Thanks very much for this bit of Donne--whew! It's verbal castor oil for
the "beggarly" among us!
At my college we have an honor code, and it helps. Cases of cheating
and/or plagiarism come before a student-faculty Honor Board. In bringing a
case the faculty member is turning the question of penalty over to the
board--from this perspective we are doing the student an injustice if we
assign a penalty ourselves and do not turn her in. For the system to work,
then, the faculty have to trust the Honor Board and be willing to use
it. Penalties for plagiarism often involve "re-education"--working with
someone in our Writing Center, or the like.
We have talked of implementing a "first time warning" system whereby the
first time you plagiarize it's reported and kept on file but you don't come
before the Honor Board till you do it a second time.
For me the hard cases are not the sophisticated plagiarists, like the ones
Anne and others have been bedeviled with--or the student who bought a paper
from a paper-writing service and then decided, after workshopping it as a
"rough draft" with fellow students in my class that it wasn't good enough
and bought a second paper on a different set of poems to hand in as her
final draft (ironically, I probably would not have spotted that the first
one wasn't hers!). But where, for example, a freshman has lifted material
from on-line "sources" because she is still in high school research paper
mode and doesn't yet know how to have an argument of her own, I'm reluctant
to turn her in for plagiarism. I agree with David Miller that the best
medicine is preventive, and public shaming seems counter-productive in such
a case.
Jane Hedley
Bryn Mawr College
At 10:21 PM 6/2/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>I have found a bit of Donne shockingly effective in combating plagiarism
>(along
>with all the things other people have mentioned). We go over it at the
>start of
>each semester:
>
>But he is worst, who (beggarly) doth chaw
> Others’ wits’ fruits, and in his ravenous maw
> Rankly digested, doth those things out spew,
> As his own things; and they are his own, ’tis true,
> For if one eat my meat, though it be known
> The meat was mine, th’ excrement is his own.
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 16:40:14 -0400
> >From: "David L. Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: pursuing plagiarism
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >I strongly agree, Michael. That's what I tell my students in the
> >first-day admonition: that I will prosecute offenders because I believe
> >that I owe it to the majority of students who work hard for their
> >grades.
> >
> >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)
> >
> >
> >
> >>>> [log in to unmask] 6/2/2005 4:11:01 PM >>>
> >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
>Christopher Warley
>Assistant Professor
>Department of English
>Oakland University
>248-370-2256
|