plagiarism on a report?

Question

I had to write a report for AP U.S. History. I procrastinated and wrote have of the report and plagiarized the other half. My teacher is now accusing me of this. Should I deny it, or tell her the truth? Honestly I believe no matter what I say she knows I did, but I think I could avoid damaging my reputation if I deny it.

I had the 2nd highest score on our Exam, out of 30 people, so redneck act like I need to cheat. I was just being lazy. Some of you act like I held up a bank! I'm going to be truthful with her.

Answer 1

if you copied things word for word, it won't be hard to prove.
If you maybe missed some quotations or forgot to cite a paraphrased section, you could always ask for a chance to correct your citations that you missed earlier.

Answer 2

Be honest with yourself. Research is plagiarism but you did not reflect enough of your own thought in showing your research. Apologize to your teacher, ask for her guidance is doing better next time... you will develop a better reputation this way. Admit a mistake and really learn from it.

One way you know you are a good writer/research is when you plagiarize but people don't realize it.

Waiting to the last moment to write a paper is NOT a valid reason to plagiarize... I have procrastinate a lot but yet still wrote papers that were enough of my thoughts to make the paper mine.

Answer 3

You have to come clean... she knows. If you deny it, your reputation will be: Liar, Dishonest, Untruthful, etc. But, you can spin the truth to make it seem like you meant to do the right thing. If you tell her, plain and simple, what you told us: I procrastinated. I wrote the first half and I wasn't pleased with my work. I tried to get help from X (book, person, whatever) and I guess I borrowed too much of X's content. I am sorry. It will not happen again. Beg and be sincere here.

Then, I suggest that you ask to do the report again -- as an "extra credit" outside of regular class-work, type of assignment. Good luck.

Answer 4

If you EVER have to ask yourself why honesty is the best policy, just repeat the Mantra of Truth Versus Lies: "Ah did NOT have impropah relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."

Save yourself the grief of being proven both a liar AND a plagiarist and own up to it now. You might get half-credit for the part you wrote.

And next time... start earlier, or do what the rest of us did in college and learn to make espresso. You can stay up all night AND write three times as fast as a normal human!

Answer 5

If you are fairly certain she knows, especially since she has already accused you of it, how will it keep from damaging your reputation by further denying it? To add lying to the offense that you are already guilty will do nothing to help your reputation. This will label you a liar, and she will not believe you for the rest if the year. Go to her in private and explain what happened. Nothing is worse than being known as a liar.

Answer 6

She can probably find the website you copied the report from. So own up to it, apologize and promise to never do that again. Now the next time you do a report, read about it and then try to put in your own words, the main point of the story. Like they say a good reporter would do, where, why, who and how. It is not so much that teachers want your work to be perfect, they want to know you read it, understood it.

Answer 7

If you plagiarized, it will be quite obvious. You might as well come clean. You will have a worse reputation as a cheater and a liar otherwise. Accept the poor grade and move on. Denying the obvious, and when one plagiarizes it is obvious, makes you look that much worse.

Answer 8

Well - there is the reputation of lying - which will be held by both your teacher and you. Don't forget you. Any time we do something dishonorable it makes us feel like an aasshole inside, even if no one finds out. Don't accept too many of those bricks into your backpack too early, cause the road ahead is long and complicated.

Answer 9

You should just go ahead and admit it. She already knows you did it. Don't you know teachers have software that detects plagiarism? If you had just footnoted or endnoted the passages, you could have avoided this and still lifted much of the information from another source.

Answer 10

Your screwed. She/he is asking you because they already know you did. Tell the truth. Ever heard of turnitin.com? teachers run a studen't report, and it searches the internet for the info. It tells you if you plagarized or not. Just stop Procrastinating. and you will have no more problems.

Answer 11

"Much of the work was origial however I regurgitated more of the report straight from sources than I should have due to procrastination. I know that was wrong. May I do another assignment to replace it? I understand better now the importance of independent thinking, and writing, adn will not fall into this trap again"