I’ll echo what The Awl said: “This is fascinating.” At a Waffle House in Fort Worth, Michael Erard meets with the overwhelmed student he caught plagiarizing and finds out the effects the incident had on her — and him.
9 comments
Plagiarism is okay when a cute, chirpy blonde from Hawaii does it. But oh brother, on those occasions when it’s a wheezy hunchbacked dwarf with warts? Please sir! Don’t insult my dignity!
@ 1:59 pm on June 8, 2010
@Daniel: That’s how I was expelled from college.
@ 2:02 pm on June 8, 2010
There is, within the professoriate, a small but growing tendency to offer excuses for and even to justify plagiarism. It’s bad enough coming from academics. Coming from a writer, someone who earns his bread by using language to express his thoughts — HIS thoughts — it’s like moral mud wrestling. Both sides get dirtied.
Erard did what he was supposed to do — left the student with a moral lesson that will last a lifetime. If he has tender afterthoughts — “This hurt me as much as it hurt her” — than he needs to morally refocus. Nipping plagiarism in the bud is not about the nipper. It’s about the bud.
@ 3:30 pm on June 8, 2010
very interesting. Bill well said, as usual. I like the girl’s reaction, “You did what you thought was right. It was your job to make sure I knew it was bad and not do it again.”
Great perspective. I’d hire her over someone who doesn’t take responsibility for their choices.
I had an occasion to cheat in college. A friend called me and had taken a copy of the final exam. (from carbon paper, remember those days.) I considered it very briefly and said no, I didn’t want anything to do with it. He was caught along with my 2 or 3 other friends who took the test copy. to this day, I’m relieved that I made the right choice.
My father told a story about a guy he was in navigator school during WWII, guy cheated his way through. They got lost over the Pacific and went down into the ocean. That story made an impression on me….not that cheating in Statistics would have cost lives…but still
@ 4:27 pm on June 8, 2010
As a local college professor, I am privy to the growing concern and alarm among those in our profession at the dramatic rise in students caught and punished for plagiarism. Despite the bi-semester lecture that I give on this act–and how to avoid it–I routinely fail students for what essentially amounts to stealing and out-right cheating. I am not alone in this and am aware of several universities across the nation that have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to plagiarism. I have been told that USC expelled a score or so of first-time offenders a couple of years ago within the first month of classes for plagiarism (though I have not independently verified this, it would not surprise me in the least). The larger issue for us is this seems to reflect a growing cavalier attitude toward academic dishonesty and what this means for a generation of students for whom “professional responsibility” is a series of suggestions rather than a code of conduct. Is it beyond the pale to believe that the students today who think nothing of copying someone else’s work and turning it in might become the oil executives tomorrow who give short shrift to safety regulations? Or financial advisors who are less than forthcoming with their clients about the prospective risks inherent in an investment package? To be sure there is nothing new about cheating to get ahead; maybe we are simply talking about a different medium. Regardless, on behalf of those of us in academia, I want to say the increase in plagiarism we have seen over the past five years is unprecedented.
@ 4:43 pm on June 8, 2010
When I was in high school, a bunch of us got a 4 year old copy of a test in 5th period and when we got to our 7th period test, we realized it was the same test used that year. We all got 97’s and 100’s and the like. When we got ratted out, we fought the man and won. Several of us really bonded over the situation – so much so that I began dating one of the participants for the better part of 4 years.
Moral of the story – some of the worst sex of my life and we cheated on each other constantly (yeah for college). So, cheaters end up cheating and having crappy sex (except when they’re cheating, then the sex is mind-blowingly fun). I’ve lost my train of thought here…
@ 6:54 pm on June 8, 2010
@Brad: You are invited to comment on this blog — and to finish this story — whenever you like. Funny stuff, sir.
@ 8:43 pm on June 8, 2010
I am more than a decade removed from academia so the use of the internet and its endless reams of published information was simply unavailable to me back then, but I do wonder how these culprits are caught? If a professor senses the words of another, does he/she google them verbatim? I’m pretty sure I lifted some uncredited quotes from a microfilm or two back in my day- would that have qualified me for expulsion?
I was also probably shagging Brad’s girlfriend at the time.
@ 9:56 pm on June 8, 2010
@Tim: I mostly hang out on Sidedish and PCP because I have massive blog crushes on Nancy and Merritt. That said, I’ve never been able to work in my terrible cheating sexcapades with them, so Frontburner may be more my speed…
@ 10:19 pm on June 8, 2010
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FrontBurner® launched in March 2003, the first blog in Dallas run by a media organization. This is where the editors of D Magazine come to waste a tremendous amount of time.
9 comments
Plagiarism is okay when a cute, chirpy blonde from Hawaii does it. But oh brother, on those occasions when it’s a wheezy hunchbacked dwarf with warts? Please sir! Don’t insult my dignity!
@Daniel: That’s how I was expelled from college.
There is, within the professoriate, a small but growing tendency to offer excuses for and even to justify plagiarism. It’s bad enough coming from academics. Coming from a writer, someone who earns his bread by using language to express his thoughts — HIS thoughts — it’s like moral mud wrestling. Both sides get dirtied.
Erard did what he was supposed to do — left the student with a moral lesson that will last a lifetime. If he has tender afterthoughts — “This hurt me as much as it hurt her” — than he needs to morally refocus. Nipping plagiarism in the bud is not about the nipper. It’s about the bud.
very interesting. Bill well said, as usual. I like the girl’s reaction, “You did what you thought was right. It was your job to make sure I knew it was bad and not do it again.”
Great perspective. I’d hire her over someone who doesn’t take responsibility for their choices.
I had an occasion to cheat in college. A friend called me and had taken a copy of the final exam. (from carbon paper, remember those days.) I considered it very briefly and said no, I didn’t want anything to do with it. He was caught along with my 2 or 3 other friends who took the test copy. to this day, I’m relieved that I made the right choice.
My father told a story about a guy he was in navigator school during WWII, guy cheated his way through. They got lost over the Pacific and went down into the ocean. That story made an impression on me….not that cheating in Statistics would have cost lives…but still
As a local college professor, I am privy to the growing concern and alarm among those in our profession at the dramatic rise in students caught and punished for plagiarism. Despite the bi-semester lecture that I give on this act–and how to avoid it–I routinely fail students for what essentially amounts to stealing and out-right cheating. I am not alone in this and am aware of several universities across the nation that have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to plagiarism. I have been told that USC expelled a score or so of first-time offenders a couple of years ago within the first month of classes for plagiarism (though I have not independently verified this, it would not surprise me in the least). The larger issue for us is this seems to reflect a growing cavalier attitude toward academic dishonesty and what this means for a generation of students for whom “professional responsibility” is a series of suggestions rather than a code of conduct. Is it beyond the pale to believe that the students today who think nothing of copying someone else’s work and turning it in might become the oil executives tomorrow who give short shrift to safety regulations? Or financial advisors who are less than forthcoming with their clients about the prospective risks inherent in an investment package? To be sure there is nothing new about cheating to get ahead; maybe we are simply talking about a different medium. Regardless, on behalf of those of us in academia, I want to say the increase in plagiarism we have seen over the past five years is unprecedented.
When I was in high school, a bunch of us got a 4 year old copy of a test in 5th period and when we got to our 7th period test, we realized it was the same test used that year. We all got 97’s and 100’s and the like. When we got ratted out, we fought the man and won. Several of us really bonded over the situation – so much so that I began dating one of the participants for the better part of 4 years.
Moral of the story – some of the worst sex of my life and we cheated on each other constantly (yeah for college). So, cheaters end up cheating and having crappy sex (except when they’re cheating, then the sex is mind-blowingly fun). I’ve lost my train of thought here…
@Brad: You are invited to comment on this blog — and to finish this story — whenever you like. Funny stuff, sir.
I am more than a decade removed from academia so the use of the internet and its endless reams of published information was simply unavailable to me back then, but I do wonder how these culprits are caught? If a professor senses the words of another, does he/she google them verbatim? I’m pretty sure I lifted some uncredited quotes from a microfilm or two back in my day- would that have qualified me for expulsion?
I was also probably shagging Brad’s girlfriend at the time.
@Tim: I mostly hang out on Sidedish and PCP because I have massive blog crushes on Nancy and Merritt. That said, I’ve never been able to work in my terrible cheating sexcapades with them, so Frontburner may be more my speed…