Academic Dishonesty - Please Help

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi guys. As parents, I know you have more life experiences and was hoping if you could help me out. I am re posting this from another post in the College Admissions section advised from another poster.</p>

<p>I am an undergrad student at a local community college.</p>

<p>I turned in an essay which required me to go to a historical archive look up primary sources, and cite them. Instead of going to the archive, I looked up primary sources on the internet, and cited them as if they were from the archive.</p>

<p>When I turned in my paper online, my teacher presumably ran it through TurnItIn.com, which turned up negative. He has since given me an A on the paper, and an A in the class. He also wants to post all of our class's papers on a collaboration website.</p>

<p>This is no doubt a serious case of academic dishonesty, and I honestly had no idea what I was getting into when I committed this crime. In retrospect, not only is this plagiarism, but also fabrication.</p>

<p>I swear on who ever is up there watching me right now, that I'm not a bad guy. Yes I admit that I copied notes in high school and what not. I didn't do so hot there, but I promised myself a fresh start in CC. I have since been on the Dean's list every quarter with a current GPA of 3.93.</p>

<p>I swear I didn't cheat at all in CC, not even the note copying, and I want to take responsibility. I want to tell my parents just what the hell I did, I want to walk into the teacher's office and confess, and I no longer want to constantly have this haunt my soul.</p>

<p>But whats stopping me from confessing is this. My teacher stated on his syllabus that he will give me a zero on my paper which I am willing to accept, but more importantly, he will notify the Dean of Student Affairs. My school has a honor code policy that includes probation, suspension, and expulsion.</p>

<p>Which is basically zero tolerance.</p>

<p>Is there no second chance? A chance for honest redemption?</p>

<p>Will I have a chance to go to school after this? Considering they will probably have this on record. And If so, no other institution will ever accept me.</p>

<p>I am the first generation of my family to go to college. While I worry about my future, I worry about theirs more. They work such long hours with a sister who has speech disabilities. And while they encourage me to pursue a career I want which was initially film, I have changed career paths for the purpose of supporting them. My sister is severely behind in school, but I spend around 1 and a half hours a day tutoring her.</p>

<p>If I confess to my teacher privately, and explain to him my situation do you think he will be lenient? I cannot live the rest of my life, transfer to a university, with this hanging over my head. I understand that if I get found, my CC while no doubt inform my Uni, and they will kick me out. I am three quarters in my college career.</p>

<p>What do you think I should do? For not only my sake, but my family's also.</p>

<p>You can read this and pass your judgement, but I swear I'm not a bad guy. I feel so ashamed and so remorseful. I just want a second chance.</p>

<p>Thanks for hearing me out.</p>

2

<p>You may have blown your chances at this school (although if you get probation or suspension you would not have - and I think that coming forward without being caught would not result in the most severe punishment) but another community college would take you.</p>

<p>Even if there is a note about academic dishonesty on your first transcript (there may not be), once you have some more classes under your belt, I think you would be able to explain what happened, what you learned, and that you will not do it again. I don’t think this would prevent you from transferring to a university, and it would definitely not hang over your head for the rest of your life. I’ve known of a number of cases where a student was expelled or suspended from one well-respected school and promptly accepted by another.</p>

<p>And you should know that one of the big reasons to notify the dean is so that a student doesn’t repeatedly get “second chances” because they are convincing all of their professors that they’re remorseful first-timers. If you have not been reported to the dean in the past, again, I think that that, along with the fact that you came forward, would be something they considered.</p>

<p>If I were you, I’d tell the professor what I had done. The knowledge that I had done the wrong thing is something that <em>would</em> follow me around forever (I cheated on an arithmetic test in the 2nd grade and I am still ashamed of that although 2nd grade is a long time in the past by now). I try to be an honest person as I live my life, and when I fall short of that standard, I am not at all happy with myself. I’m pretty sure, based on my experience of my own failings, that if I were in your shoes and I admitted what I had done, I would feel more comfortable with myself and happier, even if the punishment was harsh. I realize that not everybody is wired that way, but I am, and from what you say, you might be as well .</p>

<p>Ultimately, though, I can’t tell you what to do. It has to be your choice - and there are definitely a lot of people who wouldn’t make the same choice I would. You are going to have to ask yourself what kind of a person you want to be and what that kind of person would do. You are going to have to weigh your shame and remorse against your concern about the effect confessing will have in your life. I just want to stress that I don’t think the effect will be nearly as dramatic and long-lasting as you seem to think it will.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I don’t actually understand mechanically what you even did. Can you explain in more detail?</p>

4

<p>Agreed - please explain how citing primary sources is plagiarism</p>

5

<p>Could you also clarify “copying notes” in high school and why this is cheating?</p>

6

<p>I am also confused about why the going to the primary source would be wrong, but there are some very confusing fine lines in the plagarism rules. If in fact what you did violates the rules, perhaps you can go to the professor and tell him you are confused and think you may have done something wrong, but are not sure. Ask him for assistance in better understanding the rules. Maybe that won’t count as the big probationary issue, both because you misunderstood and because you came to him and asked for help in learning the rules.</p>

7

<p>I agree, not sure why you think you cheated? If you cited your work and it passed turntiin.com is the problem that you actually didn’t go into the historical archives? Not sure that constitutes plagiarism or fabrication? And I agree that copying someone else’s notes is not cheating. When I was in college my friends and I often copied each other’s notes in order to get the best notes we could and in case one of us missed a point that someone else didn’t.</p>

8

<p>If I am understanding this correctly, the student took a shortcut and looked up sources on the internet instead of in the archive as instructed. Since the student claims he cited sources, I don’t see -at all- how that can be plagarism. It is a shortcut however, contrary to the instructions, and one has to guess that the prof saw some lesson in having student go to archive.</p>

9

<p>More details here:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1319982-academic-dishonesy-im-torn.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1319982-academic-dishonesy-im-torn.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>sadandsorry: talk to this professor immediately. It could be that if TurnItIn didn’t find anything, maybe it’s okay.</p>

10

<p>Frankly- I think this is muddy and I would leave it alone. Obviously the OP has a guilty conscience. In the future, follow the instructions and don’t take short cuts if you think the short cut is against the spirit of the assignment. Move on.</p>

11

<p>I read the other thread earlier- it seems the the OP “made up” where the cited material was. So the archive has some of the same type of material in it, but not the same pictures or enties that he used in his paper, or in the location that he cited them to be in.</p>

12

<p>So, you said some of the material was in the archive and it wasn’t? But it was real material and you sorta cited it. But you did cite it, albeigt not accurately?</p>

<p>Did the assignment say only use archive? How do you know all material isn’t in archive? </p>

<p>Are you afraid other students will see your paper and go hmmm? Do students have the time or care sp read other papers?</p>

<p>I would double check archives to see what is missing. And if assignment said archive only this may pop back at you but very doubtful. If there was no specifics to only archive, you have less worries. </p>

<p>One paper that used citations albieght poorly and made up won’t wreck you.r college career.</p>

13

<p>From what you say here, you did not plagiarize. You used original sources and cited them. Some of them were in the archive you were supposed to consult, and some were not. Why on earth didn’t you go to the archive as instructed? Clearly, part of what the professor wanted to teach you was how to use an archive. It sounds as if you went to the archive after the fact and looked up the sources, so at least you have complied with the instructions to some degree.</p>

<p>You really need to get out of the habit of taking questionable shortcuts.</p>

<p>It sounds as if your problem is that if these papers are publicly posted, it may come to light that not all of the sources you cited are where you said they were. You could, of course, fix the citations so that the location of the items is correctly described, and resubmit the paper with an explanation for the professor that you used both the archive and the internet. Or you could just hope no one notices and learn from this.</p>

14

<p>Maybe I am missing something but from what I understand, this would be similar to looking up a magazine article on the internet vs going to the library and checking out the magazine and reading it in the physical magazine. Is that correct? If this is correct, I don’t see an issue.</p>

<p>Would it be the same as looking up a copy of the Declaration of Independence and gathering information from that and citing it properly vs going to the National Archives and seeing the document in person? Again, I am missing the issue.</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>I was thinking the same thing. Am also confused,</p>

16

<p>

</p>

<p>What he did was gather info from the internet (it seems in various places), then, instead of citing the internet resource, he cited a “fake” archive resource that met the requirement of the assignment.</p>

<p>So, to answer Steve and Psych’s question, the “archives” that the OP used are not actually available online. So instead of going to the place where the actual archives are, he used other articles/papers that ARE online and written about subjects that are in the archives instead of going to the archives to do his own research. Instead of properly citing the internet article/paper, he made up archive info and sited someone elses work as an archive entry (to meet the assignment requirement). </p>

<p>Not only did he plagerize someone elses work, he also intentionally cited non-existent archive content to make it appear that he went to the archives and did his own research. He made up his sources to fit the assignment instead of doing the actual assignment. </p>

<p>If he can get to the archive and find actual archive entries for his work, then he could find a way to explain this away. He plans to go to the archive tomorrow. However, the OP is doubtful that he will find an accurate entry for all of his citations. It is quite complicated. </p>

<p>Honestly, I am not sure what else to tell him. I am hopeful that he can find archive proof for his paper, and apologize to the prof, and provide updated footnotes (that are real and accurate). But if the OP is unsure he can do this, that I am not very encouraged it will work. </p>

<p>I would love to know what the assignment is, and what the actual archive is that needed to be accessed instead of online research, because i am with you that it seems silly if the info is online. Unless the students major requires this type of research (say a Library sciences or archeology, or another “history” type of major). </p>

<p>OP, I hope that you can get out of this. It is encouraging that you feel remorse, and if you can fix this, regardless of the way the college handles it, you will feel better in the long run.</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>That is not my understanding of what he did. My understanding is that he did use–and cite–original sources, but that he found the original sources on the internet, not in the physical archive, which his professor directed him to use. What he did wrong was pretend that the sources were all physically present in the archive, while some are and some are not.</p>

<p>That is not plagiarism. What you describe IS plagiarism. Perhaps he has described it in several different ways?</p>

18

<p>as I have always heard plagarism defined, it is unauthorized use of the words, thoughts, ideas of another and claiming those ideas as your own.</p>

19

<p>@ Consolation - Thanks for looking at it on the bright side, but vlines has almost got it right. I basically went to the archive’s website to see what material they had. If they had a newspaper, I would go online and find a newspaper from that era to get a feel for what it was like and generalized material from it. </p>

<p>It all sounds so cold and calculating, but I swear I had no idea what in hell I was doing when I was doing this. It was only until a week after that it really hit me. </p>

<p>Does anyone know what an academic dishonesty mark mean on your transcript? Like suspension or probation? I really want to go to a UC or Loyola Marymount. If those institutions give me a chance, I would go ahead and confess.</p>

<p>Should I involve my favorite honors writing teacher? He knows me very well. Maybe if he could vouch for me as an honest person. Would that put his career in jeopardy?</p>

<p>Thank you so much for hearing me out guys, there aren’t many people to confide to in my situation right now…</p>

20

<p>My question is it seems like almost as much work as going to the archive? Why did you not go? </p>

<p>Did everyone have same assignment? And if others did and read your paper would they notice the fabrications? If prof gave you an A he obviously didn’t know what was in archive either or he would have noticed the problem with citations. </p>

<p>Sometimes confession doesn’t make punishment any less. </p>

<p>I am saying people do stupid, and you went to a lot of trouble to do stupid, but it shouldnt ruin your life. You didn’t steal others work, you faked your own.</p>