TheBoy used to take things from LittleBoy until he got bigger. Now LittleBoy punches, kicks, and pushes his big brother on a regular basis. Each knows exactly how to send the other into a screaming fit of rage. And LittleBoy annoys BabyGirl enough to make her cry at least five times a day.
So we have to train the children of our society not to lie, cheat, or steal and all of us know adults who need more honesty lessons. The task of teaching these lessons falls on parents, teachers, and coaches and it is a difficult job.
Every year, often in the third marking period, I come upon plagiarized papers. Some students simply copy other students. Many students "cut and paste" from the internet and some don't even remove the original hyperlinks. Honors students often use their own writing for opening and closing sentences while burying copied sentences in the middle of paragraphs.
Creativity abounds. On a huge project in Honors Physics, a former student 'lent' his paper to a current student to help him out. The giver was treated to an all-you-can-eat feast at the next Pirates game they attended. I only know this because that former student told me the funny story in front of full class.
In every case, and I often find more than one each time, I have to gather the evidence and present it to a principal. We talk with the school policy in front of us and consider each case. Sometimes we decide that only a warning is justified. Most of the time we decide to follow the policy and issue a zero on the assignment and a two hour detention.
Next I talk with the individual students. That's the worst part. Some react violently to the accusation, even when presented with the highlighted copies side by side. Some have slammed doors, pushed desks, and thrown papers. Others work hard never to look at me again.
On average they tend to be upset with the zero, more upset about the parent contact, and sometimes really angry with the detention. Many parents react in the same way.
This is our school policy on plagiarism from the back page of my "syllabus" from day one.
I follow it with clarified examples and a recommendation to use an online "plagiarism checker."
Then I request that both student and parent sign below.
Those signatures save me some problems but many protest even if if the infraction is perfectly described in the list.
Honestly, I hate the whole process. It takes at least two weeks from start to finish. I find one plagiarized paper so I search the whole pile for more. Then I have to comb through each paper for every instance and copy the original sources into a Word document. After that I highlight. Then I find the signed policy page, collate it all, scan the collections, and save it in the proper folder. After the conferences with the principal and student, I await the parent conferences that inevitably follow. Sometimes the parent conferences get ugly but I have had unusually good support from the administration in recent years.
There were years in which I have issued zeroes or warnings since I had seen the administration fold under student and parent pressure. Many teachers just issue zeroes (or require resubmission) and don't follow our school policy at all since they feel they won't have administrative support or they know
I honestly don't know if students get expelled from the university for plagiarism. I assume it doesn't happen very often but we commonly warn our students about the possibility. TV news anchor Brian Williams was recently suspended for lying. Primatologist Jane Goodall copied Wikipedia articles in a recent book. Vice President Joe Biden eventually lost a presidential bid in the 80s for plagiarism. Even The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry did it.
Plagiarism is rampant. The Wikipedia article "Anti-lock braking system," for example, is used far and wide. Just copy and paste the following phrase (with the quotation marks) into a search engine and check out the SEVENTEEN pages of search results. From the first sentence of the article:
- "allows the wheels on a motor vehicle to maintain tractive contact with the road surface according to driver inputs while braking"
I really love my students and it is not pleasant to follow our plagiarism policy but I think it's a necessary lesson. I'd prefer they learn it now rather than when it may have a much greater impact.
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