# help me catch a plagiarist

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-catch-a-plagiarist/175596>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 16, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-catch-a-plagiarist/175596 "2003-05-16T03:04:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-catch-a-plagiarist/175596/61 "2003-05-19T00:01:18Z")

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I like your thinking Fsher Queen. I’ll have to try that. Mostly, I’ve been giving “plagiarism-proof” assignments, but I’ll still get a student or two handing in a wildly off-topic essay (guess why) and trying to get credit anyway.

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**Author:** ![DogMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@DogMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogMom)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-catch-a-plagiarist/175596/62 "2003-08-26T13:06:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hazel \*
> 
> (Now I’m trying to remember how Rex Stout spelled phooey in the Nero Wolfe books. Was it **Phui**?) \*\*

It was “Pfui.” But only when The Great One said it. When Archie, or Inspector Cramer, or anyone else said it, he spelled it “phooey.”

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**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-catch-a-plagiarist/175596/63 "2003-09-06T00:57:12Z")

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I just caught the first bit o’ plagiarizing for the semester–crap, it’s only been a few weeks!–but the offender in question dropped the class right after he got the paper and copies of stolen sources back from me. Given his poor language skills, he probably would have made another attempt just to try to get through a class that he never should have been in at all.

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**Author:** ![Keith\_Berry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/22d042/32.png) [@Keith\_Berry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith_Berry)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-catch-a-plagiarist/175596/64 "2003-09-06T07:14:01Z")

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I took an elective class in college on Women’s History once (thinking, of course, it was a good way to meet women) where I saw the most boneheaded plagarism attempt ever.

One of the students had a roommate who was taking the same course, and apparently ransacked her roomie’s computer to find the Word doc. of her term paper and printed out a copy for herself to turn in as her own.

Now, it’s pretty ballsy (or stupid) to turn in an exact word-for-word copy of another student’s paper at the exact same time. It was going to wind up in the same pile, for God’s sakes, and it was possible that the assistant prof. might even read and grade both in the same setting.

But check this out: in her haste, the plagarist neglected to delete her roommate’s name and course number from the paper before she printed it out. It wasn’t until she got into the classroom and was about to hand it in that she realized this.

So what did she do?

She took a pen, scribbled over her roommate’s name and info, and then hand-wrote her own name and info below it.

I got all this info from the girl who sat next to her in class and the assistant prof., who I was chummy with. The girl wound up on academic suspension, and was eventually expelled when she commited another equally boneheaded faux pas.

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