Warning to students/request for advice: Turning in plagiarized work from another semester no longer works (what should I do?)

[PeterMP]

When I was in college, I had two older brothers I over lapped w/. My oldest brother took an Art Appreciation class and as part of that class you had to write a semester ending essay. His best friend then took the class another semester and handed in the same essay. My older brother (younger than my oldest brother) tried to turn in the same essay in yet another semester. Unfortunately for him, the third time was not the charm and the Prof realized after the 3rd time that he'd seen it before and there were consequences.

(Obviously, when I took art appreciation, I wrote my own essay.)

These days that no longer works in many cases. Every project I have students hand is handed in electroncially and goes into a database system that then compares them to every other document that has ever been entered into the system as well things like common web pages.

So for those of you that are students or are considering being students when handing things like semester ending projects, you might want to keep that in mind.

Due to the nature of the project I give out, you can't just hand in somebody else's project as your own. Parts of it are unique to the student based on something they are assigned. But much of it can be changed pretty easily by only modifying a few words that are unique to the students.

I appear to have a student that has done that at least for most of it.

I hate handeling situations like this and I do have some flexibility (if I report it, I have to go with the official judgement, but we aren't FORCED (or even really strongly encouraged) to report it.)

So I'm also hoping to get some input.

Has anybody ever been on the cheating side of this and had an experience that they felt long term really benefited them?

[hockeysc23]

I find it ironic in the business world you are encouraged to leverage previous work from other clients, proposals, reports etc. but in the school world utilizing other work is a severe punishment.

I never plagiarized work in hs, college etc. I did however love to mess with margins, font sizes etc. The papers must've looked so ridiculous to our teacher now thinking about it.

[skinsfan07]

I find it ironic in the business world you are encouraged to leverage previous work from other clients, proposals, reports etc. but in the school world utilizing other work is a severe punishment.

I never plagiarized work in hs, college etc. I did however love to mess with margins, font sizes etc. The papers must've looked so ridiculous to our teacher now thinking about it.

I agree. I see nothing wrong with "borrowing" a friends paper and using some of it to help on my own essay. No just turning the whole thing in unaltered, but when I was in college, last year, I did all the time. And BTW, **** standarized tests. They don't test knowledge, they test memorization. Open book/open ended tests are the way to go.

[Destino]

If you hate the idea of simply turning them in, meet with them and find out why they did it. You might come to a decision more easily if you hear what they have to say for themselves. I've known people that got a break a made the most of it and those that kept on repeating the same mistake. Ultimately while people can argue right and wrong you are the one that has to sleep at night.

[Bang]

I find it ironic in the business world you are encouraged to leverage previous work from other clients, proposals, reports etc. but in the school world utilizing other work is a severe punishment.

I never plagiarized work in hs, college etc. I did however love to mess with margins, font sizes etc. The papers must've looked so ridiculous to our teacher now thinking about it.

Because school is supposed to teach you to think and research on your own, whereas in the work world anything that works and makes the company money is acceptable.

It's like being in the military.. in basic training, if you stop and think, you really wonder why they have you do half the stuff they have you do,, until it's realized that they do it to teach you certain habits that may not actually have anything to do with your underpants being folded absolutely perfectly.

~Bang

[PeterMP]

Because school is supposed to teach you to think and research on your own, whereas in the work world anything that works and makes the company money is acceptable.

I suspect in most fields, but especially science learning how to find/search, read, understand, and correctly and suscintly paraphrase primary sources (e.g. the peer reviewed literature) is an important part of the process and an important part of obtaining an education.

If you started from your friends work (and not primary sources), then you really did miss out on much of the educational objective of the work.

[Bang]

I suspect in most fields, but especially science learning how to find/search, read, understand, and correctly and suscintly paraphrase primary sources (e.g. the peer reviewed literature) is an important part of the process and an important part of obtaining an education.

If you started from your friends work (and not primary sources), then you really did miss out on much of the educational objective of the work.

exactly,, unless you've made a new discovery, everything you're going to write is going to be an amalgam of what you've learned from others anyway.
part of the drilling it in process is to have you think of it in your own terms and write it.
Drives the message home.
even now, if I need to recall something, I write it down.
I may never look at it to remind me, but it makes me remember. It solidifies the thought.

~Bang

[twa]

I agree with Destino,with the addition of requiring a supplemental paper IF you decide to let it slide
as has been mentioned, it is a learning process

[LadySkinsFan]

School is to teach students to think independently and come to their own conclusions and then communicate such. Plagarizing something is not thinking, learning and communicating independently.

In the business world, reuse is the word for recycling past written documents and only those without a clue don't make it relevant to the subject at hand. I work frequently with a woman who is a proposal coordinator and we took an assignment for a new client (company was new, the BDer was not) and we were given some past proposals to work with. She started reading before me and said, "Take a look at the management plan and tell me what you think." So I did, and lo and behold, it was some text from my own boilerplate library! Obviously, someone had lifted it from somewhere, but not the BDer because I asked him. So, I took it as a complement and that it was a good plan if someone else lifted it.

BTW, I find very few really good proposal writers coming from the younger ranks, their language skills aren't up to snuff and they continually look for something to plagarize. And sometimes you just have to sit down and start writing from scratch. If all one knows is how to plagarize, they can't really communicate. Granted some jobs don't require any writing, but I think the exercises in expanding one's vocabulary, correct grammar usage and so on are invaluable skills no matter one's occupation.

[MLSKINS]

I would never hand in the same paper. Especially if it is word for word. If I was to do something like that, I would put it in my own words.

Now as for test, I will admit, I cheated on those. Now that I am in college it is harder to cheat on test.... but I still do it. Thank God for cell phones

I would let them know that I know they cheated if I caught them. And tell them if they don't turn in a original assignment I will blow the whistle.

[DCSaints_fan]

Personally I think in most classes the grade should be just a few exams/timed essays anyway. Then you can be sure its the students work.

[da#1skinsfan]

OP - I can't speak to a specific cheating experience, but I certainly made many mistakes as a kid that, if the letter of the law was followed, I would have been in BIG trouble. Thankfully I was surrounded by parents, teachers, and faculty who knew better. They saw that a harsh punishment wasn't what I needed, what I needed was to learn a lesson and understand that there are consequences in life that sometimes you have to face, but sometimes if you take responsibility for your actions those consequences can change.

Follow your instinct on what this kid truly needs to grow into a good person. Don't just take what the rules are and apply them. If you feel the kid needs serious discipline, go for it. I personally feel people often don't realize that discipline can put a kid in a situation where they find it easier to continue being "bad" because they are never shown the alternative. When you focus on the consequence, the lesson is often lost.

If you think the lesson of compassion, critical thinking, and empathy is more important than discipline for bad behavior (which I would think is 9x out of 10) then follow your gut, don't report it.

Good luck!!!

[ixcuincle]

Wasn't aware OP was an educator.

What about having other people online write your works

Friend once stated his dream job was to write college papers for other people online

Saw on news that this is the latest craze nowadays and the teachers are helpless to stop it

[skinfan2k]

Umm most teachers and school system has access to web engines that scan the entire internet for plagerize. I graduated college in 2008 and one of the criteria for the teachers was that if you got more than 15%, then you would fail that paper.

[TheDane]

I never cheated in high school or college, and it still is a point of pride for me to say that.

I did, however, lie in 7th grade. I claimed I had finished a paper and turned it in, but I did not. My teacher, instead of confronting me, gave me an "Incomplete" as a grade. I felt guilty at the time, and I still have regrets some 20-25 years later. To this day, I wish he had made me own up to my lie.

So I'd say, confront him about it and have him make it right.