Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001132, Thu, 30 May 1996 10:04:22 -0700

Subject
Re: Plagiarism (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 14:43:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: VESTERMAN@zodiac.rutgers.edu

Dear List
Thanks to all who responded. It turned out good luck that
the list was on vacation and I had to read and re-read on my own--
I learned something if the students didn't. The first student
stuck with word--for-word Don Johnson until a bow to Boyd on the
last page. The second based things on Rowe but offered Boyd,
Field, and Lee in rather nicely juggled and linked patches along
with two or three sentences of class notes. The worst part is the
mortification of spending a semester in an introduction to narrative
course showing (as I thought) how to be sensitive to the nuances of
style and then have two students think their borowingings would
be invisible. With the hysterical innocent till proven guilty
climate here most instructors don't bother to go to hearings that
involve 7-9 people, but I am going--the moronic students continue
to "deny" plagiarism even with xeroxes showing where 99% of their
essays come from.
Thanks again.

William Vesterman