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Comment by otoburb | Hacker News Reader

It somehow feels that we are missing the other side of this emotionally charged post. I just used the word "hence" in a previous HN comment, but realize that I rarely use this word in verbal conversation.

However, this doesn't excuse the alleged behaviour of the professor in the article. When making a plagiarism accusation, is it common to call this out openly without attempting to address 1-1 first in academic settings?

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Is it common to accuse a student of plagiarism without, oh, I don't know, actual evidence?

You know, like the fruits of searching Google for five seconds to try and locate "the offending phrase"?

What kind of a fucking fossil can't be bothered to at least substantiate their bigotry instead of ranting themselves out of a job? (And no, tenure doesn't cover obvious failure to abide by university policies. Of course it could just as well have been some adjunct making $8/hour)

"Hey there, you with the beaner name. I have absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing on your part, so go fetch me some"

What a twit. I'm not a particularly nice person and have no problem failing students who won't put in the work, but this is beyond the pale.

I've never heard of such a thing, but perhaps that's because I am in a UK university. We have a formal procedure for dealing with such things, which certainly doesn't involve public humiliation. It also provides students the chance to defend themselves, which is obviously missing here.

There's a formal process at this girl's school as well, I'm sure.

Indeed. She seems to be jumping to the conclusion that her prof thought she would not use that word. When I first read it I assumed he meant that someone else had written that sentence that way before.

If she is right then what he did was heinous. If I'm right then what she did was pretty bad too.

> This morning, my professor handed me back a paper (a literature review) in front of my entire class and exclaimed “this is not your language.” On the top of the page they wrote in blue ink: “Please go back and indicate where you cut and paste.” The period was included.

How are you possibly interpreting this passage as not an accusation of plagiarism?

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