<p>Hey recently I got an email from the Emory honor council saying that I might have violated the honor code. It turns out that it involved my final bio lab write up assignment, and someone had copied a portion of my lab report. It was sort of my fault to have sent out my report to someone else, but I had no idea someone else would imprudently copy and paste one paragraph of my lab report, given that there was SafeAssign (program that detects plagiarism) implemented. I truly had no intention of letting someone copy from my report, I only intended to give him a temporary guidance, and sort of give him an idea of the structure to follow for the lab report.</p>
<p>The honor council said that they will hold a meet with me in the beginning of next semester.</p>
<p>So my question is, what can I do at this point? How can I prepare for the meeting?
Is sending my lab report to other people a violation of honor code?
What is my likely penalty?</p>
<p>You’re basically done for. Kelly White will rip you to pieces. </p>
<p>If you want any hope for walking away unscathed from this, I would tell the council basically what you said. I would say that this person asked to look at my report for some guidance in how to structure the report. The person who copied your report was also notified by Honor Council. In this case, I would speak with him/her and ask that they confess to the council that they copied from you, and not the other way around, and that you agreed to show this person your report simply for structural guidance and nothing more. </p>
<p>If what jsrmoto says is true–that “you’re basically done for” and that “your chances are slim, however”–then I would get a lawyer, or at least see a lawyer and get some advice. You’ll need every help you can get.</p>
<p>Whatever argument you put up is going to be ripped to shreds (they’ve heard every story before).
Just take the penalty like a man, and work your ass off to make up for it. When you’re applying for graduate school, they’ll ask you about it and you’ll have to be like “I ****ed up, but I’ve changed”.
Really nothing else you can do.</p>
<p>It’s understandable that I might get in to deep trouble for this, but all I did was send my file to the other person for him to look at. What do you think is the worst that could happen? What specific penalties could I get from this?</p>
<p>Some sort of mark on your record. Did you keep record of the e-mails that were exchanged w/the person who you lended your paper to? I don’t know how the honor council hearings work, but if such e-mails have enough content to suggest an attempt at innocent assistance that was likely abused by the receipient, then I would imagine it could help.</p>