Plagiarism

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SmallyBells

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I got my cell bio exam back today and got a 50%...even though I answered all the questions correctly. Half of the exam was multiple choice, which I aced, but the other half was short answer/essay.

I studied my a** off for this exam...stayed up all night, knew the material inside and out, and reread the chapters multiple times. Turns out I studied a little too much, as I answered the short answer questions with word-for-word quotes out of the book. Did I know I was quoting the author? Partially, but in my sleep deprived, caffeine induced state, I didn't particularly care, nor did I think it was possible to plagiarize on an exam. At first I thought the prof docked me for cheating, which is fair...but when I asked her, she said the answers were right, but plagiarized.

Am I in the wrong here? Should I just eat the F, or should I fight this?
 
If your side of the story is accurate, this is about the stupidest excuse for a "plagiarism" accusation I've ever seen. I'd fight the F out of it.

If you were really quoting the author because you were looking at pictures of the text on your phone...well, I might could see a problem there. 😛
 
HomeSkool said:
If your side of the story is accurate, this is about the stupidest excuse for a "plagiarism" accusation I've ever seen. I'd fight the living hell out of it.
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She said it was not my intellectual property, and therefore not my answer...which is accurate I suppose.

bananafish94 said:
Was it a take home exam? If so, that's definitely plagiarism. If it was an in class exam, that's different.
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In class, proctored
 
Your prof is a jerk. But.... he probably suspects that you had your phone out and didn't get caught if it was verbatim.

Fight this.

If he won't budge, email the chair of the department, CC the dean of the college, University explaining exactly what you said here. Be ready for an oral mini exam to show you actually do know the content.

Leave him a bad review on rate my professor. Leave very honest feedback at the end of the semester in the review.
 
SmallyBells said:
Don't be lol. I memorized everything, and learned nothing.
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3toedsloth said:
Your prof is a jerk. But.... he probably suspects that you had your phone out and didn't get caught if it was verbatim.

Fight this.

If he won't budge, email the chair of the department, CC the dean of the college, University explaining exactly what you said here. Be ready for an oral mini exam to show you actually do know the content.

Leave him a bad review on rate my professor. Leave very honest feedback at the end of the semester in the review.
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My guess is that the prof thinks you cheated. I would visit in office hours to state your case and show that you didn't. If you know that your prof will be to unreasonable to do this, then play hardball. You honestly having nothing more to lose, and an A to gain (that you earned).
 
gonnif said:
As posters have said above, this is a allowable fair use policy

1) You were assigned material from course/professor, that you studied and read, and used back where appropriate on an exam by the same professor in the same course. (this is exactly what they expect from law students in expressing the law, then own words in applying it)

2) If you had read a supplemental text or book on this, had used those verbatim or nearly so, and the professor found that, would he then try to make it plagiarism, where in fact most professors may considered it an student putting in extra hard work?

3) As someone in the thread, the professor may have much used in the course directly from books that are not from publisher's material. That is a classic fair use and you are doing the same thing.

4) My guess the professor is under the impression you cheated and has no evidence. He therefore is trying to make the case this way. Personally, I would file a formal complaint both to the department chair as well the formal process at your school but would do so with at least a lawyer in "CC". That is you write it up, you send to the professor, chair, student affairs dean/advisor/judicial dean and your attorney. Ask your parents/family if you have a family lawyer and ask the lawyer if you can do this. Most have no issue (I have done alot in my life).

I would play hard ball with this. I would push the prof on this essentially saying "**** or get off the pot" ; Either accuse me of cheating with evidence or reinstate the grade and note that anything out of normal scoring for future work would be consider retribution for exercising your rights as a student. As such you would take appropriate administrative and/or legal action to preserve your important reputation as a top premed student already aligned to the appropriate ethical standards needed for medical school and as a physician. This last part is important that both the professor and school admin see this as it clearly sets out motivation if anything happens PRIOR to the professor taking negative action. This is the kind of thing that keeps a case from being thrown out of court from the start. That makes legal counsel from school think twice before simply dismissing a letter for a student.

At times I am a firm believer in beating people over the head with a baseball bat until they do want you want is an appropriate action.
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Very sound advice. I'll report back with results :smack:
 
SmallyBells said:
I got my cell bio exam back today and got a 50%...even though I answered all the questions correctly. Half of the exam was multiple choice, which I aced, but the other half was short answer/essay.

I studied my a** off for this exam...stayed up all night, knew the material inside and out, and reread the chapters multiple times. Turns out I studied a little too much, as I answered the short answer questions with word-for-word quotes out of the book. Did I know I was quoting the author? Partially, but in my sleep deprived, caffeine induced state, I didn't particularly care, nor did I think it was possible to plagiarize on an exam. At first I thought the prof docked me for cheating, which is fair...but when I asked her, she said the answers were right, but plagiarized.

Am I in the wrong here? Should I just eat the F, or should I fight this?
Click to expand...

You had my sympathy until the bolded text. I've seen this before and it's just an excuse. A really poor one at that.

BUT, I do agree with the wise Homeskool and others above that I can't see how quoting your textbook is plagiarism in the way we typically think about plagiarism. Agree 1000% with the learned gonnif as well.
 
Goro said:
You had my sympathy until the bolded text. I've seen this before and it's just an excuse. A really poor one at that.

BUT, I do agree with the wise Homeskool and others above that I can't see how quoting your textbook is plagiarism in the way we typically think about plagiarism. Agree 1000% with the learned gonnif as well.
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To be blunt, I don't care for your sympathy. I stayed up studying all night studying for the exam to do well on the exam, not to earn sympathy points from the almighty Goro. Not trying to excuse my actions, but if you agree that I'm not in the wrong, they don't need excusing in the first place
 
Give your professor one chance to fix their mistake and if they haven't fixed up report them to the office of student affairs and head of the department.

Get your parents involved as well if they refuse to give you the points you have rightfully earned. I'm so sick and tired of professors abusing students.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sunbodi said:
I'm so sick and tired of professors abusing students.
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I feel like it's always the biology/biochemistry profs who are like this. My very cynical hypothesis is that many were once premeds who didn't make it but didn't know what else to do with a biology degree... and they now harbor some resentment towards premeds.
 
SmallyBells said:
To be blunt, I don't care for your sympathy. I stayed up studying all night studying for the exam to do well on the exam, not to earn sympathy points from the almighty Goro. Not trying to excuse my actions, but if you agree that I'm not in the wrong, they don't need excusing in the first place
Click to expand...
Going loose cannon is not a method that will help you in this process.

SDNers should note that good time mgt skills are vital to survival in med school, and will help avoid mistakes like the OP made in UG.
 
I'm having a hard time fathoming how one could plagiarize for a cell bio exam... Aren't you answering questions based on facts not opinions/thoughts...?
Just ridiculous how some prof's abuse their powers...
 
The only way this is cheating/plagiarism is if the professor thought you were copying from your notes DURING the exam. Otherwise what you're describing is a phenomenon called "studying". You have to fight this one.
 
Goro said:
Going loose cannon is not a method that will help you in this process.

SDNers should note that good time mgt skills are vital to survival in med school, and will help avoid mistakes like the OP made in UG.
Click to expand...

Look. I work 4 jobs. Im taking 18 credits of upper level bio, and have a 4.0. I manage my time well, but sometimes cramming is unavoidable.

You know what they say about assuming...
 
I don't use the R word often these days, but your professor is that *MOD EDIT* if they really believe what they told you. I suspect that they think you cheated on the exam and weren't caught.
Go all the way, assuming you didn’t cheat.


--
Il Destriero
 
Last edited by a moderator:
In a sentence:

I agree this should be fought, and I think you should play dirty if necessary.

This is some bulls***. Get records of all of her PowerPoints and compare for plagiarism. Confront her about your exam and have your phone recording in your pocket. Run to the dean or department chair at the first sniff of bulls***.

This professor is totally, egregiously wrong.
 
Isoval said:
In a sentence:

I agree this should be fought, and I think you should play dirty if necessary.

This is some bulls***. Get records of all of her PowerPoints and compare for plagiarism. Confront her about your exam and have your phone recording in your pocket. Run to the dean or department chair at the first sniff of bulls***.

This professor is totally, egregiously wrong.
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Just FYI, the use of copyrighted materials in lecture PowerPoints is almost always protected by fair use. Writing out something verbatim from a text book from memory on a closed book exam without citing sources is also not plagiarism. This whole thing is stupid, and the op should fight it, but I’d advise the op not to start falsely accusing the prof of things.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Just FYI, the use of copyrighted materials in lecture PowerPoints is almost always protected by fair use. Writing out something verbatim from a text book from memory on a closed book exam without citing sources is also not plagiarism. This whole thing is stupid, and the op should fight it, but I’d advise the op not to start falsely accusing the prof of things.
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That was the point 🙂
 
Isoval said:
It’s generally protected by the federal One-Party Consent law 😛
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The federal law only applies to federal cases under federal jurisdiction. States have their own laws that cover this, and we don't know what state OP is in. Even if Op was in a one consent state, the school might have rules against this...
 
DV-T said:
The federal law only applies to federal cases under federal jurisdiction. States have their own laws that cover this, and we don't know what state OP is in. Even if Op was in a one consent state, the school might have rules against this...
Click to expand...

I did say generally 😛

I can’t speak on behalf of the school, you’re right. It could potentially be an IA offense.
 
SmallyBells said:
To be blunt, I don't care for your sympathy. I stayed up studying all night studying for the exam to do well on the exam, not to earn sympathy points from the almighty Goro. Not trying to excuse my actions, but if you agree that I'm not in the wrong, they don't need excusing in the first place
Click to expand...
Goro needs to stroke his own ego every once in a while. Don't take it personally.
But yeah, since you wrote it out word for word they assume you cheated somehow and are trying to pin you for it with zero proof. FIGHT IT.
 
Goro said:
Going loose cannon is not a method that will help you in this process.

SDNers should note that good time mgt skills are vital to survival in med school, and will help avoid mistakes like the OP made in UG.
Click to expand...
What mistake is that?
 
DV-T said:
haha..Don't do this...could be illegal and you can forget about getting into medschool...
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FWIW not illegal (Except in new hampshire i think)
 
latinclubimperatus said:
Goro needs to stroke his own ego every once in a while. Don't take it personally.
But yeah, since you wrote it out word for word they assume you cheated somehow and are trying to pin you for it with zero proof. FIGHT IT.
Click to expand...

This happened over seven months ago.
 
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