Strange Prof. Email...
 

hey,

So i just got an email from my prof that said....

matt --

We need to talk. Please call me at xxxxxxx.

This email for some reason terrified me. I think rightly so. We have only submitted one paper for grading (oct. 10th - not graded yet) and other than that 10 pages/week that he only grades one week of - whichever week the student chooses. ive been to most lectures, about a 40 person class.

Some general ideas for papers may have come off the itnernt, but def no blatant or semi cheating at all.
I dunno what to think.

I called the number and left a message, sent an email that said

prof x,

I called your number, but there was no answer and the voicemail sounded unfamiliar.

What is it you wanted to talk to me about?

Please feel free to contact me at....

thanks,
Matt

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

What class is this?

Dunno what to tell you. I've never gotten a professor e-mail that was that terse.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

I'm pretty sure you're fired or he's breaking up with you. Sorry either way.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

That doesn't sound pleasant at all. I have never sent an email like that to a student, and i've busted a lot of people for plagiarism. I just outline my evidence in the email and let them think about it for a couple of days before coming to see me.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

Is it possible that you accidentally plagiarized on your paper?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

i didnt accidentally plagiarize.

ganjaman - do you have any advice on how to handle talking to him?

im thinking hes gonna say i plagiarized or did something academically dishonest - which i really didnt do anything close to plagiarizing or what not.

respond with straight up "i didn't do it, you must be mistaken" ? would go over well?

any other plans? does this guy want to screw me?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

I've had a teacher accuse me of plagiarism before on a paper I absolutely wrote myself. If that's what it is, just be very, firm that you did not copy anything.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

doesn't sound good, but if you haven't done anything wrong you should be fine.

try not to be too defensive. ask questions rather than making assertions (other than assertions about yourself) and use active listening.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

ignore the so-called advice in this thread. everyone is trying to level with you.

just e-mail him back

Prof-

Thanks, but I'm in no mood to talk.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

Also,

did you one writing assignment happen to be entitled "Richard McBeef"?








too soon?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

McBeef is still clearly a better piece. Mr. Brownstone is a cardboard cutout villain as compared to the complex tapestry of Richard McBeef; at the same time, the horror and ennui is better crystallized in the singular protagonist of Mcbeef than it is in the ensemble cast of Brownstone.
<font color="white"> </font> source

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

ej,

nice plagiarism. oh the irony.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
doesn't sound good, but if you haven't done anything wrong you should be fine.

try not to be too defensive. ask questions rather than making assertions (other than assertions about yourself) and use active listening.

[/ QUOTE ]

qft. if you really didnt do anything wrong then you'll be fine.

professors dont just randomly want to screw students (unless hes gay LDO)

unfortunately it probably does relate to some sort of cheating suspicion. did you have any written exams? perhaps he thinks someone copied off you or you copied off someone? collaborative homework assignments?

you seem like you're clean though so just go talk to him. be polite as mentioned above and not overly defensive, but firm if he accuses you of something you didn't do.


update once you know more -- interesting stuff

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
i didnt accidentally plagiarize.

ganjaman - do you have any advice on how to handle talking to him?

im thinking hes gonna say i plagiarized or did something academically dishonest - which i really didnt do anything close to plagiarizing or what not.

respond with straight up "i didn't do it, you must be mistaken" ? would go over well?

any other plans? does this guy want to screw me?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, i do have some advice for you if he accuses you of plagiarism when you are innocent.

Once he makes the accusation, you politely end the conversation. Then you proceed to the Head of the Dept's office and file a grievance against your professor. This will not only make it clear that you believe you are innocent, but it will prevent any future attempts of unlawful retaliation by your professor. You will also want to request that all work you complete for the remainder of the semester is graded by the Head, and not by the professor.

If the Head doesn't want to accommodate you, then you head for the Associate Dean's office. Then the Dean. Believe me when i say that no professor needs that kind of hassle, tenured or not.

Now, if you are guilty, then it's a whole different story. But i'm assuming that you're not since you say you're not.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

that is terrible advice. this accusation getting to the Dean would be a bad thing.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

I believe what Ganjasaurus Rex says, on account of him being an actual professor.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

Ganga,

Thanks for your advice. I'm afraid of escalating things this quickly thought...i like the prof/class and kind of thought it could just be talked through. All of the potential red tape you mentioned really sounds like hell for all parties. i dunno.

additional info: he messaged me at 1 am, 24 hours ago, i read the email at 3pm, called and left a message, and emailed him. ive heard nothing.

i take this lack of contact as a good sign...does anyone else see it this way? something super urgent couldnt so easily be ignored...plus, usually this guy answer emails pretty quick.

so mysterious. agh.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

aren't we REALLY jumping ahead? for all we know it could be something completely unrelated, i think we have put a lot of words in the prof's mouth

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

good point fury...thats what my gf keeps telling me.

sucks to be kept in the dark like this though

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

post deleted

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]

additional info: he messaged me at 1 am


[/ QUOTE ]

Drunk dial, ldo.

In all seriousness, if I were sending an email about cheating, it certainly wouldn't be that terse. Also, I'd probably want to meet with the student face-to-face, so that I could point out parts of the (paper/exam/quiz) that I felt were (plagiarized/copied) -- not by phone.

I wouldn't sweat it at all. He was probably tired when he wrote the email, and it came off the wrong way. Maybe he thought your paper sucked and is gonna let you rewrite. Could be a bunch of things.

As GR and others point out, if the professor asks you if you plagiarized, you should firmly deny it. If he persists, you can follow GR's advice and say "I'm sorry. I did not plagiarize, and I'd like any further conversations on this topic to involve the department chair."

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
that is terrible advice. this accusation getting to the Dean would be a bad thing.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, for the professor.

If OP is innocent, then he has nothing to fear from the Dean.

It's highly doubtful it would ever reach the Dean. Dept Heads/Chairs don't like these things escalating and will likely take steps to help the student out if they think the student is going to file a grievance. A threat of lawsuit also tends to shake things up as well. Last year, we had two grad students (who were both likely guilty of plagiarism and sexual harassment) get off scot-free after their lawyers started writing letters to the Dept Head.

Sadly, most students have no idea how much power they have at their disposal should they desire to use it.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

Are there any other reasons the professor would be calling you other than tlakign to you about the paper "you" wrote?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

Possible tangent: I'm a computer noob, but a few years back my friend X sent an email to someone (as a joke) where he changed the email source (he pretended to send the email from a girl Y he knew). Basically, the email said it came from Y, but it actually came from X. If you looked at the code, you could see the real source, but it fooled him. Do some email applications still allow this? I tried googling but with no success.

Oh, when the person replied to the fake email, it went to the actual girl. Oops.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Possible tangent: I'm a computer noob, but a few years back my friend X sent an email to someone (as a joke) where he changed the email source (he pretended to send the email from a girl Y he knew). Basically, the email said it came from Y, but it actually came from X. If you looked at the code, you could see the real source, but it fooled him. Do some email applications still allow this? I tried googling but with no success.

Oh, when the person replied to the fake email, it went to the actual girl. Oops.

[/ QUOTE ]


My school e-mail system in undergrad you could put whatever name and e-mail address as the sender and just tab yours over so far to the right that it wouldn't show up.

If it was a joke, unless the person forgot, it'd suck to keep him in the dark this long.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

lol prof. x

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

so i finally got in touch with him at about 1 pm this afternoon...

he said "Oh hi matt, i just wanted to remind you to pick your paper up, weve had it here for a few weeks after handing it out, but you werent here that day"

i say "oh, i just thought you never handed it out"

him "also, i had a question about your sources. Your first couple of paras get into some really intricate rhetorical analysis and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

me "i didnt use any outside sources. well, i used a rhetorical dictionary of terms i guess"

him "thats a source, just bring it in on monday, and have a great weekend"

me "okay bye"

overall tone of prof i would say was...jolly.

a lot of worry for what seems like not a very big deal...

thoughts?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
so i finally got in touch with him at about 1 pm this afternoon...

he said "Oh hi matt, i just wanted to remind you to pick your paper up, weve had it here for a few weeks after handing it out, but you werent here that day"

i say "oh, i just thought you never handed it out"

him "also, i had a question about your sources. Your first couple of paras get into some really intricate rhetorical analysis and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

me "i didnt use any outside sources. well, i used a rhetorical dictionary of terms i guess"

him "thats a source, just bring it in on monday, and have a great weekend"

me "okay bye"

overall tone of prof i would say was...jolly.

a lot of worry for what seems like not a very big deal...

thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought you were an EricW gimmick for a teeensy weeeensy moment

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
so i finally got in touch with him at about 1 pm this afternoon...

he said "Oh hi matt, i just wanted to remind you to pick your paper up, weve had it here for a few weeks after handing it out, but you werent here that day"

i say "oh, i just thought you never handed it out"

him "also, i had a question about your sources. Your first couple of paras get into some really intricate rhetorical analysis and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

me "i didnt use any outside sources. well, i used a rhetorical dictionary of terms i guess"

him "thats a source, just bring it in on monday, and have a great weekend"

me "okay bye"

overall tone of prof i would say was...jolly.

a lot of worry for what seems like not a very big deal...

thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously he is sandbagging you, hoping that you'll come in with your guard down.

WTF is this?

Oh hey, you never picked up your paper. Come get it!

ok!

bye!

oh ps, im pretty sure you plagiarized!



No professor would be so casual about something like this.

Go in prepared for the worst.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
so i finally got in touch with him at about 1 pm this afternoon...

he said "Oh hi matt, i just wanted to remind you to pick your paper up, weve had it here for a few weeks after handing it out, but you werent here that day"

i say "oh, i just thought you never handed it out"

him "also, i had a question about your sources. Your first couple of paras get into some really intricate rhetorical analysis and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

me "i didnt use any outside sources. well, i used a rhetorical dictionary of terms i guess"

him "thats a source, just bring it in on monday, and have a great weekend"

me "okay bye"

overall tone of prof i would say was...jolly.

a lot of worry for what seems like not a very big deal...

thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

This seems really weird. Be prepared for anything when you go into the office. This seems really unprofessional, is your prof a grad student or something?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

yeah, I'd keep your head on, but I certainly would not expect anything too crazy. take in that dictionary you uses and call it good. seems like he was just being nice.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

punch him in the face

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

he's banging your mom, imo.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

[/ QUOTE ]

pwned

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

don't drop your dictionary

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

Update?

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

lol, a rhetorical dictionary isn't a source, unless you are quoting it, or I don't know what a rhetorical dictionary is. Tell him to [censored] off.

It's a thesaurus right? You can't plagiarize mere words.

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
"also, i had a question about your sources. Your first couple of paras get into some really intricate rhetorical analysis and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

me "i didnt use any outside sources..."


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Some general ideas for papers may have come off the itnernt, but def no blatant or semi cheating at all.
I dunno what to think.

[/ QUOTE ]

also, I'd be scared tbh

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

if you really didnt cheat, and your grades are fine, there is nothing to worry about... its possible he actual wants you as a TA or to do some research with him bc you are so awesome


..... on second thought you probably are failing and/or plagiarized the [censored] outta your paper

Re: Strange Prof. Email...
 

[ QUOTE ]
him "also, i had a question about your sources. Your first couple of paras get into some really intricate rhetorical analysis and i dont think you could have thought of that yoursel"

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a pretty insulting comment by him. He's not only questioning your integrity, but your intelligence as well. I would have told him to go [censored] himself.