I may have just been an accessory to plagiarism

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m in an intro-Shakespeare class, which is a 200-level and required for the Shakespeare minor at my university. Our first assignment: that freshman-year-of-high-school classic, “translate Shakespeare into contemporary English!” (Which I’ve always found to be redundant – he wrote in English, people – and part of the reason why the “Shakespeare is indecipherable to the common man” myth remains so prevalent – but that’s a Pitting for another day.)

I finish my assignment, hate myself a little for cheapening “The Phoenix and the Turtle” with my hack specifics, and run it off on the printer.

Twenty minutes later (this is at 8:45 the evening before a 9 AM class) there’s a knock on my door. Yes, he interrupted Arrested Development. It’s a young man I recognize vaguely from the same class, sporting a dark grey hoodie and lightly bloodshot eyes.

“Hey,” he says. “You’re in my Shakespeare class, right?”

“Yes,” I say.

“D’jou finish the homework?” he says.

“Yes,” I say. Behind me, I can hear GOB’s ether-soaked black hand puppet Franklin giving Lucille the kiss of death.

“Can I take a look at your paper? I was having some trouble with it,” he says.

“Sure,” I say, and thrust it at him. He ambles off down the hall. I sit down to watch the rest of my show.

[commercial break.]

I’m struck with a bolt of realization that Bloodshot Young Man may be, at this very moment, copying my paper word-for-word and preparing to turn it in as his own work, and I have no idea what to do. Am I just being paranoid? After just reading about all of the Laura K. Krishna shenanigans this afternoon, I’m aware that some people do really really stupid things re: cheating.

He comes back fifteen minutes later, hands me my paper, and tells me that it’s been “a big help.” I say “You’re welcome” and take it back.

…Am I just being paranoid? It certainly wasn’t a very good paper (it certainly wasn’t a very good assignment), but it was my paper. I don’t really want to go up to the professor and say “Hey, just in case you received two papers that were identical, and one of them was mine? Mine’s the real one.”

Or, rather – for those of you who are or have been professors – how would you prefer a student deal with something like this?

2

Eeeesh. Personally, I think I’d be worried too. This may be impractical, but maybe you should try to get a peek at his. “So, how did yours turn out? It’s probably pretty funny,” or “Maybe I could see yours too, now that you’ve gotten a good start? It might help spark some new ideas for me.” See what happens from there. I suppose.

3

I wouldn’t take any risks if I were you. Email the prof ASAP and let him know what happened. Provide a copy of your paper so he knows that yours was the original and you didn’t mean to let the other kid plagerize.

You may not want to rat on a classmate, but if your university has plagerism policies, you can risk getting thrown out. Contact your prof.

4

Yeah you definitely should’ve asked to see what he’d written. I don’t even think you’d need a pretense – just say, “Can I look at what you’ve got so far? I want to make sure yours and mine aren’t too similar.”

Assuming that ship has sailed, I think you should email the professor. Tell him what happened, and that you realize it was a dumb mistake.

Option #2 would be to intercept the kid at class before he hands it in and insist that he let you look at his homework.

5

I’d say just go find the kid and make sure that he didn’t copy your paper word for word. Most likely he’s just as eager to not get in serious trouble for plagarizing. Students borrow other students papers all teh time for inspiration, to see how someone else approached the task, whatever. I don’t think asking your fellow student about how he used your paper is impractical, nor does it seem necessary to email the prof ASAP. It’s not against any rules to lend people your work - it is against the rules for them to plagarize it though. I’d say you probably don’t have too much to worry about.

6

Prithee, milady, what ails you?

How about this situation - your professor calls you in for a chat. He tells you that he has two identical papers, and that the other student has already warned him that you borrowed his paper.
Tell the professor everything.

7

Definitely what glee said.

I teach Literature, sometimes even Shakespeare, and I’ve had that very situation: two students in my office calling each other liars–“You borrowed it from me!” “You liar! You asked ME if you could see mine!” “Bitch!” “YOU’RE the bitch!” “YOU are!” with no way to resolve it other than an extensive interview with each of them to judge who understood the paper better (or at least the vocabulary) but that was less than 100% certain.

Definitely e-mail the professor, telling exactly what was borrowed, by whom, when, etc. and just hope that the person who borrowed it wasn’t a plagiarist AND hasn’t had the diabolical idea of e-mailing the professor ratting you out first.

8

Really? Do they though? That certainly would seem open to abuse if the essays were being lent/borrowed before they had been submitted and marked.

If I were the OP, I’d be worried too. Of course one good-ish thing is that the “borrower”, like everone else, has probably heard of Laura “K” the Idiot Plagiarist by now, and might be wise enough not to attampt evil trickery. :slight_smile:

9

I’m not trying to say that students are all running around sharing essays (I know I’m certainly not. Half my essays aren’t even in on time, which means I’m in no position to lend my essays to people). I wouldn’t go giving my work to any old person who asks for it (assuming I have done it on time), but if someone I know asks me to borrow it because they are having trouble getting started, … , whatever, I will probably lend it to them. I still say just go ask the guy who borrowed it. I imagine the conversation would go something along the lines of:

Tracy Lord: Hey dude, you know how you borrowed my paper?
Bloodshot Eye Guy: Yeah.
TL: You didn’t just plagarize it did you? I don’t want to get in trouble or anything…
BEG: No, I used it for [whatever]… do you want to see it?
TL: If you don’t mind…
Who knows? Maybe I’m just way too trusting of people. On the other hand, I guess I don’t exactly write essays which could be copied verbatim in the same way a Shakespeare ‘translation’ could be.

I wish I had someone’s essay to borrow for some inspiration right about now though as I’m stuck mid-way through mine, and need to get it done by the morning… which does still give me a good 8 hours I suppose. Plenty of time for inspiration if I can stay awake.

10

Myth? So I guess that time my friend invited me to see him perform in a Shakespeare play and I sat befuddled for two hours, only able to pick out words here and there, I was somehow deluding myself into not understanding that perfectly clear, modern English?

11

Yes, I agree that Shakespeare is not contemporary English.

ACT I.
SCENE 1. Rousillon. A room in the COUNTESS’S palace.
[Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LAFEU, all
in black.]
COUNTESS.
In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.
BERTRAM.
And I in going, madam, weep o’er my father’s death anew;
but I must attend his majesty’s command, to whom I am now in
ward, evermore in subjection.
LAFEU.
You shall find of the king a husband, madam;–you, sir, a father:
he that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold
his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it
wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.
COUNTESS.
What hope is there of his majesty’s amendment?
LAFEU.
He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he
hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in
the process but only the losing of hope by time.
COUNTESS.
This young gentlewoman had a father–O, that ‘had!’ how
sad a passage 'tis!–whose skill was almost as great as his
honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature
immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for
the king’s sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of
the king’s disease.

Now I can work this out all right. But not at the speed of modern conversation.

Tracy, would you say that Chaucer ‘wrote in English’?

Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duc that highte theseus;
Of atthenes he was lord and governour,
And in his tyme swich a conquerour,
That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne;
What with his wysdom and his chivalrie,
He conquered al the regne of femenye,
That whilom was ycleped scithia,
And weddede the queene ypolita,
And broghte hire hoom with hym in his contree
With muchel glorie and greet solempnytee,
And eek hir yonge suster emelye.
And thus with victorie and with melodye
Lete I this noble duc to atthenes ryde,
And al his hoost in armes hym bisyde.
And certes, if it nere to long to heere,
I wolde have toold yow fully the manere
How wonnen was the regne of femenye
By theseus and by his chivalrye;
And of the grete bataille for the nones
Bitwixen atthenes and amazones;

12

[hijack]

Never said it was. However, neither is it indecipherable without the help of a “translation,” which is what I take issue with.

Chaucer wrote in Middle English, as I suspect you well know. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

The vast majority of the words Shakespeare uses, especially in editions that “clear up” vocabulary (substituting “murder” for “murther” and “lantern” for “lanthorn,” etc.), are words that we know and use in everyday conversation. Quite a few of the rest are simple words than can easily be picked up from context after hearing them a few times: “anon,” the “'tis” abbreviation, and so forth. The passage which you quoted is completely comprehensible. You have to get into a sort of “Shakespeare groove” sometimes, but the problem I have is that a professor of a university course was propagating the “Shakespeare is from another PLANET!” don’t-even-try myth that discourages a lot of people. In my experience, a ridiculous majority of people do quite well with the language once they get over the oh-but-it’s-Shakespeare mental block.

neutron star, the best I can do is remind you that not all productions are created equal. Have you tried any of Kenneth Branagh’s films? They’re remarkably accessible. I recommend “Much Ado About Nothing” (with Denzel Washington, Emma Thompson, and Keanu Reeves) as the best introduction.

[/hijack]

For the rest of it…I’m quite an idiot who hasn’t emailed her professor (yet?). I crashed last night, overslept this morning, and squeaked in late to class, and now I feel like after the fact it’d be an “oh by the way, just in case…” sort of note. I guess I’m relying on the clear evidence of my academic superiority and understanding of the piece to clear my name. (Idiot.)

13

Nott good enough. Go see the prof as soon as possible and tell them everything. Never assume your “clear evidence of my academic superiority” will carry the day. That thinking is arrogant at its best. At it’s worse, you will suffer. See glee’s first post and reread it carefully.

14

Yeah, I should’ve elaborated and said what Glee did, but damnit I was thinkin’ it!

Seriously, if the prof gets two papers which look similar, even if not identical, he’s going to haul you both in and talk to you. At that point, it becomes he-said-she-said, and you’ve really got no sure fire way of proving your integrity.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Email your prof ASAP.

15

I’ve never seen any of those films, but I will note that the play I watched didn’t seem to be particularly bad. It wasn’t dinner theater or anything; it was a university production featuring talented Drama majors. I could tell the acting was good even if I couldn’t quite catch what they were saying.

Actually, when I said I could only pick out a few words, it was an oversimplification. If I concentrated my hardest on the speech and let the wheels in my brain spin as fast as possible, I could almost (but not quite) keep up with the play. The assortment of archaic words combined with the often incredibly awkward (to modern ears) sentence structure never failed to throw me for a loop. Perhaps if I had read some Shakespeare before seeing the play, it would have been more understandable.

So no, Shakespeare isn’t entirely indecipherable to the common man, but it’s not easily understood either, so I don’t think a comtemporary version would be redundant.

16

Uh, no, that means it wasn’t good.

Here’s the deal: it really is hard to convey Shakespeare to 21st Century audiences, and getting harder all the time. You need a spectacularly good teacher to instruct in Shakespeare (just “excellent” won’t cut it anymore) and you need amazing actors to pull it off on-stage. 99.999% of actors , however good they might be at sit-com parts, will mess Shakespeare up.

I recommend Al Pacino’s film “Looking for Richard” which contains stories by such actors as Kevin Kline, who’s really good, but who tells of not getting Shakespeare himself for many years. Or I’d find a film called something like the Shakespeare Sessions, about a teacher who runs workshops for world-class actors, and he painstakingly takes them through scenes and lines and shows them, with great difficulty, how to think about reading those lines.

Joke: A hack wants to play Hamlet, but no one will hire him. Finally, he rents out a theatre, casts himself as Hamlet, and stinks the joint out. While dodging rotten tomatoes, he steps into the footlights and out of character and berates the unruly audience" “Hey, I didn’t WRITE this shit!”

Moral: Shakespeare is tough to play, but until you’ve seen it acted, or taught, by a genius, you probably won’t get it. Not Shakespeare’s fault.

17

For anyone who isn’t aware of the Laura K. Krishna story, this page provides the background, plus plenty of links to discussion and updates of the saga.

18

Er, why? It wasn’t good because I couldn’t follow things at a conversational pace that I don’t exactly have an easy time following even when they’re written?

I’m not getting what the other 0.001% are doing that would make me understand. As long as they’re saying the same unfamiliar words phrased in the same mindbending ways, it’s going to be tough to digest. I really can’t see how a good actor would leave me entirely confused, while a great actor would somehow show me the light by reading the same confusing text in a more convincing manner.

19

Firstly, just because they’re drama majors doesn’t mean they’re necessarily good actors. For the record. :wink:

Secondly, a very good actor won’t be phrasing the words in “the same mindbending ways.” They’ll be making the language accessible through cadence, body language, and inflection. It’ll probably be easier to understand than just reading the text, too, thanks again to all of the tools an actor can employ. These plays were written to be performed, after all. Again, I really recommend a Kenneth Branagh flick. He intentionally adapted/directed his movies to be understood by modern audiences.

20

Yes, that’s exactly why. The great actors will help you to understand it faster than you can while reading it, because their use of tone, inflection and expression acts as the “translation”. And some other undefinable qualities that makes them great.

What they’re doing is doing those things which make them phenomonal, as opposed to good, actors. I second the recommendation of watching a Branagh film, especially Much Ado About Nothing or even Hamlet. You may not be able to put into words what they do differently (I can’t), but I guarantee you will get it without too much strain. My son was watching Branagh’s *Hamlet *with me when he was 10, and getting most of it. (The first scene of *Hamlet *is still tough, even in Branagh’s version - lots of exposition, talk of coming war, politics, etc. Don’t sweat it. All you need to know is that the king recently died, his brother took the throne, and the country is getting ready for was because the nephew of the king in the next kingdom over is getting land-grabby. Keep watching, and you’ll get into it by the third scene.)