Academic Plagiarism, Again

Yesterday Andrew learned that two students at a large Midwestern university had plagiarized his blog. This is the second time this has happened to Andrew (I wrote about a similar case of plagiarism, involving a student from the West Coast, on November 28).

Both Midwestern students were in the same course, and both Midwestern students inserted large portions of one of Andrew’s blog entries—including three paragraphs, lifted verbatim—into their end-of-term research papers.

Andrew has no idea what was the final resolution of the November case of plagiarism involving the student from a major university on the West Coast, but it appears that, in the most recent case of plagiarism, the Midwestern university is going to take disciplinary action against the students.

At least the students, in the most recent case, owned up to their borrowings, unlike the student on the West Coast. Of course, in the most recent case, since their papers were virtually identical, the two students truly had no choice.