NWR: Just need to vent about my Professor

Less than 25%) BUT it is mainly my reference list. I CAN'T change that!!! I bit the bullet and bought more credits for WriteCheck since the free one I was using didn't flag ANY of this. With my reference list, it's at 20% without it, I'm at 10%. What a way to spend Thanksgiving morning! Can I start drinking now????

I'm confused.

How does a reference list (do you mean a works cited/bibliography?) come out to be plagiarized?

Colleges are sticklers for formatting. I was writing Chicago/Turabian for years, and something changed in my years. I had no clue. So when I submitted my thesis (with two professor approving it), the dean rejected it due to formatting errors. I fixed them and all was good and I graduated, but formatting can be a bitch.

Just do what the professor says.

The program they are using (SafeAssign) does not distinguish between the body of the paper and the reference list (like WriteCheck does). All it does is flagged things that are the same as other students' papers. So, when you use the same references (journal articles and websites that you were told to use) it flags is as being in another student's paper. I have rewritten this thing seven times now. I'm about to give up!

Did your professor say that she gave you a zero because of the 41% plagiarism? Or did she not say at all what the zero was for? Could it have possibly been a mistake when she entered her grade book and maybe the person right below you was supposed to get a zero and she was just one line off in her spreadsheet (or however professors prefer to grade)? I would contact your professor directly to see what the reason for the zero was as I think you have a right to know whether it was from the plagiarism or if it was actual content of the paper. And if it was the plagiarism, could you show her proof that the bits it picks up is just from your references list? I mean others will cite the same things so that's natural I suppose that it comes up. I guess if she really thinks you plagiarized half of your paper then that warrants a zero but the fact that she always says "Good Job" to you makes me think maybe the zero was for someone else. In any case I would email her ASAP to clarify.

I rewrote the damn thing SEVEN times (not the whole paper, just certain sections). After bouncing the score from 26% back up to 32%, I just eliminated the two sentences that kept getting flagged. It's currently at 21%, so I'm leaving it alone. But I am seriously in tears here. I have never had these kinds of issues before!!! HIH, she actually said "there is lots of good content here". There were a few particular things I added after watching her videos. Seriously going to start drinking (mimosas to start). I have three chapters to read, a discussion to post, and a paper to write before Saturday because I work all weekend and leave for vacation Monday when I get off work. We will be driving for nine hours two days in a row! Yes, I'm whining and the schedule is my own fault because I was unwilling to give up something I have done for 15 years.

Thanks for the suggestions and support. I'm going to have a mini breakdown, then get my butt in gear to get this stuff done.

Hmmm that sounds really weird, so it does sound like it's the plagiarism factor if she said she liked the content. The only thing I can think of is using more obscure references lol! Probably won't help your content though. I'd be really frustrated too but hopefully this professor is a human being and open to reasoning. If she still accuses you of plagiarism you can easily take that to a university level (keep all documentation of any correspondence) and with this site you paid for you can prove what the problem was and that your work really is your own. The university will take your side if there is clear proof. It is hard to dispute a grade and could take some time for a grade to change on your transcript since it could take a while to go through the process, but it could be worth it. Even just threatening your professor about taking it to the University level might be enough to convince her that you know you didn't plagiarize.

I know how plagiarism checks work. :-) I use them at work. But I didn't realize you were using the same references as everyone else in the class.

This continues to sound weird. I use SafeAssign at work and when something is marked as plagiarized, we (teachers and professors) have the ability to look at what is plagiarized to determine if it's real plagiarism or if it's something harmless, like the repeating of your sources.

If this happens again, and you're sure you did not plagiarize anything, I would ask to see the report SafeAssign makes available to teachers and professors.

As for the jumping up from 26 to 32, couldn't you have just cited the source rather than delete the sentences?

@ E-Tex, in my experience, it doesn't just check against other papers in the class. It checks all papers in the database. It can be schoolwide, or in the case at my college, worldwide.

This used to happen in my class too, but the software my university uses (Turnitin) allowed me to hide the reference list. I don't know if my students could do it, but I was able to do it when grading them.

What did she say to you specifically about plagiarism? Did she mention the 41%? Could you get back to her and tell her what's going on?

I love TurnItIn, WriteCheck is student version, for that feature. I don't know if she looked at the report or just saw the score. Just grateful that she is allowing me to resubmit it. The problem I had is that when using a government website and you need to include a list of things, there are only so many ways to rewrite that list. And when saying, the definition of something, there's only of few ways of doing that. I eliminated the definition and am going on the premise of the vast majority knowing the definition. I did email her that the only thing being flagged now are in-text citations and the reference list. She is definitely a stickler. She does not allow you to quote anything (I didn't, that's just one of her guidelines), saying at this level we should know how to paraphrase. She can see how many times I resubmitted it, so she knows I was trying.

Ugh. I had a professor just like this (though thankfully before plagiarism software was so widespread...we were left to our own consciences....) The TA gave me a great mark; he came back and marked me down to barely passing. There were no comments to act on since I'd gotten exactly no feedback through the entire course, and embarked on the final paper without even getting the first four back.

I don't understand the not quote thing, when properly credited. I also don't know your field, so possibly that's standard, but in my major (theology), quotes were illuminating, and sometimes required.

I also can't understand simply grading a report based on a plagiarism report generated by a softeware program. It seems like awefully lazy scholarship on her part

I'm also baffled about the quotes. Turnitin ignored anything between quotation marks. It's too bad you can't actually talk to her and ask her what her criteria is regarding that plagiarism software.

Amanda - Yes, I know. I'm quite familiar with Turn It In and other plagiarism checkers - I use them monthly for my students. But your comment to me seems random. :-)

Man, am I glad to be Aldine with school. I could never deal with this crap again lol Good luck, OP!

I could have sworn someone made a comment about how can everyone in one class be using the same sources, but I had just rolled out of bed so maybe I'm making it up in my head!

Anyways, what kind of professor doesn't allow quotes??? "You should know how to paraphrase." So she wants you to be like SparkNotes? Okay. I'd be venting online, too.

It depends on the subject. With my thesis (in history), my professor said that paraphrasing is superior to quoting (as long as you cite your paraphrasing). Quotes should only be used if you CAN'T word it another way (i.e. special wording, etc.).

What the heck is this crazy technology? I didn't have any of this when I was in university, lol!

Hahaha. I teach high school. Plagiarism is rampant. I have all my kids submit all of their typed work on SafeAssign. It's great because I can tell if they're "helping" each other or if they got the work from a previous year (i.e. older siblings).

I'm so glad I don't have to use any of these programs!! It sounds painful!!Just completing final draft of thesis corrections has to be up before Christmas.only have to rejig my conclusions and hopefully all done ( until they find something else to change !!)