It set off alarm bells because it wasn't a topic he and I had discussed, and the writing was so different from any of the 6 pieces I'd seen from him during the semester.
As I sometimes do in cases like this, I Googled a few sentences in the first paragraph, and they all came up in the same Wikipedia
article. We've covered documenting sources all semester, and Donnie's essay featured several well placed in-text citations, none of which was for the huge amount of Wikipedia text.I estimated that 70% of the essay had been plagiarized
and I contacted him by email. Within an hour I got a long, heartfelt apology. Turns out that Donnie's big sis is an art major. She loves to help little bro. Donnie just foolishly used "parts" of one of her old papers, also liberally plagiarized from Wikipedia. Donnie was "distressed" and "distraught." His respect for his sister had been shaken. Could I see what dismay had befallen him? Couldn't I give him a chance?I'm a sap. I called him on the phone and read him the riot act about plagiarism, why it's wrong, what it means to the university, what it'd would mean in his next class, etc. And then I told him I'd let him turn in another paper, with a 24 hour deadline, shorter than our requirement, but that still needed outside sources.
Oh dear was Donnie happy.
This morning, just moments ago, I opened an email attachment from Donnie. Oh he was grateful for the chance, the trust, etc. You all know how the story ends.
I Googled parts of the first paragraph of this new essay on Chinese art
, and found nearly all of it on Wikipedia.So, did he screw me this second time? Or was it his sister?
It all results in the same grade.
I think you plagiarized this anecdote from Academic Monkey ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah. I've had a remarkably similar situation developing across this past week. Good times. Meh. Sometimes it is hard to find anything hopeful in our efforts with these kids.
ReplyDeleteBy any chance was his mother's name Charlotte?
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight. You caught the student plagiarizing from Wikipedia. His excuse was that he plagiarized from his sister. So his defense wasn't "I didn't mean to plagiarize" but "I plagiarized, but you were wrong about the source of the stolen material." And to THAT you said "have another chance"?!
ReplyDeleteI think we send the wrong message to our students when we say that plagiarizing a friend is different from plagiarizing a published source. Theft is theft. The guy didn't do his own work and should have received a zero in the first instance. They cheat because they think they can get away with it, and offering them a second chance to do the work right confirms that the risk may be worth it.
I'm with Lex. Plagiarizing your sister is still plagiarizing. Turn him in for both papers this time. Where I teach, plagiarizing twice gets you suspended.
ReplyDeleteSally sends in this:
ReplyDelete"The view must be great where you all are. I'm a part-time instructor who works 2 other jobs to make rent. When I first started teaching here, I investigated the "turn him in" policy, and it mostly involves me sitting and defending my point of view in front of people with real jobs. The highest penalty we can give a student is failure of that assignment. That's what he would have gotten on the first paper; that's what he did get when I gave him a second chance. My college is full of first generation students, and I usually err toward the idea that perhaps they could use a second chance. I was wrong on Donnie. But the results are all the same. Except I get to go to my next job instead of sitting in the Dean's office like I did something wrong to exact the same punishment I can give on my own."
Sally's got a point...my plagiarism policy is "It is wrong because it is theft" and "It is wrong because it is a COLOSSAL pain in my ass."
ReplyDeleteAlso, for what it's worth, my statement on plagiarism involves this sentence, "Plagiarism includes representing the work of another as one's own." That would be the "my sister wrote it" excuse.
My college recently passed a policy that requires us to go through mountains of documentation for ANY alleged violation of academic integrity even if it results in a redo or the instructor's finding the student not guilty. So for me at least, it doesn't matter what the ultimate punishment is. I still have to document everything, including why I thought the assignment was plagiarized to begin with. And if the student disagrees with my decision after we've met and presented my evidence, then we work our way up the food chain with all the meetings on top of the documentation.
ReplyDeleteYuck, Sallie. I'm so sorry. Another reason why the adjunct system sucks.
ReplyDeleteI think adjuncts need to be paid by the hour, including any office hours, meeting time, etc. Billable hours: the only way to go.
How much do attorneys charge for filing paperwork?
ReplyDeleteHoly crapola. What a jackwagon, Sally. You have my sympathy as I stare at a stack of papers that I just KNOW has at least one plagiarized paper within...
ReplyDeleteNot only is he a plagiarist, but he's a dumb plagiarist. We have a 3 strikes policy (of academic dishonesty; plagiarism is one form of that) at my school (assuming everyone has filled out paperwork and submitted it to the correct office, then someone keeps track of the number of offenses.
ReplyDeleteI once timed it to see how much of my (extra) time was taken up by each plagiarism offense on paperwork, meeting with students, emailing back and forth, meeting with chair, more paperwork, and on making a decision on the penalty. It added up to about 3 extra hours per incident.
One year the penalty (determined by the disciplinary committee, to which the student had appealed my decision of an F for his second offense in my upper-division class) was to repeat the entire sequence of comp since he claimed not to know what plagiarism was.
I once timed it to see how much of my (extra) time was taken up by each plagiarism offense on paperwork, meeting with students, emailing back and forth, meeting with chair, more paperwork, and on making a decision on the penalty. It added up to about 3 extra hours per incident.
ReplyDeleteCynic! At one school where I worked, we had the same procedures, and each offense took me an extra 3 hours too!
Plus there were all those extra minutes/hours responding to pleading e-mails from the students and responding to parent phone calls (!), and the annoying harassment from whatever fakakta office decided to "help" the last plagiarist I dealt with there.
All unpaid, of course...especially if you're an adjunct. But I did it anyway because I sure as hell wasn't going to have some incompetent boob get a C for F work.
I am dealing with two students right now. I am SO p*ssed that I should change my avatar to General Zod.
ReplyDeleteOne is trying to defend what was written ... but didn't even address a direct steal from a document (even claimed that was the student's own writing; didn't even look at the reference where I said the swipe came from).
The other? The student admits a better job could have been done on putting things in their own words, but knows there was wrongdoing and would like to rewrite.
THIS CR*P takes so long to write up; it will take several hours each. However, I will NOT surrender.
Truth. Justice.