Coping with the Copiers

You've read the paper before. Perhaps it's the way the writer strings together seven sentences with and. Or uses the word illuminate. Or gets lost in the depths of a relative construction. In your mind you put these bits together and arrive at the inescapable conclusion-this paper was copied. Also inescapable is the next dilemma, what do I do? Nothing can spoil the enjoyment of reading students' compositions (or add to the misery) more than coming up with a paper which we feel has been copied. It is at once a threat, a challenge, a cry for help. We have the choice of letting it go, realizing that copying is tough to prove (especially when we saw the original a semester ago), or calling the student on it and giving the paper the grade it deserves. If we're lucky, we may have both the original and the copy so the burden of proof, if not the confrontation, will be easier. But in lieu of the original, what are we to do? This article offers no magic remedy. None exist where confidence, experience, reasoned judgment, and good teaching are crucial. But we can at least become aware of the law (or lack of it) involving grading by developing ways to handle the more blatant cases, by learning that worry about the inevitable confrontation is usually worse than the confrontation, and by working to prevent copying before it starts.