A Letter to My Students Who Plagiarized. Again.

Dear Students-

Remember at the beginning of the semester, when I talked about plagiarism? Remember when I said that a number of you would probably plagiarize this semester because it happens every semester in this senior-level elective? Remember when you laughed when I said that the most commonly plagiarized assignments in this class every semester are résumés and cover letters? Remember when you commented that it was stupid to plagiarize a résumé and a cover letter and I agreed?

Ope, you did it again.

This semester, three of you submitted cover letters with paragraphs lifted from the internet. Three of you also submitted essays clearly written by ChatGPT, an AI writer developed by OpenAI. ChatGPT essays are pretty obvious -- they are too perfect, too generic, too formulaic. To a student, they probably sound amazing, like "college-level writing," whatever that is. But to a human being who's been reading high school-level writing for almost 30 years, ChatGPT essays sound like they are written by a robot. Plus, if your essay only has 3 keystrokes recorded in Google docs, then you probably didn't actually write it. "Control C Control V" doesn't count as writing.

But why do you do this every year? Why do you cheat when it's always so obvious? Why do you cheat when the only person you are hurting is you? Why would someone cheat on a résumé or on a cover letter, when these documents are specifically about you and your skills and work ethics? (Last year, a student cheated on their scholarship application essay. I can't make this up.) If you aren't going to learn these writing skills in high school, when do you think you are actually going to learn the skills? How will you excel if you never do the hard work?

Students -- listen to me. You are not hurting me when you try to game the system. The only person you are hurting is you. 

We worked on these assignments for days, sometimes weeks. You chose not to work on them. You put other classes ahead of mine, other conversations ahead of ours. You decided to play games on your phone instead of working to synthesize sources into a cohesive essay. You procrastinated, you backed yourself into a corner, you panicked, and then you plagiarized. It happens every year.

But you know what you didn't do?

You didn't learn how to write.

And you didn't learn to stop procrastinating.

You didn't learn to stop making excuses.

You didn't learn to be honest with yourself.

You didn't learn to own your own choices.

But you learned how to use ChatGPT. I guess that's something.

Listen, ChatGPT is a great tool. But like any tool, you can use it to do good in this world, or you can use it to cheat yourself and others out of something true and honest.

Good writing takes time. It takes passion. It takes thought and revision and reflection. Good writing is not generated by copy and paste, and it's not generated by ChatGPT.

What you submitted was not good writing. Instead, you submitted proof of your own lack of character. When times got tough, you took the shortcut.

And I want to be clear: several of you plagiarized. But most of you did not. Props to the majority who put in the effort and did the right thing day after day.

Look. I'm writing this because I care. I care about teaching you skills that will help you in college and in your career and in your life. I'm writing this because I care about you and your future. 

I hope that -- going forward -- you start to care about that, too.