As a teacher, I see all forms of plagiarism, but in a creative writing class? Spare me. Write your own stuff, your own ideas. Trust me, you may not put words together as well as Shakespeare did, but you are growing by trying.
OK, Yes, I am on a rant.
I was grading the last of the poetry unit submissions tonight. I'm tired, I'll admit, and the first poem of this one student seemed fantastic. It didn't ring that he could have plagiarized. Then, however, I read the second poem in the block of three. In my tired state and the work of at least 60 creative writing students, I didn't see the resemblance until I thought about the words. I questioned whether a sophomore in high school would use words like "curfew tolls" and "knell." As an English teacher, they should have screamed their original poets names: Thomas Gray, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Thomas Hardy, but they didn't.
When I hit those words, my mind started questioning and I decided to do a search which easily brought up the exact words of the poems the student had submitted. Unbelievable.
However, I guess Thomas Gray, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Thomas Hardy should be grateful that their work received an "A" for being able to follow traditional formats.
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