Help - plagiarism

[misanthropic_clown]

I know we have a few academics floating around here, and I could use some good advice.

My sister has been accused of plagiarising on her latest assignment, and thus scored 0. However, it is clear the only reason it was flagged up is because she was a little sloppy with referencing which rang alarm bells with the software the University uses. I have reviewed the plagiarism policy, and it defines plagiarism as using text without acknowledging the source (arguable, but hardly watertight) AND with the intent to present material as one's own.

I think her being a little sloppy falls far short of actual plagiarism (on the grounds she had no intent to deceive, and sourced all the material albeit in a way short of the narrow standards recommended), but the thing is that during the review panel she had to attend, they kind of bullied her into signing a document admitting plagiarism (she was obviously stressed at this point, and very upset in particular as one member of the board insulted her by saying outright she is stupid).

She's reluctant to rock the boat, but I have told her I will help her try and get the assignment remarked, as she only gets one more shot at it, and she has no idea if the assignment was actually passable if she simply corrects the plagiarism. If she fails this she is off the course, with only 6 months of 3 years left to go.

So, my plan of attack is to get her to withdraw her admission of guilt, citing stress and duress given the seriousness of the review. Then I plan to write her a letter of appeal citing why I think she falls short of their own definition of plagiarism (and I am thinking to get her to get her personal tutors to write references concerning her previous hard work and integrity to support the appeal letter). I then plan to get her to enter in an official complaint against the person who called her stupid (verbal abuse) to give weight to the claim she only admitted plagiarism under pressure, and without a chance to properly review her essay in light of plagiarism policy.

Thing is, I'm kind of thinking with a letter admitting plagiarism with her signature on it, this is going to be difficult to appeal. It needs to be just right. I'm going to add the drafts of the letters I plan to give her to hand in, and I could use your advice.

 

[misanthropic_clown]

Firstly, the letter to withdraw her admission of plagiarism:



Dear Sirs,

At this time I wish to withdraw my admission of guilt concerning the alleged abuse of University plagiarism policy which I made in a review meeting on Thursday 9th April 2009. I wish to do this on order to review the plagiarism policy with a view to appeal against the University’s decision to nullify the marks on my most recent assignment.

I feel the admission was made prematurely, and under duress due to the insistence of University staff, and the stress of the review itself as it concerned accusations which could have jeopardised my place at this University. I also feel one particular member of staff was verbally abusive, and I will be entering in a written complaint concerning that matter at a future time. I will be reviewing the University policy on plagiarism, and will present my grounds for appeal in the near future.

Yours sincerely,
X

 

[misanthropic_clown]

The grounds of appeal



Dear Sirs,

I have recently written concerning an appeal against the decision to nullify the marks for assignment C10 on grounds of plagiarism. In this letter I seek to present the grounds for this appeal.

The plagiarism guidelines define plagiarism as:

“i. submitting another student’s written assignment either in part or in its
entirety with the intent that it should be taken as your own work;

ii. using text written from another source within an assignment without
acknowledging that it is the author’s work, and with the intent that it
should be taken as your own .”

I feel that my essay did not at all breach these guidelines, and merely presents a case of inadequate referencing. I provided sources for all the material I presented, and the only reason my essay was flagged up as plagiarised in the first place was no doubt due to the fact that the plagiarism software you have utilised has very specific parameters which failed to recognise what I intended to be proper referencing (the style of which has been consistent with my previous essays which evidently have been considered satisfactory by University staff). I realise that this still presents a fault on my part, but my mistake falls far short of the intention to pass off material as my own work.

Plagiarism guidelines are set up to prevent students from taking material, and dishonestly presenting it as their own. I have not done this. I recognise that by failing to reference to a specific standard I may be liable to lose a few marks for presentational error. However, I have not committed plagiarism, and I thus consider the decision to nullify my essay marks to be unfounded. I seek an immediate remark of my essay without penalty, and the withdrawal of the accusation of plagiarism.

Yours sincerely,
[FONT=&quot]X
[/FONT]

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I'd have to read it in order to give advice.

I grade graduate papers, and there are basically three ways to plagiarize.

1) Copying sources verbatim.

This can range from just replacing your name with another person's name for their paper to giving credit for some and not all of their work. For example, if you give a few sentences in quotes, cite the source, and then give more of the same source outside of the quotes, then you're plagiarizing.

2) If you rephrase exactly what another person wrote without giving citation.

I get papers all the time that have a few sentences that are exactly from a book, with bad grammar or one or two words that are changed. Not good enough.

3) Any time that you have more than three consecutive words of a critical thought that matches a major source in your field.

The rule that we use is that if you take three consecutive words from someone and tout it as your own, that's stealing. Even if you rephrase - you have to cite your source if you're using their idea. Plain and simple.

 

[misanthropic_clown]

I'm reluctant to post the essay online, but the biggest error she made was to make the correct reference in one paragraph, and continuing on to a new paragraph without remembering to cite the source again. I can recognise that this could still be construed as plagiarism, but given that the school of nursing she is in requires an intent it be passed of as her own, I think it could be argued she is sufficiently in a grey area for her to at least get her essay marked rather than nullified.

Hopefully.

 

[zenzero]

Friend misanthropic clown.

Sorry that being a student whose main interest is to LEARN would rather get a zero for an assignment than rub teachers on the wrong side.
Personally always respected my teachers and elders even if they said few harsh words or something wrongly as finally they will see the reality when your sister submits other assignments within the stipulated rules and score good marks.
They themselves should feel ashamed of passing judgements and remarks about genuine students. For that give time. Be positive in as much as the objective of life is concerend rather than getting into quarrels/fights and waste vital energy.
Love & rgds

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I'm reluctant to post the essay online, but the biggest error she made was to make the correct reference in one paragraph, and continuing on to a new paragraph without remembering to cite the source again. I can recognise that this could still be construed as plagiarism, but given that the school of nursing she is in requires an intent it be passed of as her own, I think it could be argued she is sufficiently in a grey area for her to at least get her essay marked rather than nullified.

Hopefully.

I see.

It's not "construed" as plagiarism. It is.

There may be a question of intent - carelessness rather than maliciousness. But it's very difficult to judge intent...

 

[misanthropic_clown]

I see.

It's not "construed" as plagiarism. It is.

There may be a question of intent - carelessness rather than maliciousness. But it's very difficult to judge intent...

I guess so, but I am hoping that given that the definition of plagiarism (in the university's own guidelines at least) requires intent, the burden of proof should really be on them to prove it was done with ill intent before enacting serious punishment. I'm hoping references from personal tutors, and the fact she hasn't been accused before will work in her favour.

 

[3.14]

can you cite wich source's she forgot to mention? and how frequent?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I guess so, but I am hoping that given that the definition of plagiarism (in the university's own guidelines at least) requires intent, the burden of proof should really be on them to prove it was done with ill intent before enacting serious punishment. I'm hoping references from personal tutors, and the fact she hasn't been accused before will work in her favour.

I see.

I don't think that our university has an intent clause.

Plagiarism is pretty much the unforgivable sin in academia. We don't care what the intention is. It's illegal, immoral, and unethical in itself.

It's not like you have to plagiarize on a college paper to save the life of a drowning child, etc.

 

[J Bryson]

It sounds like a sin of omission rather than commission, and therefore I'd tend to tread lightly with a "Don't ever do this again" warning.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Here's another thing...

My experience in college has been that plagiarism offenses are often - too often IMHO - forgiven or treated lightly.

A failure for the course or the paper is nothing. Most schools will threaten to kick you out for this kind of thing, and settle for the student re-doing the work if possible, lowering the grade, or etc.

I received a graduate paper last semester that was openly plagiarised from a variety of sources.

I met with the student for over an hour and talked about how to do proper research and cite sources. I simply told him, by direction of a senior professor, that we "never saw the paper" and he can redo it as he obviously had no earthly idea what he was doing.

I received the paper a second and even third time and the damn thing was still full of plagiarism. It was carelessness. Absolute lazy, silly carelessness.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

haha

The first thing that I would do upon receiving the letter is googling it to see if the student had copied and pasted the thing from an online source.

hahaha

 

[misanthropic_clown]

haha

The first thing that I would do upon receiving the letter is googling it to see if the student had copied and pasted the thing from an online source.

hahaha

That's one of the reasons I don't want bits of her essay flying around the internet by me getting into specifics. It certainly can't help matters all that much!

She's meeting with the student support services at some point this week and will present what I have given her, and decide on their advice whether to make the appeal. I think she should go ahead with the official complaint against the person who called her stupid regardless of how the appeal pans out. It's certainly a stark contrast to how you dealt with that graduate paper.

 

[misanthropic_clown]

Just thought I would add for context that she is actually a student nurse. I know that hardly makes it less wrong to be academically sloppy, but these assignments are very much an aside in comparison to the practical element of the course. She performs excellently in her placements, but the academic side is certainly her Achilles heel.

 

[3.14]

let me geuss it was about ... the treatment of mentaly retarded? .nono wait it was about an blood related illness right?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

misanthropic_clown, does your sister's school have an ombusdman/ombudsperson? If so, it may be good to talk to them. Probably couldn't hurt, anyhow.

 

[misanthropic_clown]

misanthropic_clown, does your sister's school have an ombusdman/ombudsperson? If so, it may be good to talk to them. Probably couldn't hurt, anyhow.

Thanks for the suggestion

As far as I understand it, there is an academic appeals committee which will ultimately be the ones to take this on and decide if it has merit. On reviewing their guidelines, I think there is but I will need to tailor the language of the letter a little to better reflect what the grounds are. I don't think the committee can be approached on an informal basis, however.

Thanks again though, you actually made me think to look to the specific language of the appeals process, which should help me better put the appeal across in writing

 

[misanthropic_clown]

let me geuss it was about ... the treatment of mentaly retarded? .nono wait it was about an blood related illness right?

nope and nope

 

[3.14]

btw if it sound like there going to reject it offer that she write a new paper to replace the grade
you probably had something like this in mind already but if you propose it it shows willingless to learn and redeem your mistakes

(those commities are suckers for willing students)