in a sticky citation situation

Hello there. Sorry for bothering you, but I’m concerned about a completed assignment. I turned in an assignment for my history class two weeks ago. I fully cited the text I received information from, but ouriginal says it’s 41% plagiarized. I looked at where the plagiarism is supposed to be, and it’s mostly just the provided template. For example, there are specific instructions on the template, and rather than delete them, I left them on the page. If I remove all the template stuff, it becomes 20%. However, the quotes I cited were also flagged, and now it’s because my in-text citations were incorrect. As of now, no TA or Prof has reached out to me to alert me of plagiarizing, but I still feel nervous about the whole situation. If I discussed or tried to explain this to my TA and professor, what could happen, and is this something I should be heavily concerned about?

hey there,  

okay, feeling nervous about this is so valid. citations are hard to get right and there are so many ways of doing them that it can get really frustrating! 

in terms of just how concerned you should be, i feel like i would need a bit more context: just how incorrect were your in-text citations? because normally, plagiarism cases that go forward will be obvious, and not small, simple mistakes like getting a couple parentheses wrong. also — what year are you in? this definitely changes how strict the prof would be.

if you’re a first year, most profs tend to be pretty understanding about citation mistakes. it’s very common in first year for people to do their in-text citations wrong — from what i’ve seen, the prof normally just docks marks at worst, and at best gives the class a talk about exactly what mistakes were made and what they want to see in the future. especially since we’re in the first semester of the year, profs will tend to teach you about citations rather than punishing you for innocent mistakes. unless you’re literally blatantly not citing things and not-so-innocently plagiarizing lol. 

i don’t think you should panic, because citation mistakes are pretty tame and you’ll avoid consequences like suspension. in the case that your prof flags you, and if the assignment was less than 10% of your grade, you would probably just get a zero on it, according to key consequences. the best thing you can do in this case is admit to the offence, or else it just keeps getting forwarded to higher divisions and consequences. in the best case, you can get away with just a “written reprimand” from the dean. 

the UTM website on plagiarism says that you should talk to your instructor about your uncertainty citing your sources, because if they approach you first your case could be forwarded to the office of the dean. i’m assuming this implies that if you bring it up first, your prof might be more understanding? but it’s kinda unclear, so idk.

overall, what i know is that people make citation mistakes all the time! no prof or TA is out to get their students, and they aren’t trying to give people zeros or report them to the department. it really just depends on how strict your instructor is on these kinds of things. overall, according to the code of behavior on academic matters, it’s just up to the prof whether or not you get in trouble, as action is only taken if they decide you’ve committed an academic offence.  

i think it would be helpful to talk to an academic advisor at your registrar. this is worth a try since they can’t use anything you say against you, and they’ve seen tons of cases like this. anyways, i really hope everything works out for you!

over and out,

aska