Getting blamed for plagerism in college I didn't do...

#46
Based on the limited info of this thread I would do this:

If only 3 of the girls including you had to ONLY do research and submit to the plagiarizing 4th girl, then do not appeal anything and consider yourself lucky for only getting a letter grade down. There isn't even an atoms worth of defense for this case. Only because, had the 3 researchers reviewed before submitting, they would have seen the research they did, word for word being plagiarized. Now this is only if she did indeed copy everyone of the 3 researchers research.

If in fact NONE of the research the 3 researchers did was not included in the plagiarized project, then for sure do an appeal.

Something I don't understand is how can 3 only do research and 1 write it all. No wonder she plagiarized lol,jk.


If none of your research was included in the report, appeal to the END! You are not a plagiarizing detecting machine. How would you know the document was plagiarized if you did indeed review the work before submitting. Bring her @ss to a meeting. If she refuses then some guilt will be shown on her part, that is if all 3 of you appear at a meeting. It doesn't hurt to try.
 
#47
frenchtoast said:
It was basically straight out copy and paste. Our professor had the website she had got the information from printed out and highlighted, and highlighted the matching parts in our paper. The whole paper was pretty much copy and paste. All she had to do was put the research we had given her into her own words, and cite it. Instead, she just copied and pasted.
Click to expand...

frenchtoast said:
I also feel like even if I had looked over the paper before it was turned it, I still wouldn't have known that it was plagerised.
Click to expand...

Since I cannot imagine that anyone in any type of college program would consider a handful of links a real contribution to a paper, my assumption is that each of the three other girls wrote something, if perhaps in summary or bullet-point form, and the fourth girl's responsibility was to turn the information into complete sentences and arrange them into a cohesive paper. That is a substantial responsibility that can be very time-consuming, so I understand why it would be one person's entire task and why that one person might feel short on time.

It seems clear to me that girl number 4 did not simply copy and paste from sources sent to her by the other three since she apparently used only one source ("the website," above), which OP was not familiar with.

There is really a lot of unwarranted animosity toward OP in this thread.
 
#48
PrinceAbdullah said:
If in fact NONE of the research the 3 researchers did was not included in the plagiarized project, then for sure do an appeal.
Click to expand...

plain jane doe said:
It seems clear to me that girl number 4 did not simply copy and paste from sources sent to her by the other three since she apparently used only one source ("the website," above), which OP was not familiar with.
Click to expand...

What it comes down to is that no one bothered to edit or review the paper prior to submission. If none of the research was included in the paper that should raised a huge red flag to the other members of the group, if they had bothered to review the paper. Even if the OP or the other members were unfamiliar with the website, if they even looked over the finished work, they would know none of what they did was on it. Maybe it's just me and I'm paranoid but whenever there was a group project, we all get together to edit and review the paper prior to submission. I would want to see that my part was included in the finished project. There's no animosity towards the OP just that sometimes it's simply common sense to take a look once over before handing anything in (regardless of whether you can detect plagiarized work or not). As I posted before, claiming ignorance during an appeal process can work (it worked in my case) but not often.
 
#49
GhstDreamer said:
What it comes down to is that no one bothered to edit or review the paper prior to submission. If none of the research was included in the paper that should raised a huge red flag to the other members of the group, if they had bothered to review the paper. Even if the OP or the other members were unfamiliar with the website, if they even looked over the finished work, they would know none of what they did was on it. Maybe it's just me and I'm paranoid but whenever there was a group project, we all get together to edit and review the paper prior to submission. I would want to see that my part was included in the finished project. There's no animosity towards the OP just that sometimes it's simply common sense to take a look once over before handing anything in (regardless of whether you can detect plagiarized work or not). As I posted before, claiming ignorance during an appeal process can work (it worked in my case) but not often.
Click to expand...

I've been on numerous projects and I'd say everyone met to review the end result about 50% of the time. Generally though, you submit your part of the research in a fairly finished format. Speaking personally about the times when I was the "finisher", I'm all for emailing a final copy of the result to everyone, but if they want to change it, they can stay up until 4 a.m. doing so. Unless we're giving a spoken presentation, adding another meeting for everyone to pitch in can be a giant time demand in a crowded schedule - I'm not sure what the context is here, but "not reviewing the final product" does not implicitly make one "deserve" a 0. I'm not seeing anything particularly shocking or abnormal about the situation (other than the extent of work that the "compiling" final typist took on.
 
#50
I agree that OP should have reviewed what was submitted and is ultimately responsible for the final grade, which would have been an F even if she had caught the plagiarism and then not had the time to complete the assignment. But whatever she didn't do does not make her guilty of plagiarism and does not mean she should accept the accusations.
 
#51
^The problem is if the judges allow one person to claim ignorance that he/she didn't know someone in their group plagiarized - it really opens up a can of worms, kwim? Then a lot of people may ended up claiming the same thing and expect to have the decision to end up in their favour. I'm looking at it from the university's point of view here. I can understand the OP did not plagiarized at all but the problem is that it's not her own work - it's much easier to appeal that you didn't plagiarized something when it only has your name on it. When it's a group activity, it gets dicey. I do think it's a good idea she decided to appeal but the judges may still stick her with the 0 on the project but at least she can get her voice heard regarding this situation.

DiorDeVille: That's the precisely the point - no one read the final product. Imagine if you did all this research and submitted it into the one group member to put it all together. You didn't bother reading it and just had that one member submit it in but included nothing of what you did was on it. However everything that member did was plagiarized and then you and that person got accused of plagiarizing the work. The fact is you individually might not have plagiarized but as a team, you inadvertently did the minute you gave complete control and trust to that member without looking over the finished paper. Yes that would be a "0" because the professor grades on the actual final product and not what should have been submitted. Imagine going up to a panel of judges and saying that you didn't bother to read the final paper the other member put together, so therefore didn't know it was plagiarized and that nothing you wrote was on it. I can definitely imagine what the response of those judges would be.
 
#52
^We're going to have to agree to disagree on that point. Even in group projects (which are typically the product of lazy instructors who don't want to have to grade 3x the material in order to provide a more accurate grade to each individual student) you should be graded on your work, your involvement,your participation, your grasp of the material. If it's a project where your level of participation is hard to gauge, then yes, hopefully you'd have the foresight to realize a final look-see is needed, but if your teammate slams it out in an all nighter the day before it's due, you should not be punished for her poor choices once you've made it clear to the instructor (or boss) who was at fault.
 
#53
^Yes we would have to agree to disagree! lol

As a teacher, I rarely assign group projects because it rarely reflects individual effort or lack of. I do it only to appease administration because every administration advocates lots of group projects - supposedly it builds teamwork, so not always necessarily about laziness. I rarely see any teamwork building unless if I assign like students in one group. It's more difficult in the college or university setting to assess individual work in a group project. We were allowed to grade each others' effort which makes up our final mark but this was in business. Working in elementary school, I can see who's doing the work and who's goofing around and not pulling their weight and I can mark accordingly.
 
#54
DiorDeVille said:
^We're going to have to agree to disagree on that point. Even in group projects (which are typically the product of lazy instructors who don't want to have to grade 3x the material in order to provide a more accurate grade to each individual student) you should be graded on your work, your involvement,your participation, your grasp of the material. If it's a project where your level of participation is hard to gauge, then yes, hopefully you'd have the foresight to realize a final look-see is needed, but if your teammate slams it out in an all nighter the day before it's due, you should not be punished for her poor choices once you've made it clear to the instructor (or boss) who was at fault.
Click to expand...

It's true, you should be graded that way, but I've yet to really work in a group project that does it this way. The whole point of group projects is that the group is supposed to do an equal amount of the work so that they can all earn a good grade. Obviously, since we've all been there, that isn't always the case. I have to agree with GhstDreamer, claiming ignorance shouldn't ever excuse someone from something. You can't just say oh, sorry, I didn't know it was bad to plagiarize and expect to get away with it, and even if the OP did sent the writer a written document with citations, the fact that she didn't look over the final document before it was turned it is working against her. I could sign my name to a group project tomorrow, but if one of my team members plagiarized it and I didn't reread it, I think I'd just take the 0 versus failing the class or worse, putting myself at risk for being kicked out of the University.
 
#55
I don't have anything to add except that I always hated group projects. I was always paired with deadbeat teacher's pets so if I wanted something done I had to do it myself.

I hope you can get something worked out. I don't know how this girl thinks copy and paste is still okay in college.
 
#57
digby723 said:
It's true, you should be graded that way, but I've yet to really work in a group project that does it this way. The whole point of group projects is that the group is supposed to do an equal amount of the work so that they can all earn a good grade. Obviously, since we've all been there, that isn't always the case. I have to agree with GhstDreamer, claiming ignorance shouldn't ever excuse someone from something. You can't just say oh, sorry, I didn't know it was bad to plagiarize and expect to get away with it, and even if the OP did sent the writer a written document with citations, the fact that she didn't look over the final document before it was turned it is working against her. I could sign my name to a group project tomorrow, but if one of my team members plagiarized it and I didn't reread it, I think I'd just take the 0 versus failing the class or worse, putting myself at risk for being kicked out of the University.
Click to expand...

^^^ I dont think it will ever escalate to the other scenarios.

If you keep quiet and accept the 0, you are admitting the whole group is guilty.

You speak out about it, and at least they hear you say "No I did not plagiarize"
I don't think it can get worse than 0 just for that project.

If some person in my group decided to steal work, and I also got blamed for it, I will FIGHT to the end.


Lets just say for example she did indeed review the final work, and everything seemed ok. Then the 4th girl decides to add stolen work after everyone reviews. Should ALL get the blame for plagiarism?? How would you prove otherwise that you did not include stolen work?
 
#58
PrinceAbdullah said:
^^^ I dont think it will ever escalate to the other scenarios.

If you keep quiet and accept the 0, you are admitting the whole group is guilty.

You speak out about it, and at least they hear you say "No I did not plagiarize"
I don't think it can get worse than 0 just for that project.

If some person in my group decided to steal work, and I also got blamed for it, I will FIGHT to the end.


Lets just say for example she did indeed review the final work, and everything seemed ok. Then the 4th girl decides to add stolen work after everyone reviews. Should ALL get the blame for plagiarism?? How would you prove otherwise that you did not include stolen work?
Click to expand...

+1. :goodpost:

I was definitely anal-retentive about these types of things when I went through school - the good GPA and scholarships and contacts from my honor societies that were the result of that (sometimes confrontational) attitude are still with me. The students and teachers who were upset that I did not "work with" their attempts at laziness and bullying are not. I think there's so little to be lost by fighting it and so much to gain by protecting your GPA in these cases - there are a lot of areas in life where flexibility and avoiding a fight are the best solutions. This is not one of them, IMO.
 
#59
DiorDeVille said:
+1. :goodpost:

I was definitely anal-retentive about these types of things when I went through school - the good GPA and scholarships and contacts from my honor societies that were the result of that (sometimes confrontational) attitude are still with me. The students and teachers who were upset that I did not "work with" their attempts at laziness and bullying are not. I think there's so little to be lost by fighting it and so much to gain by protecting your GPA in these cases - there are a lot of areas in life where flexibility and avoiding a fight are the best solutions. This is not one of them, IMO.
Click to expand...
THIS!

At times I can be shy and not be confrontational, but only in other social situations which can lead to a bad outcome. But when its my TIME, effort, hard work, future on the line, I WILL be confrontational with full respect. Shy and avoiding things could be good at times, but it also could mean your hard work and reputation go right down the drain.
 
#60
No way in hell would I roll over and take a zero for the unethical conduct of a group member. Whether I read the darn thing or not.

And for the record, even if she had read it, there is no guarantee she'd have noticed the plagiarism unless it came directly from HER research. Which she suggests it did not.

Appeal it, fight it. And rip the plagiarist a new one. Speak to the other members and go over the materials and get them to back you, I'm sure they don't want to sink with her either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Back