Annoying plagiarism question.

[Caracal]

I'm grading an out of class essay exam and found something clearly plagiarized. Annoying, but I'll just go through the standard steps with it. However, since the plagiarism was pretty obvious, I went back and looked at the student's previous exam. Sure enough, they lifted passages from various places there too. It wasn't as immediately obvious as the exam I just graded, which is probably why I missed it.

Should I go back and take away the grade for the previous exam too? Or should I just not reopen that issue since I already gave it a grade?

[Parasaurolophus]

I would forget about the one I missed and focus on the one I caught, but that's because I don't have the energy to pursue plagiarism cases very far (you do all the grunt work to kick it up the food chain like you're supposed to, and the admin just shrugs and ignores it).

[marshwiggle]

I'm grading an out of class essay exam and found something clearly plagiarized. Annoying, but I'll just go through the standard steps with it. However, since the plagiarism was pretty obvious, I went back and looked at the student's previous exam. Sure enough, they lifted passages from various places there too. It wasn't as immediately obvious as the exam I just graded, which is probably why I missed it.

Should I go back and take away the grade for the previous exam too? Or should I just not reopen that issue since I already gave it a grade?

I think from a legal perspective that would be sketchy. At least until the current case is resolved. Once whatever disciplanary body has ruled, it would be easier to infer whether or not bringing up the previous case would be worth it.

[arcturus]

It depends on the process at your school. In my case, I must have a meeting with the student before I file any reports. In the report, I summarize both the incident, what occurred during the meeting with the student, and what sanction I will apply. Thus, in your case, I would bring up both instances of plagiarism during the student meeting and make a decision then as to whether to apply sanctions to both acts, or just the most recent one, as both would be included in the same misconduct report. Our students have the right to appeal, which can drag out over several months, but I have yet to have my decisions overturned at the higher levels. Instead, I have sometimes found that I should have applied a more significant sanction based on the discovery materials presented, but our process only allows for lessening of the sanction, not increasing it at these later stages. In any event, it is important to follow the procedures in place at your institution precisely, so that the student cannot win on appeal because procedures were not followed.

[clean]

Here, there is a form for Academic Misconduct.  I would complete the form for EACH occurrence.  that was caught.

IF the penalty for plagiarism is an F in the course, then document them all, apply that penalty and then let the documentation stand. Here, the second offence (and that would be in another class or at least after this bundle of complaints was done) would be dealt with more severely (like Academic Suspension). 

I dont believe that there is a Statute of Limitations for cheating that is caught in the same term, in the same class! IF you found that a student plagiarized on an exam taken in the Spring, then I would say that YOU had too much time on your hands!! 

Let me ask it a different way... IF a student asked you to regrade a question that was incorrectly graded earlier in the term, would you NOT give them points if you made the grading mistake?  Why should the CHEATER benefit from your error?  WHY should the CHEATER have a better grade than they should (cheapening the grades of honest students?)

[RatGuy]

Here, instructors do not adjudicate misconduct cases. Upon discovering plagiarism, we forward all relevant materials to the office that handles those cases. If we assign a grade at any time before that case, a student cannot be found guilty.

Even without that procedure, I'm sure I would not change a previous grade. If I had control over penalty, then I'd take that previous case into account when issuing grade deductions. But I would not retroactively apply a misconduct penalty.

[apl68]

Has anybody else here ever dealt with plagiarism at a university that has a student Honor Council?  When I was a teaching assistant I and a fellow TA ran into a rash of plagiarism one semester.  We had to put several students before the Honor Council.  They convicted most of them. 

[clean]

My experience is that students can be pretty harsh in dealing with academic dishonesty. 

[AvidReader]

I've dealt with two similar situations, except in both cases the students had been writing in one particular way since high school and were then fairly far along in their college careers. In both instances, the students were asked up front in the Honor Council meetings whether previous work, if examined, would reflect the same issues. One ended up being an enormous legal battle and I wasn't especially involved (the parents threatened to sue the school for not having caught the plagiarism sooner!). In the other instance, the student admitted to having used the same technique throughout college. Because of the student's honesty, I believe the past grades were allowed to stand (Honor Council vote), and the student and I worked closely to learn and use correct referencing techniques and correct paraphrasing techniques. This one was one of my real academic successes; the student really embraced the lessons and went on to get a postgraduate degree to teach in my field.

In your case, I would probably, similarly, ask the student in our first meeting if the technique used in the essay was one the student had used previously; if acknowledged, I would ask the student to meet with me and work on correct paraphrasing and referencing procedures in future. If denied, I would reiterate ("so, if I look at your past work more closely, I won't find . . ."?) and might well send that other work to the honor council (or whomever) as well (depending, of course, on school procedures, which I see vary widely).

AR.

[secundem_artem]

My experience is that students can be pretty harsh in dealing with academic dishonesty.

Like apl and Clean, Artem College uses a student honor board.  There will be 1 faculty member to ensure the process does not go totally off the rails, but the students take this seriously and will not hesitate to lower the boom on one of their classmates.

[aside]

I would forget about the one I missed and focus on the one I caught, but that's because I don't have the energy to pursue plagiarism cases very far (you do all the grunt work to kick it up the food chain like you're supposed to, and the admin just shrugs and ignores it).

Then perhaps you should reconsider where you work or work toward reform at your institution.  Here we have an Honor Council that takes every instance of plagiarism quite seriously, whether caught the first time or not.

[Hegemony]

Yes, bring up both instances. They certainly establish a pattern, which is even worse than one instance. In my own classes, my syllabus warns that even one instance means they will fail the class (after the instance has been adjudicated and confirmed by our relevant office).  So technically it wouldn't matter in my class. But if your penalty is only to fail the assignment, you want to levy the penalty on both assignments, not just on one, even if retroactively. It should not be the case that "If you plagiarize and I don't catch it for a month or two, you're home free."

[waterboy]

I dealt with this exact situation a few years back. I simply forwarded all documented materials up the chain. The grad student (yes) is no longer with us...kicked out.

[Caracal]

I dealt with this exact situation a few years back. I simply forwarded all documented materials up the chain. The grad student (yes) is no longer with us...kicked out.

The way our system works, I check with the dean's office to see if there are previous offenses. If there are, it goes into a different process, but if this is a first offense, I can decide on a penalty-anything from failing the class to a zero on the assignment, to a rewrite. The student then has the option to accept the penalty or contest it. I'm inclined to impose a zero on this exam and not revisit the previous one. I agree with others that it might just complicate things too much.