Plagarism: Yea or Nay?

[Reposado]

Definitely call her on it. Definitely don't turn her in.

[Greywolf2375]

On a practical level, this is no harm as it was caught early and it won't affect the group grade. But there is the ethical dilemma of whether to turn her in. She is a foreign student, so if she's kicked out with the scarlet letter of cheating, she'll probably have to go home as no accredited college is going to want her after this. Seems like a harsh punishment, but maybe she deserves it.

So in the end, what did this person end up contributing to the project? Anything of value or was it just the other team members? Reason I ask is we were always required to show what each team member had contributed/provided - is that something that could happen in this situation? If so, what do you say then?

[Honey Badger]

It was all done through email, and nothing was deleted. I could always forward them or print them out to show the contributions. She didn't really contribute anything as I wasn't going to add marketing text and claim it for our own, or quote large blocks of text for no reason.

[Blaine]

I love the Don Draper avatar as you say that. Perfect! :laugh:

Trust my Draper av. He has years of agency experience and I can't tell you how many times a marketing manager client has asked us to do something "just like this - but not exactly like this, because we don't want to get sued."

At a good agency, you give them something so cool they forget about what they originally wanted to do, while explaining why it's better for them than their original request. At a crappy agency, you do a hacky ripoff and wish you worked at a good agency.

[Snowy89]

I'd have a talk with her about it first, and depending on how that went tell the professor.

As you say, you have all the proof on email so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Besides, even just a talk without repercussions can do wonders.

On a sidenote, I hear the same about asian students here in the Netherlands, their english is generally of a crappy level as are their written contributions to group projects. Sometimes they simply copy paste wikipedia, one cannot comprehend that in 3rd year bachelor...

[Coyotes Daughter]

I think you should tell the instructor not only about the plagiarism, but the general refusal to contribute. Generally in a group project like this, everyone in the group is assigned a single grade based on the material that's actually turned in. If one member of the group made a significantly smaller contribution than the rest of the group, and you have the email trail to prove that the group made a real effort to include said person, then that person should not benefit from the extra work every one else did to receive a good grade.

[Arbor Gold]

then that person should not benefit from the extra work every one else did to receive a good grade.

What's wrong with receiving the maximum benefit from minimal effort? It's a highly valuable job skill. Seems like she is well-prepared for life in the real world.

[Arlingzen Bill]

What's wrong with receiving the maximum benefit from minimal effort? It's a highly valuable job skill. Seems like she is well-prepared for life in the real world.

Or preparing to get fired. My office has fired two people in the last year for plagarism. One for an external article and one for an internal document.

I tend to overcite to be on the safe side when preparing internal documents.

EDIT: This is one of those you can't get fired Federal jobs too.

[Coyotes Daughter]

What's wrong with receiving the maximum benefit from minimal effort? It's a highly valuable job skill. Seems like she is well-prepared for life in the real world.

Learning to cover your own ass is also a valuable job skill. One that this student clearly has yet to learn, by allowing a paper trail to develop documenting a lack of contribution.

[Colder Hands]

the amount of people that want the girl turned in sickens me.

i could see someone saying address it with her person to person and if she is nasty or unsympathetic to your concern then turn her in, but come on...

right out of the gate you want her turned in for this? what if she just got pushed to contribute and really didn't understand that what she did was wrong? i feel at least giving her the benefit of the doubt to explain herself before action is taken and you know, being a good person and helping teach her rather than being a snake in the grass and throwing her under the bus.

i understand the seriousness of this issue to people and that in the world of academia, many times it's a publish or perish world but to simple put no effort into understanding the reason behind the turned in work seems petty, lazy and coward like.

but these various opinions is what makes ethic class discussions so enjoyable. ;)

[TerraPrime]

right out of the gate you want her turned in for this? what if she just got pushed to contribute and really didn't understand that what she did was wrong? i feel at least giving her the benefit of the doubt to explain herself before action is taken and you know, being a good person and helping teach her rather than being a snake in the grass and throwing her under the bus.

You know that's essentially the same argument as saying that the person might have committed armed robbery because his/her new-born son needed the milk money, right?

Do some robbers commit armed robbery to get milk money for their new-born sons? Oh sure.

Does that make it any less of a transgression? No.

Extenuating circumstances that mitigate her responsibility in this will be taken into consideration by the course instructor and/or the judiciary committee. If it was truly an honest mistake, most people will not send her to the axeman for it. But imagine if this had been a pattern for her? And nobody had ever reported it? Then how would we know that she's an exploiter of the system and other people's kindness?

i understand the seriousness of this issue to people and that in the world of academia, many times it's a publish or perish world but to simple put no effort into understanding the reason behind the turned in work seems petty, lazy and coward like.

In the mean time, I find the cavalier attitude about this rather reminiscent of the classic behavior of enablers who, with good intentions, end up perpetuating the problem by refusing to address it properly.

[Coyotes Daughter]

the amount of people that want the girl turned in sickens me.

i could see someone saying address it with her person to person and if she is nasty or unsympathetic to your concern then turn her in, but come on...

right out of the gate you want her turned in for this? what if she just got pushed to contribute and really didn't understand that what she did was wrong? i feel at least giving her the benefit of the doubt to explain herself before action is taken and you know, being a good person and helping teach her rather than being a snake in the grass and throwing her under the bus.

i understand the seriousness of this issue to people and that in the world of academia, many times it's a publish or perish world but to simple put no effort into understanding the reason behind the turned in work seems petty, lazy and coward like.

but these various opinions is what makes ethic class discussions so enjoyable. ;)

Honey Badger made it clear that the girl was warned peer-to-peer several times for not contributing. The only thing to come out of said warnings was a last-minute attempt to jeopardize the entire group's work with plagiarism. Turning her into the instructor at this point is not "right out of the gate", it's well past the finish line.

(edit for possessive correction)

[Tempra]

Honey Badger made it clear that the girl was warned peer-to-peer several times for not contributing. The only thing to come out of said warnings was a last-minute attempt to jeopardize the entire groups' work with plagiarism. Turning her into the instructor at this point is not "right out of the gate", it's well past the finish line.

Then the OP should tell the professor about the lack of contribution and have the student removed from the group.

I am not sure her actions qualify as plagiarism until she submits a final copy to the professor. Regardless, she could easily weasel out of the charge. And even if she couldn't, putting her in jeopardy of expulsion is the wrong approach. (yes, yes, she put herself in jeopardy).

Karma is a bitch btw. Good luck.

[Tyrellius]

Sculpt a twinned set of statues that depicts the nobility and inherent beauty of striving to do ones own work. If the bitch jibber jabbers at you, kick her in the jaw, stick a golden ring through her lip and threaten her with the rape rooms.

[Arbor Gold]

Then the OP should tell the professor about the lack of contribution and have the student removed from the group.

Or the OP should tell the student that she is a shitty teammate due to her lack of contribution, and refuse to work with her on future projects. If the student develops a reputation among her classmates for being a shitty teammate, that will be more effective than running to the professor and whining about how one person didn't work very hard.

[Lord of Oop North]

On a practical level, this is no harm as it was caught early and it won't affect the group grade. But there is the ethical dilemma of whether to turn her in. She is a foreign student, so if she's kicked out with the scarlet letter of cheating, she'll probably have to go home as no accredited college is going to want her after this. Seems like a harsh punishment, but she deserves it.

[lady narcissa]

As a professor, if you were my student in my class, I would want you to come talk to me about this and let me handle this with the other student. I would want to know that they had basically contributed nothing to your group assignment and I would want to know what they did submit was a cut and paste job. Whether or not they should be turned in to the university or given an F in the class or on the assignment would depend on my conversation with the other student.

I don't think it is your job to determine if the other student is ignorant or just plain lazy and decide what should be done about it. That's your professor's job.

[Nas!]

I would be interested to know whether she read, understood and judged the plagiarized work to be appropriate for the purposes of this assignment. In your position I would definitely be unable to stop myself from asking her to justify the content of her work to see what/if she had learned in the process.

Also, I would report this to her prof regardless of my findings.

[Shryke]

If she's too goddamn lazy to do her own work to help the group out, you owe her nothing. Turn her in.

[Honey Badger]

I think some of you might be misinterpreting the details, I'll try to clarify:

The email exchange for the group work is about 9-10 total. Proposal and discussion, then a rough outline, then a rough draft, then some comments, discussion, and a 2nd draft. Then a final draft. For about 4-5 weeks I've been telling the group to get in and start working. This one person waited until the night before it was due and turned in only copy-pasted text. No original work.

I think a lot of opportunity was given as I just want everyone to play friendly. But what she pulled was pretty crazy, as it could have tanked the whole group for plagiarism. Thanks for the different opinions though, I'll think it over some more.