Strange Prof. Email...

[Wyman]

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additional info: he messaged me at 1 am


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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."

[Ganjasaurus Rex]

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

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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.

[En Passant]

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

[AbreuTime]

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.

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ 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.

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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.

[JackInDaCrak]

lol prof. x

[MattyMayor]

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?

[runningmarvel]

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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

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ 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?

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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.

[SBR]

[ 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?

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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?