In my case, it is a second year course. We do not do much to control enrollment, so some students take it in their first year. Some students taking the course already have 2- or 4-year degrees. Some even have graduate degrees. (Not at all uncommon for Community Colleges.) Students at all levels committed the offense, in this case.
The "assignment" is actually a series of eight (8) short assignments, each worth either five (5) or 10 points. Depending on how many times the student used the purloined reference, the penalty could be as small as five (5) points or as great as 60 points. The range of point loss is probably five to 30. The total number of points in the course is 700. Since I see part of my job as being getting my students prepared to face you guys, at what level should the penalties change and to what would they change? The penalty for plagiarism, if in fact we agree that this is plagiarism, that is. Not the penalty for incorrectly formatting a reference. (OK. That too, if anyone cares to address that.) David Wasieleski wrote: > You did not state the level of the course, and in this instance, I > think that would be relevant in my decision. I don't know that I'd > call copying the reference from other students (I assume that they did > not copy the whole paper, which would certainly cause me to go with a > more severe penalty) plagiarism per se, since my experience is that > many student lazily copy a reference from a published work which may > not be consistent with current APA style. Nonetheless, assuming it's a > relatively low-level undergrad course I would go with #3 (I assume the > assignment, graded on an all-or-none basis, is not worth a ton of > points anyway). and then spend some class time describing plagiarism > and how such behavior may warrant a more severe penalty in the future. > It might also be worth going over their need to learn HOW to do this > type of activity for other psychology courses, not to mention how the > message boards are and are not supposed to be used. > David W. > > At 04:19 PM 5/10/2006, you wrote: > >> The Situation: >> You have a written assignment that everyone in your class is >> required to >> do, and you require that proper APA-style referencing be used. >> >> Many students are new to APA-style referencing but you have provided >> >> instruction and examples, plus you have provided a link to APA's >> style >> site. >> >> One student, in response to questions posted to the class discussion >> >> list, and in an effort to help his classmates, posts the following >> message: >> >> (snip, snip) >> This is what I used. I hope this helps! >> Papalis, Diane, Olds, Sally Wendkos, Feldman, Ruth Duskin. (2004). >> Human >> Development (9th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw- Hill Companies, Inc. >> (snip, snip) >> >> Slightly more than half the class submits the assignment with the >> textbook reference exactly as shown. The spelling of the lead >> author's >> name is not corrected. The ampersand is not added. Even the blank >> space in "McGraw- Hill" is not eliminated. >> >> My Questions: >> Is this a case of plagiarism by the students who obviously copied >> and >> pasted the reference into their assignments? >> If not plagiarism, is it some kind of other improper behavior with a >> >> specific name? >> Has the poster, in an effort to be helpful, committed an offense? >> >> >> Your response?: >> 1. You would ignore it. >> 2. You would point out that this is not a proper thing to do, but >> go >> ahead and give full credit. (Grading is on an all-or-nothing basis) >> >> 3. You would give a zero on the assignment. >> 4. You would give a failing grade for the course. >> 5. You would file charges with the Student Government committee >> that >> handles disciplinary action in cases of student academic offenses >> (or >> whatever the mechanism is used at your school). Such action might >> include anything up to, and including, expulsion from the school. >> >> 6. Other? >> >> -- >> >> ----------==========>>>>>>>>>> ¨¨¨ <<<<<<<<<<==========---------- >> Sometimes you just have to try something, and see what happens. >> >> John W. Nichols, M.A. >> Assistant Professor of Psychology >> Tulsa Community College >> 909 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa, OK 74119 >> (918) 595-7134 >> >> Home: http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols >> MegaPsych: http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols/megapsych.html >> >> >> >> --- >> To make changes to your subscription go to: >> http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl >> enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english > > David T. Wasieleski, Ph.D. > Associate Professor > Department of Psychology and Counseling > Valdosta State University > Valdosta, GA 31698 > 229-333-5620 > http://chiron.valdosta.edu/dtwasieleski > > "The only thing that ever made sense in my life > is the sound of my little girl laughing through the window on a summer > night... > Just the sound of my little girl laughing > makes me happy just to be alive..." > --Everclear > "Song from an American Movie" --- > To make changes to your subscription go to: > http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl > enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english -- ----------==========>>>>>>>>>> ¨¨¨ <<<<<<<<<<==========---------- Sometimes you just have to try something, and see what happens. John W. Nichols, M.A. Assistant Professor of Psychology Tulsa Community College 909 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa, OK 74119 (918) 595-7134 Home: http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols MegaPsych: http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols/megapsych.html --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
