essay plagiarism

[cystapharm]

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with all the available books and sample essays and internet links and friends sharing essays with firends, how likely is it that a school will find out whether or not your essay is original? Do they run it thru turnitin.com prior to making their decision? will they disqualify and applicant and not tell them their reason.

 

[MokaBear]

with all the available books and sample essays and internet links and friends sharing essays with firends, how likely is it that a school will find out whether or not your essay is original? Do they run it thru turnitin.com prior to making their decision? will they disqualify and applicant and not tell them their reason.

that's why they tell you to write an essay on the day of the interview to make sure that people actually wrote their own personal statements. that's what the representatives at the 2 pharmacy schools I interviewed at told us.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

with all the available books and sample essays and internet links and friends sharing essays with firends, how likely is it that a school will find out whether or not your essay is original? Do they run it thru turnitin.com prior to making their decision? will they disqualify and applicant and not tell them their reason.

You should assume that they will do all of that.
Everyone should write their own essay.

 

[LECOMorBUST]

There may be more serious ethical issues if a person is willing to simply "copy & paste" a personal essay. I know my personal statement is fairly unique and does not sound like a "cookie cutter" generic statement. Besides, why would anyone want to present themselves as such.

 

[rx27563]

with all the available books and sample essays and internet links and friends sharing essays with firends, how likely is it that a school will find out whether or not your essay is original? Do they run it thru turnitin.com prior to making their decision? will they disqualify and applicant and not tell them their reason.

and you want to be a pharmacist? thats really horrifying.

 

[Drill2Fill]

Not a good idea. If you get caught it could end your pharmacy career before it starts.

 

[jun99]

In my high school, if anyone ever got caught cheating or plagiarising, the school wrote an official letter about it and sent it to every college you applied to (or anywhere that you requested your transcripts to go)....I can only imagine what pharmacy schools would do, since pharmacy is a profession where ethics are key.

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

Just don't do it. I know a few of my friends that are not native speakers that told friends of theirs that were good writers what they wanted to say and the friend wrote the personal statement for them. I told them I thought they were being dishonest and if that is how they wanted to get their foot in the pharmacy door, they don't have my support.
Just write your own! It is called "personal" statement. If you don't know enough about yourself to write one then maybe you do not belong in professional school yet.

 

[Zeke1955]

While I don't think the original poster of this thread is necessarily implying that s/he is intending on committing an act of academic dishonesty, the way the person worded it does seem a bit suspect.

They've got a heck of a point. Turnitin.com isn't a very reliable tool. I remember using it several years back in high school (when taradactals were ridden by Fred Flintstone) and it was abysmal. I was accused of copying about 60% of my paper. The site had different colors - I think yellow, orange, and red to symbolize how strongly your sentences/paragraphs resembled something else out there on the web and about half of this particular paper was in red and orange.

I know it did not improve much because by my 3rd semester of college a few years back, the same thing happened in a writing class to a lesser extent. Fortunately, that time around, the professor took a more reasonable approach to interpreting the turnitin.com results...

 

[Farmercyst]

While I don't think the original poster of this thread is necessarily implying that s/he is intending on committing an act of academic dishonesty, the way the person worded it does seem a bit suspect.

They've got a heck of a point. Turnitin.com isn't a very reliable tool. I remember using it several years back in high school (when taradactals were ridden by Fred Flintstone) and it was abysmal. I was accused of copying about 60% of my paper. The site had different colors - I think yellow, orange, and red to symbolize how strongly your sentences/paragraphs resembled something else out there on the web and about half of this particular paper was in red and orange.

I know it did not improve much because by my 3rd semester of college a few years back, the same thing happened in a writing class to a lesser extent. Fortunately, that time around, the professor took a more reasonable approach to interpreting the turnitin.com results...

With more and more on the web, academic papers are more difficult to write without having something pop up since many topics are very common. That's why it's very important to cite anytime a question arises. In terms of Personal statements though, there may be many ways to describe similar events that are common through life, especially since the road to pharmacy school has many commonalities in terms of volunteering, schooling, research, etc. However, as mentioned above, it is unlikely they won't be able to tell if your PS was authentically your if you don't write the PS but do write the interview day, or pre-interview essay.

 

[anh80]

.

 

[Lurkerkat]

That's really sad if a person can't come up with an original personal statement. If you can't put down into words why you want to be a pharmacist and why you're a good candidate odds are you'd crash and burn during the interview process.

 

[saran21]

I admit that I know people who paid someone to write their personal statements for med, dental, and pharm school. I find this utterly disgusting and exteremely unethical. In fact, I find it difficult to understand. A PERSONAL statement must be about you and your motivations not some generic answer by a stranger (regardless of the wonderful style of his/her writing).

Not to mention it's a form of cheating and unfair to other applicants. As well all know the medical field is highly based on trust. Would you trust a pharmacist who paid someone to write their personal statements? Should this person be considered a respectful and trustworthy member of society? Don't you expect your pharmacist to have a fair knowledge of grammar if they're the link between you and your physician?!? 😕 😕

As you can all tell I am truly bothered by this! 🙂 I think the best way to go is to write your OWN PERSONAL statement and then have a friend read it to make sure everything flows (worked for me)! 😛 Oh yeah I am kinda glad we have those stressful timed essays... ok, not really 🙂

 

[islandgirl]

it's plain and simple, write your own paper

 

[ilovepharm]

I totally agree with you..but, all i have to say is be careful in whom you trust to edit your paper. I had my really good friend edit my paper for me..well...she turned around and used parts of it as her own.

Oh gosh, that's horrible. 🙁 I remember eariler in this application process, people on SDN kept asking others to 'read' their personal statement. I was like, no way. I was really picky about who can read mines. I only let the health professions advisor, sister, or someone who is NOT applying with me read it. Sounds kinda selfish, but you don't want your application thrown out just because someone copied your PS without you even knowing it!

 

[Greenny]

that's why they tell you to write an essay on the day of the interview to make sure that people actually wrote their own personal statements. that's what the representatives at the 2 pharmacy schools I interviewed at told us.

Really. I spent 4 months on my SP, but I spent 30 mins on the one I wrote at the school.😕

 

[Farmercyst]

http://www.dailytrojan.com/media/pa...ml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.dailytrojan.com

Recent enough, should be a good reminder that even "priveleged" people suffer the consequences occasionally.

 

[senzabee]

http://www.dailytrojan.com/media/pa...ml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.dailytrojan.com

Recent enough, should be a good reminder that even "priveleged" people suffer the consequences occasionally.

Haha, I remember that. What a disgrace to her and her family's name...

Just don't do it, people.

 

[fmbzp5]

http://www.dailytrojan.com/media/pa...ml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.dailytrojan.com

Recent enough, should be a good reminder that even "priveleged" people suffer the consequences occasionally.

I was the U. of Missouri Columbia when that happened. They originally named the new basketball arena after their daugher paige but that hit and the name on the arena came down the next day in complete embaressment.

 

[saran21]

I was in my undergrad at USC when this happened...I am soo glad they don't consider her an alumni! I wouldn't want to have a Bachelor's from the same school.
I thought the story was pretty funny. It's kind of suprising that her roommate who went to the media and reported that she was paid in return for completeing Laurie's assignments is also in the wrong. She recieved an amoutn of $20k... the whole thing is so unethical that it's funny.

 

[PolarBear21]

Thats crazy.. she couldn't even obtain a degree in communications on her own? I'm suprised her parents aren't just building a university for her and give her a degree in astophyics..

 

[cystapharm]

for those that were assuming i have intentions to plagiarize they are wrong! i would never do such a thing! like others have said, i think it's extremely unethical for someone to pass others work as their own and its an awful way to represent themselves. All I am wondering is whether or not they check because I do know some people that have fantastic GPAs but I've seen the way they talk/write with awful grammarenglish skills, etc yet they get accepted and i;ve read essays that sounded NOTHING like the person so I was wondering whether or not they plagiarized and easliy got away with it which is unfair to others btw. I did refer to books when I wrote mine but never copied exact passages. I did mention a few things of similarity but like someone here mentioned the pharmacy path is similar for many students so it's hard to tell whether or not someone copied. well to be honest I stole like one or two sentences at most but only because they were exactly how I wanted to describe myself and it wasn't easy rewording it cuz then it wouldn't have the same oomph.

well I only asked because I got a rejection letter and I emailed the school why and they said they won't disclose the exact info so now I'm freaked out!
Why won't they disclose the info......shouldnt they do that to allow the students to improve the next time around?

 

[LECOMorBUST]

I totally agree with you..but, all i have to say is be careful in whom you trust to edit your paper. I had my really good friend edit my paper for me..well...she turned around and used parts of it as her own.

Some friend...my friend was also looking for some "advice" about how he should approach his personal statement, essentially wanting to read over mine since he knew my writing was better. Needless to say, I gave him advice not my personal statement. I only allowed a person I knew who is currently in pharmacy school and 2 trusted professors (professionals) to look over my personal statement.

Oh gosh, that's horrible. 🙁 I remember eariler in this application process, people on SDN kept asking others to 'read' their personal statement. I was like, no way. I was really picky about who can read mines. I only let the health professions advisor, sister, or someone who is NOT applying with me read it. Sounds kinda selfish, but you don't want your application thrown out just because someone copied your PS without you even knowing it!

Absolutely, though I go even further. I go with only trusted professionals to maximize the effect of my personal statement. Why would I want someone with less or equal writing ability as myself to proof a personal statement which will be reviewed by professionals. (No offense to those here who are honest with their intentions to help others. 👍)

well I only asked because I got a rejection letter and I emailed the school why and they said they won't disclose the exact info so now I'm freaked out!
Why won't they disclose the info......shouldnt they do that to allow the students to improve the next time around?

This may be a timing issue timing. The school is likely still evaluating candidates and have policies against discussing applications until after final decisions have been made and all seats are filled. Or they may not have the time right now. I would bug them later, give it a month or so.

 

[omnione]

well to be honest I stole like one or two sentences at most but only because they were exactly how I wanted to describe myself and it wasn't easy rewording it cuz then it wouldn't have the same oomph.

Ummmm....that's not good.

I've been working on a research paper with a partner where him and I worked on separate parts of the paper without much collaboration. We compiled our papers and sent a draft to our professor. Apparently, my partner plagiarized one sentence from some scientific journal and my professor caught it by doing a Google search of that sentence.

Though I think that plagiarism is easier to detect on a scientific paper in college because it's easier to spot parts that look like a PhD wrote, but you run the risk of someone on the admissions committee becoming suspicious when they read a part that doesn't resemble the rest of your statement grammatically, style-wise, or intelligently.

On a side note, even if let a trusted best friend read your paper and he/she promises not to plagiarize, you never know if that friend will give your statement to another "best friend" without you knowing.