Being Falsly Accused of Plagiarism

I don't think intention is the main thing here.

There was an assignment, and you submitted someone else's work.

You seem to take it as a given that copying and pasting a swath of someone else's work and then... adjusting it?... is an acceptable way to do the assignment. That's problematic right there IMO.

How do you "go back through the document and actually do the assignment/ discussion"? Was it just questions that you didn't answer?

I think the rest of my answer depends on that part, really.

You made a clerical error. It wasnt an error of judgement or of morality. You sent the wrong document in which you had paraphrased the web site for your own purposes.

They dont believe you. This sort of thing is why I am not at Uni. It may be in your best interest to leave before being fired and applying at another Uni for credits for previous study .

I'd show her the assignment that I actually did, and try explaining how I accidently sent in my notes instead.

I'm only just out of college, and I think you should just be honest about the whole affair.

There was no paraphrasing though, straight copy and paste.

From what has been said so far, it seems like your best bet, slm1211, is to leave "false accusations" out of it -- if you copied and pasted something from a website and submitted it as your own work it's plagiarism, full stop -- and just explain why it happened.

I still need more info before I figure out how much of a problem it really is.

Agreed - and also bring along any hard proof you have...and any proof of prior work. Anything you actually have that would support where you stand and your prior performance at school.

This is what slm1211 said, though:



Emphasis mine.

He/she never actually did the assignment/ discussion, so there is nothing to show except for the plagiarized copy and paste.

Maybe I'm misreading.

I was of two minds about what the OP said but I decided she meant she had done the assignment on her own without consulting the copy-paste notes that she accidently sent to the professor.

I think they need to clarify this part for all of us here.

It's the Committee you will have to convince.

Hopefully, you could show that the plagerized material did not complete the assignment either. In other words, you sent the wrong material, those are just reference notes for your use only.

I hope you DID complete the assignment and just emailed in the wrong file.

Slip of the finger . . .

That would be your best defense.

To all:
I have these assignments for this online class the meets once a week. The assignment was to go to this products website and list its features and then write a response about how the features apply to people with disabilities. I always copy and paste the information from these websites into a document so I don't have to go back and forth between windows on the computer. I did this for every assignment so far for the class. I then would come back to the assignment before the due date and write my opinion/discussion about the product then delete the product description I use come to my own conclusion about how the product can help certain disability populations. The product description does not include the answer needed for the paper. In this case I never reread the document to finish the paper and submitted it online thinking it was done.

Now what was copied and pasted had nothing to do with the assignment that is why I am saying I did not complete the assignment thus should get a grade of a zero for the paper (yes I agree). But if you read what was sent, it doesn't even make sense and it doesn't even look like I new what the assignment was.

Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

OK, that makes more sense, thanks.

I do think that while it was due to carelessness, you have some culpability. You did not do the assignment, yet submitted something.

You may well have to bear some consequences for that beyond getting a zero on the assignment.

It doesn't sound like expulsion is likely or deserved, though.

I think you just have to present it exactly as you say here (your latest post, your first one was a bit confusing), with a copy of the document in question and a copy of the assignment itself.

Yeah sorry, its hard to be logical and concise when your future is on the line over absent mindedness

Here it doesn't matter, but in terms of the committee, now is exactly the time to be logical and concise!

While I can't say anything for sure of course I do think it's unlikely that they would expel you for the scenario you've laid out. So take a deep breath, get your documentation together, and then just explain things.

Let us know what happens... good luck.

Thanks for all the advice and I will let you know the outcome:)

If I were on the Committee, I would ask you why you didn't save a copy of the 'completed' assignment that you submitted - or at least printed it out for your own records. It would have revealed everything.

Sorry, but you showed impulsiveness and lack of attention to the assignment. Hardy grounds for expulsion, but they will be watching you from now on.

Hope this is a lesson for you to check, check, double check.

I am having trouble understanding how it that since you knew the assignment was unfinished . . . in fact, it was so unfinished that you never read the original assignment . . . you submitted a supposedly finished piece of work to your professor which seems to have consisted of material she initially suggested to the class as a source of information.

A moment of mis-attention to file names.

Hey all:
I have a conclusion to the issue finally. I went to the committee meeting said my peace, they asked a few questions, I admitted to plagiarism or copying and pasting from the online catalog. I got a letter later from the department director she she said that the committee concluded that the professor should have handled this issue and the director did not initiate any extra punishment. My professor ended up giving me a zero, which is what a believed should have took place a long time ago. Thanks for all your input into this matter. The lesson I learned from this was to reference and cite every assignment I complete that has ideas, concepts, thoughts, research etc.. that is not my own, especially if it is from the internet!!!

A fair and decent outcome I suppose. A lesson learned. I'm glad you didn't get a far stricter penalty like academic suspension or worse.

That's probably the best possible outcome.