Plagiarism!!!

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by VJ
Urban Ranger posted an unwarranted personal attack as a strawman and Tingkai spam-trolled this thread. Where are the bans?

hey, I made perfectly valid points. If there is anyone trolling here it's you. And knowing Dashie, there's nothing wrong with suggesting he is a racist. To complain about that is like complaining about people who say Cali is a racist.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
It is sad to see in some areas cheating is not seen as that bad of a vice. I wonder if the parents don't care as well. I know when I was in high school that no student wanted their parents to know they cheated (if they did), because that wouldn't have ended well.

In Turkey, parents of cheaters used to come in and plead the case for their kids! That always used to floor me, because if I had ever cheated my dad's only involvement would have been to kick my ass.

My favorite story in this regard: my wife had a student who turned in a suspiciously erudite paper; a few seconds with Google turned up the original essay, so my wife flunked the student. Next thing you know, the student and her mother are in my wife's office, vehemnetly denying plagiarism. My wife, exasperated, Googles up the paper right in front of them.

At that point, something weird happens: both student and parent lapse into shocked silence, then begin arguing in Turkish. Finally, they come clean, and explain their shock:

The student, in fact, hadn't plagiarized the paper. Instead, she -- through her mother -- had paid a professor at another university to write the paper for her, and he had plagiarized the paper! No honor among thieves, I guess.

[Jon Miller]

In the US, it can be very hard to prosecute a cheating accusation, and a lot of professors don't want to do it. Most professors would prefer to handle it themselves (flunk the test for example).

Jon Miller

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
The student, in fact, hadn't plagiarized the paper. Instead, she -- through her mother -- had paid a professor at another university to write the paper for her, and he had plagiarized the paper! No honor among thieves, I guess.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Tingkai
Maybe Americans are somehow different from everyone else, but the cheaters I knew in Canada never admitted they had done anything wrong, or showed guilt or shame.

Instead, they usually blamed someone else, or the system, or used the old standby excuse: everybody does it, but they were caught. The usual BS.

Mind you, I would be hearing about it after the fact. You're catching them in the act. Stilll, I would not be surprised if an American acted differently from a Turk when caught doing something wrong. Different cultures have different ways of expressing shame and guilt. Maybe that is the explanation.

I'm sure they haven't. But is cheating in Canada at such a scale that the school may not only permit it but encourage it? Did your writing professors have to throw away 50% of their students assignments every week because they were plagarized or copied from eachother? I don't think you see the issue being discussed here, if you don't see the difference.

Dashie has demonstrated numerous times that despite his time in China, he never learned to understand Chinese cultural contexts and as a result, he was constantly misreading situations.

But if I'm on your ignore list, how can you claim to know what I post? Nor do you correct any of my statements. I'm open to other's opinions if they can demonstrate them properly. Besides, like UR, you have yet to show where I am mistaken in cultural interpretations. I admit to not being an expert. However, I base my interpretations on not only what I've seen but what I've discussed with natives of the culture to gain a better understanding of my perceptions. If you disagree, please state clearly why. I'd like to hear your opinions, if they are so divergent from my that you must regularly resort to insults to expend your rage.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Agathon
Oddly enough, the worst case of plagiarism I came across was from a Chinese student, but I don't think that they are any worse than the Canadian students for cheating.

That a good point. As I've said, I've never known any Chinese or Chinese-Americans to be any more prone to cheat in America. This is why I was surprised when I came to China. I expected hardworking students, perhaps a little too devoted to their studies. When I arrived, it was quite different. They weren't that different from American college students. What was different was the system. In a similar system, I'm sure cheating would be just as endemic in the US or other countries.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Out of curiosity, wouldn't having such blatant plagiarists at a university cause a loss of face for the institution? Why would thier be such lax enforcement among the educational system?

For academics, it's a gamble. If the person plagiarizes and gets away with it, the institution can gain prestige from his "work." Notice from the article that most of the cases involve Chinese academics stealing from eachother. Given the current treatment of intellectual property within China, its not difficult to see how easy ideas and work can be stolen.

For students, it's all about prestige. Most universities are run for profit. The higher the grades of the students or the more students who go abroad, the greater the prestige of the school and thus the more they can charge the students. The image of the school is directly tied with the image of the students, so the cheating that does occur is simply ignored so not to draw outside attention to it. Many Chinese teachers I spoke with lamented about the trend toward the students gaining more authority than the instructors. Many teachers would permit cheating or inflate grades to avoid getting a bad evaluation from students.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
In the US, it can be very hard to prosecute a cheating accusation, and a lot of professors don't want to do it. Most professors would prefer to handle it themselves (flunk the test for example).

Jon Miller

Even that can be tricky. I know of one case, in fact -- at the University of Missouri -- where a student was seen cheating on an exam by all 6 of the TA's proctoring the test (once one saw him, she made sure to get everyone else to witness what she'd seen before turning him in). The professor then duly flunked the student.

This being America, though, the student then hired a lawyer -- and the university, with no stomach for litigation, backed down -- and actually threatened todiscipline the TAs!

[Drake Tungsten]

copied from eachother

That's a big problem here. I figured out long ago that expecting my high school students to do their work on their own was foolish. They always copy off each other's work, even on individual, graded assignments. Bit of a culture shock at first, but none of the Japanese teachers seem to mind and it definitely makes my job easier. You can grade papers very quickly when the same content pops up again and again on numerous papers...

And for what it's worth, I suspect that because this cultural observation reflects badly on Japanese students, UR and Tingkai will have no problems with it.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

copied from eachother

That's a big problem here. I figured out long ago that expecting my high school students to do their work on their own was foolish. They always copy off each other's work, even on individual, graded assignments. Bit of a culture shock at first, but none of the Japanese teachers seem to mind and it definitely makes my job easier. You can grade papers very quickly when the same content pops up again and again on numerous papers...

When I came across a paper copied from a classmate, I'd just go back to the first one I saw give it a zero and tell the other one to check his friend's paper for the grade. Yes, copying did make grading much easier, but since the next lesson would consist of dealing with shared errors, a lot of copies make for a shorter lesson plan.

And for what it's worth, I suspect that because this cultural observation reflects badly on Japanese students, UR and Tingkai will have no problems with it.

I doubt we'll see much more of them here. They've played all their cards.

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, you aren't suppose to flunk the student. You are suppose to send it to het campus lawyers...

One time I caught students cheating (talking during a lab test), I just threatened them and they were better behaved for the rest of the semester. I and a TA found a student cheating (They were allowed calculators, his ran out of batteries, he gave it to the other TA to fix or replace, and the TA found a cheat sheet slipped between the cover and the calculator), the professor just took the students test (probably not the best way to handle it, but it worked I think).

I would have expected the TAs to have won since there were 6 of them. Mostly are anti-cheating strategy is to be watching over their shoulders and to keep them apart. If we think someone is spying on someone elses paper, we move them.

We do find people who obviously cheated though (on the tests). (there is no way that people could do the same stupid misread, the same stupid steps, the same stupid errors, etc)

But we don't really do anything about that. (except watch them more carefully in the future)

Jon Miller
(although on the second one, if the student and brought lawyers...)

[loinburger]

Originally posted by DaShi
For academics, it's a gamble. If the person plagiarizes and gets away with it, the institution can gain prestige from his "work." Notice from the article that most of the cases involve Chinese academics stealing from eachother. Given the current treatment of intellectual property within China, its not difficult to see how easy ideas and work can be stolen.

In Computer Science, (in my experience) conference submissions made by Chinese nationals are routinely given a higher level of scrutiny -- it reflects poorly on the conference if they publish plagiarized work.

[civman2000]

Here's a cheating story I've heard: after getting back tests with a bad grade, the student would erase their answers, replace them with the correct ones, and then go complain to the professor that the test was graded incorrectly. Once people figured out what was going on, the grader started photographing the student's tests before returning them. Then, when he came to complain, they showed him the pictures!

[Japher]

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512948

Student’s Novel Faces Plagiarism Controversy

Book by Kaavya Viswanathan ’08 contains similarities to earlier author’s works

Published On Sunday, April 23, 2006 11:28 PM

By DAVID ZHOU

Crimson Staff Writer
Editor's Note: This story has been updated from its original version.

A recently-published novel by Harvard undergraduate Kaavya Viswanathan ’08, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” contains several passages that are strikingly similar to two books by Megan F. McCafferty—the 2001 novel “Sloppy Firsts” and the 2003 novel “Second Helpings.”

At one point, “Opal Mehta” contains a 14-word passage that appears verbatim in McCafferty’s book “Sloppy Firsts.”

In that example, McCafferty writes on page 6 of her first novel: “Sabrina was the brainy Angel. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart. Guess which one I got. You’ll see where it’s gotten me.”

Viswanathan writes on page 39 of her novel: “Moneypenny was the brainy female character. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty. I had long resigned myself to category one, and as long as it got me to Harvard, I was happy. Except, it hadn’t gotten me to Harvard. Clearly, it was time to switch to category two.”

The italics appear in the originals.

Page 237 of McCafferty’s first novel reads: “Finally, four major department stores and 170 specialty shops later, we were done.” Similarly, Viswanathan wrote on page 51 of her novel: “Five department stores, and 170 specialty shops later, I was sick of listening to her hum along to Alicia Keys....”

McCafferty first learned about the similarities on April 11 in an e-mail from a fan, according to her agent Joanna Pulcini. Pulcini said that she has notified Random House, which published both of McCafferty’s novels, about the matter.

‘SECOND HELPINGS’

The parallels between Viswanathan’s novel and McCafferty’s second work are equally striking. For instance, page 67 of “Second Helpings” reads: “...but in a truly sadomasochistic dieting gesture, they chose to buy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon.”

And Viswanathan writes on page 46 of “Opal Mehta”: “In a truly masochistic gesture, they had decided to buy Diet Cokes from Mrs. Fields...”

All three novels chart the lives of teenage girls living in suburban New Jersey. “Second Helpings” is a sequel to “Sloppy Firsts.”

More examples of similar passages in Viswanathan's book and McCafferty's two novels can be found here.

When The Crimson reached Viswanathan on her cell phone Saturday night and informed her of the similarities between “Opal Mehta” and “Sloppy Firsts,” the sophomore said, “No comment. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

She did not return an e-mail request for comment yesterday.

McCafferty, the author of three novels and a former editor at the magazine Cosmopolitan, wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson Saturday night: “I’m already aware of this situation, and so is my publisher.”

In a follow-up e-mail yesterday, McCafferty wrote, “After reading the book in question, and finding passages, characters, and plot points in common, I do hope this can be resolved in a manner that is fair to all of the parties involved.”

‘WE ARE TAKING THESE ALLEGATIONS VERY SERIOUSLY’

Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, said that the publishing house is “taking these allegations very seriously.”

When asked whether Random House had contacted Viswanathan’s publisher, Little, Brown, about the matter, Applebaum said: “Publishing protocol dictates that one contacts the publisher of the book whose text may bear alleged similarities. So it is customary, it would be customary, for us to reach out to the publisher you name.”

Little, Brown signed Viswanathan to a two-book, $500,000 contract while she was in high school. This is the first book that the Harvard sophomore has produced for the publisher under that deal, and it reached 32nd on the New York Times’ hardcover fiction bestseller list this week.

Representatives from Little, Brown could not be reached for comment.

DreamWorks has purchased the movie rights to Viswanathan’s novel. A DreamWorks spokesman, Bob Feldman, said Saturday night that the studio could not immediately comment on the matter.

‘MINISCULE VARIATIONS’

Neither Harvard College’s Administrative Board Guide for Students nor the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Student Handbook mention the ramifications of non-academic plagiarism.

“Our policies on plagiarism apply to work submitted to courses, so questions of academic dishonesty would not apply in cases of non-academic work,” Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 wrote in an e-mail on Sunday. “Nevertheless, we expect Harvard students to conduct themselves with integrity and honesty at all times.”

Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies Werner Sollors, after reviewing a list of 24 similar passages found in “Opal Mehta” and “Sloppy Firsts,” wrote in an e-mail yesterday: “Judging by the excerpts you have assembled, and three department stores and 169 specialty shops later, it looks as though some strong version of anxiety of influence could clearly be detected in ‘How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,’ all the more so because of those miniscule variations that change ‘Human Evolution’ to ‘Psych’ in the hope of making the result less easily googleable.”

She (Kaavya Viswanathan) was on Good Morning America or Today or some show this morning and I think she seemed very sincere. She admitted to having read the books and contends that the similarities are by chance.

IMO, plagerism needs to be in whole, not in part. I am pretty sure if I read every book ever writen I could lots of similarities, especially if the books are on the same topic, bewteen two books writen without the knowledge of the other books existance.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Moneypenny was the brainy female character.

Moneypenny?! Ack! He's made it in books now!!