her that, considering her future profession, she needed to learn how to take proper notes (and avoid the c&p dump), to remember to put quotes around specific wording she liked from her sources, and, of course, to make it quite clear in her notes the book/journal/etc. where she got that info.
She actually struck me as pretty smart before that comment, and she never plagiarized, but many of her classmates did. I often wonder if she just vocalized her inner fear in a vain attempt to help her whiny-ass peers.
I truly do think that no one has ever bothered to teach most undergrads how to take proper notes (and I don't have the time to teach them EVERYTHING), but I am also afraid many of them just don't give a damn.
It's definitely not personal! Students who plagiarize are so self-absorbed that they don't have time to stop and consider whether we are smart enough to figure it out or not. For them, it's a quick solution to a "problem" for which they are not taking responsibility.
ReplyDelete