I didn't think you'd catch me...

I remember the first student I confronted about a case of plagiarism. He sat in my office, leaned back in the chair, looking at me with a smirk. I was sick to my stomach, hands were sweaty, and I couldn't catch my breath or slow my heart. Finally, I told him, "I know this isn't your work."

"Prove it."

I took a deep breath, reached down and opened one of the drawers in my desk, rustled through a few folders, then pulled out the paper I'd written four years before when I was in the same class. I dropped it down on the desk next to his copy and said, "you'll find that they're word-for-word the same, including the mispellings and the same citation problems. I know, because I wrote it."

He took in a deep breath, then, sort of deflated.

"Oh."

As he sat there, I tried to figure out how he got a copy of my paper. Suddenly, it came to me. There was a guy in my class who was "having problems" writing his paper, so he wondered if he could see a copy of my paper to use as a model. He took it, and brought it back the next class. "Ryan," the guy having problems with papers, was in a frat on campus, and a number of our Greek system houses had extensive files on assignments and tests. And, they have fairly good records of how profs graded -- did they grade the papers they assigned or was it done by a GTA, how often did they assign a particular paper, etc.

My student, "Kyle," was in the same house as Ryan, though a few years removed. The place where their files fell through was they didn't keep a list of who actually wrote the paper. Kyle had gone to the files, found the "A" paper, checked to make sure it was a GTA who graded (because what are the chances the same GTA would be working that course for that professor?), made a new cover sheet and then retyped it (an most likely at that time, making it an electronic copy), then turned it in to me.

I've had students turn in papers that were unpublished but in the review process; papers bought off the Internet; papers written by mothers, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends -- though I have yet to get one from a father; and I've had papers that were nothing more than pure cut-and-paste jobs from material straight from the Internet.

I looked at Kyle, told him that we needed to go see the professor, and he nodded. "Yeah, I know."

When I talk with students that plagiarize, I always ask why they did it. I get some interesting answers:

1. I didn't have time.
2. I didn't know how to do this.
3. I don't write good. (To which I always want to say "you don't write well, either.")
4. I can't do this. And...
5. I didn't think you'd catch me.

That was what Kyle told me. Actually, he said "I didn't think I'd get caught," which is just a variation, right? I'd already spoken with the professor about this, and he was ready for us.

The three of us sat down, and discussed the situation. I had advocated for failing the kid, but, the professor had a much better solution. To give him a second chance. If he wanted to, that is. If he wanted to take that route, he would need to bring his research material to the department's computer lab and write his paper there while I watched. It made a lot of work for me, but, what the hell, I was jsut the GTA, right? he also had to coordinate the times with me, he would save his paper to a disk which I'd keep in my office, and he had a week to finish.

He chose that route, but, he immediately started having problems with making it to the department at the times he set up with me. In the end, he just quit coming to class and failed the course.

I learned a few valuable lessons from all that;

1. Change the assignments from time to time;
2. Change how they're evaluated and who evaluates them;
3. Be aware that there is, on many college campuses, a blackmarket of papers and tests and that these are typically held by a college-sanctioned student organization;
4. Be proactive in the confrontation -- or, remember, you're not the one that did something wrong; and
5. Give 'em enough rope, and they'll either pull out or hang themselves.

I still find it interesting how many students think they can get away with it because "yeah, my teacher, he don't know anything."

Heh.

Let 'em think that. Once they get busted, they'll learn different. Or so we hope.