One hour into grading...

...and Mexico and Angola are still tied, and I've failed two students in my History 1A and 1B courses for internet plagiarism.  It only takes a second to check, and can I say, I actually derive a real pleasure from catching the little creeps.   They are expressly forbidden from using things like "Wikipedia" to write their papers -- both instances of plagiarism so far this afternoon involved large chunks taken from "Wikis".

Comments

[Peter]

You too, eh? I've worked as a TA and grader at San Francisco State for 5 semesters altogether. I always get at least a few cut-and-paste jobs every semester, and in some semesters its been as high as 25%. It amazes me that they think it won't be noticed, like I don't also know how to use Google. Not to mention major goofs, like sudden change in writing style or formatting, that are an obvious tip-off. If they can't be honest, they could at least be smart!

[Laine]

Major goofs: my personal favorite is when the font magically changes for one paragraph/section only.

[kay]

Hope you've made a big dent in the grading. Wishing you a great father's day with your family tomorrow.

[Not Telling]

For a number of stories along this line, read "How to cheat good" at http://alex.halavais.net/?p=1427

As a PCC student, I'm glad you're busting these students.

[amy]

I'm always amazed at how bad some people are at cheating. My aunt is a high school teacher out of state and when I go to visit her, it's hard to believe some of the papers she gets. One paper, a student had obviously physically cut sections from the internet, pasted them onto paper, and photocopied them. Different fonts, different margins, crooked text, etc. Two of her students taking the same course at a different time of the day turned in the exact same paper. Hope the grading is going well and that you're having a good Father's Day, though I'm sure it's not exactly an easy one.

[mercedes]

Greetings! Hope you had a nice day with your dad.