How ironic that this is an issue in an ethics class

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Our first essay (the final copy) in our ethics class is due two weeks from today. What the professor had us do was bring 2 hard copies to class last week, one goes to him, the other you trade with someone else to edit it, and bring back to class next week.

Well the person's i took home, her wording wasn't easy to understand, so typed in a string of words at a search engine to see if i could clarify a few things, and the first result got it word for word at a website (another site popped up a result as an "essay for sale"). When i clicked on the link and compared, apparently this person has plagiarized their WHOLE essay word for word and signed it as their own (the persons "works cited", which i checked throughly as we were told to, does not contain anything other than some magazine articles).

Now, it's likely that the professor didn't just fall off the turnip truck, and might do some checking of his own and discover this (since we have an honor code, and rules spelled out for this sort of thing), but now i'm kinda stuck on what to do. I don't feel right looking over this like i'm not aware that this isn't original work, yet it doesn't seem like it's my place to be a whistleblower.

But yet in the nursing world, if you know something wrong is going on and you don't say anything, you're just as guilty. :stone

Any suggestions?

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

Do I smell the distinctive aroma of...dare I say it?? Troll??

I don't know about that, but after the third cliche, I thought we might be playing a new game... add a cliche to the story... a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...

Specializes in Critical Care Nursing.

Wasn't part of your assignment of receiving your colleague's paper to edit and make suggestions? It might be less offensive to receive the bad news of the plagiarism from you instead of the embarrassment of being academically reprimanded, and it may allow your colleague time enough to correct the paper, using proper citations.

Wasn't part of your assignment of receiving your colleague's paper to edit and make suggestions? It might be less offensive to receive the bad news of the plagiarism from you instead of the embarrassment of being academically reprimanded, and it may allow your colleague time enough to correct the paper, using proper citations.

If someone gave me a paper to correct and I discovered it was lifted verbatim from another source, I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about the offender's possible feelings of embarrassment. Someone who would do this doesn't exhibit a whole lot of shame. As for giving her the opportunity to do it right, she had that chance the first time.

Copying something verbatim is not just a matter of omitting the proper citations. This kind of plagiarism isn't sloppy paperwork--it's stealing. And trying to deceive those who believe the work to be your own.

On a purely practical level, it isn't wise for one student to confront another over an ethical violation such as this one. Especially when this person has already demonstrated a serious lapse in judgment. Unstable people have been known to commit acts of sabotage, start rumors, launch personal attacks, and--for heaven's sake--bring a gun to class and start shooting to even the score.

Marie, for what it's worth, I'd give you an A in the way you handled this. You didn't just look the other way. You alerted the instructor and put the ball in his court. You're not out to get anyone, but neither are you willing to condone cheating that lands squarely in front of you. Well done.

I'd copy the article off the net, complete with the website address, and turn it in with your classmate's plagiarized article, no comment.

Do you really want anyone's life depending on a nurse who cheated his/her way through school? I don't.

Chances are this person simply didn't take this class seriously, since it's a non medical class. However, this person needs to repeat this class desperately and pay attention the next time.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

She wasn't in class this evening either. We were only allowed to two classes, so now i'm thinking she either dropped or was asked to drop.

I just caught this thread through the newsletter. Very coincidental that right now I am pursuing my BSN through University of Phoenix. I'm in my first class and the topic of the week is ethics and plagiarism. I know this happens all the time- especially with technology and websites that offer full papers for a price. I know that I didn't have much time for anything while I was in nursing school before but I would never plagiarise a paper. I was so afraid of plagiarism and getting expelled that most of my term papers had quotes/citations every other line.

I'm glad you turned her in though. She did obviously know that what she was doing was wrong. She didn't think she would get caught. If she's plagiarizing a simple paper, then once she becomes a nurse it makes me wonder what other documents would be falsified.

I definitely would have turned that in too.

Specializes in ER/Trauma.

I agree with most people on here.. I'd definitely point it out to the teacher. It's an ethics class, you know? How ethical would it be to ignore it? I think you made the right decision!! I know I wouldn't want a nurse who couldn't even write her own essays on ETHICS... Not very ethical to me =) Good job!!!

It seems like a lot of people are acting like she didn't know what she was getting in to when she copied this essay! At my school, we are told TONS of times that plagiarism is against the law. If you plagiarize once, you will fail the class. If you do it again, you will get kicked out. That's it, bottom line. Why people still do it is beyond me! I went in to college knowing that if I ever plagiarized, I would jeopardize my future of becoming a nurse. I understand that it would be MY fault. Not the teacher who realized it, not if anyone else edited it, no one but MYSELF. It's not as if they stole the paper off the internet!

I came across this situation in high school. It wasn't as big of a deal, but kind of similar nonetheless. Someone thought they could submit poems in to the school newspaper, claiming them as their own. I recognized one of them, because I had read the original author in English class, and me and my co-editor informed the teacher. I mean it was a widely known author that people would definitely recognize. How would WE look if we just published them?

I think you did the right thing. You are not jeopardizing this person's future, they did that already! At least the teacher knows that you have strong ethics!

Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.
Plagiarizing is bad enough in any class, but to do it in an ethics class adds insult to injury. This is just plain wrong. And so very brazen.

I think you need to let the instructor know what you found and let the chips fall where they may. This isn't tattling. You didn't go looking for trouble-it came looking for you.

It would be one thing to look the other way if she didn't think anyone would catch her, but if you don't do anything, she could very well believe that she has your tacit approval of what she's done. Copying someone else's work might not seem like a big deal, but it establishes the idea that it's okay to take illicit shortcuts--not a good notion for a future nurse to carry around.

I'm really sorry you are finding yourself in such a crummy predicament.

:yeahthat: :yeah:

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