I sat in my office and read it and thought, "This ain't Derrick." I took a phrase or two from the first paragraph and Googled the shit out of it.
Found that Derrick had taken 5 full paragraphs out of a Wikipedia article. It was the most egregious and bald-faced plagiarism I'd ever had from a student.
Derrick has been a good student. I know he wrote a couple of his papers, because the assignments were quite quirky, and I saw the essays in several drafts. This one had been different; he had been sick, had missed a conference, failed to send me a draft, etc. So the fully realized rip-off he turned in never had a chance.
What happened next though - I wasn't ready for that.
The topic of Derrick's paper was psychological attachment theory
. He's a psych major, and I had encouraged students to write in their majors or disciplines.When I had Derrick into my office for his plagiarism debriefing (SURPRISE!) I laid the printed copy of Wikipedia next to his essay with all the highlighting showing. I even turned my computer monitor to him to show where I found the material.
"I didn't get it from Wikipedia," he said. As I was about to lose it, he continued. "I got it from a handout Dr. Blackwell gave me."
Blackwell is a colleague of mine, a psych prof notorious for bad parties
, a too-loud Harley, and a public divorce that resulted in a domestic disturbance that was actually on the news."These paragraphs you marked," Derrick said. "They came from a handout he gave to our class last semester." Then he grinned at me. "It's Dr. Blackwell who plagiarized."
Of course the kid was a dick. And of course I noted for him that he didn't cite Dr. Blackwell in his biblio, and that he'd not quoted the enormous amount of material he had presented unchanged as his own. Derrick was going to flunk.
But I had to know, "Could you bring me a copy of Blackwell's handout," I said.
Weeks later I found the handout in my mailbox. It was something Blackwell had indeed passed out to his class. There was no notation of any kind where the material came from, no link to Wikipedia, just Blackwell's own name at the end of the document.
I see Blackwell once a month at our faculty meeting. That meeting's in 4 days. What should I say?
Is there any chance Dr. Blackwell was the author of that Wikipedia article? I have a couple of colleagues who've written the Wikipedia entries for various topics in our field, and update them regularly. Maybe he didn't want to own up to this to his undergrads, lest they interpret this as permission to do all their research on Wikipedia. This would be the most generous explanation for your situation.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm a lowly adjunct, I personally wouldn't confront him about this (unless he too were a lowly adjunct). If I were higher up on the food chain, I definitely would. I'm curious to see what others feel about your situation.
Is there any chance Dr. Blackwell was the author of that Wikipedia article?
ReplyDeleteMy initial thought as well. If you don't have anything better to do you could dig for publication dates to see which came first. I suppose it could satisfy you one way or the other.
Wow. Well, at the very least, Derrick gets his F, because he dropped a whack of stuff uncited into his paper.
ReplyDeleteAs for Blackwell, TU could be right, he might be the Wikipedia author. Or not. Wait till his next bad ass party and ask him after the drinks get flowing. Then tell us.
I am not sure if I'd mention this or not. I have a colleague I could see doing this exact thing and I'd love to be able to mention it to him, but I don't know if I'd think it was worth the effort to get into a confrontation, even a mild one. The guy I am imagining this scenario with is old, tenured, and honestly does not give a crap about anything except collecting his paycheck. I am wondering if that is the case with your guy, and if so, what would be gained by pointing it out to him? If nothing----then I'd skip saying anything, even though I am tenured too. I'd consider showing the documentation to his department chair (wimpy and backstabbing, I realize ---maybe I'd not even do that) but actually, she never confronts him anyway, so that would go no where either. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in grad school, I TA'd for a guy close to retirement whose prep consisted of googling around for 20 minutes before class, cobbling together stuff for a lecture. He actually came into my office and told me about Wikipedia and what an awesome source it is. I feigned interest. Then I felt dirty.
ReplyDeleteThere's no need to confront him if you think the wheels of justice will turn. Make a copy of the Blackwell handout and the Wikipedia article. Attache a brief anonymous letter explaining the situation. Put it all together in the mail to your department head, a faculty senator, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf justice will not be served, do that to all the members of your department, except Blackwell. At least everybody will know what a slimeball he is. Other people's actions in response to this could be interesting. Have some popcorn handy.
He may have written the wikipedia article or someone may have plagarized his handout. I'd say the following:
ReplyDeleteMe: Hey, Blackwell! I've got a story to tell you and it's funny as shit!
Blackwell: Oh, yeah?
Me: Wikipedia ... paper ... cheated ... hand-out.... So anyway one of your students has posted your handout on wikipedia. Thought you'd want to know.
This way you aren't accussing him of dishonesty but you're letting him know that this stuff is showing up. He'll perhaps be a little more caeful next time.
I have a colleague who PRINTS OUT Wikipedia and uses those as his lecture notes. When I asked if he was using Wikipedia as an example in class, he said, "No, those are my lecture notes." No hint of irony in his voice. Since he's not in my dept., I just smiled and said, "Oh, we couldn't get away with that in my department because we don't let students use Wikipedia as a credible source." His response: "I know what's right and wrong on Wikipedia and skip the parts that aren't right."
ReplyDeleteCC, good Lord. That's what the guy I was TAing for said. Unfortunately, it still sends the message that "Wikipedia is a-ok, just make sure you skip past anything that sounds like bullshit"--a very unacademic approach that's going to help bring academic literacy and critical reading ever closer to rock bottom.
ReplyDeleteMy thought was exactly as Ben's...with one extra piece. If you go the anonymous notes to the department route, make sure to send yourself a copy too!
ReplyDeleteSomeone has to be informed about this, and unlike Bella, I think it's perfectly fine to do this anonymously and behind Blackwell's back.
Someone in charge has the chore of checking this out, not you!
You got a paper with 5 paragraphs lifted from Wikipedia and it's the worst example of plagiarism you've ever found??
ReplyDeleteYou can't be paying attention.
Ivy, State, online: I've found much worse instances of plagiarism everywhere.
I have to admit I'm more torn on this one than on the speech-plagiarizing Dean mentioned above and below, but mostly because of the possibilities that people have mentioned here (i.e. the professor wrote the handout; the article was plagiarized from the handout). I do think the same principle applies, though: this has to be investigated, all the more so because the student is now aware of the situation. If we're going to claim high standards in the academy, then we have to be willing to enforce them, in reference to our own and each others' behavior as much as in reference to our students' behavior.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't do something anonymously, in part because that seems cowardly, and in part because the student could possibly out me if I tried that route (and being exposed as a coward just adds to the humiliation of being a coward). If you have tenure, then I like CMP's idea, but, unless the conversation results in a clear explanation by Blackwell that you feel comfortable relaying back to the student ("I checked with Dr. Blackwell, and he wrote the article/he wrote the handout and it must have been plagiarized for the article"), I think you have to follow it up with a joint email to Blackwell and his chair explaining the situation and saying that, given the student's knowledge, it needs to be cleared up. If you don't have tenure, I'd consult with your own chair/supervisor, and take his/her advice.
Another key question: can you flunk Derrick for plagiarism without going through proper channels (i.e. some sort of formal accusation to an honor board)? I couldn't, and I think that's as it should be, in part because it would take the whole mess out of my hands. I would have filed the plagiarism charge right after the conversation with Derrick, without waiting for a copy of the handout, and without mentioning Blackwell's handout in the formal accusation (since the connection to Wikipedia was clear). As a professional courtesy, I probably would have sent a copy of the accusation with a heads-up note about the conversation to Blackwell (though since I don't have tenure, I probably would have consulted with my chair or program director about that). At that point, it would be up to Derrick to bring up the "but I plagiarized from Dr. B's handout" defense if he chose, and up to the sub-Dean in charge of honor matters to figure out what to do from there. I'd also have to check the regulations, since it might be incumbent on me to report the conversation about Dr. Blackwell as well; that, admittedly, could get much stickier. But in a case like this, I still think there's something to be said for having and following procedures -- assuming the procedures themselves have integrity, which I realize in many cases they don't.
@Dr. Cranky, I suspect it happens more often than not with colleagues...
ReplyDelete