Journal of Mistress Kat

1. On behalf of all those students who don't plagiarise...throw the book at them. Preferrably hard enough to cause concussion. If the rest of us have to work our arses off to get the work done, no fucker deserves to get to cheat and coast their way to a degree *scowls*

2. Twinging sucks. More resting needed?

3. Remind me again who thought it was a good idea to have both essays to be submitted on the same day? Oh yeah, that was me. And, lo, the students did curse mightily and much dark magics ~~did flit around you like dark butterflies~~ was woven against the Cruel Mistress of Evil Double Deadlines

4. Warned you. There has been no sunburn to be had up here in the frozen (well, cloudy) north

5. They burn my brain when they're bad. Fortunately, I am well trained in the crafty ways of the back button and am able to avoid the badness (except, for some reason, the one J2 fic of nine chapters of awfulness that I found myself stuck in the other day. It was kinda like a trainwreck and yet I couldn't stop myself hitting the 'next chapter' button. For the record, an actual train wreck would have provided a better ending than the one I slogged through...)

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1. This. I filed a complaint with the University after my undergrad. They gave (and it certainly wasn't earned) to a person who failed the set modules and chose to take easier modules to bump up credits (everyone else sat the same 24 modules), got caught writing after the exams had finished multiple times, was a week late submitting their research project and I know didn't actually write much of it. It's an insult to the rest of us on the course who actually did the work.

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That's pretty bad. Unfortunate fact is that now that a lot of funding is dependent on retention of students, universities may bend backwards to make sure students don't drop out or fail.

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Ach, that sounds horrendous and would definitely have me steaming from the ears. Did anything come of the complaint in the end (the cynic in me suspects the answer is no...)?

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The cynic in you was right. But I was their best student (on that course) and then pissed them off bybrefusing to take part in an interview on how wonderful it was. In a fun turn of events I'll be lecturing on that course next year!

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Same university? Or same course elsewhere?

Have to admit, my university don't get many awesome points (us being part timers and distance learners is not a freaking excuse for them to be utterly, utterly rubbish when we do go in every five weeks or so). I approve of your stance :)

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Same course. I work just down the road from the uni.

Ah yes. My current masters is distance too, I feel your pain. We only have two go twice a year now (for exams) thankfully! It's because we're not 'proper' students.

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Except for when they're sending us the bill, of course...

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I don't pay for mine but I can certainly imagine it's true... :(

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1. Yeah, I am going to be most likely doing that but in practice, unless it's their second offence, they won't get more than corrective slap on the wrist in the first instance.

2. I do nothing but sit on my arse most days.

3. Heh, the deadlines are for two separate modules though so I hope there hasn't been a lot of dark magics sent my way... Although, it would certainly explain some things.

4. You must get your arse down here then so you can experience the sun in all it's glory. Time to talk about fangirl weekend dates, yes? How is your summer looking? Any weekends June-August that might work for you?

5. I just... I can't help it, it's my weakness. And this one I'm reading atm is over 100k long and like, somewhere along the line, I totally got hooked on the story and now I can't stopppppp

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1. True, but then at least the first instance has been recorded and they have used up their one free chance (in theory). In a generous mood, I might accept that once is a mistake, but twice? That would be deliberate cheating and should result in autofail.

2. Possibly the twinge is actually coming from disuse then? :)

3. Ah, in that case you have only yourself to blame! Is anyone else able to help with the marking? I know our modules tend to have multiple markers.

4. Okay, dateswise, let me see...June is bad (uni and walking training overload) and C2C takes out three July weekends :/ August is probably best - am currently free on 10/11 Aug or 24/25 Aug weekends. Any good, or do we need to start looking at September (wtf, life, why so busy?)?

5. Okay kiddo, just put it down and back awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay from the fanfic. Nice and slow, keep your hands where I can see them...

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snuffkin.livejournal.com

Students who plagiarise really bad should be smacked because not putting work into it implies you are too stupid to realise what they have done. Or maybe they're too stupid/lazy to actually care :(

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I don't get it either. Especially with the software we use, it's so very easy to be found out. And the students know it so... *shakes head*

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entangled-now.livejournal.com

I have to agree with the idea of throwing actual books at them. Thinking up things is hard. Think up your own things!

I wish my emotions were that exciting. Though I did once have dark moths swirling around me when I stood under a porch light!

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Exactly! I get really tired of students whining 'but it's haaaaaaaaard' because seriously, it's not supposed to be easy but something you have to put some effort into.

I have a lot of feelings about a lot of things but mostly they don't swirl or frolic about. Yuck, I'm not keen on moths especially in multitudes.

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You mean they don't just give the degrees out? Poor precious pumpkins.

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moth2fic.livejournal.com

Definitely throw the virtual book at them - but try to restrain yourself physically because it will only hurt your arm and the students will probably duck...

Next time you set double deadlines, think about yourself or your colleagues, and not just the students... Meanwhile, keep going and get all that marking done before you come north! (There is very little chance of sunburn here, btw.)

The butterfly metaphor is fascinating!!!

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I really want to throw something though... I don't get why they do it because it's so easy to be found out nowadays that it would just be better not to return any assignment and just redo the course next year.

I've had weekend off as

pushkin666 was visiting but am so going to pay for it next week which will be kind 24/7 on marking... But yes, definitely getting it all done before I come up so I don't have to worry about work!

Fascinating... and somewhat ridiculous :D Although I did once describe 'desire skittering down his spine like spiders' so perhaps I haven't a leg to stand on *g*

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moth2fic.livejournal.com

Given your known feelings about spiders that is one heavily laden figure of speech! And maybe 8 legs to stand on.....*g*

You are not allowed to work at our house. I can't speak for Tria but I should think the same applies!

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It was a wincest fic so the desire in question needed to be a little menacing.

Noted! No work on holiday! :)

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I'm with everyone else - there is *no* excuse for cheating. Ever. And it needs to be stamped out.

Someone in my first year got caught with 100% plagiarism on Turnitin because they'd copy and pasted from Wikipedia and left the URL at the bottom of the page. Then claimed it was impossible to get a low score on Turnitin. My highest score on Turnitin (apart from the time I forgot to remove my reference list *ahem*) is 6%. So that is just bollocks.

Do what my first MSc lecturers did. Set posters and seminars. Seminars can be marked during the lecture and you can get other students to mark them too. (We put them up in a room and had to walk around and mark each other from the marking criteria. It was then averaged with the lecturers marks).

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I'm the same really, I just fear that the university policy is more forgiving than me...

Lol, lol, that is just lazy and stupid. I've seen copy-pasted stuff that's included things like text being on different fonts 'cos it was taken from different websites. Our students have an option to put their essays through the Turnitin before actual submission so they can see their scores. So there is just no excuse.

I like that idea, but it's a bit of a logistical nightmare with 60-70 students that I tend to have... I did also have group presentations but they were only 25% of the module mark.

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You even let them see the Turnitin before submission? People are ridiculous. We couldn't do it because Turnitin would only give us one go.

Ah. We were a group of 13 which meant it fit fairly nicely into a 3 hour lecture.

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And I've just basically been told by programme director not to pursue the plagiarism with these students because the 'policy is that if they're not in the red zone (this is 75%+!!!) it's not considered plagiarism but instead appalling referencing and Turnitin should be used as educational rather than punitive tool'...

I'm kind of seething but... The only consolation is that worst offender also failed her essay and will have to resubmit anyway so...

This university and my previous one certainly are miles apart in some ways.

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pushkin666.livejournal.com

You should definitely report them for plagiarising.

Not surprised on the sun burn - it's very warm in your garden. My face is somewhat pink after today :)

And also - dominance swirling around them like dark butterflies - it's just not good.

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Yeah likely am going to, just getting a second opinion from someone on them.

Hee, I'm surprised I didn't get another sunburn yesterday myself.

Pfft, I'm sure my dominance swirls about like a flock of bedraggled sparrows.

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pushkin666.livejournal.com

'swirls like a flock of bedraggled sparrows'. Well yes, quite possibly :D

And sometimes in amongst those bedraggled sparrows is a bright red cardinal.

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