Rising from humble beginnings in the small town of Charlemagne...

Yesterday, I had dinner with my aunt and uncle. I rarely get a chance to see them, even though I only live an hour and a half away, so they invited me over for a meal. During dinner conversation, my aunt, who is a twelth-grade AP English teacher, said she has been having trouble determining if the book reports of a couple of her students were plagiarized. She was certain that the text of the reports sounded too much like the work of professional writers, but she was having a difficult time finding the original sources.

After dinner my aunt read the first paragraph of one of the reports to me. The report on King of Rock, by Darryl McDaniels wasn't at all familiar to me, but the style reminded me of the blurb reviews on the Borders Books website. Immediately, my aunt went to her computer, brought up the site, and read the first review (from Publishers Weekly), finding it to be only one word different than her student's report.

My aunt was suddenly energized. She pulled out the next book report, with the topic Celine Dion, which strangely did not refer to a book at all. She read it to me and I said, "It sounds more like a short biography than a book report." She agreed, so she attempted the official Celine Dion website, to find some information. It was a dead end. I suggested the Sony site for Celine Dion, but it was another dead end. Then I offered, just as she was typing the same, try Googling "Celine Dion Biography." The text example third entry, VHI.com: Celine Dion, was word for word the first few lines of the student's paper.

I've always thought that the internet has made it too easy for students to cheat, but it was nice to see that it was also easier for the cheaters to be caught. My aunt was excited at finding this information and I was glad to help her. But when she told me that the students would get failing marks for their papers, I was suddenly disheatened. I felt disappointed that the kids wouldn't have been expelled from school. I guess it's a good thing I never followed through after my teaching certification. The taste of plagiarist's blood drove me a little bit beyond justice. I probably would have made a good executioner.