What if the student has only plagiarized a single phrase?
It’s still plagiarism. The CJC always takes into consideration the amount of plagiarism as well as perceived intent. 5. What if the student claims the plagiarism is “unintentional”? Almost all plagiarizers will claim this, with varying degrees of sincerity. Davidson College got so sick of this excuse that they changed their verbiage to, “As a Davidson student, you are expected to know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it in your writing. Claiming ignorance or lack of intention is not an acceptable excuse.” It’s like speeding. For a good discussion of “inadvertent” plagiarism, see Slate’s discussion. Swarthmore policy: all plagiarism should be considered a violation of academic honesty”whether these violations are intentional or unintentional.” 6. What is the CJC process? Roughly, it is as follows: (a) Meet with your department Chair and tell him/her that you have found a possible case of plagiarism and that your are forward the case to the Dean’s office for initial screening. (b) Mee
