<p>I don’t think that a professor would automatically failing a student over something like that, if that’s the full story. At worst, that sounds like an unnecessary digression depending on the focus of the paper but if the paper was otherwise good I think he would have probably just lost points or something. This is why I think this story is kind of confusing.</p>
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<p>Depending on the course, the professor might have additional requirements on what’s an acceptable source. I agree that a blanket prohibition on a source is usually heavy-handed but if the professor wanted them to focus on more academic resources and the student pulled up something from Perez Hilton’s site or quoted extensively from Snooki’s lectures then obviously there’s a problem. There are some professors that don’t even allow Internet sources at all, regardless of their relevance or their quality (ie, you can’t even use an Internet version of an academic journal that the university subscribes to; you have to go and find the paper copy).</p>