Sigh. One of my students submitted a paper with massive chunks of text copied from the interweb. And not just the interweb, a really stupid website. I do a lot of plagiarism education and practice in that class, and I design assignments where you can't easily plagiarize. So that's disappointing. In addition to the hassle of meeting with her and filing an academic integrity violation report, I'm just so damn offended! Did she really think I wouldn't notice? PULEAZE! Even if the jarring difference in tone and content hadn't caught my attention, the idiot failed to notice the cut and pasted text was in a slightly different color! (We're talking dark grey here, not, like, red, but still.) It just pisses me off to have a student think Professor Bunny is that stupid! I am not. She's the stupid one. And I'm gonna FUCK HER UP!
Of course I'm not actually going to fuck her up. I'm going to have a meeting wherein I show her the documentation and gently inquire what happened. And do you know what she will most likely say, based on my previous experience? I don't KNOW how that plagiarized text got into my paper. I have no idea. It is a total mystery. And then I will FUCK HER UP! With my academic integrity violation report.
I hate when that happens. It's happened to me a lot and it always, always stings. Because I'm a totally cool, laid-back prof but one who is very specific as to what constitutes plagiarism. And still they do it:(
ReplyDeleteGood luck with it. My school has (had?) an account with turnitin but I never had the heart to put papers through there. And, besides, most cases are so glaringly obvious that it's almost funny. Except for the fact that it's not.
The JB has this too. Hmm. I think I can safely say I too would be quite maddened by the idea that she seriously thought I would (seriously, now) not notice the blatant copy-and-pasting - I mean, REALLY. I know exactly how much of a twit I am, and it's not THAT much.
ReplyDeleteSympathies, therefore, are extended. Will she be brought before the board? In the institution JB lectures at, I think they do that, followed by shooting at dawn.
Ugh, I had some wretchedly unrepentant plagiarists last fall. They bought their papers online. They tried to insist they were innocent. (They both said a friend had written the paper and they had no idea it was on the internet--like, having your friend write a paper is still plagiarism, dumbasses, and we went over that! Plus, you're lying.) Then there were some dead grandma's and leg infections trotted out. Then I failed them.
ReplyDeleteI find my freshman are much less prone to this sort of thing, though I'm not sure if it's because they do a lot of confessional writing rather than research.
I had one student who had thus far proved herself to be a total idiot in every test and assignment, and then one day she turned in this EXCELLENT, highly-polished and fascinating paper, in which all the references were from, like, 1952, and were not to be found in our school's library. Hmmmm... I could never prove anything, though! She swore she used interlibrary loan, but I do not believe her. It DID help her cause that the faked-up paper was GOOD. The worst is when it's plagiarized and it totally sucks, like what you are dealing with here. Then you want to whap them upside the head twice: once for being an idiot, and twice for failing to recognize idiocy when they are ripping off material!
ReplyDeleteThat is so lame! I did the absolute minimum in college, bullshitted on a LOT of papers, and still never lowered myself to plagiarizing. Of course, I still managed A's, but that's because I'm brilliant. Ahem, but enough about me...
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you have such a stupid student, but I have no pity for cheaters. Earn your damn degree, stupid student! Or have the full wrath of Prof. Bunny fall on you!
Gangsta bunny in the house!!! When this happened to my sister, the prof, she asked me how harsh she should be and I was like "the b#tch must go DOWN!" You know what's sad tho? That so many ppl in this universe are sooo dumb yet they don't know it and try to pull the wool over us intelligent folk. Don't stand for it!! The different text thing just adds insult to injury. If you're gonna cheat, at least do it right. Ugh what a moron!
ReplyDeleteUgh, that is so damn yucky. I'm sorry she disrespected you like that, Bunny, and what's more, that she shortcut her own learning by not doing the work.
ReplyDeleteEwwww, she sounds like an idiot!! How could she not notice it was a different color and font? If you're going to plagiarize, I mean, at least have the decency to disguise it properly.
ReplyDeleteTeach her not to mess with Professor bunny! (I know I wouldn't!)
Holy Crap - Who does that? I would be pissed.
ReplyDeleteI say, bring her down. The last time I had to bust a student for plagiarizing, she was all like, 'oh, I didn't know I needed to put quotation marks when I used what's in an article'. Dude, her whole paper was a collage of cut and paste from different papers and websites. It was terrible. I failed her on the paper.
ReplyDeletePlease let us know how it turns out.
my speech about plagiarism used to be, "don't do it." now it's, "make sure you do it really well, because if i catch you, i have to do a TON of paperwork, and if you make me do paperwork, i will kill you."
ReplyDeletemy first instance was a paper that went from virtual non-existence at drafts 1 & 2 to being awfully polished and positively malcolm gladwell-esque at the final. turns out that's bc gladwell wrote it. the student brought HIS MOTHER to the meeting.
my worst-source story wasn't plagiarism but a group research project with a requirement of 4 peer reviewed articles. one group gave me one from "free essays dot com" or similar. sheesh.
kids today. i tell you what.
I can't believe she didnt even change the text to the right colour... thats such a slap in the face to your detective skills.
ReplyDeleteI agree it's the part where she thought you wouldnt notice that is the worst part. Hope you get to FUCK HER UP and then come back here and blog about it.
x
Oh dear. You had me at the different colors. I mean, how little attention can you pay? I like bionic mama's suggestion of "if you do it, do it well", though perhaps some people might take that too seriously. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteOMG, if you're going to cheat, at least do it with some class and effort! Put my vote squarely in the FUCK HER SHIT UP column.
ReplyDeleteDH is a Professor of engineering and animal science and has this happen all the time. He even makes them sign an academic integrity contract at the start of class. And it's usually glaring, and he always brings them up to the academic integrity board, and they usually fight it (typically because their parents are notified), and they always lose and he always wins. And a win is somewhat pyric because ultimately they end up having to re-take his class due to the "F" they get with a notation of academic dishonesty. And some have even been stupid enough to cheat during the second time they have had to take his class. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteDon't they realize this stuff has life long implications??? As a member of the bar, academic dishonesty is something I would have had to disclose (along with all parking tix) on my bar application and it's an issue (unlike parking tix) that has kept individuals from being admitted to practice. Who the heck wants to take a risk like that for the rest of their life???
Come down hard on her ass! This sucks that you have to deal with stupid people like that - kind of taints the rest of it, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteUgh, that is depressing. One, that plagiarism is so rampant, and two, that students are so STUPID about it. I'm sure you'll handle it well...and that maybe we learns something from this. SIGH.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I write up one or two students a semester. And what really sucks is that it's THEM that try to cut corners but then it's US that have to spend so much friggin' time dealing with it. She doesn't think you're an idiot, Bunny. She wasn't thinking at all.
ReplyDeleteI now use Turnitin, mainly because it has a really slick online commenting/grading system called Grademark that I love (the older version). I like being paperless. But I sense it does deter some plagiarism, and it's good for students to see the "originality reports" it produces. And for the couple times I've had to process a case, I could just print that originality report and enclose it with the form. Big time-saver.
I've also smartened up enough to have papers due early enough in the semester that I'm not catching these cases during finals week when the kid might already be off campus.
Thank the law the internet didnt exist when I was in school. I am certain I would not have had the strength to resist the temptation.
ReplyDeleteps - You crack me up every day. Fuck her up. Holy crap that is funny.
I agree with Amy - I don't think she's insulting your intelligence but she is only thinking of herself and obviously thinks she is just like so totally awesomely CLEVER. Copy and paste same font for christ's sake.
ReplyDeleteI was also going to say what Anon said - in law it's a very big issue because if you get an academic dishonesty citation it can prevent you being admitted as a solicitor/barrister. It is drilled into us not to do it, and if you aren't sure - use a FOOTNOTE! or ASK! It's not that hard.
At our university generally assigments are submitted electronically and they are actually scanned prior to distribution against known papers for plagiarism. The law school even posts a link where you can used this yourself before submitting - it highlights any issues you might have, if you have made an innocent mistake. So there really is no excuse.
Go and FHU Prof Bunny, and let us know how it works out.(Sorry for the long comment).
F. F. F.
ReplyDeleteI have no sympathy for this kind of shit. None. Can you fail her for the whole course? I mean, this is not "I fucked up my citations" plagiarism. This is "I truly don't give a damn" plagiarism.
When we were teaching overseas my husband used to get assignments handed in that were clearly Xeroxes of someone else's work. The Xeroxer would use WHITE-OUT to cover up the original student's name, then write in his or her name with pencil on top.
Hahaha...she deserves it! I love you for this.
ReplyDeleteOooh, I totally get it.
ReplyDeletePlagiarism ended the career of one of my Professors in my college (from where I did my Master's).
For an academician, getting tainted with such a thing is horrible, and yet some people do it.
I guess it is a good time for your student to face the music. Maybe he/she will learn a lesson or two.
And yep, I receive assignments where students will write 'Heading [Edit]'...thanks to Wikipedia.....aaaaargh!