I used metre and its derivatives in Chemistry and Physics. But the teachers knew that I was like that.
This thread coming up again, I want to tell you about the huge plagiarism scandal that kept the German media, society, politics, population and Academic circles in an uproar in the last several weeks:
Karl Theodor von Gutenberg plagiarized his doctoral thesis.
There’s enormous embarrassament all around:
Guttenberg for being dumb enough to ghostwrite/ plagiarize it* in the internet age, and for being hungry enough for a Dr. title to brag with, when he already has a “von” for that, and probably would’ve gotten an h.c. quickly enough.
The Bayreuth Uni and his Doctoral father, for not catching the wide theft in the age of internet and Google (2005!), and even giving Summa cum laude - a slap for all those who really did work hard on their thesis
The consie politicans for suggesting that bad lefties are attacking KT out of spite, or that it’s a minor matter to plagiarize, like an 8th grader copying during a test from his classmate
The population for still showing support for KT, even increased, because … well I don’t know why. I guess because people really are stupid
And the Academic society is trying desperatly to make people understand that plagiarism is no minor matter.
- Kabaretist Bruno Jonas quipped “Guttenberg didn’t plagiarize, whoever wrote that thesis did”. It’s currenlty unclear whether there was a ghostwriter, or KT himself who copied.
Huh. I’m Canadian but because of reading so many American books and internet sites I sometimes just forget to spell things the Commonwealth way, and have probably used both spellings in the same paper. My teachers never thought anything of it, AFAIK (well, except maybe on the consistency front). If spelling it ‘color’ was an indication of plagiarism, almost everyone I know would have been called on it at some point.
I look at all originality reports generated by Turnitin.com, regardless of the score. As mhendo states, properly-cited quotes are flagged, as are common turns of phrase, idioms, and jargon.
The amount of original or quoted/repeated material does not affect the grade I give the student for the quality of the paper, unless the paper is 1) significantly plagiarized (student gets a zero), or 2) a bunch of properly-cited word-for-word quotes strung together (student gets a low grade for lack of original thought in paper).
It’s interesting what happens when public figures get caught in acts of plagiarism, and it often follows the sort of pattern you describe here.
A few years back, some very prominent and well-known historical authors were discovered in acts of what can only really be described as plagiarism. None of them were as egregious as plagiarizing a whole thesis or a book, but popular authors Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin (among others) were discovered to have copied material from other sources, without appropriate citations, in some of their works.
Ambrose (now dead) and Kearns-Goodwin are two of the more widely-read and best-loved of America’s popular historical writers, and the general reaction to the plagiarism charges among the general population ranged from “Yawn. Who cares?” to “You jealous academics are just trying to cut them down because they’re popular.”
Actually, in Kearns Goodwin’s case, the plagiarism itself is not actually the worst of the story.
While her plagiarism only really came to light in 2002, it had actually been discovered much earlier, way back in 1987, by one of the authors from whom she lifted passages. Goodwin plagiarised from Lynne McTaggarts book Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times, and the plagiarized passages appeared in Goodwin’s The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys. When Goodwin’s book came out, McTaggart was asked to review it, and in doing so she recognized many of her own passages in Goodwin’s work.
Now, despite recognizing that her own words had been stolen, McTaggart said nothing. She gave the book what she herself describes as “a kind review,” and then proceeded to hire a lawyer and go after Goodwin and her publisher.
Here’s where the story gets really nefarious. McTaggart reached an agreement with Goodwin and the publisher, whereby she received a “satisfactory settlement,” on condition that she did not reveal the plagiarism to the general public. Because McTaggart said nothing, Goodwin’s book survived the next 15 years without being outed.
As Timothy Noah points out in Slate, this effectively made McTaggart “a party to [the] fraud.” As Noah says, McTaggart effectively chose to “Hide the book’s flaws in public, squeeze the book’s author for cash in private.” And by agreeing to pay what was little more than hush money, Goodwin and her publisher compounded Goodwin’s own ethical breach, adding a cover-up to the plagiarism itself.
The Kearns Goodwin story, and other cases of academic fraud and controversy, are detailed in Jon Wiener’s excellent book Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and Politics in the Ivory Tower.
I couldn’t agree more with what everyone here has said. Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud, and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination of employment. Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or give the appropriate citation. While plagiarism in scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old history, the development of the Internet, where articles appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the work of others much easier.
For professors and researchers, plagiarism is punished by sanctions ranging from suspension to termination, along with the loss of credibility and integrity.[16][17] Charges of plagiarism against students and professors are typically heard by internal disciplinary committees, which students and professors have agreed to be bound by.[18]
Very droll.
I’ve never used Turnitin - our district has it for the upper grades but I teach elementary. How good is it for catching kids who copy but just change a word here and there? For example:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
-changes to-
The rapid brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Would Turnitin catch this type of plagiarism?
I’ve seen it on occasion in international students’ essays and never assumed it was a sign of plagiarism.
I’ve been in the US for over ten years now, but there are still times when i lapse into the Australian/British spelling form that i grew up with.
See, the difference is, that this was an American born/raised student in America who did copy the paper.
Fair enough.
I, too, would be immediately suspicious if i saw British spelling in a paper submitted by one of my American students.
Maybe if the student consistently used American spellings elsewhere, but using Commonwealth spellings wouldn’t necessarily indicate plagiarism. I’ve known too many Anglophile teens and undergrads who think it’s “cool” to spell things “the British way.” Hell, even I constantly have problems with a word or two (specifically “behavior,” which always looks wrong to me versus “behaviour”).
IME (grading not essays but Java programs), the kids who are stupid enough or lazy enough to need to plagiarize aren’t going to be smart enough to change anything.
Another one bites the dust. Bye bye Karl.
From the stories my sister told, this particular student couldn’t find Great Britain on a map, let alone know that it’s cool to put u’s in certain words. The spelling wasn’t the proof that it was copied, but the flag that put the suspicion there.
Did anyone else notice that at 1:06 in the Turnitin demo video they pluralized with an apostrophe?
Maybe they should get their own demo peer reviewed…
Sadly, that’s not a real victory. They interviewed people on the street, and soldiers, too (he was minister of defense), and many said “well, there was a lot of pressure…” So not only did KT fail to admit his wrongdoings, finding new excuses; the population failed to understand where the problem with not acknowledging and owning up properly to mistakes is.
My prediction (which I hope will not come to pass, but I’m a cynic): KT is a Bavarian and member of the CSU; far from having “withdrawn from politics” as a few dumb newscasters put it yesterday, he will use the “Oh poor thing, we are sorry for him!” wave of popularity to run in the next Bavarian state election. Either parallel to Seehofer, or as the new young face. After he’s become prime minister of Bavaria, he’ll wait till the next federal election and run for chancellor to replace Angie. Unlike most other Bavarian contenders for the federal throne, he is popular outside Bavaria because he comes across as slick and refined, and not the country bumpkin that the previous candidates were perceived as.
So in several years, that guy could end up as the new Chancellor. I apologize in advance, and will vote against him at every opportunity - but his current continuing popularity is not a good sign.