Plagiarism Hall of Fame

As a college instructor who has taught a lot of writing-intensive classes, I have seen my share of plagiarism and other academic dishonesty. I have certainly not seen it all, but I have seen enough to know that most plagiarists fall into the following categories:

1. The Desperate. This is by far the most common. For one of any number of reasons--a high-school career that imparted no writing or research skills, huge pressure from family, English-language issues--otherwise-nice students are driven to dishonesty because they feel like there is no other way. The instructor's reaction to this sort of plagiarism is usually much more lenient than to Type 2 Dishonesty (see below), because often times the student is so ill-prepared for college-level work that s/he does not even realize that cut-and-pasting from Wikipedia is not allowed (actually, it's a crime, but as I've discussed, my drive to felonize plagiarism has not met with a good response. YET). I can't speak for the entire professoriat, but what I personally will do in this case is give the assignment a preliminary F or D and call the student in for a "Come-to-Academic-Secular-Version-of-Jesus" moment. I give them some extra help on future assignments if they'll take it (they usually will!), and more often than not, they are scared straight.

2. The Malicious. This is far less common, or at least I like to think so. This is the one that really breaks an instructor's heart. Malicious plagiarism happens when a student has feelings about the course, or college in general, that are for some reason so negative that s/he feels as if s/he is entitled to a good grade but above the work--which, lest I risk over-repeating, is not that hard in the first place. As a result, the student either "borrows ideas" from another student in a different section, or, worse, copies-and-pastes off some dubious source online, or, EVEN WORSE, pays someone's hard-earned money to a horrible paper mill that employs bona fide douchebags like this asshole. When plagiarism can be proven to be malicious (when, e.g., a student first denies it, then admits to it but offers a sob story about Tough Personal Problems, and then posts a bunch of videos of him/herself partying in Mexico on his/her public Facebook profile--just a random example), then at least I adopt a Take No Prisoners attitude. I will generally do the harshest thing available to me--usually an F on the assignment and a referral to some Dean or other--and then refer it upwards. 

Though we all prefer Type 1 Dishonesty simply for the good of humanity, the purpose of Paper Intervention is to help prevent BOTH types. Like I said, even if you have cheated and gotten away with it in the past, I am not here to judge you (really), I am here to help you see that it is actually easier and better in the long run to just do the work yourself. Remember: you're an undergraduate (probably: if not, SHAME ON YOU ZOMG! I mean, no judgements! Er...), it doesn't even have to be that good. Please post any queries you want into the comments here or email me for a one-on-one consultation if you want.

Instructor-Friends: Please feel free to post your own Plagiarism Halls of Fame in the comments and help students see how transparent it is!