Well Angloesque, I gotta say, maybe I should've taken your class earlier.

I think my responses are more in response to the righteousness of folks like SuperBaby. Perhaps I pointed fingers at you that I shouldn't have. I'm not sure what response would be reasonable here. As far as I can see, the commentary here is dizzyingly self-righteous and almost giddy with eager excitement about this girl being punished. My feeling was that somewhere between expulsion and laughing the whole thing off there was a middle ground. I still feel this way. This girl gets expelled - rightfully so - and now what? Sure she paid the price for her actions, as all the folks here seem to see, but does she see it? Will she find herself at some other school plagiarizing more carefully? SuperBaby, don't bother responding, I know your black and white view all too well.

Perhaps a follow-up assignment, twice as large, that must have at least five separate references per page. Maybe a paper on plagiarism?

People do need to consider the various levels of Plagiarism. A student who quotes from other work and either forgets or purposely fails to reference the quotations is usually given a warning. It's when students copy large segments of work in a cut and paste fashion than serious consequences occur. No student is unaware of the seriousness of this offense in university. It's cheating and if done in an exam situation should be strongly punished.

The problem is the system itself where the mark obtained in the exam is more important than the education the student recieves. This puts great pressure on students to look at previous answer to similar questions and memorise responses, rather than applying their own analysis to the question. Their response do not have to be intellectually original, just prove that they have intellectual capacity to analyse the question and the issue it raises. A student who cannot achieve that has indeed failed and an automatic F grade is deserved.

Paul.

Matt, I like your ideas. Were it inadvertant plagiarism, I might do something like that. I agree about the levels of plagiarism and I've seen them all. Blatant is what I fail people for; inadvertant is where an in-class punishment (and not an easy one) is more advisable. At the same time, though, prevention is key, and I hope I adequately warn my students about it.

Solitair, you make a great point. I hate regurgitation and hopefully my students are learning not to. On our final assignment I purposely discussed the text very little and the concepts very broadly so they could assign their own value to the literature. And as they go on through college, ideally this analysis will become more automatic; I don't think freshmen, whom I teach, should have to analyze as thoroughly as seniors, but they'd better start learning how to do so. That tool is probably one of the most important things students learn in college. Good point.

I think my responses are more in response to the righteousness of folks like SuperBaby. Perhaps I pointed fingers at you that I shouldn't have. I'm not sure what response would be reasonable here. As far as I can see, the commentary here is dizzyingly self-righteous and almost giddy with eager excitement about this girl being punished. My feeling was that somewhere between expulsion and laughing the whole thing off there was a middle ground. I still feel this way. This girl gets expelled - rightfully so - and now what? Sure she paid the price for her actions, as all the folks here seem to see, but does she see it? Will she find herself at some other school plagiarizing more carefully? SuperBaby, don't bother responding, I know your black and white view all too well.

One shouldn't blame others for their own behavior. Adults can control their own behavior.
I am zealous about her being expelled, because she's not a child. Is it wrong for me to expect adults to act like adults? If so, then we really should raise the age of adulthood to 30 or 40 (except for me, since I seem to be some sort of Super Genius for being aware of why things are wrong and should probably be declared King of the World). To know why plagiarism is wrong at 21 must make me some sort of God, eh?

Also, I've thought about it, and maybe it's not wise to fail students for plagiarism. Just fail them on the assignment. That would have definitely compelled me to plagiarize on assignments I procrastinated on. At least I would have had a chance to receive a good grade, and if I was caught, it wouldn't be any worse than not doing the assignment at all.

I applaud you on taking action on students that cheat, because that is what plagiarism is, cheating. If you had not taken action it would be unfair for the rest of the students who worked hard, using their own material. A college education in America in unfortunatly not a right, it is a privledge. There are too many people that worked their butts off for a diploma without cheating. If we are to keep cheaters in our campuses it takes away the hard work of those who earned their degrees legitimatly.

Addendum: I caught another plagiarizer today. Same assignment. Same stupid cut and paste.

-T.

You mean that they copied and paste the same material? If so, then plagiarists are truly just plain dumb.

Well, they didn't plagiarize the same material--same copy and paste method, I mean. I kid you not, I've had one student turn in a poem she liked, then plagiarized it again when it came time to write her own. I have a hard time feeling bad about that one.

I agree with your action fully, unfortunately I was the victim of a teacher actually thinking I plagerized a essay I wrote over George Washington. She said it was just too well written for an 8th grader so it must be plagerized. She said that it sounded like it came from some encyclopedia, unfortuanately for me, I never used one for that essay and unfortunately was too intemidated by her power of a teacher to go against it even though I didnt do what she said I did, so I just accepted the F and went on with it. Sucks to be her now.. considering I am vauled for my words on paper by english teachers and others as well... shit happens I guess...

Adios

You really break the "thou shalt not steal commandment" when plagiarism and therefore you will very likely face God's wrath on judgement day and might even be sent to eternal damnation (in other words the pit down in the center of the earth)!

Dude are you crazy? If you in fact didn't plagariaze when didn't you appeal and try to prove your case? How utterly stupid to accept an "F" if you in fact worked harded to do the work! It sounds to be like you indeed plagiarized and are trying to hide your sin!

One day my mum (then an English teacher) brought home a piece of coursework she found suspiciously good for me to have a look at. I studied it for a minute or so, reached over to my shelf and handed her a book. Case closed.

The book? The Warcraft II manual.

The guy had copied the entire Orc back-story word for word.

People do need to consider the various levels of Plagiarism. A student who quotes from other work and either forgets or purposely fails to reference the quotations is usually given a warning. It's when students copy large segments of work in a cut and paste fashion than serious consequences occur. No student is unaware of the seriousness of this offense in university. It's cheating and if done in an exam situation should be strongly punished.

Clark College policy on plagiarism:

First time: person that did that gets F in class he or she stole other's work in.

Second time: Person gets F in all classes he or she is currently attending, and he or she cannot take any more classes at Clark college for life.

Clark College have a very strict outlook on plagiarism and I agree with the policy.

I will confess to times of plagiarism when I was in high school. But I at least did it creatively.

When I found a piece I liked but was too lazy to analyse it, I simply reached for my thesaurus and rewrote it. While what I did was still plagiarism, at least there was a semblance of effort to originality rather than a blatant cut and paste. Unfortunately, in the case of myself and many of my peers, many teachers actually ENCOURAGED it; hell, it was a sixth grade teacher that taught me to do it!