Plagiarism?!

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I think that wikipedia is a brave experiment but it is flawed becuase it has no quaility control other than what the mob decide.

I am glad that the tale of the essay turned out alright in the end.

Take it as a veiled compliment! She plainly thinks it's "too good to be true".

But of course be sure to complain and push her to provide evidence for her claim (which she will obviously not have). If she is not forthcoming, contact a more senior member of the faculty. In fact, double the effect by airing your grievance in writing, in precisely the same eloquent and articulate tones set out in the original essay.

Edit: I hadn't read the whole thread before responding. Glad to hear you have it sorted now.

The incompetence of students was brought up several times in this thread, and I more or less agree. However, no one made mention of the piss poor TA's that seem to be proliferating (I've run across a few moronic instructors as well, but less so). I never understood why master's students were allowed to mark essays, it's a little like a grade 12 student marking the papers of students from lower grades. It's f*****g absurd. First year, maybe, but 3rd and 4th year? Absolutely not.

OK some TAs are not the model postgrads I would like them to be, some are lazy, some are a bit silly and some even spend all the time chasing the undergrads with the intention of chatting them up.

But on balance you are better off at university with postgrad TAs than you would be without them.

1. The university would be unable to afford to get postdocs and academics to do all the teaching, if they did then fees would go through the roof.

2. Many of todays TAs will never end up as academics, they will leave the university sector for a range of reasons..... but the work they do as TAs is part of the training process of the next generation of academics. Without a supply of young academics the university sector would fall down like a house of cards within a decade or two.

3. In the physcial sciences the TAs oftein have more recent lab expereince than the academics, the academic has to spend a lot of time chasing after research funding, doing admin, teaching and other things which keep them out of the lab. So sometimes a younger teacher can be more help one of the best types are the postdocs, they tend to have more experience than PhD students but oftein they have less time for teaching becuase they have such a large research workload.

4. The postgrads are not just let loose on the undergrads, they do get some training and supervision.

Since I am both a college student myself presently, who just completed a semester of Honors Rhetoric & Research, as well as the son of a former high school English teacher, present day Assistant Professor of Communications at Northwestern ("Bible") College in Roseville, MN, I felt that I should probably join the discussion.

Given my background, let me share with you some tips and practical wisdom when it comes to writing research papers.

First of all, Vigilans: Thank you, thank you, thank you a MILLION and a half times over for bringing this all important subject to the attention of Aspies, and for sharing your recent experience. I think that "Woodpecker" would wholeheartedly agree with me that this all important subject is discussed so little and is given so little time and attention in the "real" world, that it almost begs discussion (especially among Aspies,) so thank you!

This is for ALL you Aspies out there!

Research papers should be written in Times New Roman, 12 point font and 1 inch margins on ALL sides. Your paper title should ALSO be Times New Roman, 12 point, CENTERED, NO Bold! Your paper title should also NOT be all capitalized! ALL paragraphs should be indented either 5 spaces from the left justification or 1 tab. IF you have Microsoft Office Word 2007, at the top of the page, on your ruler, you should have something that says "paragraph." Next to "paragraph," there should be a little box with an arrow in it that you can click on. Click on it. Under "Indents & Spacing," It should say "General." Under "General," it should say: "Alignment." Make sure it says "Left." Under "Outline Level, it should say "Body Text." Under General, it should say "Indentation." Make sure that Left and Right both read 0. "Special" should say "none."
The "Mirror Indents" box should be left un-clicked. Under "Spacing," "Before" and "After" should both be 0. Under "Line Spacing," choose "Double" from the dropdown menu. Click the box that says "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style." BEFORE clicking on "Okay," go and click on the "Line and Page Breaks" tab. Make sure that the "Widow/ Orphan Control" box is UN-CHECKED! You may now click on "Okay" and begin typing your paper.

In the course of writing your paper, make sure to save it every few minutes, so that you don't have to hassle with going back and re-writing and re-writing.

In terms of a Research paper, my Honors Rhetoric & Research Professor always made it a point to stress the fact that our papers should have "Voice." When it comes to "Voice," "First Person" (words like I, Me, you, etc) can be used ONLY in cases of a "Narrative" Essay format. On all other Essay writing assignments, do NOT use "First Person." Although the writing style of the assignment should reflect SOME of the writer's "voice" or "personality," (in an in-direct manner,) great care should be taken in writing your essay in such a way that it is written with your assigned "audience" in mind.

In the body of your paper, when directly (or even in-directly) quoting or paraphrasing someone's words or a particular researched source, MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE AN IN-PAPER REFERENCE CITATION next to, or at the end of your quote! When you do not do that, and you make someone else's words your own, THAT is when "Plagarism" occurs!

If you have questions regarding "source citations," see your Professor/Teacher!

In my Honors Rhetoric & Research course, what was also incredibly helpful, was the MLA Citation booklet, which was apart of the class textbook requirements. It is a simple, green in color, paperback book, entitled A Guide to MLA Documentation, written by Joseph F. Trimmer.

The in-paper citation should look like this: (Trimmer, pg#.)

The "Works Cited" Page Citation should look like this: Trimmer, Joseph F. A Guide to MLA Documentation. (All underlined.) 7th Edition. Houghton Mifflin. New York. Page numbers used.

Hope this is helpful for everyone.

I believe this is what they use at the college where I work to check papers for plagiarism:
http://turnitin.com/static/products.htm ... y_checking

Hey, Greyhound. How are 'ya? My Honors English Professor at North Central University in Minneapolis, MN had us turn all of our major papers into TurnItIn.com. Once you become familiar with the site and how to submit your stuff, it's actually pretty slick.

I highly recommend the utilization of TurnItIn.com.