Another one

Caught deliberate plagiarist number 2 today. Of course, it took a while for the suspicion to grow loud enough to send me to Google--and then once I started looking, I found more and more instances in the paper. It's a measure of how out of it I am that I was so slow picking up on the fact that what I was reading could not possibly be this student's work; I feel a bit of an idiot about that, but at least I did catch it. She'll get the infamous letter (and Sara pointed out the irony of the fact that I have, in essence, plagiarized the plagiarism letter--although I have carte blanche from Paul to steal it, so I think that lets me off the hook at least a little). In any event, getting that all sorted out took most of the paper-grading time I had after class and before dance lesson, dammit; that means I have to get up revoltingly early tomorrow to get the rest of the papers graded for 229--and to get at least some of the homework done for MB. Normally I'd try to get some done in the break between classes, but tomorrow that break will be filled with a placement reading norming session. It is tremendously helpful to have these periodic norming sessions (I almost wish we had them for grading papers), but it's a pain in the patoot that it will eat up that precious break. (I'll also have to bear it in mind when I figure out my lunch for tomorrow... hmmm.)

But back to the plagiarist: I admit I was slow on the uptake this time around, but I realize I do need to repeatedly explain how easy it is for us (generally speaking) to recognize what is or is not student writing--and by this time in the semester, even to recognize whether the writing is likely to come from any particular student. I can't say I'd be able to tell one bad student from another, or one good student from another, but I sure can tell when a bad student suddenly starts writing like a good one, never mind when he/she begins to write like a professional. And I am repeatedly surprised that students don't seem to think we'll notice--or realize that if they can find a source by googling, we can find it too.

But there is a thornier problem which I am also facing in 229: I suspect another student of plagiarizing. He didn't do the cut and paste from the internet thing, but it is clear that if he actually did the writing, he had a hell of a lot of help. I suspect someone else wrote it for him (or at least most of it), but I can't prove it. One of my colleagues (who has been teaching longer than I) is completely content to say to her students "It's plagiarism if I say it is: I don't have to prove it." I don't feel right about that--but I do think I have to have a little talk with this young man. If I accuse him, he'll almost certainly get defensive and deny (which students are all too likely to do even when one catches them with the proverbial red hands), but if I offer a gentle warning, I'm hoping that will be enough to stop him from going any further down that particular path.

That, in turn, gives me a thought: I have been wondering what to do for a freewrite topic for this week's 101s, as there is no assigned reading I can use for inspiration. But if I can find it, there is a wonderful quotation in Dorothy Sayers' (Sayers's?) Lord Peter Wimsey novel Gaudy Night, in which a professor asks what satisfaction can come from claiming credit for work one has not done. Might be interesting to get them musing about that aspect of cheating.

I'll mull it over. But I really do have to fold up my tents for tonight: 5 a.m. is going to arrive far too soon as is, and I still need to wind down...

Two post scripts: 1) The comment function is now working for people other than William (hooray! and thanks for checking, Stacy and Sara), so comment away, dear readers. 2) In the furor over nailing the plagiarist, I came close to bailing on swing class again--but I gave myself permission to go, and had a blast. East Coast swing: loads of fun. I'll have to ask what the difference is from the West Coast variety, but it doesn't matter. I'm moving my dainty feet and enjoying myself utterly. Life isn't just about work, thank God.