Things may have changed, but that doesn’t mean they’re different. Before there was the internet there was the library, and if you thought someone was cheating but you couldn’t spot the source by eye and ear, you had to hunt for the book they got it out of.
Most students, it seems to me, don't plagiarize from books. They plagiarize from other students, or various other weird crappy sources, and it often (though certainly not always) can be difficult to track down the source.
The trouble is that the circumstance is often this: it's obvious that a student has been cheating, but an instructor can't put her hands on the source. The resulting process of accusation, righteous indignation, and disbelieving parents can make people a great deal less eager to wade into the fray.
Maybe someone here can help me identify a short story or novella I remember -- it has a relatively classic set up in which there is a planet or planetoid with a sketchy, dangerous, and reclusive leader who refuses to communicate with the powers that be. Our protagonist takes a contract to go there and look him up; everyone else who's gone has never come back. He goes and finds the recluse's daughter, who turns out to be really, really old and part turtle or tortoise. She tends the recluse, who only wakes up every once in a long while. Eventually the protagonist absorbs the mystical powers of the recluse's dead (?) wife and enters into an extended and weird battle of wills with the recluse.
Ring any bells? I imagine that if it does, the tortoise girl would be why; the rest is awfully hazy in my memory, so I expect I've left out lots of important elements. I hope someone can help, though -- it's driving me batty.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 4 |
| 2003 | 1 |
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