Hi, I was wondering if anyone went through this as well. I have a meeting with the Office of the Dean for plagarise for a paper I wrote in one of my classes. I obviously didn’t purposely didn’t cheat. I even made sure to use 20 other plagarism checkers to check if my paper had any detection of plagarism. But clearly it didn’t pick up. So I checked on Turnitin what section of my paper had plagarism. Instead it says “source details have been deleted”. I’m, literally confused at this point.

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hello!

okay SO you seem pretty nervous, which is reasonable in this situation. i would be flipping out too. i can’t say i’ve been in your exact place– but maybe someone else reading this blog has? anyway, hopefully i’ll be able to help a lil bit with the confusion. obviously i don’t know anything about the exact situation or even about how much you know, but i’ll try to cover my bases here.

if you’ve received a summons to the dean’s office, you’ve likely been referred to a copy of the code of behaviour on academic matters.  if you’ve read this through, you’ll know that a meeting with the office of the dean may not be the end of the world: that meeting exists to decide whether or not you committed an offense, meaning they may actually declare you innocent. in that case, your work will be evaluated normally. if you don’t admit to anything during this meeting and they still suspect you of an academic offence, you’ll head to a tribunal hearing where you’ll be able to plead your case. in short, the university isn’t going to treat you as automatically guilty just because your work has been flagged. you’ll have more than one opportunity to resist the plagiarism charge.

i would suggest that you bring up the ‘source details have been deleted’ thing at your dean’s meeting, and have them explain to you what that means. i’m not familiar enough with turnitin to know exactly what that entails, but if there really is an error that may be useful in your defense.

i guess there’s always the possibility that even despite your best intentions, you accidentally committed plagiarism. according to u of t’s academic integrity page, plagiarism doesn’t necessarily entail using the exact wording of an established source like a book or website– it might also mean your content is too similar to that of another student’s, for example. alternatively, the TA may feel that your writing style differs far too much from your previous work to be yours. in that case, they may suspect that you paid someone else to write your paper. in either of these cases, i’m not sure that a third party plagiarism checker would necessarily detect anything. or there’s the possibility of an issue with your citations; that may also have gotten you flagged.

either way, i’m sure that if you are innocent and continue to plead that, the system isn’t going to screw you over. i can’t really help you out beyond this, but i hope the process is kind to you and that the outcome is just.

last thing– 20 plagiarism checkers? man. i know of like, two tops, but maybe that’s just me. kinda intense to put yourself through that, especially if you do it for every assignment you submit. dang.

over n out,

aska

Hey there! So I hate to say it but I’ve been accused or charged with plagerism. I use Writecheck so I know it was only 8% of my paper that had a similarity. I just forgot to edit this one portion of my essay. This is my first real problem at u of t.. Can you please tell me what happens after the prof has sent in his report. Thanks

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hey there,

assuming you’re at the downtown campus, the procedure follows section C.i.(a) Divisional Procedures (page 4) of the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. after the instructor makes a report, the dean/department chair will have a meeting with you, and then will either impose a sanction or not.

i know legal language can make you feel a bit like this, but if you’re in this position, i’d highly recommend reading all of section C.i.(a) of the Code, because it explains exactly what happens in every step of the process, and that can actually be really comforting and helpful, if you peel back the intimidating jargon.

cheers,

aska

Hi there,

I’m a struggling second year student and something came up with one of my courses that has to be dealt with OSAI. This has been affecting my outlook on university and all my other courses. It has been what occupies my brain all this time. It has been messing with my thoughts and my activities. I don’t want to say I’m depressed because I’m really to get to class but i feel like something triggers the though every time and it gets me really low. I just want to know if there’s any place or someone I could freely talk to about my position in campus. I’m at that stage in which I want to drop everything and leave although there’s only a month left of school. Pls help me out. I’ve been holding all my fears in and I’m really scared thanks

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hey there,

alright friends, this is a PSA: you are always free to come HERE and talk about any and all thoughts you may be having about school. aska’s about as low-key as it gets on this campus, so if you ever feel like talking something out or just need to vent, and you really want to do it with someone who will be mostly useless but will link to some hilarious and appropriate gifs – you’re always welcome here. we can jive together in this super-rad internet space.

that said, i understand that this low-budget, virtual equivalent of a run-down cafe with a bossy barista might not always cut it, so let’s look at some other options.

first, i know it’s hard to have perspective on this, but you’ve got a lot of stuff weighing you down right now, and you shouldn’t discount how much better you will likely feel when you’re out and finally free in april. if you can, try and just hang in there for one more month; it’s not always gonna be as crappy as it is now (that goes for ALL OF YOU right now blubbering into your red bulls until 3 in the morning and crying about exams).

second, this thing with OSAI is not meant to be stressful. i know it doesn’t look that way, since it keeps being all: “MEETING WITH THE DEAN,” “ACADEMIC POLICY” and stuff (why can’t they just use nice words like “a lil pow-wow with the guy in the tall chair” and “some stuff we wrote down so that the stuff you write is hella rad”?), but really, this isn’t supposed to be a horrible punishment. in fact, here is a quote from the OSAI website itself: “Remember that this meeting is not meant to be an interrogation. Under the Code, it is an opportunity for the Faculty of Arts & Science to present its concerns to you and to provide you with the opportunity to respond. If you are honest and straightforward about what has occurred, then it is reasonable to expect that the meeting will proceed very smoothly.”

they want everything to go well, just like you. honesty is your friend; there’s nothing more you can do. also, you’re not a terrible person. you just made a mistake, whether intentional or not, and all you are expected to do now is talk openly and honestly about it. try and remember that.

finally, if you’re still feeling really nervous or down or upset about this or school in general, you can always talk to your college registrar’s office. if you think you should speak to a counsellor, you can do that with caps. if you’d rather speak with someone online, that’s an option too. and don’t be nervous about those options, either: maybe they’ll be useful, maybe not, but you need to take your feelings seriously and give yourself a chance if you think you need it. however, if you just need someone to talk to and would rather it not be as official/uoft-associated, why not give this letter-writing website a shot?

best of luck,

aska

Hey aska,

I was wondering, what are the likely outcomes for a case where the assignment worth less than 10% has been deemed plagiarized by the instructor? I understand that there is a mark of 0% or they’ll take it to the dean, but is there anyway to prove my innocence without having to go through such a process? Like I honestly haven’t plagiarized and I feel like Uoft is the government where they make false cases against you just to trap you in life. This is so unjust, but their authority is much greater than my word. How do I escape these lies when I haven’t, 100% not, plagiarized or at least with no intention to at all? In what case will this accusation (false) appear on my transcript? What will the discussion with the instructor consist of? How can I prove my innocence without going through the scary process with the dean?

Thanks

From one frustrated student who feels like uoft is out to get me!

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hey there,

i get that you ‘honestly haven’t plagiarized,’ and i feel for you, i do, but you gotta understand i don’t know you personally. i don’t know if you plagiarized. same goes for your instructor/the dean; as far as they know, you could be pulling a NASTY TRICK. i mean, don’t get me wrong, you seem pretty cool. i’m sure you’re an A+ guy who would never cheat, but like, there’s no way of knowing that for sure. that means that some kind of formal process has to be followed by your instructor, and that process is outlined in the code of behaviour on academic matters.

any instance of plagiarism will only go to the dean or a formal hearing if it’s not resolved at a less formal level – and with such a small assignment, i’m sure it can be. according to the code, the first step is just that you discuss the offence with your instructor (that’s on page 4 if you wanna take a look at it). so before you do anything else, go to your instructor, ask them what offence specifically they think you’ve committed (improper citation, etc.), and then you have a chance to explain yourself to them.

keep in mind that although you’re almost certainly not a bad person and maybe you didn’t intend to plagiarize, it could have happened accidentally. there are a whole bunch of offences listed in the code, and maybe you committed one without knowing it. so listen carefully when your instructor explains why they think you plagiarized. if it turns out you did, just admit to it – the earlier on you do, the less severe the punishment.

if however, your instructor really has just made a mistake, everything should be fine at that point. if not, they have to take it to the department chair/dean, but as long as you’re honest and explain your situation fully with your instructor, there should be no problem.

good luck!

aska

I have a question.

I’m a second year student and was charged with Academic Dishonestly last year, as a friend of mine and I were working on an assignment together and we had the same paper, except in our own words. I was charged and did not pass the course, as they took off the marks for the full assignment.

This year, I took a sociology course and for my “make-up” tutorial assignments, I did not cite the quotes that I had taken off the Internet. I was so sure that I could only put arguments into the paper and submit it.

I am now under review for plagiarism.

Do you think I will get suspended from school for a period of a year or two?

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I have an answer.

Well no. First, I have a question. How could you not cite your quotes?

I mean really.

But whatever. What’s done is done, and well, considering your past… yeah, I do think you might end up with a suspension. The university takes academic misconducts very, very seriously, and the fact that you’ve already been to OSAI once before doesn’t help your situation in the least. You should probably head over to your registrar’s office as soon as possible so they can lay down how grave this situation is to you, but honestly, harsh as this may be, you probably will face some sort of punishment.

For now, I recommend just putting the matter aside since you’re already under review and can’t really do anything about it. Just focus on your other classes and those assignments because a few good grades are really going to help if this class with the plagiarism goes south for you.

Best,
aska