5 Another Great Scholar

Hello professor this is your old student Aida from your history 101 class. I hope all is well with you, and that you are enjoying this amazing summer that we are having. all is well with me just focusing on school right now. I am writing this email to you to see if he can do anything to fix my brother’s grade I know he was not the most attentive student that you had, but from what I saw at home he tried, but I guess that just was not enough he received a D in your class I was hoping if we can come up with something for him to do to gain a higher grade. the D really lowered his GPA I know I am asking for too much but anything would make a difference.
Thank you for your time.

i am aware of all the mistakes he has done and i know there should be no excuses to justify any of the actions he has done, but at that time i can understand he had a lot on his plate he took everything so lightly for he is a bight student he went to school this semester because my family did not want him to take a semester off. he was going through a lot for his dearest friend had passed away they were inseparable after that i have really never seen him take anything seriously which i agree is none fault but his. he is now beginning to take shape and I am very proud of him. this grade has put a tole on his college degree. i promise he will do anything extra, even if it a 10 page paper to boost his grade up.
thank you
Aida
[and her sister-in-law had both been great in attendance and in doing the work. they had commuted from the same neighborhood as her brother Alfred without any problems of coming to class on time.]

Dear Aida,

I thought about your brother. Unfortunately, he does not get a third do-over. He had his second opportunity which was more than he deserved. I said at the beginning of the semester extra credit work was for those that did the regular work. I really don't need a sob story to explain why he was unable to get to class on time or show up on a regular basis. This of course would have some impact on his getting something out of the class or getting prepared for the examinations. [He failed both examinations abysmally.]

Because of your brother, I will no longer be doing term papers any more. [I swore off term papers for one semester.] I would have no way of determining whether any so-called extra credit work was his or not. If he were determined about his grade then, he would have done something during the semester instead of after the semester to deserve the highest possible grade.

Since your brother refused to learn from the bad experiences of other people, he will have to learn from his own. It was he, not me, who gave himself the low grade through his lack of effort. You would make a wonderful lawyer but unfortunately you cannot get your client off. Your brother will have to learn that he should do his best effort the first time around.

Respectfully yours,
Dr. Wisenheimer

Her brother Alfred had handed in a term projects weeks after it was due. He was too cheap to use whiteout to reo replace the handwritten name of the student who had done the project before or to re-Xerox the title pages. He had tried to tear off part of the name and wrote his name above it. You could still read the name of the original student. I had written a letter that I told him I would give to the dean. His sister Aida then came in the next day to plead on his behalf and I let him do the term project over which was miserable but adequate.

James M. Lang, "Dealing With Plagiarists," in the May 14, 20002 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/05/2002051401c.htm), suggests,

“So I have settled into the middle ground: option 2.[A colleague pointed unless the plagiarist was reported, the student could claim each class he took it was just his “first time.”] Our college has a form, available from the dean of students, that amounts to a confession of plagiarism. Accused students are not required to sign the form; they can contest the charge of plagiarism if they wish -- almost guaranteeing that the accusation will become public. If they do agree to sign it, I agree to give them only the penalty that I spell out on the form -- which, for me, means that they receive no credit for the assignment.

That form stays in their file for five years, so that if a student should plagiarize a second time, the college has a record of it. More serious action would follow a second offense.
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This solution has one design flaw: It works only if all of my colleagues are doing it, so that we truly do know when a student commits a second offense.