Plagiarism Alleged in Duke Student's Commencement Speech

[cato]

My other teachers expressed reactions ranging from bemused to confounded as I tried to avoid being contrary in my assignments/classroom comments.

Interesting project. Does this sentence mean that you tried to be consistent in your arguments in your writing for both the creative writing course and your other courses, without recycling work?

[niveklaen]

Interesting project. Does this sentence mean that you tried to be consistent in your arguments in your writing for both the creative writing course and your other courses, without recycling work?

No, the opposite, I expressed opinions in my creative writing class that I would not express in my other classes. No desire to 'poke the bear' as it were.

[cato]

No, the opposite, I expressed opinions in my creative writing class that I would not express in my other classes. No desire to 'poke the bear' as it were.

Got it. Makes the creative writing part more creative!

I don’t think I could have done this, though.

[niveklaen]

Got it. Makes the creative writing part more creative!

I don’t think I could have done this, though.

If I had known that my contrarian opinions would make it back to my other profs I never would have written them for the creative writing course...

[bundabergdevil]

If I had known that my contrarian opinions would make it back to my other profs I never would have written them for the creative writing course...

Sounds like your CW prof violated a code.

[Rich]

I have a somewhat related story from my time at Duke that I would like to share.

I took a creative writing class in my 3rd year where I wrote a number of essays that explained why I disagreed with various concepts that I was being taught about in other classes. The teacher became convinced that I was recycling papers that I had written for these other classes - which, to my understanding, would have been an ethics code violation. The teacher ended up sharing those papers with my other professors to confirm whether or not they were recycled. My other teachers expressed reactions ranging from bemused to confounded as I tried to avoid being contrary in my assignments/classroom comments.

If it is university practice to double check recycling upon suspicion, then I think it reasonable to double-check this speaker's papers for plagiarism too. If this student did not plagiarize work for their courses then I don't think pulling the diploma would be appropriate.

As I expressed upthread, based on my kids' experiences at other schools, I would think all papers at Duke are submitted through a program that automatically checks for plagiarism.

[niveklaen]

As I expressed upthread, based on my kids' experiences at other schools, I would think all papers at Duke are submitted through a program that automatically checks for plagiarism.

I was a student back when the internet was barely a thing...if plagiarism are done automatically then this student's issue must truly be a one time thing.

[Bluedog]

I was a student back when the internet was barely a thing...if plagiarism are done automatically then this student's issue must truly be a one time thing.

One of the first tweets about this incident ran it through the "Grammarly" test and it found "significant plagiarism." Grammarly is mostly about grammar/syntax errors but I guess has a plagiarism algorithm too.

[Rich]

One of the first tweets about this incident ran it through the "Grammarly" test and it found "significant plagiarism." Grammarly is mostly about grammar/syntax errors but I guess has a plagiarism algorithm too.

Yes, it does, but I think many schools use Turnitin, which is considered the best app for checking plagiarism.

I had a conversation with an NYU professor yesterday and she confirmed all of her students' papers get submitted through Turnitin. If a paper gets flagged she allows them to go back and review/revise without letting them know what was flagged. It's up to the student to figure out what wasn't properly cited, sufficiently paraphrased, or considered new creative. But she also said that she's nice and that most professors just send those cases to the department head or Dean of Students for handling.