Plagiarism help.

Applying to College
1

<p>Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, because I've gotten really upset over this, and no one I've asked has been able to give me any helpful advice.</p>

<p>We've been writing college essays in AP lang since we're done with AP prep stuff, and the teacher put us in groups to discuss our essays. I was in a group with these two people, neither of whom had written their essays. So of course, mine was thoroughly read and discussed. The next day, one of the people brought in an essay that was basically a copy of mine in structure and in style. Only the story and sophistication of the writing (basically the polish of it) was different. Stupidly, I still allowed the other person, who insisted that he'd forgotten his essay, to read mine again (he ended up reading it 5 times, all thoroughly) and I didn't get to read his essay until about a week later, and it was, once again, a complete copy of mine in structure and style. He even told me that he was proud of the structure, as if he'd come up with it all by himself. </p>

<p>My English teacher told me "imitation is the finest form of flattery", which really doesn't make me feel any better, and my friends at school have been telling me different versions of "oh that sucks, I would've just written some crap for the group discussions", which obviously makes me feel even worse.</p>

<p>The worst thing is- after reading other essays from other people in the class, I realized that my story structure was really unique to my own writing, since I'm pretty into creative writing, and that's reflected in the structure I chose for my essay (and it's the structure I use for most of my pieces of writings as it works best for me). I was also hoping that my essay would be the highlight of my application, as I'm a little weaker in the breadth of extracurriculars. Those people, too, are applying to almost all the schools I am (liberal arts colleges).</p>

<p>Is there anything I should say to them to dissaude them from using the structure and style further? I've tried to tell them to try to find their own style, and that it doesn't seem to work well for them in their essays, but they haven't heeded any of it at all.</p>

2

<p>How original and personal could your essay be if it’s easy to copy? Maybe they’ve given you a critical heads up in that your essay is generic and needs work.</p>

3

<p>^ Ouch! But, if you’re as creative as you say you are, just write a couple of them over the summer. My D wrote 4 completely different essays for the common app before settling on a final selection.</p>

4

<p>Agree with jvtDad. You can also get moving this summer and do something interesting, if you are worried about having weaker ECs.</p>

5

<p>Not to be unkind here, but its a case of earned consequences. When someone copies your work, you don’t then hand over your work again so they can read it “5 times, all thoroughly.” They’ve already demonstrated that they have no integrity - why should you compromise yours? </p>

<p>But that wasn’t your question. What can you do about it? Well, you can talk to that person and say you feel badly that you shared your work with them and now they are using it. You can say that you wouldn’t have done it, had you known they were going to expropriate it. Of course, your credibility is compromised, since you helped them do it the second time. But if this person is any kind of friend, he or she would want to hear that you are unhappy with him or her - and with yourself, for compromising your integrity. Who knows - maybe they’ll decide to use a different essay.</p>

<p>One more aside - beware of gimmicks for college application essays. If your structure and style are that easy to copy, it raises the question as to how unique it really is, per Waverly. As others have suggested, write several essays and then figure out which one has the most authentically ‘you’ voice. No one should be able to copy that. In fact, a good rule of thumb is that if any other person could have written your essay, it’s probably not a great essay.</p>