I finally discovered an up side of being a graduate assistant

[proud gonzo]

I shouldn't give any details, but I was grading 380 essays (that all blur together after a while) and discovered two that were 98% identical. Thanks to my awesome memory, two students are being reported to the Dean.

For the first time, I kinda love my job. Thwarting cheaters FTW! :D

[Petro-Sooner]

:texan:

[Soonerus]

Good for you...nobody cheated back in my day...

[SanJoaquinSooner]

I shouldn't give any details, but I was grading 380 essays (that all blur together after a while) and discovered two that were 98% identical. Thanks to my awesome memory, two students are being reported to the Dean.

For the first time, I kinda love my job. Thwarting cheaters FTW! :D

I would talk to each student, separately, and allow them the opportunity to confess and come clean. If they do that, give them a zero on the essay, and let them to continue otherwise.

Aren't you jumping the gun by reporting them to the Dean?

[proud gonzo]

I didn't report them to the Dean. I collected their assignments and gave them to the professor. Past that, it's not my responsibility or my decision. I'm just the graduate assistant. The Professor is the one who decides how to handle it, and he is reporting them to the Dean.

I was just saying I'm happy because they didn't get away with the plagiarism. I'm a writer. Plagiarism makes me mad.

[NYC Poke]

Plagiarism makes me mad.

[SicEmBaylor]

I have a couple of friends teaching college classes. One is a doctoral student and the other is a full-blown professor (at Tech and S. Carolina). Anyway, every now and then they get some pretty awful papers that they pass my way for amusement. It's pretty hard to believe that some of them are written by college students. My Tech friend had a paper the other day with absolutely no punctuation marks, capitalization, or paragraph breaks.

My friend at S. Carolina sent me a paper once in which a student tried to draw a parallel between King George III and Hitler.

[proud gonzo]

Yeah--I'm amazed by what some students think is acceptable. For one, text message abbreviations don't belong in papers.

[the_ouskull]

It starts before high school, because I've had freshman do it. It likely starts with N.C.L.B., but that's just me...

the_ouskull

[proud gonzo]

well, it started before No Child Left Behind did, but that certainly didn't help any.

Kids don't know how to actually WRITE either--putting pen to paper. Some of them can't even write their own name without having to scribble or erase. Nobody writes things on paper anymore; they just type.

[SicEmBaylor]

well, it started before No Child Left Behind did, but that certainly didn't help any.

Kids don't know how to actually WRITE either--putting pen to paper. Some of them can't even write their own name without having to scribble or erase. Nobody writes things on paper anymore; they just type.

How do they get through blue book exams? The BU Poli-Sci and History departments (my two majors) give exams almost entirely by blue book. For just a routine history exam, it usually takes me at least 2 entire blue books to answer one question. I can't imagine how a student could get through that if they can't even write their name. Unless of course we're just antiquated and most schools don't give blue book exams anymore.

But man....you'd never be able to pass a test here without being at least a somewhat proficient writer.

[49r]

TurnItIn.com (http://www.turnitin.com/static/index.html)


Helps Teachers and Students Find and Prevent Plagiarism
Turnitin Originality Checking & Plagiarism Prevention is the #1 web-based solution that lets educators and their students check written work for improper citation or misappropriated content.

[SoonerStormchaser]

I came up with this original thought and figured I'd contribute it to this thread:

Plagiarism makes me angry!

[bluedogok]

My Tech friend had a paper the other day with absolutely no punctuation marks, capitalization, or paragraph breaks.

Yeah--I'm amazed by what some students think is acceptable. For one, text message abbreviations don't belong in papers.
For some that seems to be the majority of their "creative writing" expertise.


Kids don't know how to actually WRITE either--putting pen to paper. Some of them can't even write their own name without having to scribble or erase. Nobody writes things on paper anymore; they just type.
I had to do a "handwritten paper" for freshman comp (1982), since I was in architecture school and had done drafting since I was a little kid, I "printed" everything, it was faster for me to print out a paper than write it our in cursive. The instructor (can't remember what level she actually was, maybe a professor since she was older) gave me back the paper and told me that printing was not acceptable, it needed to be "handwritten", I told her that it was, I did write it by hand. So I "wrote" the paper out, she ended up asking for the printed copy back so she could read it. I just didn't do cursive, and really hadn't since I had to in elementary school so I wasn't very well practiced in it..plus I kind of did it a bit more sloppily than I normally would have since I was a bit PO'd about it.

[proud gonzo]

TurnItIn.com (http://www.turnitin.com/static/index.html)
noted!

[StoopTroup]

One day pencils will be outlawed.

[King Barry's Back]

Plagiarism is over rated and doesn't make me angry. I've written hundreds of govt papers. I don't own them, and other people incorporate my work into their own documents.

It just saves time.

[I think the problem here is not plagiarism per se, but academic fraud.]

Academic fraud makes me angry.

[StoopTroup]

I remember writing so much I had a callous on the left side of my middle finger of my right hand. I think later on...I got a lot of dates because of it. I could really induce a current. :D

http://image.tutorvista.com/content/magnetic-effects-electric-current/flemings-right-hand-rule.jpeg

[btk108]

I remember writing so much I had a callous on the left side of my middle finger of my right hand. I think later on...I got a lot of dates because of it. I could really induce a current.

Sure you got it from "writing" ;)

[Fraggle145]

Plagiarism is over rated and doesn't make me angry. I've written hundreds of govt papers. I don't own them, and other people incorporate my work into their own documents.

It just saves time.

[I think the problem here is not plagiarism per se, but academic fraud.]

Academic fraud makes me angry.

They are inextricably linked. If you use someone else's work they need to be given credit. It isnt that hard to do. Cite them in text!! If its the governments work then it needs to be cited that way.

I hope she turns them into the dean... Anymore they just give out slaps on the wrist for the first time offenders. :mad:

[Soonrboy]

my first couple of years of teaching, the most difficult thing for me to teach was writing. I didn't get comfortable with teaching it until about my 3rd or 4th year. I apologize to those 2 years that I scarred the kids. I seriously sucked at getting the points across of what is good writing compared to bad writing.

[NYC Poke]

Yeah--I'm amazed by what some students think is acceptable. For one, text message abbreviations don't belong in papers.

lol

[NYC Poke]

Years ago, I had a gf that taught freshman comp at OU while a grad student there. I used to help her grading the papers. I had no degree at the time, but it's pretty easy to tell the clear A papers, clear B papers, and so on, and we'd discuss the ones on the margins.

Anyhoo, remember those erasable pens that were good neither for being pens nor for erasing (this is back before everyone had computers -- I'm really dating myself here)? One of Gwen's students erased someone else's name and wrote her own name in. Not only could you still read the previous name, but the student's name was in different handwriting from the body of the paper. Furthermore, the paper wasn't even that good to begin with.

Gwen did some checking and found out that the original author was still in high school in one of the town's neighboring Norman. She called that girl's mother, and flunked her student. Don't remember if she turned anyone into the Dean.

[SicEmBaylor]

One day pencils will be outlawed.

In most of the classes I've had they are.

Pen only.

I don't understand why someone would risk their entire academic career by plagiarizing. If you can't come up with something unique to say on paper then you probably shouldn't be in college anyway. Even if it sucks, it's at least your own thoughts and reasoning.

[John Kochtoston]

One day pencils will be outlawed.

If pencils are outlawed, then only outlaws will have pencils.

I'm kinda on the fence about the whole plagiarism issue. While I think it's certainly unacceptable in an academic setting (or journalistic setting, or creative writing setting, etc.) I also don't get the vitriol it receives from many in academia. Unless it's a repeat offender, just flunk 'em and move on. I don't think it's worth booting someone out of the university for.

I've also run into some folks that seriously don't get why plagiarism is wrong. Teaching moments exist with those folks.

[SicEmBaylor]

I had a history class a couple of years ago with a case sort of like what PG described only on a much larger scale. We had a major paper due and about a week later our prof comes into class one day and tells us that 1/3 of the class won't be around the next class period. He spends the entire class period talking about plagiarism and telling us he hadn't decided if he would inform the dean or not. Anyway, he told us that he'd call us each into his office one by one to tell us we'd been dismissed. The guy had me scared ****less -- I know I hadn't plagiarized but I was still terrified.

Evidently what happened is there were a lot of members of a particular sorority in that class and they all turned in virtually identical papers along with some of their friends in the class. True to his word, the next class period 1/3 of the class had been dismissed.

I can't imagine how they thought they'd get by with that.

[soonerhubs]

Grading papers got a little annoying this year with all the revisions with APA 6th ed.

[Frozen Sooner]

Wow. People still take tests handwritten? ExamSoft FTW. My Legal Writing final was Friday, and if I'd had to hand write it, it would have been rife with cross outs and such. Using the computer allowed me to go back and correct my Blue Book cites while eliminating grammatical mistakes. I'm horrible about passive voice, so a second go-round on every paper after proofing just looking for passive voice is damn near mandatory for me.

[tommieharris91]

I think we should ask what I am Right thinks about plagiarism.

[Frozen Sooner]

I think we should ask what I am Right thinks about plagiarism.

He'll likely cut and paste something from Michelle Malkin talking about Joe Biden.

[Curly Bill]

Joe Biden sucks!

Is that an original thought?

[Frozen Sooner]

Joe Biden sucks!

Is that an original thought?

Not particularly, though as it's common knowledge it doesn't need attribution.

[Curly Bill]

Not particularly, though as it's common knowledge it doesn't need attribution.

Whew! :O

[Penguin]

I would demand crazy monkey sex or booze.

Or, maybe even both.

[Oldnslo]

THEY STUDIED TOGETHER!

[crimsonclass]

"Re: I finally discovered an up side of being a graduate assistant"

Am I the only one who clicked on this thread who is thoroughly disappointed?

I thought for sure I was about to read something along the lines of "oh yeah sweet thing, you CAN still make an 'A' oh... but, knees will only get you a 'B' An 'A' is going to require you to have to work that @ss!"

[Frozen Sooner]

"Re: I finally discovered an up side of being a graduate assistant"

Am I the only one who clicked on this thread who is thoroughly disappointed?

I thought for sure I was about to read something along the lines of "oh yeah sweet thing, you CAN still make an 'A' oh... but, knees will only get you a 'B' An 'A' is going to require you to have to work that @ss!"

I wonder if disabusing crimson"class" of some of his notions would disappoint him or get him even more excited?

[proud gonzo]

heh

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I would talk to each student, separately, and allow them the opportunity to confess and come clean. If they do that, give them a zero on the essay, and let them to continue otherwise.

Aren't you jumping the gun by reporting them to the Dean?

Nope. People are way to "gray" about things now adays. There is a thing about honor and doing your own work. I hesitated once on telling about a cheat to a physics professor. Becuase of it the guy went in and "confessed" after he knew he was caught by me and got an F for the exam rather than being flunked out of the course. His roommate that took the exam was a Engineering Physics major and got no penalty. So as a former Grad Asst. and Instructor, I would concur with PGs action.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Joe Biden sucks!

Is that an original thought?

It can be. And Biden is a Plagiarist.

[Jacie]

I have read many student-generated papers and can conclude that a well-written one is only mildly unreadable versus what kids usually pass off as "composition."

OTOH, plagiarized papers are easy to spot. They are not full of punctuation and spelling errors, and are not written in the stilted, over adverbed/adjectived style of the student author.

[SicEmBaylor]

When my dad was in grad school he had a major archeological paper due that he worked his *** off for months to complete. He turns it in and the professor calls him into his office one day and accuses him of plagiarizing the entire thing and demands he re-write it or he'd be flunked. So, my dad went to the library and pulled a master's thesis that had been written several years before on the same subject, retyped it, put his name on it, and turned it in. The professor calls him in again and tells him he wrote a fine paper and to let that be a lesson never to try to plagiarize again.

[TUSooner]

Plagiarism makes me mad.

I said that first, in 1994. Expect a call from my lawyer.

[beer4me]

Polygamist makes me mad

[badger]

I have read many student-generated papers and can conclude that a well-written one is only mildly unreadable versus what kids usually pass off as "composition."

OTOH, plagiarized papers are easy to spot. They are not full of punctuation and spelling errors, and are not written in the stilted, over adverbed/adjectived style of the student author.

Final paragraph of student-generated papers:

"In conclusion, I am going to take up enough of the last page of this paper so that it fills the required length by re-iterating everything already said. Am I there yet? No, so I am going to make my font 12.5 instead of 12 and hope you don't notice. I am also going to make the font "Arial" instead of "Times New Roman" because Arial is bigger. I still have a lot of page to fill, so I am going to put the margins narrower. And now, to bold the text. The text is now not only bold, but lucky font size 13 Arial with razor-thin margins. And with that, this paragraph alone takes up all of page 2. Congratulations to me, I have just turned in a two-page paper."

[Penguin]

Final paragraph of student-generated papers:

"In conclusion, I am going to take up enough of the last page of this paper so that it fills the required length by re-iterating everything already said. Am I there yet? No, so I am going to make my font 12.5 instead of 12 and hope you don't notice. I am also going to make the font "Arial" instead of "Times New Roman" because Arial is bigger. I still have a lot of page to fill, so I am going to put the margins narrower. And now, to bold the text. The text is now not only bold, but lucky font size 13 Arial with razor-thin margins. And with that, this paragraph alone takes up all of page 2. Congratulations to me, I have just turned in a two-page paper."


Can I use that paragraph?


I have to write a 2,000 word paper about a 500 line MARIE assembly program that I wrote. A lot of my paper goes like this: "On line #478 of the program, I was undecided on what to do next. I had three options: output the final digit of the calculation, abruptly terminate the program and have the user begging for more, or output 'THIS IS A HALF-WITTED PROGRAM THAT WAS ASSIGNED TO ME AND I WILL HAVE TO WRITE AN EVEN LESS INTELLIGENT PAPER TO DESCRIBE IT.' After numerous hours of debating, meditation, and prayer, I chose to output the final digit of the calculation."

[badger]

Can I use that paragraph?

Ever visit a site call homestarrunner.com? I used to a long time ago and I remember there was one on paper writing. Here's a link. (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html) Enjoy! :D

[setem]

I am taking Sports in American History. It is a pretty easy class if you show up but there is a lot of info we have to use in our exams. We had a full roster on day one and the place was almost empty the next. I think we have 24 out of 100+ kids left. The class is a senior level course and we have 3 exams all in blue books and each test period is 3 hours long and they expect you to use every bit of it. I like learning about Ty Cobb and on the last exam I wrote almost an hour on his relationship with his parents and the kind of person he was. I too have calluses on my middle finger from writing.

When I was in high school I got suspended for being tardy a bunch of times. We had in school suspension so we had to sit and write all day. We were asked to write about why we thought we were there and what we can do to make sure we never come back. The guy watching us was one of the assistant football coaches so I sat there and I drew a picture of a robot destroying a city(not a very good one but it was detailed). On the back I wrote him a letter.

Coach Vera,

In all the time we have been sitting here the only thing that I have accomplished is this picture of a robot destroying a city. I hope you enjoy it and just so you know, I don't plan on being late to school anymore.

See you at practice!

As soon as he read it he told me to GTFO. I did not have to go back and he also hung it up on the wall in the ISS room with a not that said this is what not to do.

[Sooner24]

Plagiarism makes me mad.

Pilgrims make me mad.

[jkjsooner]

In most of the classes I've had they are.

Pen only.

I don't understand why someone would risk their entire academic career by plagiarizing. If you can't come up with something unique to say on paper then you probably shouldn't be in college anyway. Even if it sucks, it's at least your own thoughts and reasoning.


I think math/engineering professors who require their students to take their tests in pen suck. I've had a couple who did just that.

I had an artificial intelligence class where the guy made us use a pen. What should have been only a moderately difficult test turned into a nightmare as I was running out of paper, crossing out half of my work,etc. It was so bad that I had to point out to the professor where the answers to the problems were....

I made sure I pointed out in the teacher's eval how stupid it was. Maybe some people work that way but using a pen in that situation does not fit my style of thinking/working....

[Frozen Sooner]

WARNING: EXTREMELY FOUL LANGUAGE INVOLVED (http://cvk.qubes.org/images/funny/best_paper_ever.jpg)

[Chuck Bao]

Thank the Lord Buddha that I am no longer in university because my penmanship is atrocious now. It is so child-like that it is completely unreadable, even to me. I don't hand write anything anymore, except for funeral and wedding books.

I did get a sample of grading college essays while I was a lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University about 23 years ago and that sucked.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

There's a book written by a classroom teacher about his 20 years of experience teaching, that has a section on the topic of dealing with cheating.

He tells the story of a college math major who wanted to earn a teaching credential, which required him to take a few courses from the school of education. This math major had a friend who had already taken one of the courses and who let him use a paper he had written for the class -- to copy and submit it as his own.

This math major went on to eventually become the chair of the math department at UC Berkeley which is the world's premier Ph.D. in math factory. As chair of the department, he would tell a story about "borrowing" his friend's paper, and that it irked him that he earned a B for the paper, while his friend had earned an A for the same paper!

Here you have a respected scholar who had cheated, joking about it while showing no remorse. It was clear from his story that he had absolutely no respect for the required course he had to take to earn the teaching credential.

The teacher retelling the story, said he believed that the basis of most cheating is students justifying it in their own minds by rationalizing that they are completing some requirement that's not really important.

Otherwise good people break rules all the time and justify in their minds -- e.g., millions of college students and others have illegally downloaded copyrighted files from the internet, teachers illegally photocopying copyrighted materials for classroom use, millions violate federal laws smoking pot, hillbillies illegally manufacturing alcoholic beverages, and so on.

The teacher said he gives a zero to a student caught cheating, but doesn't judge the person as someone with some significant character flaw. The student most likely sees the assignment as some requirement that has no real importance - much like the math scholar's attitude toward the school of education requirement.

[badger]

The teacher said he gives a zero to a student caught cheating, but doesn't judge the person as someone with some significant character flaw. The student most likely sees the assignment as some requirement that has no real importance - much like the math scholar's attitude toward the school of education requirement.

Tee hee.

"Well, student, since you found this assignment so pointless and unimportant, I am going to assign it the grade that matches your opinion of this assignment - ZERO!"

[proud gonzo]

I have read many student-generated papers and can conclude that a well-written one is only mildly unreadable versus what kids usually pass off as "composition."

OTOH, plagiarized papers are easy to spot. They are not full of punctuation and spelling errors, and are not written in the stilted, over adverbed/adjectived style of the student author.
Well, this particular instance was two students who turned in identical essays that were obviously student-written. It was beyond awful. And it was a bonus assignment--not even required. So not only did they cheat but they also really suck at cheating.

[pilobolus]

How do you get excited enough about catching someone cheating to start a thread about it?

[John Kochtoston]

There's a book written by a classroom teacher about his 20 years of experience teaching, that has a section on the topic of dealing with cheating.

He tells the story of a college math major who wanted to earn a teaching credential, which required him to take a few courses from the school of education. This math major had a friend who had already taken one of the courses and who let him use a paper he had written for the class -- to copy and submit it as his own.

This math major went on to eventually become the chair of the math department at UC Berkeley which is the world's premier Ph.D. in math factory. As chair of the department, he would tell a story about "borrowing" his friend's paper, and that it irked him that he earned a B for the paper, while his friend had earned an A for the same paper!

Here you have a respected scholar who had cheated, joking about it while showing no remorse. It was clear from his story that he had absolutely no respect for the required course he had to take to earn the teaching credential.

The teacher retelling the story, said he believed that the basis of most cheating is students justifying it in their own minds by rationalizing that they are completing some requirement that's not really important.

Otherwise good people break rules all the time and justify in their minds -- e.g., millions of college students and others have illegally downloaded copyrighted files from the internet, teachers illegally photocopying copyrighted materials for classroom use, millions violate federal laws smoking pot, hillbillies illegally manufacturing alcoholic beverages, and so on.

The teacher said he gives a zero to a student caught cheating, but doesn't judge the person as someone with some significant character flaw. The student most likely sees the assignment as some requirement that has no real importance - much like the math scholar's attitude toward the school of education requirement.

To a large extent, I agree with this.

[olevetonahill]

In High skool I made a D in General Math

The next year I was in Algebra , Took a test and a chick that sat beside me made the SAME score I did , same answers and shat , Oh and I made an A- on the test
I got accused of Cheatin and flunked :mad:
I didnt cheat, But because I had made the D in Gen. I was the Bad guy guy


So I said
**** off dip ****s :pop:

[Frozen Sooner]

Law School is on an express Honor Code which you have to agree to in writing. You get caught cheating on an exam, you flunk the course and may get kicked out of school. At the very least, you get to explain on your bar application why you were disciplined.

[proud gonzo]

How do you get excited enough about catching someone cheating to start a thread about it?Well, apparently it was interesting enough for you to come in here and stalk me some more. :rolleyes:

[SicEmBaylor]

Law School is on an express Honor Code which you have to agree to in writing. You get caught cheating on an exam, you flunk the course and may get kicked out of school. At the very least, you get to explain on your bar application why you were disciplined.

I'd like to take the LSAT for ****s and giggles...just to see how poorly I'd do.

[proud gonzo]

I'd like to take the LSAT for ****s and giggles...just to see how poorly I'd do.
I said the same thing back when Froze was getting ready to take his LSAT. heh

[SicEmBaylor]

I said the same thing back when Froze was getting ready to take his LSAT. heh

Did you?