I won't try to justify the fact that I plagiarized; I knew what I was doing when I took those words and made them mine. I did it because I've always been able to get away with it. In high school it was easy to get away with, teachers didnt check our sources and it was too easy not to do it. I knew it was wrong then, but people weren't getting in trouble for it, it didn't appear to have any risk to it. I never did it too excessively, it's always been a few words here and there to make my papers sound better. I didnt care too much for academics, and hated reading the books we were supposed to read.
College became a different story, a time to take my educational life seriously, my money and my future are at stake. I took your class because I have an interest in politics and the practices of our nations internationally. I enjoyed reading the texts, especially Locke and Marx, because of their relation to our current conflict between capitalism and socialism. I enjoyed engaging in class discussions, even though most MICA students think democratically, which doesn't leave much room for debate. I'm not much of a writer though, which probably shows in my class papers. I still took the final paper very seriously, however I did slip into my old ways a bit. My time was constricted because of my ambition in several finals I was working on. I read the books, formulated my own thesis, and tried to back it up the best I could with my own words, but my thought process is even less academic now than it was in high school. To get a different perspective on the texts I read some spark notes, and when it came time to write the paper a few highlighted lines found their way into my paper to make it sound better.
I plead guilty.
It can't be justified, because I did know what I was doing, however if plagiarism was defined more specifically for me, and the consequences of it were emphasized, those few lines wouldn't have found their way into my paper. Some students may plead ignorance, I can't, but on behalf of my peers and for myself, art school can disrupt the academic mind. After a year and a half of not writing papers and trying so intently to focus on visual creativity and thinking artistically, it's difficult to suddenly try to remember the process of research and writing papers. Perhaps what could help would be a printed outline for writing papers, or some class time to discuss the process. A simple reminder tat outlines the process of research and note taking, thesis, body construction, and conclusion. And maybe a reminder and several examples of the proper way to quote sources. I think most students who plagiarize know they are doing it, and if they know that several students got in serious trouble for it, they won't do it. I hate being made an example, but thank you for giving me the opportunity to correct myself.
Written 1/29/05
Note: I'm leaving out the student's name to protect his identity. – April Walters
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