Re: Issues on Plagarism


"Kitty Chan" <kittychan953@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1133164880.996825.101410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Recently, I have been accused of plagarism by a tertiary institution.

What is a "tertiary institution"?

> I was doing a course.

What was the course (level and subject)?

> Today I have received a letter from the academic
> registrar saying she
> received a complaint of Academic Misconduct. In her letter, she said I
> have had
> requested others to complete my assessments by posting the request in
> a public forum, and have had provided direct links to the assessment
> items.

What was the assignment? A homework problem set is different from
a take-home midterm.

> I think I did post a question online asking computer experts to help me
> explain these questions.

You think? Did you post a request for help or not? If so, what were the
questions you asked and what were the answers you received?

> She said by doing that, I have breached the Student
> Conduct Statute about Plagarism.
>
> Can you tell me how am I going to explain my misconduct to help
> alleviate with the panelty?
>

To start with, in any correspondence with the registrar (Are you sure it
isn't the Dean's office?), you should spell "plagiarism" and "penalty"
correctly. Secondly, you probably shouldn't admit to misconduct in a
public forum. You want to know how to counter an *accusation* of
misconduct, right? The code of conduct probably prohibits the use of
others' work as your own. Depending on the wording of the code, it
might be a violation to solicit others' work to use as your own. That's
why I asked for details of what you actually did.

If the work was to find the answer to the sum 2+2, and you asked for
the answer, got someone to tell you it was 4, and then handed in that
answer without giving credit to that someone, then the complaint might
be valid. If you asked for an explanation of addition, something that you
could have asked the course TA, the you might have a defense.



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