Hi, in my english class we had to do an assignment over all the books we’ve read in high school. I created a list of all the books and didn’t start the assignment until a few days later. In the meantime, my friend asked if I could send her the google doc of my list of books because she couldn’t remember them, so I did. I did the assignment, turned it in, and moved on.
Today she tells me her teacher gave her a 0 and told her that she plagiarized. I look at my grade, and it’s also a zero. I went to talk to the teacher and she pulled up our assignments and showed me that they were almost identical, save for a few changed words. Apparently, my friend still had access to the document after I finished the assignment and was able to copy it and use it as her own. I was shocked. I didn’t know she could do that, and I didn’t know that she would. She’s been my best friend for 8, almost 9 years and has never done anything like this. This was an assignment that took me 4.5 hours to complete. Thankfully, it’s only a daily grade so it doesn’t affect my grade by hardly anything, but I am fuming. Does anyone have any tips for how to approach her about this? Or what to say? I’m still shocked that she would do something like this.
Thank you
Oh, dear. That’s awful. A couple of suggestions from a parent:
Talk to the teacher, and present proof (Google Docs tracks authors/changes, so you should be able to demonstrate that this was your work, not your friend’s, and explain – if you haven’t already – that you just meant to share the book list and had no idea about what happened after.) While it’s good that your grade isn’t badly affected, you don’t want this teacher thinking you were complicit in plagiarism. You didn’t do anything wrong, and this is a mark on your character if nothing else. Set the record straight.
I think it’s fine to tell your friend that what she did violated a basic trust, and to ask her if she can explain to you why on earth she made that choice. Just to be clear, it’s a terrible choice no matter what. I don’t expect she can tell you something that will make it “okay.” But maybe she’ll tell you she’s really struggling, maybe she’ll be super apologetic, maybe there’s something she can say that will begin the process of repairing what was broken, here. Or maybe she’ll shrug and say “What’s the big deal?” and you’ll realize that this friendship has run its course.
I talked to the teacher and we looked at it together. She knows that I had no intent in plagiarizing and was genuinely sympathetic, but shes very big on plagiarism, to the point where she believes that asking other students questions about an assignment in plagiarism. Fortunately, she only gave me a zero and didn’t take it to administration which is what she normally would have done, and what she did to my friend.
I will be talking to my friend tonight. She’s at work right now, so I’ll have to wait. However I know she isn’t really struggling per say, she’s just pretty lazy when it comes to school work, and this was a very tedious assignment. I feel like she just waited till the last minute and didn’t think I would every find out
In that case, sounds like you’re in need of a new friend. (I’m glad you’ve spoken with the teacher, and I can see her point about the sharing of the book list, I guess. Sounds like she understands what happened, and so on that score, you just apologize for misunderstanding her position on helping with the book list and move on.)
@blackkitteycat It sounds like you are handling this situation exactly as you should. I would never share assignments with your friend again, and if they don’t understand why their actions were wrong, if go no other reason than they hurt you, it might be time to look for other friends.
I think you are both lucky that this happened in high school and on an assignment that was a smaller portion of your grade. In college you both might have been in greater trouble with greater potential consequences. High school seems a bit late for your friend to be understanding how google drive works and who can see what happens there.
(I’m glad you’ve spoken with the teacher, and I can see her point about the sharing of the book list, I guess. Sounds like she understands what happened, and so on that score, you just apologize for misunderstanding her position on helping with the book list and move on.)