<p>there's someone at my school who recieved a zero on a paper he wrote because the teacher claimed that he plagiarized off of himself! isn't that an oxymoron??
it's really bad b/c our school's plagiarism policy clearly states that something is plagiarized when you take someone ELSE'S intellectual property...</p>
<p>what do you think?</p>
<p>Er... so does that mean that he reused a paper that he wrote in the past? o_O That wouldn't be what any teacher would want a student to do for an assignment, but I don't see why it would be deemed plagiarism.</p>
<p>i think he used parts of a paper he already wrote.
but i don't see why it would be a problem if you've already done research on a topic and written about it that you should have to do that again...?</p>
<p>hmm... I can see why the teacher wouldn't like reusing parts of papers... but if the school policy definitely says someone ELSEs, I don't think it's fair to fail for plagarism. maybe being asked to rewrite parts or something...</p>
<p>it seems completely ridiculous, but it cases like this it is necessary to site oneself. i know someone who got kicked out of pomona for writing a paper senior year about the same topic they had previously written about in freshman year... he didnt site his older paper and since it was contained in the anti-plagarism database of the school he was deemed a cheater... bye-bye degree!</p>
<p>Yes, I think it's quite bizarre, but most universities force you to cite yourself. I suppose it might be plausible in the academic world where often papers are co-authored by several people.</p>
<p>How did he get caught?</p>
<p>our school uses turnitin.com and they found his old paper in the database that showed the parts he had used in a different paper</p>
<p>The citing oneself issue is very interesting</p>
<p>However there is an emerging larger problem and it's probably not a probem for students at undergrad per se but usually for individuals quite well beyond that point, and that is a case where you might have a person who (innately) on a routine basis is taking in vast amounts of data on a multiplicity of topics, sources which obviously include the writing and ideas of 3rd parties, someone who can deal with huge amounts of information who also perhaps is a very very fast reader and in effect can call up sustantive ideas and comments on some topic - and then combine these with their own thoughts and ideas</p>
<p>Generally one who has this kind of recall sorts the data by subject, however they don't necessarily know what fact, precise quote or idea - came from what precisely at what point</p>
<p>At some point, where ideas become synergized with one's own, it is sometimes nearly impossible to attribute each quote or (especially) idea</p>
<p>How do you put the papers and stuff on the site, I'm just curious, and also wondering why my school doesn't use it.</p>
<p>Did the kid cite the sources the same way he cited them in his original paper? If not, that's the problem.</p>
<p>
[quote]
our school uses turnitin.com and they found his old paper in the database that showed the parts he had used in a different paper
[/quote]
His old paper was posted on the internet? Or his old paper had been submitted to turnitin.com and they kept a record of it?</p>
<p>I don't understand this at all - if you already did research and came to a conclusion, you should be able to use aspects of that in a new paper. If the assignments in the same class have enough overlap that you were able to use the same ideas, I don't know what the teacher expects you to do, change your mind? I have used some of my previous thoughts/claims on assignments that were based on previous ones in the same class. Obviously you can't reuse full paragraphs or anything but it certainly makes sense to keep some of the more important parts if that is still how you feel. </p>
<p>It may be different if you're in a new class and take a complete copy of an old paper and submit it for the new class, that could be self-plagiarism. </p>
<p>Plenty of researchers in subjects like psychology use and discuss some of their previous claims in their newer research studies. And if just your unpublished previous essay I don't see the need to cite.</p>
<p>With turnitin, your teacher assigns a username/password for that class. You log onto the website and electronically upload your document/ paper. Then turnitin.com scans your papers with EVERYTHING in its database which includes thing it got from the internet and things from previous submissions. My teacher said that it is "normal" for a paper to be deemed as much as 50% plagiarized. Probably because the entire database is so big!</p>
<p>My D ran into this on a paper where the computer listed program listed similarities to stuff in the database - the teacher then figured out it was because of the "quotes" she had used - all sources were cited. So she was ok but it kind of freaked her out to where she is nervous now about using quotes too much. But how much is too much.</p>
<p>When I turn in the final draft of my 15*-page world religions research paper in January, it'll go through turnitin.com. I've never had a paper be run through this program, and I'm kind of interested about what will end up happening to it. My teacher explained that the results are color-coded; like, passages that are word-for-word plagiarized will come up in red (for instance; I don't know the color codes), and passages that are paraphrased/plagiarized will be in purple. I didn't plagiarize, so I'm not worried, but some of the kids in my class are nervous. Now, I've read a couple of their papers, and it's obvious a 16-year-old wrote them, so they've got nothing to worry about... I guess. We'll see.</p>
<p>*(More like 29, right now) <---Oh, look! I've gotten into the footnote habit! I love Chicago format. :D:p</p>
<p>... So, if students' papers are on the turnitin.com database, then a kid could be busted for plagiarism if his paper looks a lot like some kid no one's ever heard of who lives thirteen states away's paper? Even though that paper is not posted on the internet somewhere accessible? ...Well, I suppose the program is a tool, not the final word about whether a kid should get an F.</p>
<p>My world religions teacher has some funny plagiarism stories.
1) He used to teach at the university level, and he discovered that the frat houses had databases of student-written papers for all the classes. If a frat boy had a paper to turn in, he'd just take one of the papers in the database for that class/assignment, put his name on it, and turn it in. However, some of the frat boys were not real bright; one of them replaced with his own name the original author's name as it appeared on the cover page of the paper--but didn't notice that the other person's name was on every page of the paper in the header. :eek: :D:D:D
2) My teacher has published papers and books and such, of course (profs are kind of expected to). Well... ;) once he had a student plagiarize him. "I guess he thought I never read what I wrote." :p</p>
<p>generally, everyone's paper is plagiarized to some extent because if you're writing about a specific book or topic, people are likely to use the same quotes and therefore you aren't plagiarizing at all and the website highlights the parts of papers that are plagiarized so the teachers know who to bust and who not to. </p>
<p>but the real question i have is whether or not you guys think it's justified for this poor boy to have gotten a zero on his paper when the school plagiarism code strictly defines plagiarism as using someone else's intellectual property without citing them?</p>
<p>***??? r u freaking serious .i'm about to cry!! i just did an essay which worth a lot of pts. i used some of the sentences come from the internet ,like gradesavers sparknotes , i mean just a little but that counts is it ? oh my fg!!!!! i'm dead. COMPLETELY dead. the rest of them are quotes. how could i be so stupid!!!!! my teacher used turnitin.com . i'm dead.</p>
<p>^ plagiarism.. it ends in pain. :-\ I always cite my sources. I'm always terrified Ill say something wrong and get sued o.0.</p>