Intuition Plus Technology-A Lethal Combination

I had an "interesting" experience while grading papers this weekend. I was reading a paper and having a deja vu moment-I had a feeling that I had read this paper before-during Spring semester last year. I e-mailed my former student and asked her to send me a copy of the paper. Sure enough, my current student had rearranged the content, but it was basically word for word the same paper. I had suspected this in one of his other papers, but I let it go, because I didn't feel as strongly about it as I did this time. I should have trusted my instincts at the time, but I'm glad that I did this time. I tend to second guess myself, but this just goes to show that first instincts are usually right. It's so frustrating that students do this, but over the past few semesters I have learned to trust my intuition regarding plagiarism. I hate to say it, but I'm looking forward to confronting my student about this-I wonder what he will have to say for himself...