Irony at Work

Before I begin grading, I arrange the papers from (anticipated) worst to best—so I generally feel pretty good by the time I finish grading the class. I realize that this is both horrible and what education classes taught us not to do—in fact, they say to arrange them from best to worst. But as a striving optimist, I do the opposite. (As my husband says, "I feel bad for the poor kids who are on the top of that stack.")

I spent my day (and evening) yesterday grading a section of 101 proposal papers. One student, who has managed to climb from the beginning to the middle of the stack, wrote a fantastic paper. I was truly proud of the fact that Andrea had put so much effort into the paper—dozens of questions in class, emails, and even IMs—for she had created an exemplary product. Except there were no citations.

Technically, I should have failed this student—internal citations are detrimental to her ethos as a writer and, really, her integrity as a student. But I consider myself a generous person, so I wrote her a paragraph explaining that hers was an A paper, but she can't get an A without internal citations. It breaks my heart! I wrote. I know you'll crush the next one! Then I penned a B+ and circled it.

Today after class Andrea was a wreck. She tried pleading with me, asking to put in the citations so that I could give her the A. I explained a (true) story I had heard from another professor: he had a student who submitted a research paper without internal citations for the portfolio review, so he failed. He didn't just fail the portfolio review—he failed the course. So really, I said, the B+ is generous, because technically she should have failed. I then said that I hoped that she would learn from the situation so she wouldn't be the unfortunate student who has to repeat a course—or worse—because of something so silly.

Andrea was far from satisfied, but she eventually exited the classroom. I then went to my last class, a 102, and later stayed after to speak to a handful of students who had questions on their upcoming draft.

One girl, Lily, relayed an anecdote about a girl she met in the stairwell who started talking about being caught for accidental plagiarism; she had forgotten to use internal citations in her paper. The stairwell girl had told this perfect stranger, "This is bad karma for all the times I plagiarized. This time it was entirely by accident—and I got caught! I can't believe it."

I hope Andrea learned not to plagiarize—accidentally or purposefully—at least in my class. If nothing else, I hope the irony isn't lost on her.