I just received an email this morning from my instructor that she thinks I plagarized. It’s really freaking me out because I was so sure I paraphrased (we weren’t allowed direct quotations) and that I put a citation to everything and I’m ashamed that I might have plagarized w/o knowing. I’m aware it might be accidental and the meeting will just be a discussion but I’m still really stressed about it and I can’t stop worrying that I also did this in other classes and I’ll get suspended pls help
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hi friend,
i feel like this pandemic has brought with it a wave of academic offense questions. not sure if the correlation equals causation here, but rest assured you’re not alone. perfectly natural and valid to be stressed about it, though– i know it’s a scary situation to be in.
it’s always a little bit hard for me to respond to peoples’ cries for help re: possible academic offenses, because there’s… very little i can do? without actually having a look at your assignment and sources, it would be very difficult for me to tell you if you actually committed an academic offense unknowingly. but i can explain what the possible consequences might be if your case moves past that first meeting, so you can see that getting suspended is far from the only outcome of this. for more, i would recommend that you reach out to your registrar’s office— they’re really experienced with these things, and can help you navigate the situation.
glad you seem to have done your research (or something?) so i can gloss over the bit about the first meeting just being a discussion. cool cool cool.
so according to the code of behaviour, how sanctions for academic offenses work is a little different depending on a variety of factors, like whether you admit guilt and how much the assignment was worth. it gets kind of complicated. you can scan through the potential consequences in the code of behaviour if you’d like, but i want to highlight for you that there are so many other options, other than suspension, even if your academic offense is found to be legitimate. for minor and first-time offenses, you may just need to resubmit your work in addition to some sort of reprimand being issued. obviously, since i don’t know the details, i can’t tell you if your assignment would qualify as a minor offense, but it does sound like you’re a first-timer.
even if it’s a bit of a larger deal, they’ll assign you a grade of 0 or F for the assignment or reduce your final grade in the course before they’ll suspend you. i know that’s not super reassuring, but it is better than suspension. and i have faith in the system to only reprimand you in proportion with what happened, ie. if it really was an accident, i really really doubt you’re gonna face your worst nightmares.
best of luck with everything though, sending you all the good vibes. drink some water and take a deep breath. focus on something else. as someone who would panic over something like this as well, what i’ve learned is that there’s no use digging yourself into a hole of anxiety– just prepare yourself well for that initial first meeting, be fully honest, and see where things go from there. you’ll have more information about your situation after that meeting. you got this.
be Boundless,
aska