Yeah, plus, and more importantly, I think, it’s low-level, unimaginative cheating. I reckon a really clever, new way of cheating ought to get you a pass anyway.
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As an instructor I tend to think of cheating in terms of contracting, to wit, as students opting out of a contract they perhaps don’t fully understand and which they (seemingly) do not agree with fully or at all. It makes total sense to me why a harried undergraduate would choose to copy, cheat, plagiarize, etc. in the face of perceived need (to pass, to do well, to get the job, whatever) and to the detriment of what must seem to them like very fussy old-people’s scruples concerning a dying profession and its mystifying best practices. I empathize with them each and every time, and there’s also the part of me that identifies with them as well: like, how could I teach Huck Finn and Ishmael and other lovable American rapscallions and not somehow love my students who choose to not whitewash the fence and for whom it’s lights out for the territory?
Also, there’s the whole idea of cheating, plagiarism, forgery, theft, and all the rest as creative behavior: socially unacceptable creative behavior, to be sure, but creative behavior that’s very similar to the kinds that we like and feel comfortable about. And when I consider it thusly I really want to privilege and valorize it, not just because that’s what fussy academics do, but because I think it’s a really fascinating phenomenon, whether considered professionally, sociologically, psychologically, or whatever. Cheating is evil(ish), but everyone(ish) cheats, despite everyone(ish) saying how evil(ish) cheating is: discuss!
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My thoughts exactly. How is it possible he could be so entirely dense as to think someone wouldn’t notice the second plagiarism? It smacks of juvenile behavior, “ha ha, I’ll throw it back in their faces with a stolen apology, I’m so artistic and bold!” I’m more and more inclined to think he’s the ass people call him, and that’s too bad. In my brief experience, the people who chase stardom are often the least capable of handling it once received.
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