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ChadwickKent · Joined: 30 Jan 2004 Posts: 55

My Chinese English teacher colleague had to make an emergency trip and asked me to grade 100 term papers on 2nd language acquisition.

The papers were very good. So good that I became suspicious. I just could not believe that so many top tier Chinese students were so capable. I thought these papers were too good to be true.

I sat down with my friend Google and was able to locate 40 of the papers on the internet. In fact, 10 of them were found using the paper title as the search words. That is right, even the titles were plagerized.

When I told my friend he just shrugged his shoulders. This led to a very heated argument and I lost a friend.

Now what do I do? Do I report this to the Dean? To the president? Do I go public and name names/

Or, do I just forget about it and let it go?

batman · Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 319 Location: china

give them all zero, make them rewrite. i bet you will get no support from the administration. i think it was a chinese employee at microsoft who came up with the cut/paste option.

Redfivestandingby · Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 1076 Location: Back in the US...

Yeah, administration won't do much about it but give them the zero anyway. Make it clear that those are not your standards and that you will not tolerate cheating.

It's too bad about the friendship loss.

ChadwickKent · Joined: 30 Jan 2004 Posts: 55

My former friend will turn in all passing grades.

Should I go over his head to his dean?

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I would add the real author's name, date of publication and the copyright in the name of the author, followed by:
"This is a copy only"

been_there · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 284 Location: 127.0.0.1

Amen, Roger.

Add the URL, too, for easy reference.

And no, I personally wouldn't go to the dean. Your friend asked you to grade the papers USING YOUR OWN CRITERIA (if he/she had asked to to grade them NO MATTER WHO ACTUALLY WROTE THEM, then that would be different), and you did. You gave plagerists zeros. If he/she wants to go back and grade them his/herself, thats his/her own time wasted. In many countries, copying is not seen as dishonest. Just make your statement and move on.... Sad

Atlas · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 662 Location: By-the-Sea PRC

Plagiarism in China doesn't have the same stigma attached to it as
some of us are accustomed to. It's not only tolerated, it's often the only way people would accept referenced work--that is, if a Chinese student wants to paraphrase someone, they are taught that it's ok to "cut and paste" whole blocks of text, it's a bigger offense to change the words of a so-called expert. These students can't understand why they get in trouble in western unis.

Are the papers 100% plagiarized? Or just heavily reliant on it?

Having said this, in my opinion it's another example of the culture normalizing laziness, unaccountability, and entitlement behavior. Not through any lack of moral underpinning, but through a kind of passive, "minimal effort" attitude. But then, it's a culture that purports to move from the top down, expecting conformity and not really encouraging individual actualized thought. No surprise the students reflect it.

For example, if you want to learn calligraphy, you have to copy the masters. You don't go off and make your own unique style without first mastering others. While this idea is sound from an artistic apprencticeship standpoint, it obviously doesn't encourage free exploration, and anybody with a nickel's worth of talent doesn't get the chance to find their unique artistic voice without having first paid homage to all who came before in history. It's as if saying, only the best are socially legitimate, the rest of you can go **** yourselves, you ******* amateurs.

But I'm not advocating cutting and pasting, either. Intellectual complaceny is its own punishment!

All i'm saying is this is one of those cultural differences that we could take arms against, and still find ourselves in a sea of trouble.

Don't lose sleep over them. If they can't lift a finger to help themselves, you can't force an education into them. It certainly doesn't reflect upon your personal teaching standards!

ChadwickKent · Joined: 30 Jan 2004 Posts: 55

The original paper was written about L2 acquisition in Japan.

The term paper just changed "Japan" to "China."

100% copied otherwise.

Atlas · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 662 Location: By-the-Sea PRC

no work, no grade!

ChadwickKent · Joined: 30 Jan 2004 Posts: 55

http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/languageacquisition_files/languageacquisition.htm

just change Japan to China and change the name of the author

goeastyoung(ish)man! · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 139 Location: back in US

I had the same situation in my 3rd year writing class. Of course they were my students and I flunked 5 or 6 of them mostly for plagiarism. I warned them Spring Semester no second chances. I think they believe me now. Of course I flunked them but I don't know if they are still flunked. I will be suspicious if there are new swimming pools or basketball courts at the school, or nicer cars for the leadership...

As for losing a friend over it, do you mean "friend" as is generally understood? I mean someone you can trust and respect? I don't think you lost much, maybe some guanxi though. It is his class, let him change the grade, but don't change yours or sign anything other than the grades you gave. Good for you! It is not "Western values" you are upholding, it is basic honesty, integrity and education.