Another case of "Stupid People in College"

[Buccaneer]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=490 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=headlineblack style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px">Student Who Plagiarized Sues School</TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid">







</TD></TR><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 10px">Monday, May 31, 2004

How are students supposed to know that copying other people’s work off the Internet is wrong? That’s what one student who is suing his university for negligence wants to know.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=100 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle bgColor=#666666></TD><TD rowSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD style="PADDING-TOP: 5px"><SCRIPT language=JavaScript>OAS_AD('Middle');</SCRIPT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Michael Gunn, a 21-year-old English student at Kent University in Britain who admits plagiarizing material from the Web, said the school should have warned him that using already published text was against the rules, according to the BBC.

"I did plagiarize. I never dreamt it was a problem,” Gunn told the news service.

Gunn, who was told on the eve of his final exams that he wouldn’t get any grades for his course work, is angry that his education — and the money he paid for it — is going to waste.

"If they had pulled me up with my first essay at the beginning and warned me of the problems and consequences, it would be fair enough,” said Gunn. “But all my essays were handed back with good marks and no one spotted it."

The deputy vice-chancellor of Kent University, David Nightingale, said all students are given guidelines that clearly state lifting material from other sources and passing it off as their own is against the regulations.

“In the School of English this information is provided in the faculty handbook and in the department's own handbook, both of which are issued to all students,” he said.


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[bigdawg2003]

wow

[sabotai]

He's an English major (I'm assuming since "English" is capitalized in the article) and he never knew plagiarizing was wrong? Not good, publicity-wise, for Kent Univeristy that they let this idiot into their school.

[Suicane75]

He's an English major (I'm assuming since "English" is capitalized in the article) and he never knew plagiarizing was wrong? Not good, publicity-wise, for Kent Univeristy that they let this idiot into their school.

[sovereignstar]

He's an English major (I'm assuming since "English" is capitalized in the article) and he never knew plagiarizing was wrong? Not good, publicity-wise, for Kent Univeristy that they let this idiot into their school.

[stevew]

He's an English major (I'm assuming since "English" is capitalized in the article) and he never knew plagiarizing was wrong? Not good, publicity-wise, for Kent Univeristy that they let this idiot into their school.

[TargetPractice6]

Four people in a row say the same thing and all of their names start with S. Sounds like a conspiracy!

[TLK]

plagiarizing is wrong??? :eek: :eek: :eek:

[JeeberD]

Good thing it's not illegal in high school or else I never would have graduated...

[Desnudo]

plagiarizing was wrong??? :eek: :eek: :eek:
Getting caught plagiarizing is wrong.

[Suicane75]

I didn't realize it was wrong, it would of been nice if someone had let me know, my lawyer will be contacting Skydog.

[Tigercat]

since there is no such thing as a new idea anymore I think we should expell all college students.

[stevew]

My wife tells me that kids in the 6th grade history class she teaches will print stuff off of the internet and hand it in. And not even bother to erase where they got it from.(The HTML Tags on the bottom of the printed page)

Its no wonder that some are now heading for their third or fourth time in 6th grade.

[stevew]

My wife tells me that kids in the 6th grade history class she teaches will print stuff off of the internet and hand it in. And not even bother to erase where they got it from.(The HTML Tags on the bottom of the printed page)

Its no wonder that some are now heading for their third or fourth time in 6th grade.

[bhlloy]

Wow... this reflects really well on me when I tell you that UKC (Kent) was my first choice university that then rejected (semi-rejected) me when my horrible A-Level grades came through.

Seriously though, this guy must be a complete idiot if he thinks he can get away with this. I would be 99% sure that the regulations are posted up in his department, in his handbook and online. It's his fault he didn't look at them. If I don't look at a contract and get screwed later I have no comeback. My school makes everyone sign to say they understand the plagiarism rules and I can't believe Kent is any different.

[sterlingice]

since there is no such thing as a new idea anymore I think we should expell all college students.
No, you can write what you want and make entire papers of completely unoriginal thought. But you have to make sure to cite sources :D

SI

[Marc Vaughan]

I always avoided plagarism during my econmics exams by simply making up the names and quotes of anyone I referenced during my essays .... not one tutor ever bothered checking if any of the emminent people I frequently quoted in my exams/essays existed or had said what I'd indicated :D

(kids please note this is NOT recommended - do as I say, not as I did (as I often have to remind my kids, I've made the mistakes so you don't have to ;) )

[damnMikeBrown]

what the hell is ex-ante and ex-post regular interest rates anyway? I mean, I know what the damn Fischer effect is, why do I have to know it in Greek as well?! (Directed towards that Vaughan guy)

[Wolfpack]

OT, but in a humorous list of consecutive thread titles, Shorty's graduation from high school thread was next to this one when I posted.

Carry on.

[WSUCougar]

Four people in a row say the same thing and all of their names start with S. Sounds like a conspiracy!
I found it amusing that the spelling of "Univeristy" remained untouched.

[QuikSand]

Exhibit One:

"I did plagiarize. I never dreamt it was a problem,” Gunn told the news service.

Exhibit Two:

...a 21-year-old English student

Case dismissed.

[QuikSand]

I found it amusing that the spelling of "Univeristy" remained untouched.

plagiarizing and then editing the work you stole is defeating the purpose ... that takes work!

[Surtt]

This guy obviously should be pre-law.

[gtmarc]

Amazing.

When I was in engineering school, there was a "study group" that used to meet and copy the homework problems. Basically one person would work each problem, then the rest would copy the answers. So they all turned in these very nice neat copies of the same homework answer. They routinely hung out in the library next to the profs office, did most of the copying there, and apparently the prof was quite proud of the hard work they put in.

In fluid flows, there's a simple little formula for "equivalent diameter". Basically all the formulas for pipe flows assume a circular pipe, so this formula converts a square box (or any other shape) to an equivalent circle. Its an easy formula, something like 4 times wetted perimeter divided by cross sectional area or something like that.

One day the prof walks into class and starts writing this horrendously difficult and complicated equation on the board. Then, while he's writing this mess, he says that something like 10 of the 14 people in the class used this big mess of an equation as the "equivalent diameter" in the homework problem. I'm in the back of the room trying not to laugh and fall out of my seat. Both because this is so obviously horribly wrong (4WP/A replaced by 2 lines of complex calculus - and this in the 2nd quarter of a sequence, so we'd been doing this for months by then.), and because I know that one person in the study group wrote this, and then the other 9 copied it without even bothering to read it.

Me, I always tried to work the homework problems, but this usually meant that I didn't always turn in nice, neat copied papers like the "study group". Instead I turned in a half-completed attempt at the problem that went up to where I got stuck and moved on to the next problem.

The prof thought his study group was his ace students, apparently since they obviously worked so hard (and visibly) in the library next to his office. But I routinely would blow those kids away when it came exam time. I'd tried to work the problem, usually failed (and thus got a weak homework grade), then listened to the answer in class, realized where I screwed up, and thus actually learned how to solve the problem and could thus solve a variation of the problem on the test. For the problems I missed on the regular tests, I did this again and usually had it nailed for the final.

This resulted in two things. The prof used to sit and just stare at me during the exams. He was obviously convinced I was cheating since I blew away his pets in the "study group" on every exam. (The tests were complete open notes and open book, so I don't know how he thought I was cheating.... but he always just stared right at me for the full hour of an exam).

For the final exam, I scored 85 out of 100. That was 15 points higher than second best and 40 points higher than the mean.

The prof gave me a "C" for the course saying he didn't think I'd put enough effort into the homework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Surtt]

I had similar experience.
Not only did our engineering teaches look the other way, they actually unofficially encouraged it.
We would need to know how to work in groups after we graduated.

[Buccaneer]

Conversely, part of me is thinking that this is a case of a student being caught red-handed (and knowing it) and then coming up with an "it's not my fault" excuse on a advice of counsel. That is what our (and their, apparently) legal system and media teach us.

[judicial clerk]

Amazing.

When I was in engineering school, there was a "study group" that used to meet and copy the homework problems. Basically one person would work each problem, then the rest would copy the answers. So they all turned in these very nice neat copies of the same homework answer. They routinely hung out in the library next to the profs office, did most of the copying there, and apparently the prof was quite proud of the hard work they put in.

In fluid flows, there's a simple little formula for "equivalent diameter". Basically all the formulas for pipe flows assume a circular pipe, so this formula converts a square box (or any other shape) to an equivalent circle. Its an easy formula, something like 4 times wetted perimeter divided by cross sectional area or something like that.

One day the prof walks into class and starts writing this horrendously difficult and complicated equation on the board. Then, while he's writing this mess, he says that something like 10 of the 14 people in the class used this big mess of an equation as the "equivalent diameter" in the homework problem. I'm in the back of the room trying not to laugh and fall out of my seat. Both because this is so obviously horribly wrong (4WP/A replaced by 2 lines of complex calculus - and this in the 2nd quarter of a sequence, so we'd been doing this for months by then.), and because I know that one person in the study group wrote this, and then the other 9 copied it without even bothering to read it.

Me, I always tried to work the homework problems, but this usually meant that I didn't always turn in nice, neat copied papers like the "study group". Instead I turned in a half-completed attempt at the problem that went up to where I got stuck and moved on to the next problem.

The prof thought his study group was his ace students, apparently since they obviously worked so hard (and visibly) in the library next to his office. But I routinely would blow those kids away when it came exam time. I'd tried to work the problem, usually failed (and thus got a weak homework grade), then listened to the answer in class, realized where I screwed up, and thus actually learned how to solve the problem and could thus solve a variation of the problem on the test. For the problems I missed on the regular tests, I did this again and usually had it nailed for the final.

This resulted in two things. The prof used to sit and just stare at me during the exams. He was obviously convinced I was cheating since I blew away his pets in the "study group" on every exam. (The tests were complete open notes and open book, so I don't know how he thought I was cheating.... but he always just stared right at me for the full hour of an exam).

For the final exam, I scored 85 out of 100. That was 15 points higher than second best and 40 points higher than the mean.

The prof gave me a "C" for the course saying he didn't think I'd put enough effort into the homework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you Will Hunting?

[sabotai]

gtmarc, I'd say you took the wrong professor for that class.

[sabotai]

dola,

It amazes me how oftan someone deems it necessary to quote several paragraphs from a post just to give a one line response. :)

[NoMyths]

Almost every semester I taught composition I'd have at least one student plagiarize. I always failed them, and they always failed to admit their wrongdoing without overwhelming evidence otherwise. Thankfully (or otherwise) we were always required to find overwhelming evidence before accusing a student of plagiarism, precisely because of the legal ramifications.

[BishopMVP]

My wife tells me that kids in the 6th grade history class she teaches will print stuff off of the internet and hand it in. And not even bother to erase where they got it from.(The HTML Tags on the bottom of the printed page)Same thing happened to a girl I knew at my HS 2 years ago. Since it was HS she just got like a week of detention and a 0 for the paper. I think the week of detention, which was unusual, was because it was so stupid how she did it.

The best story I've heard though is my dad, who teaches Astrophysics at Harvard, had a student copy 12 pages for the only paper directly out of his first book. Needless to say, the kid was not back at school the next semester.

I agree with gtmarc some. Personally, I never plagiarized a paper (well, I would get ideas/quotes and not cite well, but I'd at the least always put it in my own words and never copied word for word) and it probably cost me 1/2 a point on my HS GPA.