[Englecturers] plagiarist student, phase two

[Benedict Jones]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my plagiarism dilemma. I also spoke 
to someone at Student Judicial Affairs, and I did some soul searching. I 
decided that if the student admits to cheating, I will drop her overall 
course grade by one letter grade and send her plagiarized assignment on 
to SJA. Even if the student drops the class to avoid grade consequences, 
she will still be faced with SJA.

That was yesterday. Now I have the first draft that forms the basis of 
the first formal paper, and part of it is plagiarized. Not much, but 
this is a clear pattern of cheating. I haven't even had a chance to meet 
with the student about the early offense yet.

It is possible that the student has been doing this for years in the 
belief that it is acceptable. She may see it as a winning strategy. But 
there are other warning signs that bother me. For instance, regardless 
of format, the first assignment that she plagiarized didn't even meet 
the assignment's content requirements. The paper that I received 
yesterday doesn't either. First of all, it's supposed to be an argument 
essay, but it's an expository essay. Her opinion peers around the 
corner, shyly, on maybe two occasions; it was so subtle that I nearly 
missed it. There's no thesis statement (she's supposed to underline it), 
there's no real argument, and there's no conclusion. She's supposed to 
argue only one side of the issue (for this assignment--she'll 
counterargue later), but the paper she gave me covers both sides of the 
issue in direct defiance of my explicit instructions. Worst of all, she 
swiped stuff from Wikipedia. It's not a lot, but the paper is very 
short. She swiped about a paragraph's worth, and the paper is all of six 
paragraphs long. Some she steals (quotes without quotation marks or 
attribution), and some is slightly altered, without attribution. All 
no-nos. But I should add that I expressly prohibited Internet sources 
for this assignment.

The assigned reading for last week from the SMG clearly states that 
paraphrasing must be attributed. My syllabus says that you can't pass 
off someone else's words as your own. We've only started to touch on 
this in class, and I don't intend to crucify people for sloppy 
paraphrasing. But she clearly quoted without quotation marks or 
attribution, and she "borrowed" an Internet source when she was told not 
to use Internet sources at all. On two occasions, she has tried to pass 
off someone else's work as her own. She doesn't do her own work.

I know what I have to do, and I'm going to do it. But back when this was 
"only" a plagiarized homework, y'all gave me some good 
middle-of-the-road solutions, and I thank you for it. I'll be better 
prepared the next time a "minor" plagiarism event happens.

Benedict (not having a good week)