o-dub, how did you catch these dudes? Was it just a google search?
If you're going to be lazy man up and do what we did in high school, fill in the middle of your outline with Doritos ingredients.
Deej,
There's a system called Turnitin.com that maintains a massive database of papers that instructors can check student papers again. It's not a bad system, probably the most widely used, but of course, it can't catch everything.
o-dub, how did you catch these dudes? Was it just a google search?
If you're going to be lazy man up and do what we did in high school, fill in the middle of your outline with Doritos ingredients.
Deej,
There's a system called Turnitin.com that maintains a massive database of papers that instructors can check student papers again. It's not a bad system, probably the most widely used, but of course, it can't catch everything.
This website doesn't do anything. It's horrible.
Mike,
It's worked for me. All too well.
I suppose it would at a university where plagiarism can lead to expulsion. Turnitin.com doesn't do anything in "lower" ed.
What are the copyright rules with that site?
Your plagiarism problems are only going to get worse over time.
Flunk them. Maybe it's not worth it to kick them out of school, but the least you can do is give them a nice stain on their report card and, perhaps, require them to retake the class next semester.
I agree.
Also, as an aside, how would you go about letting them know that you believe they plagiarized, and what is the appeals process look like in school?
I would suspect all of them would likely say they are not guilty....so how does one 'prove' work is plagiarized.
Flunk them. Maybe it's not worth it to kick them out of school, but the least you can do is give them a nice stain on their report card and, perhaps, require them to retake the class next semester.
I agree.
Also, as an aside, how would you go about letting them know that you believe they plagiarized, and what is the appeals process look like in school?
I would suspect all of them would likely say they are not guilty....so how does one 'prove' work is plagiarized.
JLee,
Plagiarism is based on result, not intent. To give you an example, I found one student paper that used three paragraphs taken from two other texts. Word for word. Their claim is that, "I meant to cite those paragraphs." My response: "Whether you meant to or not, you did not and your paper meets the basic test for plagiarism."
At that point, I have any number of options open, including having them rewrite a new paper, having them rewrite a new paper with penalty (i.e. in this case, I said I'd accept a new paper but with a 20% grade penalty assessed), flunk the entire paper (which I would do if someone submitted a paper that they didn't write at all), or, most seriously, any of the above AND report them to the university's judicial affairs office. With the latter, they can adjudicate and decide that plagiarism did or did not take place but if they discover it did, they make a record of this in the student's file. If they are caught cheating again in the future, they face suspension or expulsion.
The tougher cases is where you don't have "smoking gun" proof that they copied...you just sense that there's no way the same student could have written the paper he or she submitted. In those cases, the best you can hope for is to call them in to talk about and get them to admit that they copied. If not, there's nothing you can do without conclusive proof.
Much as I hate plagiarism (or academic cheating in general), I'd never try to have a first-time offender kicked out of school for it (fail them for the class though? Sure). I just don't like punitive measures that, in the long run, don't really benefit anyone. Scaring the crap out of them can be an effective means of getting them to stay honest however.
here at UVA, honor code, single sanction. trial by jury, if guilty, then kicked out of school.
i teach chemistry, so i dont have problems with plagiarism, more cheating. the only foolproof way for me to really catch kids, is keeping copies of suspect tests, then when the kid asks me to fix a grading "error", i'll check it against my copy. you can only imagine the excuses ive heard from some students. anyways, even though its technically against the rules, i offer the student a choice, a zero or honor trial. not surprisingly, i havent had to take a student to honor trial.
as someone who has recently graduated from a state university, kids are just lazy. they have gotten away with copying stuff off the internet for so long (downloading music, etc), that they dont really feel any consequences. the key thing is to make it a point to your students that it is completely unacceptable. its very easy to change a plagiarized paper into one that cites its sources properly. will it affect the word count? yeah, but shit, the internet is beautiful in the amount of citable sources it gives you.
[rockadelic] HYPOCRITES! You should also subject all those damn sampling "musicians" as well. [/rockadelic]
So it begins...
This parody is remarkably similar to an actual Rock post from awhile back.
Something like "I am astounded at you accusing me of being disrespectful on a board whose members listen to rap, a music that is devoted to disrespect."
[rockadelic] HYPOCRITES! You should also subject all those damn sampling "musicians" as well. [/rockadelic]
So it begins...
This parody is remarkably similar to an actual Rock post from awhile back.
Something like "I am astounded at you accusing me of being disrespectful on a board whose members listen to rap, a music that is devoted to disrespect."
I nearly got kicked out of the course I was doing at uni (which I ended up leaving anyway) not because of plagiarism, but because of getting into an argument after being (wrongly) accused of it. She claimed that it was "way above my skill level" and I apparently I stirred the hornets nest when I ventured that perhaps it was because it was the first assignment that had an relevancy to what we were supposed to be learning, therefor I took it more seriously.
She was a ball breaking feminazi who wouldn't let you use particular sources based on what else they had published or their general rightism.
Comments
Yes: I caught half these dudes biting their whole style from me.
Mike,
It's worked for me. All too well.
How deejerific of you take that observation personally.
I suppose it would at a university where plagiarism can lead to expulsion. Turnitin.com doesn't do anything in "lower" ed.
What are the copyright rules with that site?
Your plagiarism problems are only going to get worse over time.
I'm not clear on what you're saying here. What does "do" mean here?
And in any case, my university doesn't automatically expel students for plagiarism, at least not first time offenders.
I agree.
Also, as an aside, how would you go about letting them know that you believe they plagiarized, and what is the appeals process look like in school?
I would suspect all of them would likely say they are not guilty....so how does one 'prove' work is plagiarized.
JLee,
Plagiarism is based on result, not intent. To give you an example, I found one student paper that used three paragraphs taken from two other texts. Word for word. Their claim is that, "I meant to cite those paragraphs." My response: "Whether you meant to or not, you did not and your paper meets the basic test for plagiarism."
At that point, I have any number of options open, including having them rewrite a new paper, having them rewrite a new paper with penalty (i.e. in this case, I said I'd accept a new paper but with a 20% grade penalty assessed), flunk the entire paper (which I would do if someone submitted a paper that they didn't write at all), or, most seriously, any of the above AND report them to the university's judicial affairs office. With the latter, they can adjudicate and decide that plagiarism did or did not take place but if they discover it did, they make a record of this in the student's file. If they are caught cheating again in the future, they face suspension or expulsion.
The tougher cases is where you don't have "smoking gun" proof that they copied...you just sense that there's no way the same student could have written the paper he or she submitted. In those cases, the best you can hope for is to call them in to talk about and get them to admit that they copied. If not, there's nothing you can do without conclusive proof.
here at UVA, honor code, single sanction. trial by jury, if guilty, then kicked out of school.
i teach chemistry, so i dont have problems with plagiarism, more cheating. the only foolproof way for me to really catch kids, is keeping copies of suspect tests, then when the kid asks me to fix a grading "error", i'll check it against my copy. you can only imagine the excuses ive heard from some students. anyways, even though its technically against the rules, i offer the student a choice, a zero or honor trial. not surprisingly, i havent had to take a student to honor trial.
as someone who has recently graduated from a state university, kids are just lazy. they have gotten away with copying stuff off the internet for so long (downloading music, etc), that they dont really feel any consequences. the key thing is to make it a point to your students that it is completely unacceptable. its very easy to change a plagiarized paper into one that cites its sources properly. will it affect the word count? yeah, but shit, the internet is beautiful in the amount of citable sources it gives you.
Do = deter people.
The concept of intellectual property is foreign to most students.
So it begins...
This parody is remarkably similar to an actual Rock post from awhile back.
Something like "I am astounded at you accusing me of being disrespectful on a board whose members listen to rap, a music that is devoted to disrespect."
It's like a new form of syllogism.
She was a ball breaking feminazi who wouldn't let you use particular sources based on what else they had published or their general rightism.
Student Response to Claim of Plagiarism: "It is an effort to transcend the rigidities and the patterns made by the rational mind."
Sounds like Kenneth Eng.