By zoegirl_455 - 09/04/2014 21:57 - United States - San Francisco

Today, my teacher used an online program and accused me of plagiarism. According to the program, I plagiarized my own last name. FML
I agree, your life sucks 45 986
You deserved it 3 105

zoegirl_455 tells us more.

zoegirl_455 30

Surprised this got posted guess it's twenty times the charm. So yes this fml needs a ton of explanation. The program my teacher used is turn it in. My percentage of plagiarism is 22%. Some of what is highlighted as plagiarism is my works cited and my last name, there's also some parts of sentences that are apparently plagiarized also. The paper was on historical events so much of what is highlighted are dates, names, and events. The things that my teacher said were "word from word from turn it in" were descriptions of historical events and similar things, and they were phrases, not whole sentences. When I looked at the source of plagiarism my words were apparently copied from a website I've never heard of, a student paper that I'm pretty sure is from another state, and a website I did use as a source in my paper and did cite. I did not plagiarize my paper, I spent a whole week writing it and a good portion of my weekend editing it. The most frustrating thing is that many people from my class spit out a paper two hours before it was due and got a higher grade. I am planning to talk to my teacher after school and clear this up. It's pretty ridiculous because in all my 12 years of school I've never been accused of this sooo I'm hoping my teacher will be able to understand. To clear up the meaning of the FML, I was trying to say that my teacher basically used some program on the Internet to accuse me of plagiarism that just highlights anything that is remotely similar to something else, which resulted in a higher percentage of plagiarism. Hopefully this explanation wasn't too confusing and this cleared everything up!

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Top comments

ruckfules85 34

Wtf is going through peoples minds these days. Your teacher needs to get herself together.

213 1

Comments

trulypar 34

"Well, Mr./Ms. Shakespeare, I think you've plagiarized that name...did you really think I, as a teacher, wouldn't catch on?" Lol

2 1
katties 27

Sounds really strange... Not sure I buy this one. There must be MUCH more than one word in order to be accused of plagiarism. On top of that, MANY more sentences have a structure similar to other sentences, and I don't think you have found a totally new way of structuring your sentences. Basically, it is really unlikely that ONLY your name was found other places. And I don't think your teacher is so stupid that she would accuse you of plagiarism because of a your name. Also, the program should NOT react to names.

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FIRELEGO 2

That happened to me too. It also said I plagiarized my whole works sited page

3 0
FranklySpeaking 11

You couldn't have plagiarized your last name. Bring the original document you got it from: your birth certificate. (cwcville logic)

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unwantedforlife 14

Same happened to me in colleges but it detected 40% plagiarism because of direct quotes from sources and dumb thing like "in the." I'm sure everything will be fine for you

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fader48080 10

I also noticed you use of the state New York and that you used the phrase "and so, it stands to reason." I have seen these things used before.

2 0
JokersHQ 21

I'm pretty sure that you can go above her and get it fixed. Sounds pretty bs to me

0 0
ZoroMiHawk 25

Here's a tip: Take screenshots of your answers and insert them as an image in a word document. Plagiarism detectors can't read an image of text so therefore your document will return as 0% plagiarised even if you copy pasted everything from the internet. Your welcome.

2 2
zoegirl_455 30

Surprised this got posted guess it's twenty times the charm. So yes this fml needs a ton of explanation. The program my teacher used is turn it in. My percentage of plagiarism is 22%. Some of what is highlighted as plagiarism is my works cited and my last name, there's also some parts of sentences that are apparently plagiarized also. The paper was on historical events so much of what is highlighted are dates, names, and events. The things that my teacher said were "word from word from turn it in" were descriptions of historical events and similar things, and they were phrases, not whole sentences. When I looked at the source of plagiarism my words were apparently copied from a website I've never heard of, a student paper that I'm pretty sure is from another state, and a website I did use as a source in my paper and did cite. I did not plagiarize my paper, I spent a whole week writing it and a good portion of my weekend editing it. The most frustrating thing is that many people from my class spit out a paper two hours before it was due and got a higher grade. I am planning to talk to my teacher after school and clear this up. It's pretty ridiculous because in all my 12 years of school I've never been accused of this sooo I'm hoping my teacher will be able to understand. To clear up the meaning of the FML, I was trying to say that my teacher basically used some program on the Internet to accuse me of plagiarism that just highlights anything that is remotely similar to something else, which resulted in a higher percentage of plagiarism. Hopefully this explanation wasn't too confusing and this cleared everything up!

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pandalover69 26

Ok first off, 22% is normal for those programs. Your teacher is a moron and is clearly new to using it. Those programs ALWAYS say under at least 30% has been plagiarized because chances are the subject of your paper has been written about 1000s of times before. Most teachers know how to use the program, the good ones only look for whole paragraphs that were clearly copied and pasted. Your teacher just took it too seriously, chances are everyone in is having that problem, go the head of her department with a group of people from your class and tell him/her what happened.

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beatlegirl27 20

I also use this site for school. I've never run into this issue since my teachers understood that it was part of my report.

23 0
Pyapi 20

I also used to use that program for high school. Generally got between 15-20%, but I never was told I plagiarized by them! Your teacher is most likely new to the program. I agree, you should speak with your teacher and try to calmly explain things. If she is a reasonable woman, I am sure she will understand! And if not, try to get another teacher, one who does know how to use turn it in, to mention it or explain it to her.

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zoegirl_455 30

Okay so I talked to my teacher and he basically said my wording was too similar but that he could tell I wasn't doing it on purpose. When he first explained it to me he sounded like he thought I was plagiarizing but the second time he was real nice about it and totally understood. So the whole thing was basically because of a miscommunication. It still wasn't fun though and I know turn it in has caused this problem with other students before. The whole turn it in program can get to be ridiculous sometimes

22 0
zoegirl_455 30

No he did not fix my grade, apparently it wasn't too big of a factor on my grade, kind of weird in my opinion but oh well

19 0
Unluckymeow 9

I'm glad it turned out ok OP! I feel really bad for those other students you mentioned though. :/ Teachers should really not take the percentages too seriously on that site, unless it's whole sentences being highlighted and what not.

2 0
ZuRG_fml 7

#80: DUDE. That's absolute BS, fight it.

4 2
zoegirl_455 30

He didn't grade it until the end of the marking period so theres no chance of it changing, I still have a low A. So it's not terrible just something to make sure doesn't happen next time! I enjoyed all the concerns, advice, and hilarious comments though!

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alki_fml 5

I must agree with the other posters here, your teacher has obviously not been trained properly in the use of this program. We use it at the university i work at extensively and your report sounds normal. In fact its more popularly used now as a way to teach students how to correctly use citation rather than as some kind of policing system. 22% is an accepted normal score range that most students get. We dont flag anything as a concern unless its over 60%. And even then we comb through the report one item at a time. Your teacher needs to be trained properly.

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angryclouds 15

I was a TA in grad school and I had to use turn it in. I failed about three people one time because their papers were over 40%. One was 78%. 22% is pretty average.

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Brianna_Ray 23

My school made us use turn it in for passing in essays. If we had a very low percentage of "plagiarism" we didn't get in trouble because it was usually coincidence and us not deliberately doing plagiarism.

1 0
Uglyfeet 23

Dude, WTF?? Is every teacher using that site? It must be a kind of plagiarism!

4 0
thefmlman2011 36

If your talk about a low "A" is that like and A-? If so, I'd be damn happy about that grade.

2 0
HighasaCloud 46

Is she sensible enough to have the issue explained to her?

1 0
bassfisher100 23

I'd like to say I've used turnitin and it ******* sucks.

1 0
pyronexus 12

A "low a" can ruin someone's GPA and chances of getting certain scholarships. So even if you'd be happy it can still screw some people up

1 0
holly_fly 34

How can a low A change GPA... Anything that is an A is a 4.0, B is a 3.0 and down to an F being a 0.0...

0 0
ThunderLightTSV 31

Ugh, TurnIt In is a bitch. I had to use it in my 8th year for everything and it highlighted simple words like "and" along with my Works Cited pages. Hopefully things got cleared up for you.

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wakesnow78 6

Not at my uni. At mine, it goes down in an incremental scale, so an A+ is 4.0, A is 3.8, A- is 3.6 etc

0 0