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Plagarism - 4/8/2008 3:37:17 PM
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rainbowtvp
Posts: 981
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From: The Unted State of Confusion
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I am really upset...
I am in grad school for developmental psych. I am in a master's program, though my program also includes PhD students. I am in a class in which we were required to produce a short paper/handout + 10 min presentation on one topic, and now we have a group project that is a 3-5 page paper/handout and a 1 hour presentation. There were a couple of other assignments, but they are not relevant.
Well... I completed project 1, no problem. I have completed my section of assignment 2. For both, I read material, then wrote handouts based on my own interpretation of those readings as well as my personal experiences. Well... one of my team mates sent her portion, noting that she had copied most of it from her sources. Well... I cut and pasted into google, and 99% of it was just cut & paste. So I asked was she going to reword and she said yes.
Well... this got me curious. The first paper we posted to a group board, as well as a couple of the group's assignment 2 projects. So I googled people's papers. Out of around 20- all but 5 were 99-100% cut & paste.
I think I have posted about this in the past at another school and I know I posted about a friend who did this. But I am just amazed that it is so wide spread AND in a grad program!
I want to approach the professor about it, but I don't know when I can. He is an adjunct and doesn't have office hours here.
It really just sickens me. I would rather get a horrible grade than cheat like that.
The weird part is that some of the people actually listed the sites they copied from as resources. Do they not realize this is cheating?!?
Tara P
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RE: Plagarism - 4/8/2008 6:59:14 PM
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GroupW
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I would find that seriously annoying in an undergrad or even high school environment. That it would even cross someone's mind in grad school is beyond my ability to comprehend.
Things must have changed since I was in school. Of course, that was when we still used clay tablets & pointy sticks.
BT
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 4:27:38 AM
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dryden
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It's spelled as plagiarism. 
We took that up in one of our majors during college. Whenever we had research, plates or projects to do our teacher always reminds us of how important it is to be original. We were really trained to not merely just copy and instead research about it and put everything "in your own words". Plagiarism should really be avoided because in the real world outside school you could be sued for copying a work.
In my opinion, you should be honest and tell your group mates about this. Give them a chance to change and re-do their work. If this fails, then tell your teacher about it.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 9:04:12 AM
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rainbowtvp
Posts: 981
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Just to clarify... the one incident with my group member I did address... the other papers were from the other individuals/groups in the class (which we all have access to). No way I would turn in a plagiarzed work with my name on it...
I just want to make the professor aware that many of the students in the class have plagiarized.
Tara P
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 9:07:10 AM
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rainbowtvp
Posts: 981
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Yeah- I think most colleges do make a point to beat their students over the head with their plagiarism policies and I know I had it covered thouroughly in every undergrad english/writing class, as well as all my psych classes... and the policy has been reiterated here in each class- which is why I am surprised.
I think most people realize when it is cut & pasted and word-for-word, but I think a lot of people really are clueless that you can't change the word choice, while keeping the structure the same. I figured by grad school people knew this, though!
Tara P
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 6:14:03 PM
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1love1God1way
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I would take it to the dean of academics.
It is flatout dishonest, and illegal
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 6:20:49 PM
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OLEEguacamole
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perhaps they are thinking if they credit sources it's okay because they are not passing it off as their own.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 6:28:01 PM
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1love1God1way
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mrsdash
perhaps they are thinking if they credit sources it's okay because they are not passing it off as their own.
Then they need a little lesson on what plagiarism is.
Perhaps a few zeroes or being dropped from a class will do the trick.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/10/2008 6:33:21 PM
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OLEEguacamole
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if a student went by the dictionary's def and did not understand the concept and originalty expectation of their school, they might well think that cut and paste and crediting all sources was legit.
from american heritage dictionary:
pla·gia·rize (plā'jə-rīz')
v., -rized, -riz·ing, -riz·es.
v.tr.
To use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own.
To appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from (another).
v.intr.
To put forth as original to oneself the ideas or words of another.
plagiarizer pla'gia·riz'er n.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/11/2008 10:39:43 AM
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Dred
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mrsdash
perhaps they are thinking if they credit sources it's okay because they are not passing it off as their own.
That's possible; it was not entirely clear to me whether this had to do with horrible ignorance in a graduate class (it's prevalent in many places) about what is proper or people really trying to get away with something. In so many things, the question arises: is it stupidity or wickedness? I've learned over the years to never underestimate the power of basic stupidity. It is still hard to believe they don't have some sense they are doing wrong.
In any event, they should be required to learn that anything cut and pasted verbatim should be in quotes and footnoted as to the source and that changing a few words in another's work does not make it your own. I would leave the adjunct a note of some kind; he should care about what is going on and probably does. Actually, he should be pasting these into Google or using some standard software such as Safe Assign.
< Message edited by Dred -- 4/11/2008 10:56:08 AM >
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RE: Plagarism - 4/11/2008 11:33:28 AM
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Dred
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quote:
ORIGINAL: rainbowtvp
Yeah- I think it is ignorance, as well (at least for some of them)--otherwise they wouldn't have listed the source... but the assignment requirements were clear and the university's guidelines are clear and repeated often... A few people have used wikipedia as a resource, too! 
I wonder if it might be a genertational issue, too. It is so easy to check- as has been said- just plug a line or two into google... but for those in the age range of most professors... that would never occur to them. AND since the quality of writing on the internet is about what you would expect from an averge college student... it often doesn't appear too "polished" to raise flags...
Tara P
Yes, when they list the source, but don't say specifically what came from that source, I'd agree they probably don't know better.
I think most professors have come to appreciate the internet, though a lot of the old coots around here have resisted. One thing that occurred to me is that adjuncts don't get paid much and sometimes don't want to bother doing more than the minimum. Obviously, I can't know if that is the case in this situation. I've also noticed that most of the older professors here do the bare minimum as well.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/12/2008 12:34:28 PM
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zoebob
Posts: 8793
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From: land of limbo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mrsdash
if a student went by the dictionary's def and did not understand the concept and originalty expectation of their school, they might well think that cut and paste and crediting all sources was legit.
from american heritage dictionary:
pla·gia·rize (plā'jə-rīz')
v., -rized, -riz·ing, -riz·es.
v.tr.
To use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own.
To appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from (another).
v.intr.
To put forth as original to oneself the ideas or words of another.
plagiarizer pla'gia·riz'er n.
This definition does not allow for cut and paste with a source. Unless you put something in quotes it is assumed to be your words paraphrasing information that you got from the source. Just putting a source doesn't mean that you can use their words. That's the difference between citing a source and citing and using quotes.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/12/2008 12:54:54 PM
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OLEEguacamole
Posts: 1188
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i know that. i'm saying that perhaps this is the incomplete information, notion, that is a part of their thinking. i(f they went by the dictionary only.)
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RE: Plagarism - 4/12/2008 1:03:03 PM
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zoebob
Posts: 8793
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It must be too ingrained in me. If you are intelligent enough to read a dictionary you should know what quote marks are for.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/12/2008 1:09:43 PM
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OLEEguacamole
Posts: 1188
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quote:
ORIGINAL: zoebob
It must be too ingrained in me. If you are intelligent enough to read a dictionary you should know what quote marks are for.
i think parts of brains in today's students are inactive. i also don't think those things have been as effectively/uniformly programmed into students these days.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/12/2008 8:13:04 PM
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1love1God1way
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Even if you are using quotes and indents and citing sources, if 90% of your paper is not yours. . . you should fail.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/12/2008 9:12:16 PM
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OLEEguacamole
Posts: 1188
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i think the problem is, starting back in jr high and high and early college, they didn't. they would have learned from a rejected paper.
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RE: Plagarism - 4/15/2008 1:36:59 PM
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blanc1rp
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I think part of the problem is that children aren't taught to cite sources properly in middle/high school. I just completed my first semester of college and the hardest adjustment for me to make was knowing how to cite things correctly. Although my situation was a little different because I was using my own language and just messing up the citation itself. I still think both my problem and the problem with your partner stem from the issue that people don't get the proper methods of writing ingrained in them early on. After all wouldn't it be better for kids to fail a paper or two in middle school than learn that cheating is okay?
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), but I always state the sources of things as much as possible, even in casual conversation, if I am not using my own words. @_@ 
Just one of the many reasons my husband is no longer teaching 