Photo: purplepick
An English teacher struggles with pervasive plagiarism in the writing classroom.
I had made it clear that glitter and ribbons should not accompany college level assignments , and that any offending projects would promptly make their way to the bin rather than into my briefcase. A significant amount of class time had also been spent explaining what plagiarism is, how to avoid it and what the consequences would be for anyone who attempted it, so when one student handed me a glitter-contaminated poetry portfolio, I was immediately suspect.
During my three years in Pakistan, I worked with local universities and teacher training institutes. In this particular situation, I was conducting a course on Teaching Creative Writing for undergraduate education majors.
He seemed confused when I asked him if he had conducted a séance to get the poem, considering this alleged ‘cousin’ died in 1882.
None of the students had ever been taught creative writing, and many lacked basic writing skills, so I focused on modeling creative writing units rather than asking them to strategize about how to teach something they had no experience doing themselves.
My students had a good amount of time to write in class, as in previous semesters I’d learned that plagiarism is common for both academic and creative work, and I liked to actually see them produce something.
Once a local student in my eighth grade class handed in a poem by Longfellow with his own name on it. When I asked him about it, he straight up admitted he didn’t write it. He then added, “Actually my cousin wrote it.” He seemed confused when I asked him if he had conducted a séance to get the poem, considering this alleged ‘cousin’ died in 1882.
Photo: Carmela Nava
The college students were passing in a collection of work they had written and revised over the previous month. Glitter girl frequently missed class and didn’t manage to write more than a few words during in-class writing sessions. I had told them that any over-decorated projects would be left ungraded, but I was curious to see what she’d come up with.
The first page was a famous limerick that she had obviously cut and pasted, and the second page, decorated with numerous hearts and flowers, was this:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 14:4-7)
Yeah…she did it. She somehow managed to plagiarize the Bible as well.
My past confrontations with Pakistani plagiarizers had generally gone well. Longfellow’s ‘cousin’ gave up on copy-pasting and became one of the best writers in his school. Another girl who started off her year giving me copied work ended up writing extra narrative essays in her free time, and we published one of her restaurant reviews on the class blog.
The key with these successful students is that they were able to admit they cheated and move on. In a culture that often places saving face at a higher value than fessing up, this was a significant move for them. Glitter girl wasn’t able to cross that threshold.
She knew that I knew she was lying, but she wouldn’t confess.
I tried to lay it out for her: "Look, you didn't write these poems. This one is a famous limerick. It was written well before you were born. Did you write it in a past life? And this one, this one is from the Bible! It's almost two thousand years old. Don't even try to tell me you wrote this."
"Miss, miss, but I did write those poems! Can I resubmit? I will email it to you."
During more than 20 minutes of begging, not once did she admit that she copied. She knew that I knew she was lying, but she wouldn’t confess. At the same time she was defending herself and saying she didn’t plagiarize, she was asking for a chance to re-do the portfolio. My logic could not wrap around this discrepancy.
Photo: dcjohn
I wondered if local teachers simply let their students know that they were on to them and offered a chance to re-do assignments, rather than calling them out and giving them zeros. At what point do I stick to my own ethics, and at what point do I give students more leeway?
A Pakistani friend of mine spent her secondary school years in Lahore before moving to the US for college. During her freshman year, she got caught plagiarizing. The professor was furious, but my friend actually didn’t understand what she had done wrong. She had cut and pasted different passages from different websites, compiled them into one document and included the links. That was how she had always ‘written’ papers, and her teachers had accepted them.
I didn’t allow Glitter girl to resubmit the assignment. Sitting there in the class, listening to her grovel, and having the same conversation over and over for 20 minutes was one of the most uncomfortable moments in my teaching career.
I handed in her sparkly portfolio to the department head as evidence and dropped off my grade sheet with the registrar. Due to her low average, I was sure that she would fail the course.
A few weeks later, I found out that everyone in the class, including her, had officially passed.
I had pressed for the truth and stuck to the rules, but it was me who ultimately ended up losing face.
Have you ever been faced with a situation like this in the classroom? How did you deal with it?
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I’m glad you brought up the point about memorization and ‘knowing the experts.’ In Pakistan as well, students are encouraged to memorize, even entire essays and speeches. A few times I told my students there would be essay questions on an upcoming exam, and some of them were very confused as to why I hadn’t given them the ‘answers’ to memorize and work with.
I constantly had to drill into my students that I wanted their own thoughts and their own words. For many, this was a new thing. They didn’t think of plagiarizing as stealing someone else’s work. I think what you’re doing, teaching the students about plagiarism and how to reference, is the only way to go.
I also have a lot of memories about Googling papers….I started marking papers “G” for “I found this on Google.” I told them it was worse than a “F.” I was always more lenient in the beginning of a semester with a new class (I would let them re-do assignments), but if everyone else was getting it and one student (like “Glitter girl) still wasn’t after hours worth of explaining it, then I would give a zero.
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Oh man….infuriating. I’ve dealt with some bending of the rules at various schools, but I’ve never had to pass a student who blatantly plagiarized. Yikes.
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I have always thought plagiarism should be dealt with in the strictest, most draconian terms by any sort of school. It’s a violation of the most basic purpose of the institution, not only because it is cheating, but because presenting someone else’s ideas as your own is an outright lie, and the purpose of any legitimate school is seeking the truth.
Stealing someone else’s work should result in the student being escorted off campus, to a waiting pile of their stuff in the street, a demand for their keys, and a warning that they will be prosecuted for trespassing if they come back.
I knew of an incident of plagiarism in college where the guy basically got yelled at and a “C” for the course, probably because it was an expensive small school, and his parents paid full tuition. Letting people cheat where it counts the most is exactly why we are ruled by thieves and scammers.
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I agree that plagiarism is a serious problem and that a lax attitude about others’ intellectual property rights can lead to a lax attitude regarding the use of other people’s words and ideas.
I like how you pointed out that it is the school, not just the individual teacher, that needs to enforce plagiarism rules. The problem comes when there isn’t unity on this front (such as in my case) and many other teachers do accept plagiarized work. In Pakistan, this may be for a number of reasons.
1) Teachers who don’t speak English very well yet teach in English medium schools – how can they recognize plagiarism?
2) Teachers who are not comfortable using the Internet
3) Teachers with no teacher training whatsoever who are just trying to get byThe education system in Pakistan needs to address these root causes in order to really get rid of plagiarism. Teachers need training and English teachers in particular need advanced language workshops and training on how to identify plagiarism.
Students are often not taught the skills of referencing and paraphrasing, so these skills need to be taught from a young age. They should learn library and Internet research and even be taught how to identify plagiarism on their own so they know if they are doing it or not.
If these things are not done, it would be difficult to be so strict with plagiarism policies in one classroom, because the problem exists throughout the system. Sure in my class students learned they couldn’t plagiarize (except “Glitter girl” who probably didn’t learn anything), but if they know they can get away with it in their other classes, then they will probably still do it.
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@ maryanne,
I found your comment very insightful. Unlike the other commenters here who merely talk about throwing out plagiarizing students out on the street, you actually look into the cultural reasons of why students from some regions/countries have different academic habits than students in the western countries. For teachers who deal with international students, it is very important to realize that a student indulging in plagiarism may not necessarily be intending to ‘cheat’, ‘coz we are looking at them through the lens of our own perspective while the foreign student may have been brought up in a completely different social and academic system. A good teacher will patiently introduce such students to our way of learning/writing instead of punishing them straight out.
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While teaching in China I had my principal ask me to “help” his wife with an English paper she had to write for her education in Beijing. It was quite the uncomfortable situation and I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t have the guts to reject his request.
Like you, I also attempted to fail a student without success. They just scratched out the grade I gave them and put in a better grade – right in front of me. I wasn’t offended – it was a good learning experience.
The very first thing I used to look at when I entered my school was a sign that proclaimed in bold Chinese characters: “There are no bad students, only bad teachers.” Wow! As a teacher I can’t believe such a burden should be placed on my shoulders and yet I think there is a grain of truth in the saying. The girl in your class who went so far as to quote the Bible obviously hasn’t been taught well in the past. Hopefully, despite her persistent claim to innocence, she learned something from you.
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Only bad teachers? Eek. That’s something else to think about. Many teachers I met in Pakistan also felt it was fundamentally their job to ‘pass’ students, and that failing students reflected poorly on them. I spent a lot of time explaining the bell curve and telling parents and teachers why failing students is not always a bad thing in the long run.
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To me it sounds like a different paradigm there. You have centuries of doing things and looking at things differently. Can you talk with parents, find a friend/mentor who can explain some things about the culture that might help. Is there a parable type approach that might work – an example that they would understand and, at the same time, help them save face?
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I imagine that a lot of students studying abroad experience the same confusion as your Pakistani friend accused of plagiarism by her US university. It’s something that should really be addressed with international students during orientation, I think. I’d love to hear about your friends’ experience…
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