Paul- Very well said. I agree that he's made a clumsy attempt to make a point. I have been at an institution that didn't push back hard against plagiarism - I was adjunct at an institution where my wife taught. I had a class of 94 students and identified 4 suspicious ones but two which were identical except for type/font. I asked the department head and he said, "It is too likely to cause problems. You can never prove anything so just drop it". I handled it my own way but didn't get fired- read on if you want.
I bet you can guess. I didn't drop it. One of them stopped by and asked about his grade. I covered the names on the two papers and showed him that they had the same words misspelled, the same grammatical errors and errors in referencing, the exact same passages. He looked at me and said, "It's obvious. This other person copied my paper." Quizzical look from me, "Iiiii'm not seeing how it is obvious?" He beamed, "He has my misspelled words!!!" I switched the papers around on the desk. "Yep. And you have his." Silence. Long story short we talked for a while and I told him the dean would likely go much easier on him if he turned himself in. I thought that'd be the end of it. I got a phone call about an hour later from, yes, the dean's office. "What'd you do to these people (he was laughing)?" I didn't know what to say. He laughed and said, "There are six people in my office turning themselves in for plagiarizing papers in your class!" They all had to rewrite their papers, all got Fs on the paper, all had to do some mild penance He bought their explanations of panicking, "we knew it was wrong", "we'll never, never do it again". Two of them became majors and did quite well. My whole point is this instructor's attempt was more than clumsy and about as thoughtless and unintelligent as the behavior he was trying to control. The students should be dealt with in some way but the response can be far more creative, thoughtful, and human. Just my 2cents. Tim From: Paul C Bernhardt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 6:41 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Vigilante Justice on Plagiarism :: Inside Higher Ed <i>thinks humiliation is part of the justice system. He noted in an interview Wednesday that "there's a reason that trials are in public."</i> There's the flaw in this instructor's thinking, right there. He thinks public trials are a point of humiliation, presumably because he views those on trial as necessarily guilty. Maybe he doesn't realize that trials are to determine guilt, the purpose of due process and all that. Maybe he doesn't realize that public trials are to ensure that the evidence presented against a person can stand the light of public revelation and to increase the chances that all relevant evidence is brought to bear. Secret trials are used by regimes fearful that their evidence is insufficient and to present only the evidence favorable to their case. -- Paul Bernhardt Frostburg State University Frostburg, MD, USA On 11/13/08 9:18 AM, "Christopher D. Green" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Jackass or Justiciar? Comments? http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/11/13/tamiu Chris --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
