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It depends, too, on whether the university administration is more or less inclined to cautious mercy than individual professors.  My husband had a disheartening experience with sending a batch of plagiarism cases to his dean's office this year; punishments were inconsistent and altogether more lenient than he was used to doling out on his own.  He's going to go back to playing solo cop next year (with some better defensive/preventive measures).

Kelly



--
Dr

Kelly Quinn

Assistant Professor, Department of English

University of Western Ontario

London, Ontario  N6A 3K7

Canada

(519) 661-2111, extension 85825






Joel Davis wrote:
[log in to unmask]">I have to agree with your philosophy, Michael, and with your preventive measures, David.  My university is implementing a student-run "honor council" which is supposed to investigate all charges of plagiarism or other cheating & make recommendations to professors (who still decide on sanctions).  The problem it has run into is that it can't effectively investigate all the charges plagiarism it receives, so faculty are better off failing students suspected of plagiarism and putting the onus on those students to appeal to the honor council.  I'm not sure a "plagiarism cop" could do the job very well without a pretty large staff, but on the other hand, I'm starting to think that universities serious about their academic reputation ought to invest...

Joel B Davis
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Stetson University
421 N Woodland Blvd #8300
DeLand FL 32721
386.822.7724


On Jun 2, 2005, at 4:11 PM, Michael Saenger wrote:

Well, I'm happy that you went the full route -- I had similar experiences of showing undue mercy (an F on the paper, but less than full administrative censure) only to see a repeat instance.  If it helps, I view this primarily not as me protecting myself from getting cheated, but rather I view pursuing these cases as an opportunity for me to show loyalty to my "honorable C" students; those who are appealing people, but for whatever reason (aptitude, effort, circumstance) get a C.  Those are the ones who, I think, we are most serving when we go after a plagiarist's attempt to get a better grade illegitimately.

Michael

Margaret Christian wrote:

Hello, everyone.  I will second David's admonition to follow the institutional protocol so that repeat offenders can be disciplined appropriately.

In my story, the student took Bible as Lit in 2001 and plagiarized her second essay (10 weeks into a fifteen week course).  I found it on the web and, like David's colleague, did not file paperwork with the appropriate administrator--instead I gave her a stern warning and a zero.  (She ended up failing the course.)  She came back in 2003 to take a Shakespeare course from me (???) and plagiarized her third essay (due exam week).  By this time, I was serving on the Academic Integrity Committee, so I pursued the process with exemplary punctiliousness. But my colleagues on the committee did not see fit to handle it as a repeat offence, because the earlier case was not on file--my fault.  But at least she had to un-invite her family and friends to graduation.  Grrr!

I hasten to add that this student was not an English major (both her courses with me would have, if she had passed them, fulfilled gen ed requirements).  Somehow it is worse to hear about Anne's advanced-standing liberal arts majors (or so I assume) plagiarizing.  I naively thought the grass was greener on your side, Anne.

Margaret

At 12:10 PM 6/2/2005, you wrote:

Hannibal & others,

The best guards against plagiarism are have been around a while, and
they involve prevention, not detection.

1.  Assign topics for which it will be hard to find prefab materials.

2.  Require students to submit work in stages so you can see an essay
develop.

Once the horse is out of the barn, it's very important for faculty to
report cases to the appropriate administrator.  Most universities up the
ante for repeat offenders, but this is undercut by faculty who handle
matters on their own; and it's the habitual offenders one most wishes to
apprehend.  I handled a case once from a student in political science
who submitted a paper cribbed from the internet.  The teacher gave him a
stern warning and let it go.  Later that same day he returned with a new
paper--again cribbed from the internet.  Him we managed to prosecute as
a repeat offender, but his teacher would have made matters easier had
she turned him in the first time.



David Lee Miller
Professor of English & Comparative Literature
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC  29208

[log in to unmask]
http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/faculty/faculty_pages/miller/miller.html
803 777-4256 (office)
803 777-9064 (fax)
803 466-3947 (cell)


Margaret R. Christian, Ph.D.                                [log in to unmask]
Associate Professor of English                           Office: (610) 285-5106
Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College            Home:  (610) 562-0163
8380 Mohr Lane                                                      fax: (610) 285-5220
Fogelsville, PA   18051   USA