Warning to students/request for advice: Turning in plagiarized work from another semester no longer works (what should I do?)

[Destino]

This is exactly why I could not be a professor. Ultimately, you're (and all the others saying to slam this student) are right.

I would be way too easily manipulated by students

I'd play favorites and help some while burning the ones I didn't like. Probably would feel entirely justified the entire time too.

[Zazzaro703]

I'd sit the student down and talk to them about it. Why did they do it? Why insult your intelligence and think you couldnt discover a plagerised paper? Why rob themselves of the education they are paying for? Depending on their answers I would A) turn them in and/or give a 0 or give them a chance to turn in a real paper at a significantly reduced score. After all school is about learning and if they are worthy of a chance to correct their mistakes while learning a lesson in cheating and also completing the assignment, that's the best possible outcome in my eyes.

[Springfield]

I blatantly cheated on a paper when I was taking AP European History while I was a senior in high school. I copied the exact same paper as another student who was taking the class (but in a different period) as well. He was a friend of mine and, since I didn't write the paper, he let me use his paper. The teacher confronted both of us about it and I confessed that my friend wrote the paper and I copied him. He ended up giving me a D on the paper because I was forthcoming with him.

I didn't copy any more papers but I can't say that was my last time cheating...

In college, my micro and macro economics professor would give the same tests every semester. Every single question was the same. A buddy of mine got the tests (and answers) from his frat and he passed them along to me the week of the tests. That said, I attended every single class and took notes on the subject matter. I didn't memorize the tests because I knew the subject but I was also prepared to exactly what the questions would be. Those two economics classes were my favorite classes that I ever took when I attended college. His classes were notoriously hard but I learned a lot in them.

[bcl05]

I teach in medical schools, and maybe it's because the tests are multiple choice and closer to knowledge directly related to ones profession, but I haven't seen anyone caught for cheating. More likely, really, they're just harder to catch. Its also entirely possible that the deans know stuff I don't. The places I've worked have all had extremely harsh, and appropriate (in my mind) punishments for cheating. Someone who takes on shortcuts tests in training will also do the wrong thing for their patients. There are plenty of not-great docs out there. If you don't learn some of the basics in medical school you won't have time to down the road, will never catch up, and patients will suffer.

[KingGibbs]

Wow. Talk about disingenuous, fraudulent, LAZY, etc, etc. I'd be embarassed to even bring it up.

[zoony]

Goes $150,000 in debt to learn... Constantly finds ways not to learn

If you are paying for your education and you cheat you are a ****ing dumbass.

[skinsmarydu]

Because school is supposed to teach you to think and research on your own, whereas in the work world anything that works and makes the company money is acceptable.

It's like being in the military.. in basic training, if you stop and think, you really wonder why they have you do half the stuff they have you do,, until it's realized that they do it to teach you certain habits that may not actually have anything to do with your underpants being folded absolutely perfectly.

~Bang

Love it, Bang. It's called 'attention to detail', which can get you killed or keep you alive, depending on how fast you realize it.

I didn't go to college, but my stepdaughter made it through Medical Assistant Training. She wouldn't know the Dewey Decimal System if it hit her in the face. I can go to any library and find what I need in the card catalog. I try and tell husband these things and he looks at me like I have an extra head, I swear.

[Forehead]

I blatantly cheated on a paper when I was taking AP European History while I was a senior in high school. I copied the exact same paper as another student who was taking the class (but in a different period) as well. He was a friend of mine and, since I didn't write the paper, he let me use his paper. The teacher confronted both of us about it and I confessed that my friend wrote the paper and I copied him. He ended up giving me a D on the paper because I was forthcoming with him.

This is pretty much what happened to me in 11th grade English, though in my case, I let me friend copy off of me, and even stupider, we were in the same class :doh:. Talk about not thinking that one through. The teacher confronted us, we admitted we "worked together" though I did the work, and we both got F's. I still hate The Crucible to this day. But it was the last time I was involved in cheating. I cited the hell out of everything in college, almost to the point sometimes where I wasn't sure I had any original thoughts of my own.

[Special K]

Just a random cheating story here: my ex-husband was a wrestler in college and I have never seen a sports team that cheated more than they did. I still remember the story about one of the wrestlers turning in a plagerized paper...with the original author's name STILL ON IT.

What a dumb****. The sad part is that I wasn't surprised one bit about that overt display of stupidity.

---------- Post added December-2nd-2012 at 09:53 AM ----------

I'd play favorites and help some while burning the ones I didn't like. Probably would feel entirely justified the entire time too.

Yeah...I can't honestly say I wouldn't likely do that