Almost accused of plagiarism?!

I need to vent. Some advice would be nice too.

I think I was *almost* accused of plagiarism.

So we received our formative essays back today. They weren't for particular subjects in our course, just as a benchmark for everyone. In the comments section, my tutor wrote "...where you are quoting phrases from [your] sources, you need to put them in inverted commas to indicate that they are not your own words. Please note that in an essay, which is assessable, your writing will be rigorously checked if it is deemed to be using sentences from unacknowledged sources, heavy penalties will ensue."

Originally, I thought she was saying I hadn't properly cited my work. However, when I questioned her more about it, asked for an example, she skimmed my essay and found this quote as an example: "In the United States, where candidates are listed on ballots instead of political parties, the image of a candidate, his ability to reach and persuade voters, and his likability are imperative to the outcome of the general election." She then suggested that I should be careful not to copy and paste parts of the sentence from my sources, that they didn't sound like my words.

I didn't and still don't know what to say. I can tell you all, that entire sentence is 100% me. I personally know the information because I frickin lived through and was present for the entire campaign in the United States. I did not plagiarize my work. That is how I write; that is how I speak. Every phrase that I used from a source was quoted. I could bet my life on it. I know full well what it is like to have ideas stolen and for someone to even suggest that there was even the possibility... I cannot describe the sort of anger that I'm feeling right now.

I told my friend about it and she offered that perhaps I should be flattered because it could mean that my work was good enough for them to be suspicious. I'm not flattered, I'm just insulted.

These essays aren't going to count towards our final grades since, again, they were merely benchmarks. However, I can't help but feel that the mark I received might have been different if not for this suggestion of 'copy and paste.' For those who might ask, no, she didn't use a program to scan my essay for plagiarism. They were just printed out and handed in. Also, she doubted the validity of my internet sources. Since the topic was on a recent issue, most of my relevant information were from news articles.

Due to this, I worry now for my other essays that need to be turned in next month.  

It's not impossible to hit on a sentence construction that is very close to someone else's. You're describing the same thing using the same language, after all. I wonder if the teacher used one of those analysis tools to come up with this suspicion.

Yes, that would bother me exceedingly.

Running the phrase and subclauses through Google didn't turn up anything, FYI.

Maybe you should go back and ask her whose work it is she thinks you plagiarising.  I'd be thinking of complaining to the Dean if that happened to me.

I'd handle this carefully. I don't know what you're studying or where so I can't offer much help there... but to be blunt, as a Uni-level teacher, finding students who write well is a rare occurrence these days! I would, indeed, very diplomatically ask where she thinks you got this from. Try to treat it lightheartedly if you can without seeming like you are not taking the issue seriously. With any luck, she'll drop it.

For your next essay, make very sure that you cite a lot of sources rigorously (not saying you didn't already, just making sure you continue to do so). IF it comes up again, you will need to ask a) how they are determining that you aren't citing your work, and b) possibly get a third party in to see what they think. If that still gets you no satisfaction, then I'd take it higher up the food chain.

Regarding the internet sources, that's a failure on her part. When I assess, if I doubt a source, I check it out myself! I'd suggest that right now, she's lumping you in with the Wikipedia brigade (students who think Wiki is a valid reference alone) and hopefully, with seeing more of your work, she'll get that you're not.

That is really frustrating :-( I think you should definitely approach someone about it, unfounded accusations like that are hurtful.

I've never experienced that at the graduate level but when I was in high school the day after I had turned in an essay assignment, my teacher made me sit down and take a vocabulary test - from words I had used in my own paper. It was really humiliating. She thought I had plagiarized it and not only that - probably didn't even know what most of the words meant! I was so upset. Needless to say, I passed her stupid test, but I felt totally helpless to do anything and didn't confront the teacher about it. I wish I had, now.

I've been there. It was my last semester of college, too - my entire academic career I had been praised for my writing ability and had never had a professor doubt the legitimacy of my work. Like you, I was enraged and insulted. I talked to her the next day, though, and when I asked her to find the particular example, it turned out she didn't actually think I had plagiarized; she thought a particular quotation of mine was ambiguously attributed. I felt like I had narrowly missed getting plowed over by a bus.

My best suggestion is to just keep doing good work and turning it in. Some teachers are more cynical than others, and either aren't used to students producing good-quality essays or have had bad experience with plagiarism in the past. Consistently showing her that no, really, you do perform this well is the best way to get her to come around and take you under her wing as a prize pupil (not that that's necessarily what you're aiming for, but that's what usually happens).

I know you're angry, and you should be, but do try to see it from her side, as well. My husband's a professor, and he has stories. Lots of them. They see this thing all the time, and are supposed to raise their eyebrows when they see a passage that's suspect.

...finding students who write well is a rare occurrence these days!

How sad is that! 

rynn_aka_rae's post reminds me of a gal I went to high school with - who in her first or second year of college (US) wrote a science fiction short story for a class assignment.  The professor said it was so good that it couldn't possibly be my friend's own work!

Stories like this, and also what a friend of mine has been experiencing here lately in studying for her Master's, simply confirm that the path of higher education (I already have a bachelor's degree) just isn't for me.  Makes me wonder how many smart & talented people give what appears to be a rigid and pretentious system the two finger salute - best work being done outside universities? 

That had to be very upsetting!  In my Organizational Psych class in college the professor asked to see me one day.  We'd had to interview someone in Human Resources and write a paper about it.  He said he'd been told that someone in the class had bought a paper off a previous student so he was talking to anyone who interviewed someone who'd been used before.  So poor me who didn't drive at the time got reduced to tears all because she interviewed someone from a local business I could walk to!  He asked if I could provide a rough draft of my paper - I couldn't because I'd done it all electronically.  I found out years later through the grapevine it supposedly was this B*tch none of us liked that did it.

Best thing to do is keep writing to that same excellent standard and call her on it if it continues.

Teachers are under a lot of pressure to spot plagiarism, which is extremely difficult in the internet age, so they simply can't afford to ignore even their smallest suspicions.  However in this case I think it's likely that she came down hard on you as a preventive measure and to make sure you understand how serious plagiarism is.  It also might have stemmed from ignorance about the US system or lumping all international students together.  Attitudes to plagiarism are more cultural than you might imagine.  I teach a course in academic English and study skills for international students who will be starting masters programmes in January.  They come mostly from China and Thailand but also from Russia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey, and Belarus.  A few weeks ago I had to come down hard on them because they had been plagiarising, and when I told them how serious an offense it is in the UK every single one of them was in a state of jaw-hanging-open shock.  In their countries, the idea of plagiarism doesn't exist, and copying other people's work is standard academic practise.  Remember that your tutor doesn't know you or what kind of a person you are.  I think it's unlikely that she intended any insult.