Yup, it's happened. The discovery took place almost by chance - I'm futzing around my computer at 11:30 this evening, I'm not tired, I decide to look at, perhaps even grade, some essays. I've quickly glanced over this one before - the student had a question about the placement of the thesis statement - and it looks promising. After reading the intro, I Google a phrase, since the style is more sophisticated than the student's earlier essays have been, but nothing comes up - great. I start commenting in the margins, generally in a very complimentary fashion, although there are one or two places that could be further analyzed. I get all the way through the essay before a hunch tells me to Google a phrase further down, and bingo - probably 2/3 of the essay is taken straight from an article the student cites as a source. (This factor, along with a misattributed citation, leads me to suspect that the essay was purchased, rather than fabricated, but I could be wrong.)
This student is taking six classes this semester (more fool they!), so if I had to have a plagiarist, I'm not surprised it's them. And the assignment was open-topic (it's a writing course), so it was much more feasible to plagiarize than one of the assignments directly linked to course readings.
I'm not furious, nor do I feel personally offended - I know these things happen, especially with over-extended students. But I'm angry at the student, of course, for wasting my time and those of their peer reviewers, who've already given detailed comments. And I'm somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed. My syllabus doesn't have a set policy for plagiarism, and I don't give final grades for any essay until the final portfolio, so this essay would have received only a provisional grade in any case. One option would be to simply require the student to complete the assignment and leave it at that. But the essay that I caught was supposed to be a revision; do I require a revision of the new assignment as well? Given that I wouldn't have assigned a definite grade to the essay anyway, will the student escape any penalty whatsoever, apart from having to write the essay they should have written in the first place? Or should I impose some kind of penalty on the final course grade, a solution that might be justified in the abstract but seems rather arbitrary, considering that I don't have a well-thought-out policy in place?
I wish that I could simply fail the student on this one essay, but unfortunately, the portfolio grading policy precludes that. Hmm... I could, however, factor in an F as 1/6 of the final portfolio grade (there are six total essays in the class), which would amount to about 1/8 of the final course grade - enough to lower it, but not to automatically fail the student. I'll have to consider this option. Any thoughts?
I'm going to talk through the situation tomorrow with the director of the writing program, who is generally a good resource on matters of student-instructor interaction, discipline, and grading issues. In the meantime, I'm glad that I encountered this problem at night, when I wasn't about to sit down for a hard-core grading session, since I've gotten the chance to work through it a bit without feeling as though I were wasting otherwise productive hours.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Baby's first plagiarist must not be pampered. This is a time for tough love: an overburdened student who plagiarizes once will do it again unless you make the consequences sufficiently scary. An F on the paper would be the minimum, and if you don't have a plagiarism policy on your syllabus, you need to add one.
We have a procedure we have to follow for pretty much any plagiarism case.
Talk about a miserable way to spend your time! /comfort
Is there any way to do things with the assignment itself to discourage plagiarism, for next time?
Thanks, both. Bardiac, it's notable that this was the first open-topic assignment I had given them; I think that in the future, I'll stick to assignments explicitly dealing with course texts, as most of them aren't popular Cliffs Notes texts. Bev, I didn't have a plagiarism policy because I didn't want to say, for example, that I would automatically report any plagiarist to the school's disciplinary body. But I am giving the student an F on the paper (making it worth 1/5 of the portfolio grade), and meeting with her and the head of the writing program Monday.
I hope you're able to resolve this with minimal stress, kermit. (And am also hoping your director will be able to give you adequate advice and backup...). I do sympathize!
The writing program down here has an extensive policy which officially isn't negotiable, but which tries to distinguish between intentional and unintentional cases. I guess your discussion with the student will let you know which of the two types it is...
I would love to choice this section as the freelancing writer could write somethings better as there has no pressure on their writing. http://www.termsgenerator.net/quality-cookie-policy-template/ for more help on your writing.
Hannah Kacary good to see you back on your website and thanks for posting the article on Hiking to Garibaldi Lake, no-anchor as this place is the best one to visit. Keep it up.
Little one's 1st plagiarist must not be adorned. This is the occasion pertaining to hard enjoy: the overburdened university student whom plagiarizes after will certainly repeat the process if you do not create the outcomes enough alarming. The Y for the card stock could be the lowest, along with with no a new plagiarism insurance plan on the syllabus, you'll want to put one particular. Additional evidence based paper with literaturereviewwritingservice.com
My spouse and i so want to alternative this specific segment because freelance writing copy writer may produce somethings greater while there's zero force on the producing.follow the link pertaining to additional support on the producing.
Post a Comment