Comments on: Is that all you got? Psshhhhh… That was easy. E-Z. Easy.

By: Alana

Alana — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:25:38 +0000

If the guy isn’t smart enough to understand the concept of not stealing someone else’s work, I hope the guy isn’t working on bridges or buildings or anything that might result in, you know, the death of people.

In the cases I was thinking of, it was more like, “Don’t copy the teacher’s manual. Don’t copy another student’s work.” And then the students proceeded to copy verbatim from the teacher’s manual and each other’s work. There was no nuance about citation and quotations and whatnot. It was good, old-fashioned cheating. In one particular instance, the instructor tried to do something–he only wanted to give them a warning lecture and an F for the assignment to start–and was told by his supervisor not to.

By: JPLand

JPLand — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:08:43 +0000

Plagiarism is bad, and there’s no way around it. I honestly don’t think that there’s enough emphasis put on it, though. Students are just told “don’t do it” but there’s no discussion on what exactly it is and how to avoid it. Let the students know that it’s OK to use sources, but that there are guidelines for doing so.

Personally, I have always been a fan of professors speaking with the students first and then taking the necessary disciplinary actions, no matter what the offense is. I remember getting hammered for improper citations (not missing, just not correct) on several occasions, but I was never sat down and told “Hey, let me show you how you need to do this…” I just got points off a report and that was it.

Thus, my approach with this guy was to let him know that the cut-and-paste of the websites was definitely out of bounds but that I’d be willing to give it another look if he wanted to refine his approach. Well, he refined his paper, but not his approach.

By: Alana

Alana — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:47:46 +0000

My understanding is that teachers rarely prosecute for academic dishonesty. They come across much, much more cheating than they do anything about. But the system is set up such that it can be an enormous pain in the ass to turn people in and follow through. A lot of times professors don’t get support from their administrators when and if they decide to prosecute, so they have to weigh the headache against the benefits, and most of the time there aren’t many benefits since there are just more cheaters coming through the following year. I’ve heard crazy stories from professors about what students have done, many of them from some of the best schools in the country. Losers, I say. But of course these losers graduate, get the best jobs, and then sometimes proceed to cheat the rest of us.

By: JPLand

JPLand — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:22:37 +0000

A whole class? Boy, that sounds odd. I’ll bet that the professor wasn’t all together and that the honor council found that the groups in question had no intent to defraud but was a bunch of engineers that couldn’t cite worth a diddly-poo. Hypothetically speaking.

By: Fadi

Fadi — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:16:48 +0000

I wonder if he will have to go before the Honor Council? Do you know anyone who has ever had to go before them before? I once heard a rumor about an entire class getting incomplete grades from a professor because he reported all of them for plagiarism. Weird. Oh yeah, weren’t you a part of that class. Maybe that explains your deep down fears about plagiarism.