This one involves a blogger who gets asked by a college student (a total stranger making blind inquiries over the Net) to write her a paper on Hinduism. He does so, planting all sorts of hilariously erroneous sentences (including such non-sequiturs as “I made a doody”) for the sheer, somewhat sadistic pleasure of getting the plagiarist in trouble at her college. All sorts of academic hi-jinx ensue, and following all the links from the link below should consume a couple of days of your time. There is the possibility that this saga is an April Fool’s joke, but I don’t think so:
I don’t think it was a joke, either - I’d imagine that a comedy troupe’s blog’s April Fool’s joke would be a bit more funny. Not that this wasn’t funny in its own way, but if it were all a hoax they could have injected tons more wacky details into the situation. As it stands, it would have been a lot of work to go through with not a lot of belly-laughs to show for it.
I do admire the guy’s handling of the situation after the shit hit the fan, though. And anyone who called that girl to harangue her (apparently there were quite a few) is a scumbag with no life, in my O.
The story began in very late March, but a lot of people read about it on or around April 1, so there was the suspicion. I’m reading it as not a hoax until shown otherwise.
Oh, that’s just priceless! And I love reading all the comments about how he shouldn’t have mistreated the poor girl (who happens to be on the Dean’s List). Right. Actually, he really didn’t have to turn her in, the paper would have gotten her crushed anyway. That thing was awful. But I’m glad he did, because I hate plagiarists.
I agree in principle, Buck, though I think that Nate wasn’t planning on that side-effect. I think it comes under the category of “When you start behaving unethically, all sorts of bad stuff that no one foresees may result.” For an example, if he’d simply found out her mother’s e-mail and dropped the mom a discreet warning about her daughter’s behavior, and the mother freaked out and cut her daughter off, you really couldn’t claim that as a a consequence that Nate should bear the blame for (not that that’s what you’re claiming here.)
Oh yeah, I agree that he couldn’t have had any way of foreseeing such a reaction. He didn’t even intend for the whole debacle to gain such a cult net following, even, and he never intended to “turn her in” to the school from the start (as revealed in later posts). The readers who went to the trouble of tracing her home phone number, calling her up and scaring the viscera out of her were just mean, vindictive doodyheads.
She was dishonest as fuck and plagiarism sucks and all but Jesus tittyfucking Christ, it’s not like she stepped on a little dog or put her professor in a coma or anything. No need for all the vigilante action from blog readers, who probably cared less about academic honesty and more about scaring some dumb kid.
But what I do like is the totally over-the-top nightmarish result of spending years of her life fending off all the pissed-off nutjobs who target her as a poster girl for plagiarists. Not that I don’t think it’s a little unfair, but it helps me flesh out with terrible specifics my somewhat dry, abstract warning to my own students: “The consequences of plagiarizing can, conceivably, be even WORSE than just failing the course or even expulsion.”
“Huh? Professor, what’s worse than expulsion?”
“Well, Sparky, there was once this girl who had a paper due for her World’s Religions class…”
I would be curious about people’s reactions to her attempt to dodge payment - after she got the paper and turned it in – before she knew there was a problem with it – she responded to Nate’s questions about payment by saying, in effect, “Huh? Wasn’t me. No one here is even in college. I’m not paying you anything.”
Oh, that’s just priceless! And I love reading all the comments about how he shouldn’t have mistreated the poor girl (who happens to be on the Dean’s List). Right. I made a doody. Actually, he really didn’t have to turn her in, the paper would have gotten her crushed anyway. That thing was awful. But I’m glad he did, because I hate plagiarists.
Well, that made for some fascinating reading, as far as I went and that was quite some way. What’s sad is one can almost predict that in her mind it is not her fault, and the she is a poor innocent victim. Maybe that’s the cynic in me.
But yep, that’ll be following her around forever online.
I don’t have a problem with him writing the bogus paper for her – or taking the money or reporting her if he’d chosen to do so. She deserved to get caught.
I do have a problem with his posting her real name and college on the net.
Someone posted that over at SAAN. Reading her messages to Nate, I’m surprised she was able to get into college, (the stupid chatspeak-she sounds about 11 years old).
This has been covered in another thread. But since it now has its own, I’ll say that I’m astounded at the comments defending “Laura”.
“She was wrong to try to cheat, but Nate should have just told her he wouldn’t do it! Or maybe a lecture about honesty would have straightened her out!” Yeah right. As others pointed out, if he’d lectured her, she wouldn’t have listened; just kept looking until she’d found someone who would fulfill her request.
“Cheating is wrong, but turning her in would have been more wrong!” Why? She’s the one who solicted him. And she had to have known the rules.
“He didn’t hold up his end of the bargain! He wrote a crummy paper, after he promised to help her!” What bargain? Is a narc dishonest when he arrests a drug dealer instead of paying him for his product?
“He ruined her life!” Right. He stumbled upon an honest student, working her tail off to write her own paper, and said, “Forget about that—I’ll write it for you. Trust me!” She set out to cheat, and it backfired on her. Somebody call the waaaaahmbulance.
And as I said in the other thread, it kills me that she said, “Money is no object,” then offered $75.
I do think, though, that it’s a good thing she stiffed him, and that he said that even if she did send him a check, he wouldn’t cash it. I’m not sure, but I think accepting payment might have made it more difficult to drop a dime on her.
I think it was forseeable that she would get harassed. And I just don’t see any reason to reveal her identity since he was not in a position to be certain of it or whether she actually turned the paper in.
I think he reported her to the College President late last week, but there’s no word yet on what, if anything, will be done about it.
Rilchiam "This has been covered in another thread. " I hadn’t read that part in other thread yet. Sorry if I’m posting redundent stuff here.
Bricker, as to your “Why?” I suspect it’s a kind of misplaced solidarity with plagiarists attempting to get over on the Man. When a teacher puts some effort into busting cheaters, we’re often asked “Why do you hate your students so much? Why does it give you a thrill to see them in trouble?” like we don’t spend weeks telling them please not to do this. When fellow-students inform on a plagiarist, they’re often told that they are traitors to their kind. And now when a total stranger, whom this plagiarist attempts to cheat of his fee, is inconsiderate of the plagiarist’s interests, he catches much flak from various observers, just as if he somehow owed her anything but his contempt and enmity.
My reading of it was the he didn’t report her to the College President but that others who had been reading the blog when it still had her real name on it did.
