Is she your boss? Work colleague? Friend?
Did this happen in the context of a game?
Is she your boss? Work colleague? Friend? None of the above, although work relationships are involved.
Did this happen in the context of a game? No.
OK, in hopes of not having to spoil this, I’m going to toss in a few more hints:
Were “Penny” and “Bounce” the exact words / names she used in her statements? Yes.
Should she have used other words / names instead? Yes.
Did she do anything else she shouldn’t have done? Yes.
Was a crime committed?
If so, by her? Penny? Both?
Did either break an established rule that is not a law (e.g. of a game)?
Edit: Was the reason shouldn’t have used those words because it revealed something that should have been kept secret?
Was a crime committed? No (at least, not in any way that would be likely to result in criminal charges).
If so, by her? Penny? Both? N/A.
Did either break an established rule that is not a law (e.g. of a game)? Yes, “she” did (but not of a game).
Edit: Was the reason shouldn’t have used those words because it revealed something that should have been kept secret? In a sense, since it revealed the rule-breaking. The rule itself does not involve keeping anything secret.
Were there financial shenanigans involved?
Was Penny aware of the wrongdoing? Was she in on it?
Was the thing that bounced…
…a check?
…a physical object?
…Penny?
…another person?
…an animal?
…something more abstract?
Were there financial shenanigans involved? No.
Was Penny aware of the wrongdoing? Was she in on it? No, and no. BTW, Penny is a “he,” not a "she."
Was the thing that bounced…[list of items snipped]? Wrong assumption – nothing bounced. “Bounce” is a noun, not a verb.
Was Penny used as a nickname not often used by others (like for Mike Pence, say)?
Is the person a student? Was there an attempt being made to get out of an assignment etc through less-than-fully-ethical means?
Was Penny used as a nickname not often used by others (like for Mike Pence, say)? No, not exactly, although you do know Penny by a different name.
Is the person a student? Yes.
Was there an attempt being made to get out of an assignment etc through less-than-fully-ethical means? YES!!!
Okay, sounds like I’m on to something, but I can’t figure out what. I don’t know who Penny is and can’t figure out Bounce.
Was it the fact that she referred to someone as Penny that gave her away? (Thinking here of you assign them to watch a movie about a character named Penne, pronounced Pen-NAY, and she says she watched it but obviously didn’t because she didn’t know how to say it right)
Was the reference to Bounce what gave her away?
Would an ordinary person have realized what was going on, or was it specific to your field and your specialized knowledge?
Was it a writing assignment?
A reading assignment?
Something to do with a test?
Is Penny’s “different name” something very closely related by sound or spelling or meaning to Penny?
Okay, sounds like I’m on to something, but I can’t figure out what. I don’t know who Penny is and can’t figure out Bounce. That is very understandable!
Was it the fact that she referred to someone as Penny that gave her away? (Thinking here of you assign them to watch a movie about a character named Penne, pronounced Pen-NAY, and she says she watched it but obviously didn’t because she didn’t know how to say it right) Yes! (But not quite like in your example.)
Was the reference to Bounce what gave her away? It was certainly the thing that made it VERY clear to me what was going on.
Would an ordinary person have realized what was going on, or was it specific to your field and your specialized knowledge? An ordinary person would have realized it.
Was it a writing assignment?
A reading assignment?
Something to do with a test? Writing assignment.
Is Penny’s “different name” something very closely related by sound or spelling or meaning to Penny? Yes – meaning.
Okay, thanks! Not sure what direction to go, so a bunch of random darts:
Did she pretend she had written/turned in the assignment when she hadn’t?
Is plagiarism involved?
Was the writing assignment turned in but was written in such a way as to show you that she hadn’t done something else (such as read the book on which the assignment was based)?
Is knowing the details of the assignment a productive direction to go in? (Is that a fair question?)
Did she say Penny when the person’s name was really that of another coin, or close to it? (Schilling. Nicholas. I don’t know.)
That of another type of money? (Dollar. Bill.)
This may have been answered before, but was the slipup in speech or in writing?
Did she pretend she had written/turned in the assignment when she hadn’t? No.
Is plagiarism involved? Yes.
Was the writing assignment turned in but was written in such a way as to show you that she hadn’t done something else (such as read the book on which the assignment was based)? I think it is very likely that she hadn’t read the book, yes.
Is knowing the details of the assignment a productive direction to go in? (Is that a fair question?) Not sure, but in case it helps: discussion board postings for a literature class.
Did she say Penny when the person’s name was really that of another coin, or close to it? (Schilling. Nicholas. I don’t know.)
That of another type of money? (Dollar. Bill.) No to both, but right general track.
This may have been answered before, but was the slipup in speech or in writing? Writing.
ETA:
Was the writing assignment turned in but was written in such a way as to show you that she hadn’t done something else (such as read the book on which the assignment was based)? She also clearly had not done another thing that is standard for writing assignments.
Hmmm. Okay, let’s try these.
Did she plagiarize a classmate?
If so, had the classmate posted the original thing to the same discussion, or was it from a different situation?
An “expert in the field” (as in a published book)?
You?
Someone else?
Trying to think what else is standard for writing assignments…
I’d say leaving off her name, but that seems unlikely if plagiarism is involved. Nevertheless. Did she put her name on the assignment? the date?
Did she need a bibliography? seems doubtful, but…was she supposed to include one? If so, did she put one in?
Did she ignore spell-checking? tsk tsk
As you see, I’m reaching here!
I even looked at my own students’ papers to see what else ought to be there…
Trying to think of other meanings for “penny” and coming up blank. Did she think Penny was NOT a person when Penny was in fact a person?
Was Penny the author? A character in the book? Not actually relevant to the assignment (and that’s where she messed up)? Another student?
Did she think Penny was someone other than who he really was?
Did she plagiarize a classmate?
If so, had the classmate posted the original thing to the same discussion, or was it from a different situation?
An “expert in the field” (as in a published book)?
You?
Someone else? Someone else (Sparknotes and a couple of similar websites, to be exact)
Did she put her name on the assignment? the date? Yes. (Or rather, since it was an online discussion board, both of these pieces of information would have been added automatically.)
Did she need a bibliography? seems doubtful, but…was she supposed to include one? If so, did she put one in? Well, since she was supposed to post only ideas that came from her own head, she wasn’t supposed to include one (and did not).
Did she ignore spell-checking? No, but rightish track.
Did she think Penny was NOT a person when Penny was in fact a person? OK, this is an interesting and somewhat-difficult-to-answer question. The student, I’m pretty sure, would know that Penny was a person if someone had asked her directly about this, but … did not recognize that this knowledge was not universal.
Was Penny the author? A character in the book? Not actually relevant to the assignment (and that’s where she messed up)? Another student? A character in the book.
Did she think Penny was someone other than who he really was? No.
Did she turn in someone else’s writing without reading it first?
Did she turn in someone else’s writing without reading it first? Hmm … yes and no? (This is another really hard one to answer.)
All right, how about something like this:
Student copies word for word something in a SparkNotes or other website, and posts it WITHOUT PROOFREADING.
Which means that she doesn’t catch something such as a comment in one of the websites that says “As a male from an African-South Asian background, I respond to the characters like this…” when she is not in fact a male from that background.
Or the assignment was to read Book 1 in a series and she found info about Book 2, which is about some of the same characters but not all.
Or she copied something with British spellings, including perhaps something to do with a slang meaning of Penny. or Bounce. Reaching here…