wrongfully accused of plaigarism

[heartandsoul]

What is the name of your state? CAFour years ago, I was enrolled at a community college under a journalism and communications major. enrolled in just an english class that semester, it was not barely a month before the first term paper was due in.
i worked day and night on it and was so proud. turned it in on time, the whole nine. the teacher refused to grade it and demanded that I do it over again if i wanted to get a grade at all. she accused me of plaigarizing although she would not tell me where exactly within the text she suspected it. I had quotation marks complete with the proper annotation and even a bibliography attached to the back of the paper.
i dropped out, crushed. i took it all the way to the chancellor of the district but no one seemed to care . i just can not seem to let it go. i guess it was due to the fact that i did not ask for anything (other than my money back which they gave) that i did not receive anything. all that i really wanted was to be assured that it would not happen to anyone else (so i guess i was asking for her to be fired also). they said that with cutbacks they could not afford to lose any teachers. so i said find i will settle for an apology. at least to have been shown where and why she may have thought that i had done what she said I did. What kind of legal action could i take, if any?

 

[quincy]

This all happened four years ago??

I doubt that you can take any action at this point. Perhaps the teacher thought you plagiarized parts of your term paper because in those parts you used capital letters where proper, you wrote complete sentences that were grammatically correct, and you spelled everything correctly? Just a guess.

 

[xylene]

Your teacher cut you a HUGE break by giving you the opportunity to redo a paper she believed contained plagiarized material.

In my personal opinion she should not have done this. Nothing particular against you, but the correct way to handle this would have been for the academic review board to be convened to review your paper and as an impartial body decide if you were guilty. If you were found guilty, it is likely that the consequences would have been severe and permanently damaging to your reputation.

However the teacher used discretion, and that did not do that result in any damage to you.

You resigned on your own accord and were given a full refund.

Nothing about this even precludes you from pursuing further education, which I am at a loss to understand why you have not...

 

[BlondiePB]

A whole lot of college students do not understand exactly what is plagiarism. For instance, students paraphrase information that they've researched and do not cite the paraphrased info, which is plagiarism.

 

[quincy]

heartandsoul -

I wanted to let you know that even polished journalists and famous writers have been found guilty of plagiarizing, and most editors and many publishers have encountered it on occasion when reading over work presented for print. It is both unethical, and illegal, but most plagiarism is committed innocently or carelessly, and not with an intent to deceive.

BlondiePB is correct when she says that many college students do not understand what plagiarism is, and certainly most high school students don't. It either isn't taught in schools, or it isn't emphasized, so many will just "borrow" the words of another without realizing it is wrong. Any material taken verbatim from any source, if it is not attributed, is plagiarism, as is taking someone else's ideas and passing them off as your own.

 

[heartandsoul]

So much for innocent until proven guilty...

Well, gee wiz, thanks for the vote of confidence, people!

Perhaps had I actually "forgotten" that the words in which I comprised my entire essay with were not my own, but in actuality, the ideas set forth by someone other than my own self then I just may fall into the category of Naive-and-Playing-Dumb-for-a-stinkin-essay-grade!

Now that I am older, I am learning to utilize the criticisms of others, taking in the negative and using it to fuel my positive output abilities.
(Whereas I used to internalize the criticism and let it tear me down).

So thanks for helping me to become a better person (albeit no more informed on educational legality and ethicalness now as I was when I first posted. ).

 

[quincy]

heartandsoul - After 4 years, you really had no legal recourse, whether you plagiarized anything or not. Xylene told you that right off. And, quite frankly, I am not sure you would have succeeded in a journalism career, anyway, because it requires some ability to structure a sentence correctly and spell correctly. Ethicalness is not a word. I hope my criticism makes you a better person.

 

[xylene]

Well, gee wiz, thanks for the vote of confidence, people!

I do not know you, therefore I have no reason to assume one way or another. And for what you asked your guilt or innocence is irrelevant

I told you the truth and correct way an allegation of plagiarism would be handled by a university / institution of higher learning.

An academic commit would be assembled and the paper reviewed. A finding would be determined. Had the finding indicated you had not committed plagiarism, nothing would have happened. Had the finding been one of plagarism your career aspirations would have been pretty toasted.

YOU decided to circumvent that well established process and quit school, with a full refund mind you...

 

[Ozark_Sophist]

I worked as a college writing tutor. Many students had the same issue with their papers. Only a handful actually tried to cheat. Your instructor gave you the opportunity to correct your paper. Had s/he actually felt you intended to cheat, you would not have been given the opportunity to rewrite your paper. Instead, you quit.

 

[heartandsoul]

I thought that this was free advice, not criticism...

sorry xylene, I took what you were saying the wrong way. In no way did I mean to upset you. I guess it was more so just misdirected anger towards something that I am still just trying to let go.
I just do not understand how she could have even made such a claim when I had all the necessary quotations, in the MLA format that she had requested them to be in, conjoined with the works cited. Not only that, but when I went in to see her, as she had requested, I had even brought in all of the (I believe there were three or five) sources which I had quoted and referenced from.
Yes, she did give me the choice to rewrite it or to take a no grade. She also gave me the choice of staying in her class or wishing that I hadn't , basically. Sure, I could have rewritten it but it would have come out sounding exactly the same because I did in fact write it.
It is just frustrating. Education was the one real thing that I had always leaned on through hard times knowing that the more that I learned, the better off I would be eventually in this lifetime. It was kind of like idolizing an athlete only to find out that they are a total scumbag in real life.
I guess in the end there really is no way for a court to assess any real restitution for such things.