After a whole class review of MLA citations.
After going over the assignment, which includes the following:
- You must follow MLA guidelines for documentation. You are not required to do outside critical research for this paper, but if you use ANY outside information in the writing of this paper, YOU MUST CITE YOUR SOURCES or it is considered to be plagiarized. Plagiarized papers will earn you an automatic “0” for the assignment as well as referral to the Dean’s office.
/facepalm
/headdesk
/Chrome out
It's getting to be that time again. Gaaaaah. I issued the 2nd (of my many) warnings/rants last week. And it's in the syllabus (a separate page, too). And does it do any good? Nope. The last person had a pastor AND their mother contact the college. Clear cut case; wasn't overturned.
ReplyDeleteKnuckleheads do what they're going to do.
Their PASTOR? How did you keep from laughing?
DeleteIt was hard, but fortunately I was informed over the phone. I think (unsubstantiated) that this student had always gotten away with stuff, but there was no saving him/her this time. The pleading and excuses just make me madder (probably the opposite effect of what they expect).
DeleteThat part caught my eye, too. I'm trying to imagine how either of my pastors (or, for that matter, any of the pastors I know) would react to a request to intervene in such a situation. I can certainly see any of them offering support to the students and/or parents in figuring out what went wrong and how to move forward in a positive, more ethical way (you know -- acknowledge wrongdoing and repent), but actually contacting the professor and/or the school? Hard to picture.
DeleteI wonder where and how this pastor draws the line on providing interventions/testimonials? There must be a point at which (s)he would no longer say "but he's such a nice, clean-cut, moral young man; I'm sure he didn't do this."
Or, alternatively, I wonder whether it really was a pastor, or a friends/relative/parent who hasn't heard that churches are hospitals for sinners, not museums for saints.
I was told it was a letter; he might have talked to the college, too.
DeleteI categorize this like CC did above: "such a nice person couldn't do this". And... that's what we read about mass murderers and/or other unsavory folks.
I stopped being shocked a long time ago. These students are either stupid or without ethics, and in either case they don't belong here.
ReplyDelete"Plagiarized papers will earn you an automatic “0” for the assignment as well as referral to the Dean’s office..."
ReplyDeletewho, upon examining the parents' balance sheets, will reverse the grade.
I'm lucky enough that that doesn't happen here. Most of our students are getting financial aid (read: not paying out of pocket), so the $$ isn't as much of a consideration.
DeleteHead-desk indeed. You certainly did what you could. Maybe now they (at least the ones who plagiarized) will actually believe you mean it?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your "don't use outside sources but if you must, cite" note looks remarkably like mine. We have to cover all the possibilities, don't we?
YAY! You get to take out all your college misery out on this one student!!!
ReplyDeleteI love cut-and-paste plagiarists. They are so easy to nail and so satisfying. Unlike those sorta-kinda-did-their-own-work-but-not-really liars who just get away with it. I hate them.
Love me a Plagiarizing Pete.
The ones who copypasta without changing the font are my favourite. Why does this paper suddenly change from Comic Sans to Helvetica? Let's ask Mr Google, shall we?
DeleteThe font change scenario is one of the giveaways to me. If I'm tired of reading Hamster Administration papers (and getting ready to drool nap), this jogs my tired eyes... and my brain goes "WHAT?".
DeleteI just had one copy from the Wikipedia, including the footnotes. Didn't that make life easy? Unfortunately, he only copied starting from the paragraph with footnote 3, and he didn't realize that the nice automatic footnotes created on the Wikipedia didn't magically make it into the paper.
DeleteBIG FAT ZERO!
And since the NewDean doesn't want to be bothered with plagiarists, I get to decide on a punishment myself. Let's see.....