Captain James Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 So I recently came across the dirtiest trick for completing a research paper. It reminded me of the days of college paper writing, and the ever-occurring scramble to complete projects. Anyway, in an attempt to avoid obvious plagiarism, this individual simply typed the words heard from someone's debate/speech on youtube, kind of like in transcript fashion. Am I missing something or was that a brilliant idea? Unless the speech/debate existed somewhere online already in transcript form, how would it be discovered?We're going to assume that we all agree that this is dirty, cheap, jerkish, and obvious plagiarism itself. So comments regarding the morality of it are not necessary... So, what are your thoughts on this individual's success, plus, what other dirty tricks have you heard of/seen people do to complete their school assignments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 This one guy read a bunch of different things on the subject, thought about the issue, then wrote stuff down that he thought of himself. The ****. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 This one guy read a bunch of different things on the subject, thought about the issue, then wrote stuff down that he thought of himself. The ****.The dirtiest trick of all. How will people know he's plagiarizing when he's forming his own thoughts with the plagiarized materials? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I heard about this one guy who lifted all kinds of nonsense off Wikipedia, but left the spelling so bad that the plagiarized material wouldn't show up in a Google search. ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtdrums Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Fiverr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Actually I vaguely remember writing one portion of a term paper by translating a portion of a work from French into English. And no, not with Google translate-this was back in the 80s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mocountyskins Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I have kept all my papers since 8th grade I have around 70 papers saved. The topics pretty much get recycled at each level HS and college. I've turned in a 8th grade book report to a college level class and got a B. I've turned in a CJ paper one semester and got an A then turn it in 2 years later and get another A. Remember kids don't forget to save all your papers that you have ever done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thekyle1591 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 You just find an article or a wiki page and rephrase what it says. Easiest trick in the book. You have to be a total retard to get caught plagiarizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DallasCowboyFan156 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Most speeches of any importance are online in transcript form in one way or another unless you're copying the ideas of some high school dropout on youtube which likely won't get you a good grade anyway. The best and only way to avoid plagarism is not to plagarize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I have Will Ferrell write mine for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain James Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 Most speeches of any importance are online in transcript form in one way or another unless you're copying the ideas of some high school dropout on youtube which likely won't get you a good grade anyway. The best and only way to avoid plagarism is not to plagarize. Says the cowboys fan... Just pokin. This one guy read a bunch of different things on the subject, thought about the issue, then wrote stuff down that he thought of himself. The ****. The craziest thing is that most ideas aren't even original at all. Somewhere along the line you're most likely plagiarizing someone. Learning is just one giant circle. Cue the Rob Schneider character from Chuck & Larry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I heard about this one guy who lifted all kinds of nonsense off Wikipedia, but left the spelling so bad that the plagiarized material wouldn't show up in a Google search. ... Wow hahahaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Long ago, I had an English prof tell me that when he used to need to pad the bibliography of a paper he was writing, he would cite "Asimov's Guide to <whatever the paper was about>". Said that Asimov had written so many things, on such a broad range of topics, that even an expert in (whatever the subject was) would believe that Asimov had written it, and he just hadn't read it, yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balki1867 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 As a former TA I can tell you that even when I blatantly caught my students copying work off each other, the professor would discourage me from doing much about it because the administrative processes are so lengthy and professors would much rather be doing something else. I will warn you that if you're in a class with "participation points" as part of the grade, the TA can and will screw you over on those if you cheated (even if you got a great grade on the paper). In most cases the student never sees his/her participation grade so its pretty foolproof from the TA's perspective. My favorite story of catching cheaters involved two of my students who turned in the same lab report. When you compared the two lab reports and read the first paragraph each sentence basically conveyed the same idea but was worded completely different. By the second paragraph, they were using the same phrases sentence for sentence. From the third paragraph onwards, the lab reports were exactly the same. To top it all of they used different MS-Word stylesheets like that would throw me off. Mostly I was disappointed they thought they could get this one by me. The thing is-- I get it. I was in a fraternity and had access to old lab reports. If someone turned in something from their friend 3 semesters ago, I had better things to do than go Sherlock Holmes on it. But if someone was that blatantly stupid about their cheating I had to do something about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfitzo53 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Long ago, I had an English prof tell me that when he used to need to pad the bibliography of a paper he was writing, he would cite "Asimov's Guide to <whatever the paper was about>". Said that Asimov had written so many things, on such a broad range of topics, that even an expert in (whatever the subject was) would believe that Asimov had written it, and he just hadn't read it, yet. I believe it. I had a history professor who told me that history professors don't actually need to read your paper, they just look at the bibliography and they can tell whether it will be a quality piece or not. I got my term paper back from him with an A on the front and no comments anywhere save one - on the last page it said, "Nice bibliography!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbol Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I use to use things like Encyclopedia Britanica as a source material and copied word for word the elementary school encyclopedias. Got me a few 'A' papers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 No plagiarism, but a good trick to buy some extra time is to e-mail your professor shortly before the deadline saying the paper is attached, but obviously it isn't since you haven't finished. Your professor will reply that you didn't attach the paper. Then you can respond several hours later and apologize, saying you were in a rush and forgot. Helps if the first e-mail is a few sentences long to sell the idea you forgot to attach. Also, make sure to edit something right before you attach it, so if professor sees an edit time on there it's right before you e-mailed it and you can say you ran an extra spell/grammar check, just in case. Only works a couple times, and you can't do it with a bunch of professors in the same department. Some know about this trick but most will let it slide if you don't do it a lot. Just a way to extend a deadline. As far as plagiarism, the biggest loophole is to cite your sources and if you're in a bind then just lean heavily on those sources and citations. You may not get an A, but you'll get a passing grade likely. Really though with all that effort, citing or plagiarizing, just a little bit more effort is usually all that's need to do your own paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mocountyskins Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Yea quoting works and sometimes you can do a whole paper of quotes. At UMD I had 1 class where the professor gave me a B+ on a paper that was 95% quotes. Literally this was all it was "494324234fdfndkfdfdfd sfdsf" "fdhjfdkfelfmekfmndk" "ujfdkfnmkdfmdlfkdlfkdlfjdkfjndik" "wfkdfmdklfkdkfjdkf" Just quote after quote for almost the whole thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Do Itch Big Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Actually I vaguely remember writing one portion of a term paper by translating a portion of a work from French into English. And no, not with Google translate-this was back in the 80s.This is brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s0crates Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I always tell my students to go ahead and copy all they want, but also to use quotes and citations when they do. Then it's called research not plagiarism. I never understood why people would cheat by copying when all you have to do is cite the thing you copied. I have kept all my papers since 8th grade I have around 70 papers saved. The topics pretty much get recycled at each level HS and college. I've turned in a 8th grade book report to a college level class and got a B. I've turned in a CJ paper one semester and got an A then turn it in 2 years later and get another A. Remember kids don't forget to save all your papers that you have ever done. I've had students do this. It's usually obvious because the paper is pretty good, but it doesn't quite fit the class or follow the assignment. It's hard to prove, so I usually take the easy way out and mark them down for not meeting the requirements. I also look for typos and other errors with extra vigilance (on that and all their other work).You just find an article or a wiki page and rephrase what it says. Easiest trick in the book. You have to be a total retard to get caught plagiarizing.This is also obvious. These papers read like awkwardly worded encyclopedia entries. I don't recommend it. You have to be a "total retard" to think this is smart.Students seem to think profs don't have internet access. This kind of stuff really irritates me; it insults my intelligence. Word to the wise: Your profs aren't stupid. If you cheat, then hope they're too lazy to deal with it, because they will probably know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s0crates Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 As a former TA I can tell you that even when I blatantly caught my students copying work off each other, the professor would discourage me from doing much about it because the administrative processes are so lengthy and professors would much rather be doing something else. Exactly. Those of you who think you're getting away with cheating because you're so clever should realize your profs probably know but don't want the hassle. Be careful though, all it takes is one hard ass for your luck to run out. I'm not the type to ignore cheating, but I'm not really too strict either. I like to address it on my own without involving administration. I usually sit the students down and ask them about their papers. Something like, "If I google this phrase, what do you think I'll find?" Or, "If I were to compare your paper to the wiki page on the topic, do you think I would find any similarities?" Once I had two students with identical answers read the identical passages aloud to me. This usually scares them pretty good. Next I ask, "What would you do about this if you were me?" Silence. Then I give them the option, "I could give you a zero, or you could resubmit a new paper next week with a late penalty." So far I've done this five or six times, and it has always worked. The students learn their lesson, I don't have to fail anybody, and I don't have to deal with complicated administrative matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mocountyskins Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Copying is just lazy and idiotic. And to be honest I don't have enough confidence in other peoples brain power to copy. Its dangerous because you don't know where they got their stuff from. But with saved papers you can just go copy and paste half of my old paper with half of my other paper from another class. Its my own work so I know its okay. And they were done at different schools and stuff. Only ever hard copies also. Any paper that had to be turned in online is a no go those get put in a database and can't be recycled. I know its "cheating" but I don't really feel guilty about it because its like I just did a paper on this topic 2 years ago. I'm not going to redo a 10 page paper. Its my own work that I did and know is a solid paper from the previous grade. The topics should not be so damn generic it would really take away the opportunity. I have at least 5 papers of "The death penalty" I hate lazy professors that just copy and paste the curriculum from the department or from other schools. I've had professors give us power point presentations with another school and professor on the front page. Didn't even change the pp. Just googled it I bet. I should report them. People are paying for an education not for someone to read another schools power point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mocountyskins Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I use to be a Nazi nerd about that stuff. In middle school they basically tell you if you copy you get sent to jail and raped. I remember in 9th grade for a group project my partner copy pasted a wiki page onto the power point. I thought I was going to get expelled because that is what you are told. So I raised my hand and told the teacher. He didn't care lmao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s0crates Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 So I recently came across the dirtiest trick for completing a research paper. It reminded me of the days of college paper writing, and the ever-occurring scramble to complete projects. Anyway, in an attempt to avoid obvious plagiarism, this individual simply typed the words heard from someone's debate/speech on youtube, kind of like in transcript fashion. Am I missing something or was that a brilliant idea? Unless the speech/debate existed somewhere online already in transcript form, how would it be discovered? This could be discovered several ways: 1) As you noted, it may exist in transcript form. 2) If the professor requires more than one written assignment, he will probably recognize that the paper is not written in the student's voice. 3) The professor may have seen the youtube video before; this is especially likely if he teaches online classes that incorporate videos. This last point also gets to the general idea that your prof has done a lot of research in his field. There is a very good chance he will recognize an argument, idea, or phrase that you've copied, because there is a very good chance he has seen it before. I don't catch cheaters by using software, I catch them by reading their papers. It is usually obvious. Students aren't as smart as they think, and professors aren't as dumb as students think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rictus58 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I once had a poetry professor give me a D on a paper for plagarizing....because I used information learned in another class (at a difference class) without citing the previous professor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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