On Monday I had to confront one of my students about his practice of academic dishonesty. After class I asked, "Is there anything at all you want to tell me about your position paper or the rough draft of the textual analysis?" he replied with a confused eyebrow raise. I repeated, "Are you sure there isn't anything you want to tell me?" He responded, "No. I didn't cheat." I then pulled out both essays and the texts he had plagiarized from. I explained that much of his position paper was from Wikipedia (and I had the corresponding sections highlighted) and I handed him a copy of the first 1.5 pages of his textual analysis which had been taken from 123helpme.com. Confused he said, "How did you find this stuff?" and then asked me, "What does this mean?"
He sincerely didn't understand that he had plagiarized. He said, "Well, if I'd have paid for the rest of this 123helpme essay, then could I have turned it in as mine? I'd own it." He also claimed that he had not looked at Wikipedia at all when writing his position paper and that maybe the articles he used had plagiarized from Wikipedia, but he didn't know how he had the exact same words. And when I told him I couldn't pass him for the course he said, "I'm not the one who failed. 123helpme.com failed me. Why do they even put this stuff on the internet if we can't use it?"
While his responses might sound like a lot of BS, I truly think the student doesn't understand the concept of academic dishonesty and plagiarism. And if this were his first offense, I might work with him on these issues, but with the first draft and final draft of the research paper and with the first draft of the position paper, I'd already sat down in one-on-one conferences with him twice and explained citations, paraphrasing, summarizing, and plagiarism. I used his papers and his sources to point out the fact that you can't even take a few words in a row without putting quotes around them (let alone entire sentences, paragraphs, and papers). I gave him a chance to revise his research paper by the end of the term and told him I'd be glad to meet with him along the way to be sure he was understanding paraphrasing. He hasn't met with me once. Also, had already I used 2 class periods to talk about avoiding plagiarism and to allow the students to practice summarizing and paraphrasing before they wrote the research paper. Though I feel really bad that he doesn't understand how to use sources, even if he didn't mean to plagiarize (a fact about which I am uncertain), he can't pass ENG 110 without the ability to paraphrase, summarize, or at least quote his sources.
Once he understood that he truly would be flunking the class, he told me, "Thanks a lot. You've just ruined my summer. I'm going to get kicked out of my house and now I'm going to be living on the streets and sleeping under a bridge. Seriously. I can't believe this. My life is ruined. Thanks." And before he left he said, "Well, you have a good summer. ...I'm going to be sleeping under a bridge."
Now, I know I didn't ruin his life (at least I hope I didn't), but I can't help but wonder if perhaps I failed him in some way. He seems to have spent a lot of time plagiarizing, and he seems to think he was doing what he was supposed to. But I don't know whether he's telling the truth or lying through his teeth. If he is truthfully still confused about how to utilize sources, this seems like a result of my inability to explain the concepts. But at what point does responsibility fall upon the students? I don't know.
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8 comments:
Kara, you've hit close to home on this one. I just had to talk with two of my students about plagiarism yesterday. One completely owned up to it and accepted any punishment and the other played dumb, then said, "Well, I thought that I didn't plagiarize. Look, I put a paranthetical at the end of what was written." I had to remind him that we had gone over in class that this was not a paraphrase and that I had spoken with him personally about the dynamics of using quotes and paraphrases on another occasion. For the second student, I could exercise a little discretion and chalk it up to indifference in learning the material. I scared the hell out of him telling him that I could be just as dismissive as he was with what I was teaching and have him kicked out of school for academic dishonesty, if that is what he wanted. Of course, he sang a different tune and was all ears after that. The first student (I respected his candor) won himself the prize of losing points for that assignment. Because he showed that he was willing to own up to it, sort of an "ok, you got me...good for you" repsonse, made me more amiable to show discretion on his punishment. In the case of your student, I think he was expecting the worst, but from my position, he deserved the worst because he still showed that he didn't get that what he did was wrong. I wouldn't worry about your student's response. He sounds like someone who is not willing to own up to his actions and will probably never learn unless he learns to let go of his pride. He still knew he should have done the work himself; he was just trying to transfer the blame. You did well. Good for you for sticking to your guns.
Steve
You should send this student a CD with the songs "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers and "Something in the Way" by Nirvana. You could also include a third track of you saying over and over, "Hello, I'm Kara Beary, and I've ruined your life. Have a nice day."
I'm only kidding (sort of). Still, I think you handled the situation appropriately. As Steve intimated, the kid sounds like the kind of ass who's going to be long in learning how to accept personal responsibility for his actions. But, maybe living under a bridge will expedite that process for him. In future situations like this, though, I think you should get all Sartrean on their asses and lay an existential beat-down on 'em.
You know, I've never met a bad person that lived under a bridge, so I wouldn't worry about this kid's future. It may end up being much better than he deserves.
As for how you handled the situation, I believe that you did the right thing. It's what I would have done. You were correct in asking when responsibility will fall to the student, and in this case, it's clear that time has come.
Give him a can of spray paint so he can practice citing on the concrete pillars. I'd give him red.
Also, I think the responsibility always falls on the shoulders of the students. I think that teachers have OTHER responsibilities to give students accurate knowledge to work with, but if a student lacks the brain function to comprehend a simple task, it's not your job to perform the brain surgery that allows him or her to keep up with the class. You can (and should) advise him to seek other resources for help, but, seriously, this is not your fault; this problem is beyond your teaching responsibilities.
Justin is right. This student's problems go beyond academic restrictions. He needs to wander on over to the counseling center.
I agree with pretty much everything said above. As far as getting through to the confused plagiarizer, one technique I've tried is to explain my own reaction to their paper as I was reading it.
As in, "Here I circled this misused apostrophe. And I wanted clarification here. But the whole time it was a waste of my time, since the apostrophe and clarity issues weren't yours. I was thinking, 'John' needs to work on such-and-such, but really it wasn't John having these problems at all. It was the paper he copied from."
I'm not sure if it helped, but I think there's something to be said for trying to help students understand how plagiarism isn't just cheating, it's deception.
Kara,
I have to agree with everyone else; I wouldn't feel bad about this student's summer. For one thing, parents who raised a child who thinks internet papers should substitute for his own writing probably won't kick him out. Imagine the homecoming: "What? You mean you can't use internet papers for college classes? I use EasyMemos.com at work all the time."
All joking aside, this student is melodramatic at best, self-delusionally unethical at worst. It sounds like you did everything you could have possibly done and then some. Whenever one student screws up, ask yourself why every other student got it right. If the whole class figured out how to cite/paraphrase things properly, then it's most likely a problem for the individual student (cognitively or ethically) rather than a problem with your teaching. You handled this situation well.
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