On Plagiarism

Late last week, I read a news story about a Latina woman accused of plagiarism with the word "hence" circled on her paper, whose blog post on the matter can be found here.  I asked my wife if she had ever had a professor do that to her, accuse her of plagiarism or of cheating because she did too well, and she said she hadn't.  She asked if I had.  I nodded.

When I was a senior at a very well-regarded all-girls Catholic high school in Southern California, I completed a project for my AP English class on the excellent poem "To a Daughter Leaving Home," by Linda Pastan.  Our assignment was to choose a poem in our anthology, "perform" it in front of the class, and hand in a written explication.

I had worked on this project for weeks, wanting to do this gorgeous piece justice, and also wanting to deliver a Tony Award-winning performance.  When the class received their written reports back, mine had no letter grade at the top, but a message ("See me after class") and the word "foci" circled around three pages in.  Puzzled, I approached my (admittedly, excellent) teacher, who told me that she had concerns that I had plagiarized my essay.  In short, it was too brilliant of an essay to be mine. I insisted that I hadn't, and that I had worked very hard on the piece, drawing parallels to my own life--leaving for college soon, the daughter of a single mother who must be feeling a range of emotions, etc.--and that it meant more to me than any other assignment that year.  She begrudgingly accepted my explanation, but warned me that I needed to submit the same high caliber work the rest of the semester in order to keep the "A" on the assignment, which constituted a large portion of my final grade.  Embarrassed but grateful to avoid further trouble, I thanked her and scurried away, and I didn't talk about the incident for another fifteen years.

I can't (and won't) say that this was an instance of racism, as there are many other women of color with whom I graduated that are formidable, accomplished, wonderful women, who may or may not have been subjected to this indignity, but it was certainly a case of prejudice and humiliation.  I never forgot it, and I'm proud to say that my teacher's warnings did inspire me to keep my "A," and earn a 5 on the AP examination.  So, thanks for the motivation, Mrs. Potts.  It has certainly helped me accomplish more than you thought I could.

Sincerely,
Dr. Ouano