Weee class failing
<div class="IPBDescription">Too deep for EN101, apparently.</div>So, yeah. Professor pulled me aside today and told me I'm failing the class. And I'm like 'Wtf m8, I've got straight A's.' And he's all like, 'Nuu, your papers have been too deep for this level and I'm suspecting plagiarism, rewrite them or you're kicked out.'
So, what should I do?
So, what should I do?
Comments
If so, rewrite them, and don't be a twit this time around <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
If not, then bring it up to the Dept, there is normally procedure you can go through.
As a note however, as some one that has spent most of his life surrounded by Academia:
Plagiarism is SERIOUS, and can cover things ranging amongst:
Copying a paper verbatim (buying one online, etc)
Copying swaths of a something with out properly citing.
Taking a paper and rewording it.
Taking a concept and rewording it can be a touchy one, generally you should provide sources if you do something like this.
Plagiarism will get your thrown out of most schools if it is proven, however, the burden of proof is on your prof, not you.
This can be particularly amusing if you use some of your older work in a new paper as it will come up as likely plagiarized!
Oh, this is also interesting as people could probably could get a good suit going against turnitin and/or the college as the student does technically own the intellectual rights to their paper, and turnitin using your work with out your consent, is illegal <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
It just seems like he's being pretentious.
I mean, I referenced a bit here and there, but I gave credit as best as I could on all of it.
Start giving him your first drafts.
Did already. Hell, he SAW me write the paper up that he said 'called him to attention on all of this.' or whatever.
what's this guy doing as a professor if he honestly thinks no one has writing talent, and that all writing should sound about the same, depending on the grade level of the person doing the writing? Tell him to try reading a book sometime, he might notice that not all books sound the same.
Surely the dean or whomever will understand that? If not, your Uni sucks.
IF you are not comfortable going directly to the Dept then I would suggest talking to one of these people/groups:
1) Dean for your year (many schools have this)
2) Dean of students (often this person is in charge of helping students when they have academic problems)
3) Counseling Dept. Many schools have counselors that are just there to answer questions for you.
4) Academic advising. Depending on the school them ight be able to help
5) Your adviser. again, depending on the school, they are often there to just give you advice about classes, but some are willing to go the extra mile anyway.
Simply enough, you didn't plagiarize, thus the prof can't do anything to you with out proof.
It just seems like he's being pretentious.
<b>I mean, I referenced a bit here and there, but I gave credit as best as I could on all of it.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Uhhhh.
If you honestly didn't plagiarize (And only you know this) then you can fix this very easily. However if you "maybe sorta" plagiarized... well...
The guy sounds like an ###### though.
If you honestly didn't plagiarize (And only you know this) then you can fix this very easily. However if you "maybe sorta" plagiarized... well...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No, see, I gave direct references to everything I had down. Now, maybe he called me out for not giving the direct word number and stanza number of a quote from a poem, or something. Then, sure. No problem. I'd redo it.
But he was just being really vague about it in class, and he originally gave me an A on the paper, so I can't see what's up.
But if your teacher's a ###### I say bring him the rough draft (What was that graded?) and if he's still going to be a ###### take it to the higher ups.
Bad professors think they can get away with anything in 100-level classes.
What you need to do is write him a nice verbose email and explain that you <b>cannot</b> explain why he's under the impression that you cheated. Say lots, don't repeat yourself, stay polite. Provide him with any drafts you have and <b>any and all sources you used</b>.
Failing that, see your head of school.
Good luck!
--Scythe--
But if your teacher's a ###### I say bring him the rough draft (What was that graded?) and if he's still going to be a ###### take it to the higher ups.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
your english teacher gave a C+ to a paper he thought was the best thing he'd read in 15 years? or between the rough draft and the final paper you improved it from C+ material to "best paper ever" material? and when he graded the final draft he had already forgotten the rough draft?
I think I had a similar experience. I wrote an English sonnet for class once. The teacher asked if I really wrote it, and when I did, she took my word for it. I had tiny classes in high school so she knew my writing style at least a little so that she believed me. Said it was awesome, and I found out years later that she used it as an example when she gave the assignment to future classes. it made me feel warm and fuzzy.
I'd ask him exactly what he thinks you plagiarised, or where he's getting this impression from. On my course we have to walk a sort of fine line between under referencing and over referencing (in case different terms are used anywhere, "referencing" in this use is where you write a list of the books you got the ideas/passages/phrases from at the end of the essay). If something is "common knowledge", or at least common in the field you're studying, you don't have to reference it, and you may actually be penalised if you do... but what you think is common knowledge might not actually be common at all etc...
So maybe it's something like that. You've written down something you think is a common phrase or idea or something, or you've inadvertently re-written someone else's idea without giving proper credit, which does happen from time to time.
I think I had a similar experience. I wrote an English sonnet for class once. The teacher asked if I really wrote it, and when I did, she took my word for it. I had tiny classes in high school so she knew my writing style at least a little so that she believed me. Said it was awesome, and I found out years later that she used it as an example when she gave the assignment to future classes. it made me feel warm and fuzzy.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
He gave me a C+ on the rough draft, so I fixed everything he pointed out and added some and it warranted the thought of plagiarism. Luckily with the draft he saw his mistake, so it didn't have to get complicated.
I just got a paper back from him in my Mass Communications class (Yeah, he dual-teaches.) and he had scribbled on there that it was the best paper he'd ever read and that I show great originality and ingenuity.
Wtf m8?
So if you submit your paper to TurnItIn and it comes up with no exact matches, that's no proof you didn't cheat?
At the very least, it's a strong piece of evidence. Maybe I don't understand how the site works.
I just got a paper back from him in my Mass Communications class (Yeah, he dual-teaches.) and he had scribbled on there that it was the best paper he'd ever read and that I show great originality and ingenuity.
Wtf m8?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
He doesn't know who you are, probably teaches to many large classes and wasn't really looking at names <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
However, b/c every one is getting on the guy's case I will play devil's advocate.
Cheating is a BIG thing to profs, and in this day and age it is VERY easy to cheat, and getting harder and harder to catch people. I can go online and buy my self all the papers needed to pass most classes, and a good number of those papers include instructions on how to modify them. Things like TurnItIn help profs, but are not 100%. You can also go to a senior that passed the class and pay them to write the paper for you. Something like this will not be caught by looking for your source material simply because your 'source material' is some one else. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), the burden of proof is on the prof. The have to show that you actually DID commit plagiarism. So yes, some profs will try to scare you into rewriting the papers because they are sure that you did cheat, but they have no way of proving it.
So cut them some slack, they have to deal with people that honestly ARE cheating every semester, and often there is nothing they can do about it.
Now, I am still not saying that you should bend over and take it. Confront him, if he refuses to drop the accusation, take it to the dept chair or dean of the division.