Advice needed - Accused of plagiarism at Uni

Slinky1989

Slinky1989

Slinky1989

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Hi all,

At the end of the previous semester I submitted 5 assignments that were due. Each was my own work, with all relevant material referenced as far as I know.

Now, I am confident that none of the work I submitted was plagiarised in any way, but I received an email from my tutor today saying that the anti-plagiarism software the Uni uses (Turnitin), has flagged up a significant amount of one of my assignments as plagiarised.

She didn't say which piece of work it was, but pointed out that this was very out of character for me, and as such she has said that the situation has only gone as far as her so far.

I've been invited in for a discussion about it on Friday where I'll also get to see a full copy of the Turnitin report.

I just find it odd that 1 out of 5 assignments gets flagged up when I plagiarised none of them, and now I'm pretty shocked and worried as I've looked at the university's punishments for this and it could range from simply doing a plagiarism test to being failed on the course.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has been in this situation before and what the best way to deal with it is?
 
Be honest, and provide draft copies if you still have them.

Same happened with my English Higher, my specialist study on American Psycho was accused by the head of department of being 'not within my ability' when reviewing submissions to the SQA. Teacher assured her that it was my work, with her tutoring, and gave her draft copies she had marked.

I was then later asked if it was ok that my specialist study was then passed to the years coming as an example!

A big **** you to the fat cow. ;)
 
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turnitin isnt flawless, they should use it as a tool for further investigation and use their own knowledge and systems to detect plagiarism. Turnitin flagged half of my reference list on my last submission its retarded
 
Really cant do much till she tells you what % it was. We get to check our own work we hand in on turnitin first and as long as its under 25% and not massive ripped paragraphs they are not bothered. Also if it is like ours and you are doing similar work on the same subject if you where last to hand it in and submit it then your % is higher on turnitin never seemed to make sense to me. Also as above turnitin is nowhere near perfect and probably why she wants a word with you first.
 
Cheers for the quick replies guys.

DAvE18 said:
Really cant do much till she tells you what % it was. We get to check our own work we hand in on turnitin first and as long as its under 25% and not massive ripped paragraphs they are not bothered. Also if it is like ours and you are doing similar work on the same subject if you where last to hand it in and submit it then your % is higher on turnitin never seemed to make sense to me. Also as above turnitin is nowhere near perfect and probably why she wants a word with you first.
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That actually sounds like that may make sense as I had an extension on 2 of the assignments due to medical issues, so I would have been the very last to hand in.

Wish we were allowed to check our work first, we have no way to do it other than hope!
 
Sound's like a case of accidental plagiarism. It hasn't happened to me so I don't know what to to expect. Just be honest and humble. And bring your drafts so your tutor can see where perhap you haven't cited correctly.
 
Robbie G said:
If you haven't done it then there's nothing to be concerned about, surely.
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Well technically no, but having never been accused of plagiarism before, I have no idea what to expect and have worked myself up a little reading other peoples experiences on google (mainly USA though) with stories of innocent people being failed.

My fault really for working myself up, but still it's all new to me so I'm understandably nervous.
 
If you really haven't plagiarised then there's no need to worry; one brief conversation with a human (your tutor) will usually sort everything out. Agree that you should take to the meeting any notes or draft copies you have for the assignment, but I'd be surprised if you need them.

Chances are you've quoted slightly too much text from your reference material. These auto-plagiarism detectors are getting better, but they do flag false positives on occasion.
 
As others have said, if you haven't done anything wrong, its likely just a mistake.

From my own experience, there was a girl in an exam I was sitting who had a pencil case full of crib notes. She was discovered by an Examiner, removed from the Exam and suspended. The University policy on cheating and exams was quite clear that you would be removed from the course and University, yet a couple of weeks later she was back.
 
I wouldn't worry about it - a tool like that is bound to have false positives... I'm guessing that perhaps the assignment that was flagged contained a lot of references or something like that.
 
^ What uni. was that? Seems pretty lax.

There was one guy that got done for this when I was at uni. He was only around for about a week after it all unfolded and then he was never seen again. So can only assume he was forced out of the uni. by the dons.
 
Nexus said:
As others have said, if you haven't done anything wrong, its likely just a mistake.

From my own experience, there was a girl in an exam I was sitting who had a pencil case full of crib notes. She was discovered by an Examiner, removed from the Exam and suspended. The University policy on cheating and exams was quite clear that you would be removed from the course and University, yet a couple of weeks later she was back.
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Wow, things have changed. When I remember exams, you were allowed a pen, a pencil and a ruler if you were lucky.

Pencil cases were banned.
 
Cheers for the reassurance guys :)

I just hope I have referenced too much and that'll be it.

I'm taking along my laptop with me to the discussion as I do all my notes in word documents and save them from each lecture separately, as well as doing each section of an assignment in a separate word document before copying it into the main document.

Guess I'll just have to see how Friday goes, and I'll post an update here once it's done!
 
turnitin essentially doesn't work, don't worry about it. It isn't sufficient evidence of plagiarising by itself (as it essentially doesn't work). So to punish you, the Uni has to bother to determine manually whether you're guilty of plagiarising. Which no one has time for.

I'm pretty certain it's a scare tactic only - "we have magic software so you'd better not cheat!"
 
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