Last week one of my friends, still enrolled as an undergraduate at Hiram, asked me to help edit one of her papers for a class. It seemed reasonable. I had taken the class my junior year and had a lot of fun in the course. As I was reading the paper I got the feeling that I had heard a very similar presentation based on the same paper. I continued reading with no extra thought of the issue, because she is a really close friend. After reading the paper I told her that there were probably some areas were citations were needed and that some of her sentences were run-ons. She thanked me and that was the end of the editing process.
Well I did not feel comfortable after reading the paper. There was just something that seemed too similar. I decided to look over my notebook from junior year, just because it seemed too similar.
After looking over my notebook last night, I realized that one of my basketball teammates, a year younger than me, had written and presented the paper when we had taken the class together. Instantly I knew that the paper I had looked over must have been a duplicate or almost duplicate.
So what should I do? Currently I am going through the ethical thought process of right vs right. Specfically, I am looking at the aspect of truth versus loyalty. Is this my responsbiliy?
Over the weekend I plan on discussing this with sombody close to me so I can figure out what is the right decisison.
1 comment:
Perhaps, a good approach is from the standpoint that your friend may not be aware that she is plagiarizing; especially if she has paraphrased and reorganized the paper. Giving people the benefit of the doubt never hurts. But in doing so, I believe you also have a moral obligation to bring the issue to her attention or to the attention of her instructor. It is right to try to assist your friend. It is right to alert a Hiram faculty member of a potential problem. What would you want your friend to do if the positions were reversed? This may be your personal test of principals versus values.
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