PROFESSOR IS PERTURBED!
15 March 2009
Today I spent several hours reading and grading responses to your journal prompts. This should have been an enjoyable exercise that gave me a bit more insight into your writing and thinking abilities than our short time together in class allows. What I found, however, is that the majority of you are not taking these assignments seriously.
The responses I have received are littered with typos, spelling errors, lack of punctuation, and poor grammar. You are supposed to be treating these assignments as any other formal writing assignment, which means proofreading and attention to detail are necessities. Most of you are not even bothering to make sure your have put the correct subject line on your emails. For those who have forgotten, I deduct 3 points (15%) from your grade for an incorrect subject line. (There is a reason I include it with the instructions every time.)
Additionally, several of you have not taken my warnings about plagiarism to heart. Today I entered failing marks for 12 students who plagiarized their responses. This is distressing for several reasons, not the least of which is that once you have been caught cheating once in a nine weeks, you risk failing the entire quarter over something as simple as sharing homework (a practice you all know I DO NOT condone).
These assignments are designed to allow you to express YOUR opinions and YOUR creativity. As there is no right or wrong answer, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON that any of you should be using other people’s words rather than your own.
I have attached a document on plagiarism that I am requiring ALL OF YOU to read and be familiar with. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, ANY STUDENT CAUGHT PLAGIARIZING, OR OTHERWISE CHEATING, IN MY CLASS WILL NOT ONLY BE SUBJECT TO THE CLASS POLICY BELOW, BUT WILL BE WRITTEN A DISCIPLINE REFERRAL FOR OPEN DEFIANCE AND CHEATING!
The following is our class policy on cheating and plagiarism as found in your syllabus:
CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you are caught cheating on ANY assignment, you will receive a zero. In addition, you will be barred from earning any extra credit points for that entire semester and any extra credit points you had previously earned will be removed from your grade. Any student caught cheating a second time will automatically receive an “F” for that quarter.
My definition of cheating includes the following:
• copying homework or classwork
• looking on another student’s test or quiz
• letting another student look on a test or quiz
• using other secretive methods of giving answers on a test or quiz
• taking information from another source that is not properly attributed
• working with others on an assignment that was meant to be done by individuals
• taking papers from the Internet, other publications, or other students
• taking any part of a test to use or to give to others
• using someone else’s words, ideas, or work in an assignment without proper attribution
Please do not allow these gross mistakes in judgment to continue.
Sincerely,
Professor McElroy
