Bsrgvty

I have received an email saying that my essay is under consideration for the ethics committee for suspected plagiarism. My lecturer had told us that we could work on our essays together as we were all using the same data. My friend handed in her essay in semester 1 and I handed in mine in semester 2. We used her essay as a guideline because she received such a good grade in hers. I have a meeting with the ethics committee and I want to be prepared. What should I say and what should I avoid saying?

When the instructor said you could work "together", they meant together with a student that hadn't previously completed the assignment. They expect both students (when working together) to contribute equally towards writing an essay from scratch.

Basing your essay on another student's essay (that you did not work together on) is plagiarism.

The best you can say for yourself is that you didn't realize that what you did constituted plagiarism. The ethics committee might be lenient, however, they might also consider that you should have known what the rules were. To be frank, anybody should understand that you can't work based off material previously prepared by somebody else and pretend it's your own work -- that is the very definition of plagiarism.

I agree with everything Tom said, but I'd add that the in the meeting with the committee, they've likely already made up their minds. What you did was plagiarism and there is nothing you can tell them that will convince them otherwise. Do not be confrontational. Do not tell them that there's an interpretation of the rules that makes this ok. Do not try and justify what you did with anything other than "I misunderstood the rules." Don't blame anyone else.

These kinds of committees are generally looking to turn you into a good student afterwards, rather than trying to destroy your academic career. Help them help you.

It sounds like you know what you did and have a pretty good idea as to why you are being called in. Whether you broke a rule, or pushed the boundary, regarding working together by choosing to work with someone from the past semester depends on the instructions given, the instructor, and departmental policy. You should be prepared to tell the committee what you did and why you thought it was reasonable. You should also be prepared to explain how you can see it might have been pushing the boundaries, but I wouldn't volunteer this until asked. Finally, you should be prepared to demonstrate how what you wrote was your own work and that you only worked with the other student's essay as a guidelines.

Most importantly, you should prepare to tell the truth and not mislead the committee: Is it ethical/acceptable to give a lighter penalty to students who admit to cheating?

If you use your friend's essay "as a guide", that means she'd already done the work on her essay by herself (and perhaps others), and consequently you were not "working on your essays together".

The semester of separation just makes it more damning, but you could've done this in the same semester and it'd still have been basically the same problem.

So just realize you were not following instructions and be honest with them.

I want to be prepared.

I suggest you do the following:

1. 
   

   Talk to your friend. Have her attend the hearing as well, to testify or to speak on your behalf. Failing that, get her to write a letter in your support. What she could contribute is to:

   
   
   
   • Corroborate your version of the events and what the teacher had told you;
   
   
   • Claim that you had her consent for using the work the way you did, or even that you agreed on this in advance;
   
   
   • Claim that she, like yourself, did not understand that what you did constitutes plagiarism;
   
   
   • Claim that you did not have any intention to break the rules or shirk any duties.
     
     
     If your friend can't attend, have her write a signed letter to this effect. But it would be really useful if she attended.
   
   


2. 
   

   Try to get the teacher (lecturer) to attend. This is less likely to happen, but s/he could contribute would be to:

   
   
   
   • Corroborate your version of the events and what he had told you;
   
   
   • Explain that he did not clarify what kind of use of other people's work would constitute plagiarism, and argue that you may have misunderstood;
   
   
   • Claim that you did not have any intention to break the rules or shirk any duties.
   
   

   
   at least the first one is likely and does not require that much good will. The other two are less so. Also, in the teacher's case it is more likely you would get a signed letter (if anything) rather than him/her attending.

   
   



3. Clarify (to yourself and others) whether the problem was not citing your friend's work, or that it was using it to begin with. It's not entirely clear from your question.




4. In your situation it seems you should prepare for humility and penitence, followed by non-confrontational explanations, rather than for trying to argue why you did nothing wrong.