A Tattle Tale Case

INTRODUCTION

This case throws light on the issue of plagiarism from the student view point whose name is T.J. He is the person in the case who is doing three group projects with five other members which have total weighted of 30 Marks of entire course. Moreover, this case provides the information about the incident where T.J is acting as group leader and compiler of group assignment and he got plagiarized work from one of his group member whose name is K.C. Apart from this, case explains the concerns of T.J regarding the plagiarized work because he already knew that it is a complete breach of plagiarism policy and its consequences will be more worsen. Lastly, the case elaborate the worries of T.J regarding the plagiarized work that he got from K.C and how he should deal with plagiarized work done by K.C.

 PROBLEMS

1. PLAGIRARISM

The main issue of this case study was plagiarism which was observed in the T.J’s group project and it was done by the K.C. Moreover, this was the potential reason for which he was more worried about. These are the some following finding which has proved that this case is more associated with plagiarism:

• First, the K.C’s work was without citations and references. He did not give any credit to all those authors whose ideas he had used in his project’s work.
• It is clear from the case study that intention of K.C was to befool his class professor who was going to mark their group project.

1. LACK OF PROPER COOPERATION IN GROUP

There was a complete lack of unity among the T.J’s group members because some of them were not taking it seriously that is why they showed disagreement when T.j asked them to bring this matter into the notice of class professor. Although they already knew that K.C had done the same thing in assignment one as well. Apart from this they had fear in their mind if they would say anything to other group member, it would affect the group harmony and they still had one project left which was 20 % of entire course.

PROBLEM ALALYSIS

Problem One

Causes

• Deadlines to complete the assignment within the assigned time limit.
• To get new and potential ideas of great minds for the assignment topic by using their articles and journals.
• Lack of knowledge regarding the plagiarism policy.

Effects

• The project will be poorly graded if the group member does not give credit to the author’s work which he has used.
• There is strict penalty if a person commits the plagiarism in his project. He can be expelled from the college and university.

Problem two

Causes

• Less interaction among the group members.
• Fear of losing harmony and conflict among the group members.
• Negative thinking.

Effects

There will be no division of work among the group members and the group performance will be harshly affected because no one will know what is his role in the group project.

BRAINSTORM SOLUTIONS

Alternative 1

Inform the Class professor about the K.C’s work

• Advantage

It will be safer side for the other group members because there will be no fear of any marks deduction and punishment if they inform the professor about the plagiarized work done by K.C.

• Disadvantage

The above task of T.J can spoil the record of K.C in the college and he can also face other reasonable punishments as well.

Alternative 2

Assign K.C’s work among other group members to complete it before the actual deadlines and for the better outcome of group project.

• Advantage

The project can be completed within the assigned time and there would be no fear of plagiarism. Moreover, clear contribution of each group member can be displayed in   peer review.

• Disadvantage

It will create more work load on the other group members. Apart from this, K.C will lose his marks because of his non performance in group project.