BUSTED
Yesterday when I was getting on the subway I thought about an article I read in the LSA alumni magazine about scientists that were studying alterations in brain chemistry caused by a person realizing he/she has made a mistake. I thought about what I had felt when I was younger after coming to terms with the consequences of my mistake. Who had I hurt? How had I betrayed myself and what was going to happen to me? It is casually known as the "Uh Oh" effect. That led me to think about how vulnerable I felt when I realized my fate was up to someone else. I had made a mistake...I could lie about it but eventually, the evidence would build and build and then I would be exposed. It was up to them and it was just a matter of time. I wondered if I would ever be put in that situation. Would I remember how I felt? Would I let it slide?
Yes. No.
Today (exactly one day after I had thought about this) my time had come. A student was found plagiarizing blog comments in his online class. We knew this because he had referred to other students's postings that were not in his class. I looked for these students in our database but I could not find them. I had to get to the bottom of this. For the next two hours, I looked through every single comment made in reference to the subject he was talking about for every single term we ran. Finally, in the spring of 2003, I found him. A student with no name had posted the same exact text and had referred to a student that was enrolled in that class.
BUSTED!
I justified my obsessive determination on account of his stupidity in copying the exact same comment word for word and his callous statement, "It is a magical thing to study art history online (Student with no name. Spring 2003)."
Yes. No.
Today (exactly one day after I had thought about this) my time had come. A student was found plagiarizing blog comments in his online class. We knew this because he had referred to other students's postings that were not in his class. I looked for these students in our database but I could not find them. I had to get to the bottom of this. For the next two hours, I looked through every single comment made in reference to the subject he was talking about for every single term we ran. Finally, in the spring of 2003, I found him. A student with no name had posted the same exact text and had referred to a student that was enrolled in that class.
BUSTED!
I justified my obsessive determination on account of his stupidity in copying the exact same comment word for word and his callous statement, "It is a magical thing to study art history online (Student with no name. Spring 2003)."