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[rowan1]

"Even the righteous teacher wanted to kill Anton."

Now - this is from a student for whom English is a second language and the first paper was returned to her because it was incomprehensible in both structure and word usage.

Apperantly she has found someone to write her papers for her - and now I have to put together a case for ethics.

[dellaroux]

Here's mine:

"All of these aforementioned factors are subtle steps in an elegant dance of wealth distribution where the minimum wage rate takes the lead."

Okaaay.  Cannot find the source.

Maybe paraphrased, here:

   http://www.jstor.org/pss/3789636

Googling just the "elegant dance...wealth distribution" makes a match to this phrase later in the article:

   "The American Concept of Wealth Distribution 1765-1900 ... and unit convictions move with the synchrony of a practiced ballroom dance pair--seems a throwback ..."

Actually, the paraphrase (if it's that) is more elegant in its own right; sometimes it's necessary to select only very short but more idiosyncratic phrases to find the source.

[baphd1996]

I think you have to be careful making judgements like that.  I was once accused of plagiarism by a faculty member.  I went to his office to find out why he would make that accusation.  His rationale was: 1) my paper was too well written for a 1st year graduate student and 2) one of my references was in German and he didn't believe I knew German.

I explained to him that I really wasn't a 1st year graduate student.  I had received a Master's degree at another University where I not only wrote many a paper, but I also wrote and defended a thesis.  He was right about the German, I don't speak a word of it.  I would have loved to come into his office speaking it, but instead I brought all of my sources including the translation of the German.  We then talked about the validity of using a translated source (was it translated correctly?) and identifying the translator in the citation (I did neglect that).

He did end up believing that I did not plagiarize and would end up being on my Dissertation committee and a huge supporter.

So, maybe they really did write the words.

[icicles]

"shepherded" as a verb, not in reference to sheep.

"cronyism" -- I've never used this one in my life.

One of these students, discussing Peron's exile, cited a book published 4 years before said exile happened. Mysterious time travels indeed.

"Shepherded", not used specifically in reference to actual sheep, was used by the Pastor at least 4 times in his homily today (well, yesterday).  Be careful about that one.

"Cronyism"?  You've never used it in your life?  Uh... You are quite probably much younger than I--doesn't count.  You're not connected in any way with anyone that  might have a connection with old-style politics or unions that might have used it?  Or, for that matter, anyone that might like (or have, at least seen) old movies that might be connected with politics or unions (if nothing else, any other classes s/he's taking this might have come up in)?  Um... be careful of that one, as well.

How well do you think you know this student?

Without context I can't say what the reference to the Peron book might mean.  Not saying that your plagiadar isn't working correctly; it may be, indeed.  Just that at least your 1st 2 suggestions of it might be worthy of other considerations before bringing down the hammer if you don't have anything else.

Thanks for your response.

In the first two of these instances a quick google string search revealed extensive plagiarism from an online source. These were the words that caused me to look into whether the works had been plagiarized. Of course some students could know these words. These were final papers, written by students whose prior writing in the class had been marginal, so I did a quick search just to see. Lo and behold, plagiarism.

The other student had even added fake footnotes for sources, which I confirmed by looking at the sources; what tipped me off was that the events the student was referring to had not yet taken place when the book s/he cited was published. It's like someone citing the Kennedy assassination using a publication from the 1950s. Yes, it could have been a typo, but it warranted a brief investigation, which revealed plagiarism from an online source and falsified footnotes.

No, I don't "bring down the hammer" in the absence of evidence. It's sad that other professors do this often enough for it to be someone's assumption. In my case, I thought this thread was a discussion of vocabulary/usage that raised red flags regarding plagiarism (which was eventually confirmed). Those were my examples.

[writingprof]

Dusting off this thread . . . and my mad plagiarism-catching skills.

Today I was tipped off by the use of the phrase "the English midlands."  Nice try, but students who know what those are go elsewhere.

[the_honey_badger]

Once, in a nearly unintelligible bit of rambling masquerading as an essay, I suddenly got a paragraph that made some sense. What tipped me off to its probable status as "purloined" goods was the proper use of the phrase: "the situation was not derivative but dialogic"-----yep,  you can't explain the main issue clearly but you have the insight that the relationship between that and earlier policies was not "derivative but dialogic?"


Oh, and the thing you copied from was a poor argument on its own. Fail.

[theblondeassassin]

This week:

phronesis

[moodymoodie]

Last term, from Mr. Whineypants who didn't do a lick of work:

"the tone of the story"

Um, no. First? ESL. Second? Not a literature class. Third? No work at all. It took me 15 seconds on Google, and he was out.

[wilbrish]

In an essay about "Family Guy": "social positioning."  From a freshman.

[samspade]

Deconstruct. Even if you didn't plagiarize it, I may flunk you just for sprouting postmodernist jargon.

[creamcity]

Deconstruct. Even if you didn't plagiarize it, I may flunk you just for sprouting postmodernist jargon.

<spews soda on screen>

[conductress]

Actually, the paraphrase (if it's that) is more elegant in its own right; sometimes it's necessary to select only very short but more idiosyncratic phrases to find the source.

Are you using a plagiarism website or just... google to look for these phrases? I have a history paper that's both well-worded and makes a rather sophisticated argument from a student whose previous paper was, well, dreck. I haven't turned anything up through plagiarism databases (free online ones which may or may not be too reliable; my university doesn't use turnitin.com), but I'm having a really hard time believing that this student suddenly grasped that science is socially constructed sometime between this paper and the last. I don't want to accuse the student of anything without proof, obviously, so what would y'all recommend? I should also say the first paper was a first-person paper, designed to help the students understand how personal biases influenced individual evaluations of evidence, so I suppose it's possible that the student really didn't grasp that concept and does better with traditional papers.

More generally, what websites/databases do you all use? Is Turn It In substantially better than the free options out there?

[mystictechgal]

As it doesn't sound like you have much choice, Google some of the more unlikely lines. You might be surprised what you can find with Google, particularly if the student paid one of the companies out there to write it. Of course, he may also have just had a friend write it. If you truly can't believe that it's his own work, call him in for a meeting and ask him to expand/explain more about what he means in a couple of passages. If he didn't write it, he won't be able to do it. Then you can call him on it and you may well get a confession. If he can explain it, no harm, no foul. You haven't accused him of a thing, you just asked for more of an explanation of meaning. All in the name of grading him fairly, of course.

[conductress]

I hadn't thought about calling him in for clarification on the paper. Thanks for the advice, mystictechgal!

[casvelyn]

Actually, the paraphrase (if it's that) is more elegant in its own right; sometimes it's necessary to select only very short but more idiosyncratic phrases to find the source.

Are you using a plagiarism website or just... google to look for these phrases? I have a history paper that's both well-worded and makes a rather sophisticated argument from a student whose previous paper was, well, dreck. I haven't turned anything up through plagiarism databases (free online ones which may or may not be too reliable; my university doesn't use turnitin.com), but I'm having a really hard time believing that this student suddenly grasped that science is socially constructed sometime between this paper and the last. I don't want to accuse the student of anything without proof, obviously, so what would y'all recommend? I should also say the first paper was a first-person paper, designed to help the students understand how personal biases influenced individual evaluations of evidence, so I suppose it's possible that the student really didn't grasp that concept and does better with traditional papers.

More generally, what websites/databases do you all use? Is Turn It In substantially better than the free options out there?

Back when I was a TA, I used to run parts of "sketchy" papers through Google.  Typically, I'd pick one or two suspicious phrases from each paragraph and Google them (with quotation marks).  The trick is learning how long of a phrase to use - too long and the search turns up no hits, too short and there are 300,000 irrelevant hits.  I actually found the process kind of fun, but then again, all I had to do was be a Google-wielding detective.  The prof I worked for handled all the ethics and punishment stuff.  Also, for papers on a specific concept, event, or person, I'd usually start a plagiarism review by skimming related Wikipedia articles.