By Anonymous - 10/11/2009 06:43 - United States

Today, I got a paper back that was given a zero for suspected plagiarism. Everything I wrote was my own thought and analysis. My instructor basically thinks my paper is smarter than I am. He won't listen, even when I explain my thought processes throughout the piece. FML
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Top comments

shekhar 0

Not simply in America or Hungary, the situation is worse in India. In India, reading or writing is not the culture of the youth in majority. I always had teachers who became teachers perhaps because they did not have anything else to do. All my papers, essays and critical reviews were questioned because my writing was "like that of an expert" (Putting it in words of one of my teachers in high school). But I always proved to convince my ideas and as I had good academic results always, so that didn't turn out to be such a larger issue for me. OP accept my heart felt empathy.

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Comments

ChaplinSnakker 0

Surely you can appeal to the exam board or something? Best of luck with that if you do

1 2
chakrabs 0

Go to your school board. Where's his proof?

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Brave_Sir_Robin 4

YDI for trying to excel in your academic work and not be a typical U.S. statistic... Seriously, you need to fight this and either go to your college Dean (or high school vice-principle if you're still in HS) and explain the situation. More than likely, if the instructor/professor has no proof or evidence of your plagiarism, the situation will be resolved in your favor. Of course, you could do what I did and seal the opening of his gas tank shut. You risk losing more than a vital grade, but the satisfaction is well worth it.

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SEPHARAD 0

He has to have concrete proof; go to the head of the department and contest it.

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perdix 29

(Pre-emptive sexist comment alert!) He must have thought that such an intelligently-written paper could only have been produced by a man. Now, get back in the kitchen and make that man a sammich! You may be graded on the quality and promptness of said sammich.

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perdix 29

Please don't club me, mercy! I just made that rude comment to prevent anyone else from doing it. And, Brave_Sir_Robin, yes! Roast beef sammich. Open faced and smothered with baby gravy.

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Bansheethekilla 2

#28 i hope sexist ***** like you drown in your own feces nand that everywoman that you say that to takes a shit in your food.

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CableX17 0

Lol, 109 fails at humor

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slappygecko 21

it was preemptive dumbass

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Jewelofagal 2

Yes, he has to have proof in order to make his accusation hold. Get all your reference sources together and make an appointment with the department head and/or dean. Don't back down because, if you do, that teacher will believe that he was right.

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LikeOhMahGoose 0

I've read a few fmls about school now it's a bit old. He can't say it's plagiarism unless he can prove it so tell him to do that. Problem solved.

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Jaguaress 2

You need to go over his head. Discuss your thought process and whatnot with his superior and ask for the paper to be graded fairly. Obviously, this instructor has a problem with you; if at all possible, transfer out of his class(es).

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TheTragicReturn 0

You should be incredibly flattered but very pissed. FYL.

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Punkartmama 0

If you miss a ending quotation mark ("), or don't cite everything the same way, it can be flagged as cheating. Teachers usually are required to run all essays through those websites that check everything. Once it's flagged as being plagarized, there is nothing they can do. That's how my college works.

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toongirl 4

That's not quite true. Certainly over here they don't just go on what the computer says. Computers can make mistakes or generalise. For example, one of my essays was on HIV and I got a fairly high plagarism score. A large portion of that was the title which lots of people obviously had and the rest of it was sentences such as 'HIV can be spread by sexual intercourse, drug use and mother to child transmission.' There aren't really many ways you can say that. It also didn't recognise direct quotes as being quotes rather than plagiarism. If it hadn't been checked by a human then I would have been called in to explain myself for cheating but I wasn't. The other thing is that computers can't recognise obvious changes in writing styles which indicate getting it written by someone else. Teachers can.

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