Scotland slideshow
description
Transcript of Scotland slideshow
. . . while Charlie's explanation sounded fishy, he did occasionally spout entire passages in class that appeared to have been memorized from texts. Now we see Rebecca using the same explanation.
I see the point on the sample TOEFL, but I should emphasize that most of Rebecca's paper is plagiarized, and that not all of it is from sample TOEFL answers - part of it comes from another source. Is it possible that she has tacked together, from memory, almost exact replications of multiple sources? Perhaps it is -- it would make Charlie's story more plausible as well.
Hey all . . . This is an interesting situation, not the least because Charlie also denied that he had plagiarized and claimed that he had been writing from memory. . .
Email from an instructor
I just typed this phrase in from Chong's paper:
"an era of extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world"
From another instructor
I came up with three full pages of links! It's all over the web -- and nearly every link has Chinese text associated with it. Most of the pages have lists of short passages. This phrase often, though not always, is item 81. One of the pages is titled "TOEFL." Do you suppose this is another instance of inadvertent copying from memory?
Identifying PlagiarismThe problem of evidence . . .
I'm in a dilemma here over a student’s paper. I'm dead sure he didn't write it, but I can find no direct evidence. Every quote he has cited is correct, and no additional uncited quotes are in the papers he references. His opening paragraph is clumsy – the rest are perfectly articulated. I can't find a match online for a single phrase. I do, however, find about 8 websites selling a term paper with his title: Protecting Your Personal Information Online." I would have to pay upwards of $100 to purchase it myself and it wouldn't arrive before grades are due. Can I (should I) accuse without proof?
1. the introductory paragraph begins in textbook form with the broad 'nowadays' to introduce the topic and narrow to a thesis
Text analysis
2) the introduction sentence structures, word choice, and grammar are consistent with ESL writing
• past tense 'brought' instead of 'bring' to match the logical tense of 'nowadays‘
• 'becoming more and more' with no predicate adjective instead of the more concise 'increasing‘
• nonstandard use of 'the' with 'the busy social life‘
• incomplete indirect speech clause 'do not share...' instead of 'suggest that people should not share‘
3) none of these errors are present in the following paragraphs
4) a more advanced introduction is exhibited in the second paragraph. Particularly notable is the introduction of a person's name in the second sentence and immediate thrust into that character's world. This is not typical of ESL intros, but is typical of a western writing style.
5) the two pages contain several in-text citations to the author's summary of Sweet's article and another reference work--all in MLA style. This is odd considering that in this student's entire Psy 620 paper there were only two in-text citations, both in the APA style that was taught in HUM608.
6) the complete reference list for the Psy paper had only four sources, and only two were actually cited in the text of the paper. This extreme simplicity and lack of research ability is very different from the complex and skillful integration of sources in the first two pages of the other paper.
Suggestion
I'd suggest that anyone who used sources in such a professional way should be able to sit down and write factual (though not necessarily grammatically sound) summaries of the sources used in the paper.
I'd suggest a written test based on the sources used in that paper to determine if he actually read those sources. If he did, he should have no trouble saying how long each source was and describing their main points and conclusions.