After the surging waves of mid-term examinations, Ewha students inevitably face the daunting fear of submitting papers throughout the cruel month of May. When students scarcely have time to even breathe because of their workload, some choose to the so called “easy approach” of writing papers—copying someone else’s work or pasting from Internet sources. Students do not tend to take this matter too seriously, both because they think the professor will be too busy to go over every paper in detail and because they do not realize the seriousness of “plagiarism.”
In a commonsensical way, it sounds plausible that professors will not be able to detect every little detail that one has pasted into a 30-page paper. However, an astonishing fact is that the professors actually can tell whose work the paper is at a mere glance of the first few paragraphs. Lecturer Raymond Smith (English Literature) said, “I really can readily find out whether the paper is plagiarized or not by looking at the general level of language used. It does not mean that the language ability of students should be poor but that the discourse should be harmonized. Out of a sudden, you spot some absolutely perfect phrases that cannot be expected for the student to come up with— reflecting on the previous paragraphs which would have been the original work of a student herself. ”
Professor Choi Ju-lie (English Literature) reveals her unique way of detecting students’ honesty. “When I get suspicious of the overly professional level of the papers, I simply do a ‘Google-check.’ When you type in just a few words in the search engine, you can easily investigate whether the student has written her paper for herself or not. What I usually do with the exposed students is to let them rewrite the papers,” said Choi.
Whereas professors can primarily adopt their own rules as far as plagiarized works are concerned, Ewha students must know that the consequences of being caught plagiarizing can be serious. According to the official disciplinary regulations of Ewha, it is stated in Article 2 Clause 2 that students who commit a dishonest act in relation to various academic evaluations or tests shall be punished. Article 4 also illustrates that students who have caused inefficiency in the school’s administrative procedure or classes shall be penalized.
In the light of these legal articles, Lee Jong-won from the