Ah, hell...

Caught the first deliberate plagiarist of the semester. I hate when this happens, but it also makes me realize that students do not understand how distinctive "voice" is in written work--and that any professor can tell the difference between student and professional writing. This one was easy to catch, too: simple Google search of the key phrases, and bingo. It's harder when they use a buy-a-paper website (and why are those things legal??)--or the boy/girlfriend, or Mom. It's maddening--and disappointing--no matter what the methodology. Paul put together a lovely letter expressing regret and in very professional terms explaining why a plagiarized assignment gets a zero. I've stolen his letter and adapted it to my purposes. I think this student can mend the error of her ways and overcome the whalloping bad grade, if she tries; I'm sure this was a panic maneuver, not laziness. That's most often the case, actually, though there are a few who believe that if cheating gets a better result in terms of the grade, then that's the intelligent way to go. (Why fail on your own merits when you can cheat and pass? I'm sure they'll get through life just fine on that philosophy....)

I got through 7 of the 18 papers I need to have done by Wednesday; not as many as would have been optimal. (One I started but didn't finish because it may also be plagiarized--but I couldn't prove it as quickly and easily: I need to run it through my home computer's Plagiarism Detector, which is at present malfunctioning, dammit. But it's also possible the student used group work to come up with a better intro paragraph than she could have on her own, which I permitted on this assignment.) In any event, in terms of my own productivity, I don't quite know what happened to this morning. The feline alarm went off at 5 (the electronic one was set for six). I tried very hard to ignore the attention-seeking bad-cat behavior (ASBCB) and yodeling that indicates Jack is bored and wants to play, but I hadn't been sleeping well anyway, so I gave up and got up at about 5:20--and I still didn't get much done. Paul was in when I got here (very early of a Monday for him, indicative that I'm not drowning in papers alone); I did talk to him a little, but it seems to me we were both pretty focused on the work we needed to do. And yet I only got three papers done before class at 11. I only managed to crank out the other four this afternoon because I could pretty much ignore the last pages of several: when papers are bad enough--or good enough--they don't take long because there isn't much to say. It's the ones in that blurry middle ground that impel me to comment madly. I'm still trying to control the impulse, but the success on that front is spotty at best.

Ah well. I'm taking this quick moment to blog, then I'll snarf down a little food and dash off to dance class. Since I'll be home late-ish, I'm not sure how well my self-discipline will hold up in terms of getting up early tomorrow, but I swear, if Jack wakes me up an hour before the alarm, I'll turn him into a charming little hat.