Plagiarism Accusation before Graduation, please give me your advice!

[Mr Doc Turr]

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I really don't know where else to turn, but I'll keep it as brief as possible. I know SDN is good at giving the harsh truth.

My professor told me that the reason she hasn't posted my grade was because I had "potential plagiarism" via Turnitin in my final paper which is worth 30% of the grade Now I need to deal with the Academic Affairs office.

Here's the deal, I did not plagiarize. It was a research paper and there are supposed to be quotes everywhere. I checked my paper over and over and everything was cited when I used quotes.

But...there were some common phrases that got flagged for plagiarism such as," Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico" and "Perhaps the most significant finding..."

If it was copied word for word (like my professor says), it was cited. If it wasn't, I either paraphrased it or there was no other way to say the sentence. I should note that not one of the "copied" sentences in this 15 page paper were exactly the same. Not one.

Now I might have to hold off on graduation due to this BS.

Advice?

 

[IslandStyle808]

Did your professor state what percentage of words used match up with sources on Turnitin?

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

Did your professor state what percentage of words used match up with sources on Turnitin?

It was 26% similar but that is because I used a ton of quotes. Its a research paper after all

 

[IslandStyle808]

It was 26% similar but that is because I used a ton of quotes. Its a research paper after all

How long has she been using Turnitin and how long has she been teaching? I really hope she isn't relying on the plagiarism feature too much, because you'd be surprise how many people can paraphrase the same way as you.

How long will academic affairs take to look over your case and when does your school begin?

 

[0dee]

I am not sure how the department at your school functions, but at my school we had to quote everything that was not our original ideas, that is including paraphrasing. Turnitin highlights every sentence that is matching to what they have in their servers whether it is quoted or not, but it's up to your instructor to determine what is a potential plagiarism.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

How long has she been using Turnitin and how long has she been teaching? I really hope she isn't relying on the plagiarism feature too much, because you'd be surprise how many people can paraphrase the same way as you.

How long will academic affairs take to look over your case and when does your school begin?

Well I am taking a year off, so I will not be in school next fall.

But yeah, this professor is fairly young and this is an online class. Everything was submitted through Turnitin. And I completely agree with you about the paraphrasing bit

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

I am not sure how the department at your school functions, but at my school we had to quote everything that was not our original ideas, that is including paraphrasing. Turnitin highlights every sentence that is matching to what they have in their servers whether it is quoted or not, but it's up to your instructor to determine what is a potential plagiarism.

I can see the Turnitin report, and all the similarity reports

My problem is this....
There is a quote, then analysis of the quote gets flagged for plagiarism. The source I quoted and the source that supposedly analyzed it are not the same. It is really a coincidence regarding paraphrasing. It is an assumption that I can't analyze a quote myself so I need to look at another unrelated source to do so. Makes no sense

 

[darkeon]

I've used turnitin. YOur professor must be very new as 26 percent is a common number seen among many papers. Usually, when you approach the 50 percent mark is when it gets worrisome plus as mentioned by another poster, your professor has to actually review the highlighted selections and see if it indeed is plagiarism.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

I've used turnitin. YOur professor must be very new as 26 percent is a common number seen among many papers. Usually, when you approach the 50 percent mark is when it gets worrisome plus as mentioned by another poster, your professor has to actually review the highlighted selections and see if it indeed is plagiarism.

Exactly! Especially for such a long paper, 26 percent is nothing. Plus, I'll reiterate, it is a research paper. The whole point is to have a bunch of quotes and resources. How we integrate everything is whats important.

At best, theres maybe 2 sentences that she can say I copied word for word. But even that is a long shot

 

[DrMikeP]

Most universities have cut off scores for turn-it-in, so your professor or school probably set it at 25% (IMO too low). If you didn't plagiarize, I would request an immediate review by the academic affairs office. There is probably a form to complete and process they go through.

Just do yourself a favor and don't freak out any further or start throwing wild accusations at the professor. You may need rec letters at some point and other professors even if they disagree will often circle the wagons if attacked. If you put things in quotes then you'll probably be ok, unless they find that a majority of your quotes are incorrectly referenced (meaning you made up references). I have seen where a student had no original ideas and just filled a paper with quotes, but that is laziness and poor quality vs. plagiarizing and that can be handled by a D or F.

If you are called in for an official review meeting ask a friendly professor if you have one to go in with you as a representative if your school allows such.

Good Luck and follow the process.

I really don't know where else to turn, but I'll keep it as brief as possible. I know SDN is good at giving the harsh truth.

My professor told me that the reason she hasn't posted my grade was because I had "potential plagiarism" via Turnitin in my final paper which is worth 30% of the grade Now I need to deal with the Academic Affairs office.

Here's the deal, I did not plagiarize. It was a research paper and there are supposed to be quotes everywhere. I checked my paper over and over and everything was cited when I used quotes.

But...there were some common phrases that got flagged for plagiarism such as," Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico" and "Perhaps the most significant finding..."

If it was copied word for word (like my professor says), it was cited. If it wasn't, I either paraphrased it or there was no other way to say the sentence. I should note that not one of the "copied" sentences in this 15 page paper were exactly the same. Not one.

Now I might have to hold off on graduation due to this BS.

Advice?

 

[radian313]

I really don't know where else to turn, but I'll keep it as brief as possible. I know SDN is good at giving the harsh truth.

My professor told me that the reason she hasn't posted my grade was because I had "potential plagiarism" via Turnitin in my final paper which is worth 30% of the grade Now I need to deal with the Academic Affairs office.

Here's the deal, I did not plagiarize. It was a research paper and there are supposed to be quotes everywhere. I checked my paper over and over and everything was cited when I used quotes.

But...there were some common phrases that got flagged for plagiarism such as," Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico" and "Perhaps the most significant finding..."

If it was copied word for word (like my professor says), it was cited. If it wasn't, I either paraphrased it or there was no other way to say the sentence. I should note that not one of the "copied" sentences in this 15 page paper were exactly the same. Not one.

Now I might have to hold off on graduation due to this BS.

Advice?

Speaking as a former student judge for the honor committee at my university I can say that just try to work with your academic affairs office. Respectfully make a letter citing your concerns and drop it off to the office for review. Do not accuse the professor of anything. That wount do you well.

Also please be sure there is not anything else that the professor found in your paper other than this percentage finding. Often times a student would be unaware of a certain finding and on the day of the hearing would be surprised.

 

[OrdinaryDO]

I am not sure how the department at your school functions, but at my school we had to quote everything that was not our original ideas, that is including paraphrasing. Turnitin highlights every sentence that is matching to what they have in their servers whether it is quoted or not, but it's up to your instructor to determine what is a potential plagiarism.

You're really not supposed to quote your paraphrased sentences or else it is technically falsifying a direct statement from the source.

Most universities have cut off scores for turn-it-in, so your professor or school probably set it at 25% (IMO too low). If you didn't plagiarize, I would request an immediate review by the academic affairs office. There is probably a form to complete and process they go through.

Just do yourself a favor and don't freak out any further or start throwing wild accusations at the professor. You may need rec letters at some point and other professors even if they disagree will often circle the wagons if attacked. If you put things in quotes then you'll probably be ok, unless they find that a majority of your quotes are incorrectly referenced (meaning you made up references). I have seen where a student had no original ideas and just filled a paper with quotes, but that is laziness and poor quality vs. plagiarizing and that can be handled by a D or F.

If you are called in for an official review meeting ask a friendly professor if you have one to go in with you as a representative if your school allows such.

Good Luck and follow the process.

We have had percentage cut-offs before, but ours was around 10-12% before points were taken off. It really isn't hard to do, but the teacher definitely needs to know they should always disregard direct quotes and the bibliography pages.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Agree with above, when you quote you put quotation marks and cite. However, when paraphrasing, you phrase the referenced passage entirely in your own words and cite it. You don't put quotation marks in this case.

 

[radian313]

You're really not supposed to quote your paraphrased sentences or else it is technically falsifying a direct statement from the source.



We have had percentage cut-offs before, but ours was around 10-12% before points were taken off. It really isn't hard to do, but the teacher definitely needs to know they should always disregard direct quotes and the bibliography pages.

I thought there was a way to check off this stuff (bibliography and direct quotes) so its not accounted for?

Also dont students get an opportunity to see what percentage they are at before finalizing their product on turnitin before they actually submit it. I mean if thAt is the case then the OP may have well known that there was a potential issue waiting to happen.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

I thought there was a way to check off this stuff (bibliography and direct quotes) so its not accounted for?

Also dont students get an opportunity to see what percentage they are at before finalizing their product on turnitin before they actually submit it. I mean if thAt is the case then the OP may have well known that there was a potential issue waiting to happen.

In this case, we actually did get a chance to see the percentage before submitting the real thing. But my professor even told us not to worry about the percentage, as long as everything was cited. And you are supposed to put a citation at the end of a sentence if you were paraphrasing, which I did.

The problem is that Turnitin went overboard. I checked one of the sources that I supposedly copied "word for word" from and it was a student paper from some community college that I can't access through Turnitin without permission. Ridiculous

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

Speaking as a former student judge for the honor committee at my university I can say that just try to work with your academic affairs office. Respectfully make a letter citing your concerns and drop it off to the office for review. Do not accuse the professor of anything. That wount do you well.

Also please be sure there is not anything else that the professor found in your paper other than this percentage finding. Often times a student would be unaware of a certain finding and on the day of the hearing would be surprised.

Well, I have to be reviewed by a member of my school's committee so I can't just drop off a letter.

There were 47 instances were Turnitin showed that my paper was similar to other documents. Of those, 47, 27 were cited. Now what about the remaining 20 times you ask? Here is what came up as similar:

1. What I said=..."for men and women over the age of 85" What the source I never used said=" for men and women after the age of 85"

2. What I said= "In order to analyze the incidence and the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease based on gender; one cohort..." What the source said= "And the risk of Alzheimer's disease: a population- based, BMI matched cohort

Many more examples of this.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Well, I have to be reviewed by a member of my school's committee so I can't just drop off a letter.

There were 47 instances were Turnitin showed that my paper was similar to other documents. Of those, 47, 27 were cited. Now what about the remaining 20 times you ask? Here is what came up as similar:

1. What I said=..."for men and women over the age of 85" What the source I never used said=" for men and women after the age of 85"

2. What I said= "In order to analyze the incidence and the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease based on gender; one cohort..." What the source said= "And the risk of Alzheimer's disease: a population- based, BMI matched cohort

Many more examples of this.

Yeah just be as honest and cooperative as possible. I don't even see how this could become a big deal, unless your review committee are *****s.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Well, I have to be reviewed by a member of my school's committee so I can't just drop off a letter.

There were 47 instances were Turnitin showed that my paper was similar to other documents. Of those, 47, 27 were cited. Now what about the remaining 20 times you ask? Here is what came up as similar:

1. What I said=..."for men and women over the age of 85" What the source I never used said=" for men and women after the age of 85"

2. What I said= "In order to analyze the incidence and the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease based on gender; one cohort..." What the source said= "And the risk of Alzheimer's disease: a population- based, BMI matched cohort

Many more examples of this.

Bingo. Nothing is ever totally original any more. The more people keep writing an posting their work on the internet, the more unoriginal certain phrases become. Welcome to the future!

 

[DrMikeP]

I can remember when many of the various paper verification sites only had major works or papers harvested from online. We would get maybe 10% match, which was considered good, as it was mostly quotes and references, which meant students read something. As student papers became stored and more posted online that percentage has increased massively over the years. I'm guessing that in 25 more years 50-75% of papers will match others, especially for the 10 millionth report discussing genetics, review of Shakespeare, debate on stem cell use, etc.

Kind of like Google found when they created a program to search every part of the web for something linked or referring to something else. At some point you end up with useless information because any topic has a limited number of words that can describe it so you end up with infinite repetitions.

OP, once things are in process try to take a break from the mess and focus on something else. It will keep you sane until it's done.

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[frosted_flake]

I had a final paper that matched 35%. However, my professor was not a turd about it (like DrMikeP said, there are only so many ways you can write about stem cells, etc.)

Good luck to you, TII can be a freaking nightmare sometimes.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Perhaps your professor set the bar so low because he/she was trying to deter students from filling the paper up with quotes?

Otherwise, I'm not sure. What is "potential plagiarism" anyway? Shouldn't she review the paper even before emailing you something as useless as a possible "potential plagiarism"?

Preventing students from filling the page with quotes is a totally different reason to use percentage match feature versus using it to find out whether the student plagiarized. Your last question though hits the mark. She should have really made sure that the unquoted information was taking up a large portion of the paper before making the "potential plagiarism" claim. A person with an good understanding of how TII works and how to evaluate english papers without such programs would not be making this mistake.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

The link is a full disclosure of quote by quote. Please take a moment to look it over.

There were 47 instances in my paper, not including the Works Cited page, where Turnitin flagged potential plagiarism. Of those 47, 27 were either put into quotations marks or paraphrased and cited both in-text and in the Works Cited page The remaining 20 are above. Some of them were overlapping, so that is why there are only 12 up there

The highest unoriginal source that Turnitin claims was at 3%, the rest were either 1% or less. This is probably within the margin of error and due to many quotes being used. The assignment asked us to use a minimum of 8 scholarly sources. A few words here and there were similar, but when put into context, it is easy to see how my paper and the paper that was allegedly sourced from are completely different, and are at times referring to a completely different study.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

I can remember when many of the various paper verification sites only had major works or papers harvested from online. We would get maybe 10% match, which was considered good, as it was mostly quotes and references, which meant students read something. As student papers became stored and more posted online that percentage has increased massively over the years. I'm guessing that in 25 more years 50-75% of papers will match others, especially for the 10 millionth report discussing genetics, review of Shakespeare, debate on stem cell use, etc.

Kind of like Google found when they created a program to search every part of the web for something linked or referring to something else. At some point you end up with useless information because any topic has a limited number of words that can describe it so you end up with infinite repetitions.

OP, once things are in process try to take a break from the mess and focus on something else. It will keep you sane until it's done.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

There's something I just realized that terrified me. I still have to go through a preliminary review with 1 person on the Conduct Council to see if there is even enough evidence to move this accusation forward.

Even if the case is closed after the prelim review, my school will drop any record of this (like I expect it to, but will I have to report this incident on my med school apps? Should I? I am already a lower-tier candidate to begin with and this will hurt me even more.

 

[DrMikeP]

There's something I just realized that terrified me. I still have to go through a preliminary review with 1 person on the Conduct Council to see if there is even enough evidence to move this accusation forward.

Even if the case is closed after the prelim review, my school will drop any record of this (like I expect it to, but will I have to report this incident on my med school apps? Should I? I am already a lower-tier candidate to begin with and this will hurt me even more.

If the issue is dropped and does not go into your academic record then it shouldn't need to be reported as you have not actually been brought up for academic dishonesty or some such. Just you had a prof submit your paper for review vs. make a formal disciplinary complaint. You just want to once everything is complete ask you advisor if this has been put in your academic record and/or will appear on your transcript? It wouldn't at all at my university unless you were brought before the disciplinary committee and they decided you committed an infraction and deserved some sort of punishment.

 

[mathnerd88]

There's something I just realized that terrified me. I still have to go through a preliminary review with 1 person on the Conduct Council to see if there is even enough evidence to move this accusation forward.

Even if the case is closed after the prelim review, my school will drop any record of this (like I expect it to, but will I have to report this incident on my med school apps? Should I? I am already a lower-tier candidate to begin with and this will hurt me even more.

I would say no. You were falsely accused of plagiarism and it was dropped.

The IA section is usually for students who had IA's in their transcript or those who actually cheated or had some incident which constituted against the student code and was caught but never reported in the transcript.

You did none of those, so I wouldn't report it.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

I had a final paper that matched 35%. However, my professor was not a turd about it (like DrMikeP said, there are only so many ways you can write about stem cells, etc.)

Good luck to you, TII can be a freaking nightmare sometimes.

If the issue is dropped and does not go into your academic record then it shouldn't need to be reported as you have not actually been brought up for academic dishonesty or some such. Just you had a prof submit your paper for review vs. make a formal disciplinary complaint. You just want to once everything is complete ask you advisor if this has been put in your academic record and/or will appear on your transcript? It wouldn't at all at my university unless you were brought before the disciplinary committee and they decided you committed an infraction and deserved some sort of punishment.

I would say no. You were falsely accused of plagiarism and it was dropped.

The IA section is usually for students who had IA's in their transcript or those who actually cheated or had some incident which constituted against the student code and was caught but never reported in the transcript.

You did none of those, so I wouldn't report it.

I won the case today. The meeting was only about 10 minutes and the conduct officer was confused as to how I even was accused. Go figure

 

[DrMikeP]

I won the case today. The meeting was only about 10 minutes and the conduct officer was confused as to how I even was accused. Go figure

Congrats! Just don't ask the prof who started it all for an LOR...lol

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[Mr Doc Turr]

Lol. Even if this didn't happen I still would not have. It was an online class and I never saw her in person. Im considering sending her an angry email after I get my degree

 

[DrMikeP]

Lol. Even if this didn't happen I still would not have. It was an online class and I never saw her in person. Im considering sending her an angry email after I get my degree

Just wait until after ur in med school and settled no use in risking her deciding to seek revenge. There are some crazy profs out there!

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[Mr Doc Turr]

I can't even believe it. The case is not closed.

I apparently got an email (from my school email that I don't frequently use) after the meeting with the Conduct officer that she "found sufficient evidence to charge me with a separable violation"

We agreed that I would have to change up a few sentences that appeared to be plagiarized or unquoted, but that the case was closed.

But...she just told me that once the prof accepts the revised paper, there would be no record of this on my academic record.

Do I still have to report this?

 

[DrMikeP]

What violation were you specifically charged with? Is it in the student handbook or code of conduct? At my university if you were charged and found guilty it went in your record. It sounds like the Prof didn't like the outcome so they just agreed for you to do something to make it better.

Depends on the application wording of the secondary apps as to disclosure.

 

[Mr Doc Turr]

What violation were you specifically charged with? Is it in the student handbook or code of conduct? At my university if you were charged and found guilty it went in your record. It sounds like the Prof didn't like the outcome so they just agreed for you to do something to make it better.

Depends on the application wording of the secondary apps as to disclosure.

"If the Student Conduct Officer determines that there is enough information to support a Code of Student Conduct violation but that the incident might better be addressed using conflict resolution options, he or she may defer disciplinary charges and attempt to resolve the incident in another way...If the alternative dispute resolution option is successful, disciplinary charges shall be dismissed"

Also..."If you are charged, this does not mean that the officer has decided that you committed the offense. It simply means that he or she has found enough evidence to continue the disciplinary process"

Lastly, the charge says this," I found sufficient evidence existed to charge you with the following violations of the University Code of Student Conduct, Academic Integrity: Separable- Plagiarism"

 

[DrMikeP]

So the charge stands and you aren't found guilty but the charge will be dropped with rewrites. Then at that point the charge is dropped? If so you aren't really charged with anything and they consider the case closed.

So depending on the way the secondary application is worded you may not even need to report it. If you do then just summarize what happened in a sentence or two and indicate the charge was dropped. Don't make excuses if asked just say your professor expressed a concern regarding your missing a few quotations and you were given a chance to rewrite and fix it, then discuss you learned to pay better attention to detail.

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