Someone in my group PLAGIARIZED

[PlainJane]

I noticed tonight when I was going over different sources that couple of the sentences in my groups history paper sounded really familiar. I double checked, and several of the sentences in the paper have been lifted almost word for word. I don't know who did it because it's the finished paper, not someone's individual work.

I'm going to the professor tomorrow, and I'm so freaked out about how all this is going to go down. I know, I have to tell him, if I don't we all get expelled. An F on a paper is better than kicked out and on permanent record.

Please send prayers and happy thoughts. I'm so upset; until now, I had an A in that class.

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

How horrible! I hope everything goes ok for you tomorrow!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'll keep you in my thoughts.

FWIW: I don't think your professor will penalize you since you are going to him. What will probably happen is the professor will ask the person who did it to fess up since it was a group project. Hopefully that person will and will spare the other group members.

We had a similar situation in a class I took a couple of years ago. A guy tried to get the entire class to cheat, the professor found out and only punished the one person since she couldn't prove that anybody else had participated. (FTR: I don't think anybody else did)

 

[mfd25wife]

I noticed tonight when I was going over different sources that couple of the sentences in my groups history paper sounded really familiar. I double checked, and several of the sentences in the paper have been lifted almost word for word. I don't know who did it because it's the finished paper, not someone's individual work.

I'm going to the professor tomorrow, and I'm so freaked out about how all this is going to go down. I know, I have to tell him, if I don't we all get expelled. An F on a paper is better than kicked out and on permanent record.

Please send prayers and happy thoughts. I'm so upset; until now, I had an A in that class.

I pray that your honesty will stand out and make your professor see that you had nothing to do with it, and you are trying to right a wrong.

 

[LoraJ]

Is the source a journal article? Can you salvage the paper by citing it?


ETA: As others have said your Prof. shouldn't hold the actions of one against all.

Is there anyway you can contact everyone in your group about this? Do you have all of their emails? I would send an email right now.

And who compiled the whole paper? They need to know now.

 

[MsLeFever]

I've been on the other side of this type of issue as a prof. You've already got some good advice here - see if you can still site the source. If you can't - then going right to the Professor is your best bet. When it happened in my class I allowed the group to redo the paper - but I was being pretty generous.

Good for you for reviewing the group work and catching this. There is, of course, the possibility that the person didn't understand how to cite or when they need to (amazingly it happens.)

Hope it all works out for you.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It sounds like (from the OP) that the paper has probably already been turned in. Is that the case?

 

[PlainJane]

It sounds like (from the OP) that the paper has probably already been turned in. Is that the case?

It hasn't been turned in.

Someone above mentioned that they might not know they did it. I don't think they do. I was talking to them earlier this weekend, and they thought that you only need to cite what has been quoted. Apparently, they don't get paraphrasing counts . They also didn't seem to understand that it's a research paper, you need to cite where you got your facts from. I've spent the last day going over the thing backing up information.

I would just try to cite everything now, but I'm afraid I haven't caught all of the places they copied.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Hmm...

That's a tougher situation. Fix what you can, and do talk to the professor. Since it sound unintentional, please try not to throw this person to the dogs. Let the professor know it was unintentional.

Based on your last post, I think you are overstressing. The paper has not been turned in so there is time to fix it. I don't think the professor is going to fail you or kick you out. I know that universities really scare you with the whole plagiarism thing, but most professors I've seen are understanding about situations. I've only known one person in over 7 years of attending university who was kicked out for academic dishonesty, and that was the person who purposely tried to get the entire class to cheat. In that situation, the professor had direct evidence from the e-mails he sent.

 

[PlainJane]

Hmm...

That's a tougher situation. Fix what you can, and do talk to the professor. Since it sound unintentional, please try not to throw this person to the dogs. Let the professor know it was unintentional.

Based on your last post, I think you are overstressing. The paper has not been turned in so there is time to fix it. I don't think the professor is going to fail you or kick you out. I know that universities really scare you with the whole plagiarism thing, but most professors I've seen are understanding about situations. I've only known one person in over 7 years of attending university who was kicked out for academic dishonesty, and that was the person who purposely tried to get the entire class to cheat. In that situation, the professor had direct evidence from the e-mails he sent.

Oh, I don't want to throw anyone to the dogs. I don't think it was intentional. I would be happy if he brought us in to his office and explained what he thought was a properly cited paper looked like.

I also hope I'm over stressing.

 

[Cindy B]

Hate to say, I think you are overstressing.

Since it hasn't been turned it, you can cite it. It can be done. Paraphrasing does count. Go back over sources, list of sources, email, etc. You can find it. Go to your University/college library (yes, go actually inside) and ask them for a source on the topic. It will be mostly likely a much better/reliable source than what person had. If you can not go inside the library, use the remote access feature-- that feature has saved me many times.


Most professors use the scare tactic for academic honesty. I've never seen anyone actually kicked out, but I have seen people have to redo papers, rewrite the paper in the prof's presence, meeting with the dept chair/head, etc.

 

[tar heel]

Schools with strong honor codes kick kids out all the time. I knew two people who got kicked out of my university for what the person in the OP did. Both had the option of petitioning to get back in after their suspension -- I don't either did.

 

[Cindy B]

Schools with strong honor codes kick kids out all the time. I knew two people who got kicked out of my university for what the person in the OP did. Both had the option of petitioning to get back in after their suspension -- I don't either did.

I know my school has a strong code. I was a/still am a writing major for this school. (I have a triple major-writing was one of the three).

Citing sources is very important and necessary. Another big one is "recycling" other work from other classes and presenting it as new.

I had a student in one of my classes that did both of those things. The other students in this group noticed it right away. We went to the professor about this matter. The professor, who also was the dept. chair, had the student rewrite the paper in his own presence in the dept. chair office without his laptop.

The student had to handwrite his portion in front of the professor. The student got a strong talking to about this matter and got a warning about it. Since the prof was the dept. head, he stated that he talked to all the other writing profs about this matter.

 

[java]

How big a group are you talking about?
Do you know who did it?

Perhaps more of a "Someone forgot to site their sources" request would go over better than a "SOMEONE PLAGERIZED"
Does it have to be turned in today?

Good luck in solving this.

 

[SeeVee]

I noticed tonight when I was going over different sources that couple of the sentences in my groups history paper sounded really familiar. I double checked, and several of the sentences in the paper have been lifted almost word for word. I don't know who did it because it's the finished paper, not someone's individual work.

I'm going to the professor tomorrow, and I'm so freaked out about how all this is going to go down. I know, I have to tell him, if I don't we all get expelled. An F on a paper is better than kicked out and on permanent record.

Please send prayers and happy thoughts. I'm so upset; until now, I had an A in that class.

Oh, I know that feeling. I had a team mate during my master's program who was riding everyone elses coat tails. At one point, he sent me his contribution for our weekly summation paper which was my summation from a previous paper.

I called him, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he sent the wrong information by mistake. He resent some more information which was another team mates earlier contribution.

I left his name of the summation paper, he received a zero, and quit the program shortly thereafter.

 

[mirmartinez]

Is the source a journal article? Can you salvage the paper by citing it?

ETA: As others have said your Prof. shouldn't hold the actions of one against all.

Is there anyway you can contact everyone in your group about this? Do you have all of their emails? I would send an email right now.

And who compiled the whole paper? They need to know now.

This is great advice.
At this moment I am doing just that for a group paper (due in 3 hrs ),
I personaly would not go to the professor, because he would still flunk me.
The policy for us is pass as a group, fail as a group. (hate group work)
I confronted the member, so we are working together to fix it.
It has been a long morning.
What gets me the most is why do people wait to the last minute to give me their stuff.

 

[PlainJane]

This is great advice.
At this moment I am doing just that for a group paper (due in 3 hrs ),
I personaly would not go to the professor, because he would still flunk me.
The policy for us is pass as a group, fail as a group. (hate group work)
I confronted the member, so we are working together to fix it.
It has been a long morning.
What gets me the most is why do people wait to the last minute to give me their stuff.

I'm going to confront the person today (it's four people, but I'm pretty certain) I'm hoping they admit it, and tell me any other places they did it. If they don't, then I'm going to the professor. Thankfully, I know where he got it from, so I can just go back, quote, and cite. I still have 24 hours to fix this.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to tell the whole group, so we can deal with this mess. I don't think the professor is going to be very helpful, this close to the due date. If I'm forced to, I'm still going to him.

 

[roses~red]

the good thing is that you caught it in time. Otherwise your whole group would flunk for not proofing or worse yet be penalized however your school deals with plagarism. I have been in your shoes as well unfortunately.