mousey musings

What Is The Price Of Plagiarism? When Someone Steals Another's Words, The Penalties Can Vary Widely -- At one of the schools where I taught, it was dealt with by an honor council. I was OK with that. At another school, it was dealt with by professors, who were explicitly banned from doing more than giving a zero on the assignment. That is, when I caught a student plagiarizing most of a paper, I was only able to give a zero for the paper and he still passed my class (albeit with a D). At another place I worked, there was a range of penalties, but instructors were encouraged to fail students if there were mutliple instances of plagiarism (I did this once and gave zeroes on assignments a few times for more minor infractions -- typically when two students obviously completed a solo assignment together). I like the honor code system, complete with an honor council to hear cases (so that professors don't have to fill out as much paperwork) and decide penalties (which should include suspension or expulsion as an option). I hate the idea that a professor cannot fail a student who is only caught cheating once. This makes cheating the night before the assignment is due a reasonable gamble, since cheating and getting caught gives the same grade as not turning in the assignment, while cheating and getting away with it gets substantial credit.

posted by Jeffrey # 5/13/2006 12:17:00 AM