After searching for the response on the web, I would talk to them separately, say that there was an identical paper turned in, and ask what happened. If one copied from the other, and admitted it, you have the answer. Even if they studied together, they should know not to turn in exactly the same answer, so I don’t think you should feel bad if you give both a 0 in that situation. If both claim they did it originally, asking about the subject matter should tell you who did it and who copied.
BTW, students aren’t the only ones who copied. In searching for information on one of my daughter’s high school English papers last year, we discovered that the teacher had copied the questions from the web. :rolleyes:
This is my standard policy, and it is stated in the syllabus. I also explain verbally that this means that if two students turn in the same assignment, both students will receive a grade of zero. I don’t care who copied off of whom, and I tell them point blank at the beginning of the quarter that they should not make their work available to other students (although they are welcome to work together as long as each person does his/her own work).
I have seen all kinds of excuses… My favorite was that because the offending students lived together and only had one computer, they had to work together. In fact, they took the same classes so that they could do their assignments together, in half the time it would take to complete the assignments separately. It took a while for me to convince them that they could use the computer at different times, if they wanted to pass my course.
My syllabus actually states that they will fail the course on the first offense. In reality, I normally just give both students a zero for that particular assignment, unless they argue with me about it.
Most of the time, they will admit it as soon as they are confronted with it. On rare occasions, they actually dispute my evidence, at which point I tell them that they are getting a 0 for the course, and if they feel my decision is not correct, they can appeal the grade through the appeals system at school. On very rare occasions, I get idiots like this who argue multiple times that they didn’t plagiarize anything.
Also remember that it’s easier to give a 0 then change it to a higher grade if they can convince you that they don’t deserve a 0, than to give them a better grade and change it to a 0 later.
My physics teacher had a pretty funny response to two kids in my class who did this same thing. Bear in mind that this was on a minor assignment, not a paper or test or anything. She graded the papers as she would have individually, then gave each of them half of the points. It was pretty amusing.
Actually, most of the free essays that students can copy and paste from the Internet are pretty much garbage. The best one I’ve seen might have earned a grade of C.
However, the online essay sites do this on purpose. They are aware that if a C student turns in a perfect paper, the instructor is more likely to be suspicious and look more closely at the paper. In addition, most of the free essay sites have for-pay versions available, too–either higher quality, pre-written papers, or the option to have an original paper written for the student who is willing to pay $$. Most C students wouldn’t bother to spend money on a paper, but a straight-A student in a pinch might be willing to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a paper that meets the teacher’s specs to a T.
Also, in my experience, the weaker students are often not aware that the other student who is helping them really doesn’t know that much more than they do. I have one class this quarter where the two weakest students in the course tend to sit next to each other and ask each other for help. Since I do allow students to ask each other for help (showing someone how to do something is one of the best ways to learn it for yourself!), I generally just hover and make sure they don’t give each other complete misinformation. But neither of them do very well on the assignments, even though they can also ask me for help, or get free tutoring on anything in the course in the tutoring center.
End of saga reached: I gave them both zeros, and talked to them after class. They admitted that they had worked together and not known that it was prohibited (do they turn in the same essays for English classes, too?) They took it quietly. One seemed to feel that she deserved it, and the other was a little grumpy about having lost points. I don’t think there will be further issues.
I just wanted to second this. Most of my students plagiarize crap. Only to a limited extent do they do the other thing Kiminy suggested: copy something that is markedly better in quality than their typical work.
I did not ask them why they hadn’t read the syllabus; they are both in a major not known for its great mental powers, so I did the humane thing and let that slide. I just made a lame metaphor: if you are driving too fast because you haven’t looked for speed limit signs, the cops still ticket you.
I do not object to study groups or to students helping each other with assignments, but I do insist that they all turn in their own original work. Which these girls did not. I mean, I never took a class in which two people could turn in the same essay, or the same computer program…
I agree. That’s entirely reasonable. From what you said at first I thought you meant they weren’t allowed to talk to each other about the assignment at all.
[QUOTE=Sattua]
Well… as I said in the OP, the assignment wasn’t very good. Surely they wouldn’t copy a not-very-good assignment?
/QUOTE]
You’d be surprised how often people don’t read over the assignment when they just grab stuff from the study files. I was in charge of them when I was in college and most people were desperate for anything… often calling me the night before their paper/mid term was due.
If it’s a word-processed document, could you ask them both to submit an electronic copy to you (e-mail or on a floppy). Surely it will have a date-created and who made the file in the document properties.
Either you’ll bust one of them as the fraudster, or find that it was originally created two years ago by essaysforcash.com
You know, apropos of nothing, it just occurred to me that those free essays and pre-written assignment sites might have been started by the teachers themselves.
Well, think about it… then they’d know exactly which essays were faked and could watch for them… make some money off the students on the side … inform the other teachers where the freebie essays are located and warn them…
…ah, damn. It was a good idea, and in a perfect world, it would happened. I wonder if we can start an urban legend on the topic that might scare students into not using them.
