Dilemma between friends?

Question

Okay, I wrote a paper for my friend for school, which I didn't mind doing because she works full time, and has two kids, and she was already behind a little in some of her work. The problem is the professor pointed out some parts that were plagarized. I didn't intentionally do this. I reworded the things she pointed out but the professor said that this is still plagarism. The prof gave her a low grade on the assignment, and now my friend is pissed off at me. She's not worried so much about the grade she said, because she had a pretty high score already in the course, but she's worried that they will kick her out because of this accusation. I told her I didn't think a school would do this without giving a warning first, but I really don't know. What normally happens in a case like this?

Answer 1

She certainly took a risk, asking someone else to write a paper for her. And she got caught, sort of. So she'll need to take the fall, if there is one.

And bad things may happen because she was caught plagarising. But obviously, "she" (you) didn't understand what plagarism really meant. Now she (you) know. So the professor may consider this a first-time offense, and a learning opportunity for her, and nothing more could come of this.

But imagine what would happen if he knew that she'd hired (even without pay) someone else to write the paper for her. I'd fail her for the class and report her to the dean. She should consider herself lucky. So far, anyway.

What happens next depends on the policies of the school. In my school, if I thought she'd plagarised from sources, I'd give a warning to the student and an F for that paper. If it happened again, I'd fail the student for the class. Other schools have different policies.

Nothing further may happen. Then again, something might. What did the professor say would happen next?

Your friend needs to speak with her academic advisor at the school. She also needs to do her own dam... erm, sorry. She needs to do her own work from now on. And obviously, you can't do any of her work for her, because you don't know what plagarism is, and you therefore run the risk of doing the same thing again.

Schools today are getting really, really strict about plagarism. Professors have access to all sorts of tools that can help them detect it, and more then that, often have done so much reading in the field they teach that they recognise it as soon as they see it, anyway. So you have to be very careful, and you (and your friend) need to have a full understanding of what plagarism is and is not.