College student confronts partner on group project after discovering much of his portion was plagiarized the night before the due date: 'We need to rewrite everything'

This student's group project debacle is only further proof that blindly trusting your classmates to do their fair share of the work is never a good idea.

Of course, in an ideal world, you shouldn't have to worry about your partner's ability to do their bit. You should be able to focus on your own responsibilities, and that should be enough. However, if you were a high achiever growing up, you probably learned early on that instilling your trust in a classmate with whom you were randomly paired by your teacher for a group project is a gamble. 

Sure, they might impress you. They might even knock it out of the park. But if you don't check in on them throughout the process, then you might show up on the day the assignment is due with no way to repair or correct that partner's shoddy work. 

This college student had the unfortunate experience of learning in the middle of the night right before the due date that his partner's portion was partially plagiarized. But wait, it gets worse. The other portion wasn't original material either; it was fully generated by ChatGPT. Somehow, this guy thought their professor would not use the plagiarism checkers she literally told the whole class she would use. 

Author image for Ben Weiss Ben Weiss
Add us on Google
Advertisement

  • Sure, it's easy to say in hindsight that the college student should never have trusted this classmate, but that's the thing about college courses. You don't necessarily know everyone or their work ethic. Maybe he seemed like the kind of guy who would submit honest and well-written work. 

    We agree with several members of this online community, who suggested that it doesn't matter how late into the process this is. The student should notify the professor immediately. The time stamp in the middle of the night should ultimately work in the student's favor, to show how last-minute this was and how blindsided the whole team was in the end. He and his other partners should not have to suffer academically as a result of this one person's negligence. As for the slacker, he shouldn't have the satisfaction of letting his teammates fall with him. This should be his academic downfall and no one else's.

  • "My group project partner literally plagiarized from AI"

    I'm in this marketing class where we had to do a group presentation on international supply chains. We split up the work pretty evenly - I did the research on manufacturing hubs, two other people handled the slides and data analysis, and this one guy said he'd write the script for our presentation.
    via dental_oddity
  • Advertisement
  • Day before it's due, he sends us his part and I'm reading through it thinking something feels off. The writing style is way too formal and doesn't match how any of us talk. So I copy a random paragraph into Google and it's literally word-for-word from some business
    via dental_oddity
  • article. Then I find another chunk that's clearly ChatGPT because it has that weird robotic tone and uses "delve into" like five times.
    via dental_oddity
  • I confronted him about it and he got SO defensive. Started saying that "everyone uses Al" and that I was being dramatic. I told him we need to rewrite everything because our professor specifically said she runs submissions through plagiarism checkers. He said I was overreacting and that "professors can't actually detect Al."
    via dental_oddity
  • Advertisement
  • Now I'm up at 2am rewriting his entire section myself because I'm not about to fail this class or get an academic integrity violation because of his laziness. The presentation examples he was supposed
    via dental_oddity
  • to analyze included everything from volleyball shoes to electronics on Alibaba, and he couldn't even bother writing original observations about basic product listings. I'm so tired of carrying people who don't care about their grades affecting mine.
    via dental_oddity
  • A group of college students taking notes in a lecture hall.
    via Vitaly Gariev

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Advertisement
  • reckendo This is why it's so important that groups set due dates (at least) a week before you actually have to turn something in -- everybody needs to have eyes on each other's work with enough time to figure out how to move forward.
    via dental_oddity
  • MentalRest... nah you're not overreacting at all. that's straight up plagiarism and it would've cooked the whole group. rewriting it at 2am sucks, but you probably saved everyone's grade.
    via dental_oddity
  • definitely keep receipts and be ready to loop the prof in if needed. this is also why if anyone uses ai at all, it needs to be handled carefully. tools like clever ai humanizer can help clean up phrasing without copying
    via dental_oddity
  • Advertisement
  • sources or turning it into obvious ai slop, but dumping raw ai text is asking for trouble. group projects always expose who actually cares and who's trying to coast.
    via dental_oddity
  • Humble-Bar-7869 . No, don't rewrite the Al slop. Don't be complicit. Tell the prof now - immediately. Send an email even though it's 2 am.
    via dental_oddity
  • ActuatorFit416 Plagarims detection works well. Ai detection does not.
    via dental_oddity
  • Advertisement
  • JediFed. How you handle this is to correct his work, submit for the group, get graded, and THEN report the academic integrity issues AFTER you've all received your grades. This way he gets toasted and none of you are touched.
    via dental_oddity
  • lowtech_prof • I would also inform the professor that this is what you're doing. Submit the original that didn't pass your smell test. If I were your professor I'd appreciate the proactive measures you're taking. I'd probably add a whole day about how people are "not being dramatic" for not wanting to be lazy.
    via dental_oddity
  • botwwanderer • I'll just point out that Al and Plagiarism detectors usually highlight the sections of a document that are flagged. So if you had submitted it as described, your partner's section would have lit up like a Christmas tree while the rest
    via dental_oddity
  • Advertisement
  • remained normal. Personally, I would have submitted it as-is, with a brief note about who contributed what and maybe a heads-up that you thought his section was a little weird. Your professor would have gotten it.
    via dental_oddity

Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!

Tags

plagiarism college students classmates group projects Professors karma entitled people
Scroll Down For The Next Article

Also From FAIL Blog

‘Learned just now that coworkers are not your friends’: Veteran 8-year employee summoned to an after-Christmas meeting after venting about manager to a “trusted” coworker, who immediately told everyone

‘Learned just now that coworkers are not your friends’: Veteran 8-year employee summoned to an after-Christmas meeting after venting about manager to a “trusted” coworker, who immediately told everyone

Trending Now

Employee arrives at their disciplinary work hearing with receipts that disprove the accusations against them, committee still gives them a written warning: ‘Politics trumped evidence’

Employee arrives at their disciplinary work hearing with receipts that disprove the accusations against them, committee still gives them a written warning: ‘Politics trumped evidence’

01
17-year-old refuses to contribute $250 of his own savings to his younger brother's present despite parents' guilt trips and ultimatums: 'I used to love [my family] but we're basically strangers who live under the same roof'

17-year-old refuses to contribute $250 of his own savings to his younger brother's present despite parents' guilt trips and ultimatums: 'I used to love [my family] but we're basically strangers who live under the same roof'

02
Job candidate blindsided when their new employer terminates them on their first day on the basis of their first day being a "trial period": 'I had accepted a full-time job at $22/hour'

Job candidate blindsided when their new employer terminates them on their first day on the basis of their first day being a "trial period": 'I had accepted a full-time job at $22/hour'

03
Employee fired just 5 days before Christmas after 8 years of service by their nepotistic boss, who inherited the company, watches the company go bankrupt: 'He's destroyed the company, starting with my firing'

Employee fired just 5 days before Christmas after 8 years of service by their nepotistic boss, who inherited the company, watches the company go bankrupt: 'He's destroyed the company, starting with my firing'

04
Neighbor “forgets” to return borrowed power tools, now wants man’s brand new pressure washer, leaving the owner stuck between politeness and protecting his stuff: ‘We share a driveway (duplex setup), so I see him literally every day and can't avoid him’

Neighbor “forgets” to return borrowed power tools, now wants man’s brand new pressure washer, leaving the owner stuck between politeness and protecting his stuff: ‘We share a driveway (duplex setup), so I see him literally every day and can't avoid him’

05
15 Employees who happily quit their jobs: 'I got a whole 15 cent per hour salary increase... [I] just walked out'

15 Employees who happily quit their jobs: 'I got a whole 15 cent per hour salary increase... [I] just walked out'

06
Advertisement