Write “DSQ-Cheating” at the top of both of their papers and hand them back with the rest. If one of them independently comes up to you after class and can explain the subject at a sufficient level to make you believe he wrote the paper independently, tell him that he needs to keep his papers much more secure. Tell him that someone (don’t name names) copied his paper and turned it in. Explain that you’re giving him the lowest passing grade on this paper for that reason, and turn the other one in to the principal or dean.
Is it safe to assume that this is a college course? I agree with the previous replies that confrontation is warranted, and then perhaps referral to some institutional review board is in order if the students are defiant, unqilling to admit wrong, or simply in your desire to do so.
In the future, consider using Turnitin.com as a pre-submission step for student papers.
It’s possible that one of them may be innocent. When I was in school, there was a computer room where students could do their work. It happened more than once that a student pulled a copy of another student’s work out of the trash can and turned it in.
Talking to them together seems like a good idea. Then at least one of them should get a zero and be reported to the dean.
Interrogate them separately. If they’re in cahoots, they might have cooked up a story between them, which will fall apart if you take them on separately and don’t let them talk to each other between interrogations. If they’re not together, and if one of them is weaker, then they may crack and say something incriminating, even if they’re innocent. And the guilty one (if it’s only one) might not want to admit they stole their friend’s paper in front of them, but they may do so in private. Also it levels the playing field and makes it so you won’t be ganged up on or made to feel like the bad guy.
Oh, and if one or both of the papers are plagiarized, give them zeros. That’s a no-brainer.
Zeros on the assignment, and explain that they will fail the class if this ever happens again.
Definitely google parts of the papers. If they both got it from an outside source I’d consider failing them both on the spot.
And I seriously doubt two college students would be stupid enough to conspire to turn in the exact same paper to the same teacher. Or am I giving college students too much credit?
Thanks for all the moral support–my first instinct was to give them zeros.
The assignment is not a paper, but an exercise in formal semantics… more like a computer program. There is absolutely no way that two people could get identical results unless, as others have said, they worked together or one stole it from the other–which would have involved one emailing it to the other, because they had their tables formatted the same way, etc. In a class of forty students, no other assignments ended up being even remotely alike.
And yes, it is an undergraduate class.
Logic (if indeed that would even be applicable here) suggests the following possible scenarios and outcomes:
[ul]
[li]They both worked together on the assignment without the knowledge of what was stated in the syllabus. If the OP, as TA, had clearly pointed out the existence of the syllabus and made students aware of it then you would be justified in giving both of them 0’s with a further reprimand for bad judgment. If, however, they could argue that they were never made aware of the syllabus (or more specifically the nature of the information in it) then I say you have to examine your own previous instructions to determine the appropriate grade and action.[/li][li]If they both independently (if they collaborated in this scenario then they should be booted out of school on the grounds of sheer stupidity) copied it from a previously submitted paper then they should both be given 0’s and turned in to the proper student oversight body.[/li][li]If, as has been suggested, one essentially stole the paper from the originator, without the originators knowledge, then you do as suggested above and bring the two together and make appropriate judgments concerning grades and further actions.[/li][/ul]
Bringing the two together to sort out the above three scenarios would seemingly be the best course of action. If you do bring them together should you do it in the presence of someone above you (e.g., course coordinator or higher level or student oversight body - whatever it may be called) for future protection and avoidance of further complications?
Did you run some of the text through google or one of the anti-plagiarism programs out there? It’s possible that both of them separately downloaded and turned in the same paper. Still worth a zero, but a possibility.
If you’re teaching any kind of social science, this could be a great way to introduce your class to the Prisoners’ Dilemma!
I agree with Waterman that there’s a chance these students are ignorant of the syllabus. It seems unlikely, but it’s worth ruling this out first, I think, since being too lazy to read the syllabus is a less awful offense than deliberately plagiarizing.
I think you could rule this out easily: before you hand the papers back, ask the class, “Did any of y’all work on this as a team? Raise your hand if you did.” If these two raise their hands, say, “Okay, I want to re-emphasize what your syllabus says: all work is to be completed independently. You two, talk to me after class.”
If they don’t raise their hands, then they’re being dishonest, and the next step is to see if one of them stole from the other.
If they speak with you after class, having cooperated, then I think it’s appropriate to tell them that they’re both getting no credit for this assignment, but that (if you’re feeling merciful) you will give them a harder makeup assignment they can do to recover partial credit.
Finally, why on earth is there a policy against working together on assignments? That seems to me to be pedagogically unwise. Sure, have students turn in their separate, original work; but if the goal is for students to learn, then surely collaborative bull sessions are an effective way of learning. Throughout college we engaged in these, with the blessing of the instructors, and I very often found it helpful to bounce ideas off my classmates and hear their own ideas before I went off by myself to create the final product.
Daniel
I noticed you mentioned that there were a lot of people in the Greek system taking your class. As a former sorority member, I might have an idea of what happened:
All fraternities/sororities have a thing called “Study Files.” The concept is that after you take a class, you donate all your old notes/tests/papers to the files for future members to use. The idea isn’t to encourage plagerism, but more like guidelines to help others. Maybe someone from last semester donated their paper to the study files and now instead of using the former paper as a guideline, the students just turned in the same paper. ??
Take a look at your school’s honor code and hold them to it. I am almost certain you’d be required to take an action beyond the scope of just your class.
If there is an innocent party here, unfortunately the burden of proof will be on him. If one or both claims innocence, interview each of them separately in the presence of a witness to see if they can explain the logic of how the assignment was created. Since you say the work was pretty much shite anyway, that should be interesting.
There was a great thread a few days back about someone who submitted and billed for plagiarized work on her job, and her manager, a Doper, posted about having to fire her. If these jokers learn their lesson now, you may be sparing them a similar fate.
Well… as I said in the OP, the assignment wasn’t very good. Surely they wouldn’t copy a not-very-good assignment?
The issue about whether or not they’re aware of the syllabus irks me. For one thing, the syllabus has been available to them for months now. For another thing, even if they did bounce ideas off each other–they still turned in exactly the same assignment with exactly the same tables, formatting, etc. The assignment was only done once and turned in by two people. Someone did not do original work.
This page from Carnegie Mellon has a good section on their honor code. See especially the link
What to do if plagiarism occurs in your class?
Talking to the Dean is important. This can affect the college and it’s a good idea to find out how the Dean prefers to handle it.
Give them both a zero on the assignment and if they complain tell them they’re lucky they’re not automatically failing the course.
Marc
I have no advice that can improve on what has been given here, but I anxiously await the outcome.
Yep. As a teacher who has dealt with this sort of thing (albeit at a high school level) this is my prefered course of action.
Side note: I once had two best-friends turn in virtually identical assignments. I gave both of them a zero. The parents complained. After we had a big sit-down, it turned out that independently, both girls had asked an older brother of one of them for help on the assignment. Same source, same wording of concepts, but no collaboration. They both got restored grades.
Sattua, do you have a superior to go to, a senior colleague of some sort, a university legal office? I think you need information specifically created for your uni and your course. I wouldn’t go off and fail the students or make them sit extra tests or whatever without finding out precisely what the policies are. Once you do find out the policies and how you should proceed, document every step to lessen the chance of the little bastards avoiding the arse-drubbing it appears they so richly deserve.
yup.