Does my professor think I cheated?

[Qbees]

So, long story short, I started graduate school this fall. For one of my courses, the entire grade was our term paper. I submit my paper at the close of the semester and waited.

 

I get an email from the professor a week later saying that there is trouble grading my paper, the sections seem disconnected, and that it needs to be studied it further.

 

Then I get an email two weeks later (today), with some anxiety inducing phrases: the problem is that it seems like "two papers," written by "different people" for "different assignments." One seems like a "draft with many editorial problems" and the "second is a very finished piece of writing as if someone else wrote it," but for the wrong assignment. "I have discussed the paper with a colleague to get another pair of eyes on the paper and we are in agreement."

 

Then, the professor offers me a passing grade, and "we can let the matter stand; unless you want to do a revision." I do, in fact: I emailed them over the weekend because I hadn't heard back, and I asked if we should meet and talk about the paper and whether I should revise it.

 

I'm feeling positively crazy right now because I can't shake the serious feeling that the professor thinks I plagiarized or something: "as if someone else wrote it"! The whole paper is of my own work (I wish that could go without saying), and I am a very detailed about citing sources, page numbers, etc. However, I am fully willing admit it might be a poorly written paper.

 

But I have no idea what to think, or whether I'm reading way to much into this. I feel really ridiculous and embarrassed for saying all this, but I have almost zero friends in this kind of program (I'm in social sciences, and for some awful reason all my grad school friends are in mathematics). Ah! Tell me what to think!?!

Edited February 3, 2015 by Qbees

[juilletmercredi]

Generally I am straightforward if I think a student has plagiarized a paper, rather dancing around the issue.  But other professors might not be - they might not want to embarrass you, or their university might have a long and onerous academic dishonesty prices that they don't want to get into.  Regardless, though, it does sound kind of like he's accusing you of having plagiarized the paper (or rather that he at least suspects that the work is not your own).  However, I can only guess!  The person to ask would be your professor.

 

The email is already sent so this might be moot - but I wouldn't ask the professor if we should meet; rather I would tell the professor that I wished to meet with him and ask him for a good time.  Then discuss your concerns with him in person.  You can tell him straightforwardly that you're aware that the paper might be poorly written and put together, but that it is indeed all your own work.  Ask him what makes him feel like the paper seems like it was written by different people for a different assignment.  It seems like he is offering you the opportunity for a revision, so I would ask him for some feedback on what you need to fix and what areas of concern are the biggest wrt a revision.

[Crucial BBQ]

When I was a junior I took a Writing for Biology course, a course where our final grade came from only two papers.  Shortly after I turned in my first paper I was called into the prof's office where I was met with one very angry person.  Right off the bat I was accused of plagiarism, which completely caught me off guard.  I was told that the matter was going to be turned over to the Dean and that was that.  I pleaded with her, to the point near tears. I told her the entire paper was in my own words to which she replied that they may be my own words but not my own ideas.  I told her that I was under the belief that "common knowledge" did not require citation, which she agreed that may be so but what I had done was paraphrased --which requires citation.  We went back and forth with this with her finally agreeing to not push this matter onto the Dean, I will take a D on the paper, and lesson learned. 

 

I put such an effort to craft what I thought was a very handsome paper for the first assignment that I would be damned if I did so again for this prof.  So with my next paper, I completely made it up.  From start to finish, 100% BS. It was also the worst paper I have ever written.  Ever.  It was so sloppy that a sixth grader could have drafted a better paper. I was embarrassed to turn it in but considering I left that meeting full of vinegar over a paper I put my heart into, I was still running full-on spite (first and only time, by the way.  I just take serious pride with my writing abilities; with my papers generally being described as amongst the best in the class).  

 

The prof was right about one thing: there are no original ideas.  I searched and searched the Internet until I had found enough citations to make my paper legit.  I had so many citations that the Literature Referenced section was longer than the actual paper, by a long shot.   If the prof wanted a paper full of citations, then she sure got one.   

 

I am not sure if the OP is in the same situation, but if so, I have talked about this experience with a few profs.  Everyone agreed that it is always better to over cite than to under.  I ended up with a B as my final grade in the course.  Go figure.

[Qbees]

So, I wanted to follow up my original post.

 

I did speak with the professor, and in a very round about way, they asked me whether I had used one of my sources "creatively." I explained that the paper was indeed my own work and the thought process I when through developing it. Basically, the paper I wrote was not really what the professor wanted. Some of the material I used for my paper was from sources and contexts that looked to my professor as completely unrelated to the subject. The term paper requirements were seemingly flexible, and the midterm outline I submitted got one comment when returned to me (I ended up getting more comments, a few weeks too late, during our meeting when my professor looked back at my outline). Thus confusion ensued between the paper I wrote and the evaluation it got.

 

I spoke to another faculty member I'm more familiar with and basically she figure that it was pretty much a disconnect between what I was being communicated about the term paper and what the instructor really wanted. Lesson learned, in the future I will be more sure about keeping material very close to home and more diligent about getting feedback on paper details.

 

Thanks for the advice, it was helpful.

[when]

So, I wanted to follow up my original post.

 

I did speak with the professor, and in a very round about way, they asked me whether I had used one of my sources "creatively." I explained that the paper was indeed my own work and the thought process I when through developing it. Basically, the paper I wrote was not really what the professor wanted. Some of the material I used for my paper was from sources and contexts that looked to my professor as completely unrelated to the subject. The term paper requirements were seemingly flexible, and the midterm outline I submitted got one comment when returned to me (I ended up getting more comments, a few weeks too late, during our meeting when my professor looked back at my outline). Thus confusion ensued between the paper I wrote and the evaluation it got.

 

I spoke to another faculty member I'm more familiar with and basically she figure that it was pretty much a disconnect between what I was being communicated about the term paper and what the instructor really wanted. Lesson learned, in the future I will be more sure about keeping material very close to home and more diligent about getting feedback on paper details.

 

Thanks for the advice, it was helpful.

 It sounds like it turned out okay in the end? Glad to hear it!