In one class of 27 I had 6 cases of clear and identified plagiarism and I have the sneaking suspicion that I didn’t catch all the perpetrators.
It’s enough to make you wonder how many of the students actually come to college for an education.
For sure it is enough to depress me a bit. My word, what a waste.
If your students know about your blog, there are probably some dirty britches about now.
Comment by Matt — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 7:33 pm
My trackback was tagged as spam. My policy has been to explain plagiarism at the beginning of the class, so they have no excuse. Not that an excuse is … an excuse, or anything.
Comment by bryan — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 7:41 pm
Ouch, the worst I’ve ever had was one or two students in a class.
Comment by Chris Lawrence — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 7:53 pm
This is my worst lot to date, to be sure.
And Bryan–I do warn them and even have this: http://spectrum.troy.edu/~sltaylor/rules.html which details the issue. Still, they ignore it all.
And btw–try the TB again. I tweaked the filter.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 8:08 pm
People just seem to think they can get away with it. I had three months worth of project analysis that was emailed via my VP to a client. A week later I got the exact file (with my information in the properties) back from someone else at the client’s company telling me they’d finished the analysis.
In my situation you just have to laugh and move on. In yours, I hope you get to kick some cheater butt.
Comment by Matt — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 8:38 pm
When I have friends with 8 to 14 year old kids over, the fun party trick is to ask those young people which is worse, smoking or cheating on a test? The VAST majority will say smoking. The shame in cheating, like the shame associated with most other immoral behaviors, has disappeared.
Guess it’s up to you to teach them a tough lesson, Professor.
Comment by Benedict — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 9:36 pm
Oh the glory of attending a Seminary…We have to sign those silly academic integrity clauses in each class.
Comment by Clint — Thursday, December 8, 2026 @ 9:48 pm
Thankfully, there isn’t much need to have Principles of Econ students write papers. If I were teaching upper-level classes I would be reluctant to give writing assignments for exactly that reason.
Comment by Robert Prather — Friday, December 9, 2026 @ 12:57 am
My husband has gone back and forth between assigning out of class papers and making them write everything in-class with his World Lit classes, but as an English Prof. you just can’t get around assigning papers to upper level classes and Comp. classes. Plagarism is always a problem.
Comment by Jan — Friday, December 9, 2026 @ 1:34 pm