By R - 05/09/2016 10:27 - Australia - Melbourne

Today, my teacher called a friend and me out of class and told us we had been reported for plagiarism because our answers to a problem were nearly identical, and he said that I shouldn't have shared my work. This for an assignment where significant marks were awarded for collaborating with peers. FML
I agree, your life sucks 16 875
You deserved it 1 440
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Tripartita 44

I like to imagine that there's one person responsible for each category of FML. One douchey teacher that goes from school to school, screwing students over in FML worthy fashion. As for the terrible boyfriend/girlfriend category, we'd have one person, moving frequently, making insensitive comments ("It's okay, I don't find your fatness too ugly"), and cross dressing to be the perfect bad boyfriend or girlfriend. It gets harder once you reach the children and pets categories, but you get the idea.

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almost_there44 26

If he assigned the assignment he should know that answers might be similar, especially if the question is the same. Maybe he'll let y'all change a few words around. If you get in trouble for this go to your principal's office, he/she might have more sense than your teacher.

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Comments

Watervixen 27

Maby they were just testing you? Still doesn't make it right just explain and hope for the best.

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Dr_Awesome654 24

Maybe you should have tried making them different, but still right? Maybe?

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almost_there44 26

If he assigned the assignment he should know that answers might be similar, especially if the question is the same. Maybe he'll let y'all change a few words around. If you get in trouble for this go to your principal's office, he/she might have more sense than your teacher.

123 3
Tripartita 44

I like to imagine that there's one person responsible for each category of FML. One douchey teacher that goes from school to school, screwing students over in FML worthy fashion. As for the terrible boyfriend/girlfriend category, we'd have one person, moving frequently, making insensitive comments ("It's okay, I don't find your fatness too ugly"), and cross dressing to be the perfect bad boyfriend or girlfriend. It gets harder once you reach the children and pets categories, but you get the idea.

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Stripez234 16

Every FML post I see I frantically search for your comment to view your eloquently intellectual and flawlessly humorous comment

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Tripartita 44

Why, thanks! I'd recommend steering clear of the FML about the snake-bitten Floridian…

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thelittlem 15

wow we live in the same state!!! yeah but that sucks too lol

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Watervixen 27

To clarify on #2 I meant hope for the best to explain to someone higher up like a principal/Dean.

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alaina1104 11

Even when working together, you should never write down the same answers word for word. That can be hard depending on the nature of the assignment though, and it sounds like your teacher should have explained that better.

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xxDeeStar 27

In my school, we always had to work together but make sure our work was worded very differently. It was a way to prepare us for college/university. People work together all the time in post-secondary schools but you can easily get EXPELLED if your work is similar. If our labs were over 10% similar in university (and yes they used a system online to confirm the similarity) then the lab would count as 0% (the first time). And next time, you'd be kicked from the class. Your school is trying to find a way to prepare students for higher up. This is because if you choose college/university, then you will probably write papers or lab reports through collaboration & be expected to write things in your own words. It's tough but it's a demanded skill by higher ups. Of course, 100% change is impossible for an answer that has one type of answer. So if your answers were different enough, then this teacher is crazy but otherwise, I can understand her point of view. It depends on how much emphasis she put on the definition of "plagiarism" before giving you this assignment. For example, It was ALWAYS clear to us what plagiarism meant and yet many students would still write similar answers. So it's hard to say who is right/wrong in your situation but I hope it works out in your favour in the end.

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xxDeeStar 27

Edit: emphasis he* put & his* point of view. Sorry about that.

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smoothies14 32

Sharing work with a classmate and plagiarizing aren't really the same thing, as the latter has a more legal sense of stealing intellectual property. Even if you were awarded IP status for your work, it should belong to both of you, as it is an amalgamation of your collective ideas. Your teacher sounds like a moron.

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eyepuppy 31

You sound like a moron. If you turn in separate assignments, the work is assumed to be your own. Collaboration never implies that you are free from this rule.

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Lalala579121 27

Think of it like this, 12: Say you're doing a lab with a partner. The work you do on the lab is collaborating with them, and all your data should be the same. But that doesn't mean you can work with them when doing the lab report and turn in the exact same answers.

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cootiequeen4444 11

collaboration literally means working 2ith another person to create something. so if the work is expected to belong to one person, there should have been 0 collaboration. I felt like this is why things that people have collaborated on are usually required to have all the participants signature. because it would be plagiarism to take credit for everything when you collaborated just as much as if you copied someone else with collaboration not being allowed. HOWEVER, I feel more details are needed in this FML to give too much sympathy... like.. why did the work belong to OP and not the person he collaborated with. according to OP the teacher said that he should have not let his work be copied... usually there isn't a copier and a lender to teachers flagging plagiarism. there are two people with similar answers and that is that. and I'm just kinda stumped by this. if there was truly a memo out that collaboration would give you high marks, then I doubt the teacher would report over. 'a problem' which made it seem like there was multiple problems with only one being an issue. makes me wonder what the problem was. heck. I wonder the subject as well. maybe that particular problem started out with "in your own words" blah blah blah.. which would indicate to NOT collaborate with anyone on said problem. so yeah I can't really say for a fact that the teacher is a moron. FML is too vague regarding important facts. I definitely don't think 12 is a moron either though. they made a valid point. something collaborated on can never be 100% your work. Also all this you deserve it for not using unique wording is BS. Too much paraphrasing would get you in big trouble at college/university as well. the point of college is being able to form your own ideas in a an intellectual way... so exercises in high school that are working together but wording things differently doesn't help much other than you are less likely to get caught with plagiarism. as this pinging someone on paraphrasing too much a particular persons work is harder to do.. as there is no computer program to do this for a professor. and idk. all the plagiarism cases I've heard about during my time at college were from individual assignments. no collaboration at all. and even with labs, I'm not sure where people are getting the idea you are to collaborate with the written part of lab reports. the part students collaborate with other students for is the data... not the observations part, etc.. though people do so all the time... I'm pretty sure professors want you to make your own observations as that is how it can be gaged if someone is learning or not and stuff. why would a science teacher care about the extensive nature or lack thereof of someone's vocabulary. they teach SCIENCE not English or Literature. sorry about the rant. so many comments on this FML were driving me batty... not just the one I'm responding to. and it's nothing personal. though I do think calling 12 a moron wasn't justified at all...

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smoothies14 32

Thanks, 26. For the rest of you, I wasn't arguing for or against the collaboration because, as 26 mentioned, there isn't enough information. My point was that the teacher claimed plagiarism, when in fact, they were just sharing/collaborating/copying with/from each other- meaning that the teacher didn't seem to know the difference (or what plagiarism is). For this, if not more, I concluded that the teacher seems to be a moron.

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