Ok so in my AP English Literature class we have to do these summaries of a novel we have to read each marking period. They are extremely long and drawn out, and for the first marking period, it was only worth 10 points to our formative (makes up 30% of our total grade) grade. This marking period I read my book and in the midst of all of my other classes I copied and pasted most of the answers straight from sparknotes and wikipedia. When the grade for the assignment was put in, it was put in as a 100 point formative assignment and I received a sad 10/100. I am aware that copying and pasting is plagiarism and at my school is warranted a 0. BUT, almost all of my class also heavily plagiarized their assignments, I verbally talked with most of them, and five of them even sent me their assignments for me to check the percentage of plagiarism. I got a 40% originality while most of them got 50% or 45% originality, yet they received 50/100, a grade that didn’t slaughter their overall grades. Also, several people in my class turned the assignment in over a week late, and were given 100’s, when late work is clearly said to be given a 0 by my teacher’s syllabus. i went to the teacher and deeply apologized for plagiarizing and I was given the opportunity to redo the assignment. I redid it with soooo much effort, made sure it was 100% original and turned it in the day she told me I could redo it, literally that same day. Yet when re-graded, I was given a 15/100…that is 5 points higher, and substantially lower than those who were also obviously plagiarizing and those who turned it in extremely late. What should i do to bring this up to my teacher? I know plagiarizing is wrong, i know i should’ve gotten a zero, yet I dont know why others ddn’t get a zero and I dont know how to bring this up to my teacher.
Am I hopeless? am i being unreasonable?
You need to focus on your own transgression and work. Stop talking to everyone else, it does not matter at all what they did. You are lucky you aren’t getting suspended – that is the penalty at some schools for plagiarism. Don’t even look at Sparknotes and Wikipedia AT ALL related to assignments. Read the assignments, and do the writing that you are assigned to do. So that is going forward.
For this assignment, go see the teacher. Ask for help in figuring out what you missed in the assignment, and how to do better on future ones. Listen carefully to the feedback. Do not bring up any other student in the class, anyone else’s grade, or anyone else’s actions. This is about you and your progress in the subject. Do NOT ask for a grade change. Figure out how to do better on upcoming assignments instead.
I will say, not everyone has the knack for literature analysis. My kids and I are whizzes at it – it is a fairly useless talent in life, though. But I think you can improve at it if you take the feedback from your teacher and do your own work going forward. You might surprise yourself and her, and come up with some original take on the work that isn’t the normal thinking on it. That is a great feeling when you can do that.
thank you for this opinion and guidance!
It does seem slightly unfair of the teacher to be so stingy with points after granting you the opportunity to re-do the assignment, but I can still see where they are coming from. I would take this as a lesson learned, and move on. It will be easier to plead your case at the end of the semester, after you’ve put your nose to the grindstone and earned good grades in an honest way on every other assignment as proof of your change of heart.
I assure you in college there is no talking your way out of plagiarism. You will go before the Academic DIshonesty board and can be dismissed from college or Fail the course.
Start taking responsibility for yourself and your work. Read the Books. Do the work.
My S got a zero on a math assignment once that he mostly copied from an online solutions source. Many of his peers did the same thing. They got full credit.
Initially, he too felt slighted. That somehow it was unfair. Like others have suggested. That fact you are the one that got caught doesn’t matter. As I told my S, take this as a learning opportunity. I also told him that his work going forward will likely be hyper scrutinized by his teacher and he should be prepared to go above and beyond.