From a lesson on Short Stories, Rhetorical Techniques, and the Personal Essay:
¢ The goal of the personal essay is to “[offer] personal experiences, not disciplinary expertise” (Good 5).
¢ The essayist has a conversation with their reader, or with his or her self.
¢ The essayist confronts and struggles with their thoughts.
(Works Cited: Good, Graham. “The essay as genre”. The Observing Self: Rediscovering the Essay. London: Routledge, 1988. 1-23.)
The points above appear in a slide show that I prepared for my Grade 12 English class. After copying down this brief description of the personal essay, my students were given one to read called My Mother’s Blue Bowl, by Alice Walker. Walker’s essay was talks about her perception of her mother, and the blue bowl becomes a metaphor for a mother’s love and hard work. The students were asked to pick an item of some significance from their own life, and write a personal essay in a style similar to that of Walker’s essay. I was not sure what to expect from the students since they are so young (the oldest is 19), but I was hoping that they would have some interesting stories to tell. Overall, I was not disappointed. The response to the assignment was mostly positive, and in most of the essays that were handed in, the students shared some touching personal experiences.
Nearly all of my students came to Canada on their own from China to complete high school here and hopefully get into a North American University. When I was not much older than them I moved away from home for university, but I was only five hours away and my best friend form high school was one of my roommates. My students have had a completely different set of life experiences, and this came across in their essays.
One student talked about her feelings of sadness and isolation because she had to live in a small flat with her father while her mother worked in a different city. She reflected on how the neighbourhood children used to tell her that she was abandoned because she was no good, but one day her mother surprised her with a visit, and the student’s hope was then restored when her mother gave her the equivalent of ten days worth of allowance money. The money had long since been spent, but the student wrote that she had never forgotten the sentiment.
Another student talked about how his mother always used to knit him a sweater for Chinese New Year with sleeves that were just a little bit long because he hated wearing mittens. As he grew older, the student wanted to wear brand-name clothing instead of the hand-knitted sweaters, and his mother stopped knitting for him until he was preparing to leave for Canada. He scoffed at her attempt to give him a sweater, but she put it in his suitcase anyway. After the student arrived in Canada, he was searching for something to keep him warm in the chilly Canadian autumn, and he found the sweater and tearfully thought of his mother.
Another student talked about a watch that was given to him by a childhood friend, and another talked about her relationship with her father. Although each essay contained some minor mechanical errors, I could tell that the students had taken the assignment seriously, and I wrote comments thanking each student for sharing their stories. I was elated that my students had worked so hard, and I was gushing on the phone to my best friend about how wonderful the work was. I shared some excerpts and summaries with her, and then I picked up an essay with absolutely no grammatical errors. Compared to the other pieces of writing that I had received from this same student, this assignment was outstanding – a little too outstanding. I told my friend that I had to let her go because something was up with this essay.
After a brief Google search, I discovered that the essay was copied verbatim from a website that was mostly in Mandarin, except for the essay. In the ten seconds that it took to find the essay I managed to work myself into a rage. I know that plagiarism happens, and although this was my first experience dealing with the problem as a teacher, it would certainly not be my last, but the essay didn’t even fulfill the requirements of the assignment! It was more of an article than a personal essay, and there was no use of metaphor, or any of the other rhetorical techniques that we had spent the past few classes covering. I was insulted and outraged. My other students had been wonderfully honest and their writing was genuinely moving, and then there was this student who not only copied someone else's work, but didn't even think to make sure that the copied work met the requirements of the assignment! I printed the website and stapled it to the essay, on which I had written a big 0 with my trusty red marking pen. I also scrawled PLAGIARISM IS NOT ACCEPTABLE in larger-than-necessary letters beside the gigantic zero. In my rage, I posted one of my most widely “liked” and commented-on Facebook statuses: Rebecca took 10 seconds to find the personal essay that my student plagiarized. Just because it is on a website that is not entirely in English doesn't mean that I will not find it. Zero for you, student. ZERO!
When I got to the school that evening I asked the principal and vice-principal about the school’s plagiarism policy and showed them the essay with the print-out of the website attached. The principal shook his head and commented on the student’s complete lack of effort. Then I was told that the student was “at [my] mercy”. This was a pivotal moment for me as a teacher. I could, as my Facebook status said, give the student a big fat zero, or I could show mercy. I was not used to being in such a position of power, and at once my mind was filled with clichés about the symbiosis of power and responsibility.
In teachers college, one of my courses focused on the concept of restorative justice. The idea of restorative justice is to look beyond an offending action and a pre-decided consequence, and to look at what happened, who was harmed, and how the situations and relationships can be repaired. Based on this concept, I decided to give the student a chance to explain his actions, and we could work together to decide what the consequences should be. I decided to apply some of principles associated with this technique.
I approached the student with the print-out of the website and asked if it looked familiar. He said that it did not and seemed confused as to why I would be showing him the document.
He asked, “Miss, what is this?”
“This,” I replied, “Is the website from which your entire personal essay was copied.”
The student looked panicked. His cheeks reddened and his eyes became teary. He explained that he had written an essay but gave it to his friend to read. The friend said that the student’s work was no good and offered to help. The student didn’t know that his friend copied the essay. I updated my Facebook status to include the student’s explanation. My friend Mr. R's comment summed it up the best: “So he let his friend "help" him by re-writing it for him, and then submitted it as his own work? Double plagiarism!”
I explained to the student that even if he gets a friend to help, the work that he hands in should still be his own. I explained the seriousness of the offense and what the consequences could be, seeing as the essay was a culminating task and the midterm grades would soon be submitted. The student apologized and said that he understood the seriousness of the situation. I asked him what he thought the consequences should be, and the conclusion was that he could have one week to work on a personal essay that fits the requirements of the assignment. The students are given not only a very specific explanation of the task they are to complete, but also a clear and detailed rubric outlining the expectations.
When the student submitted the essay one week later, it still did not meet all of the requirements outlined in the rubric, and was graded accordingly. The student expressed his disappointment and tried to argue with me, saying that his essay was a personal essay. He even used his class notes and a handout from the class to defend his point. I heard him out, but in the end it was explained repeatedly that his essay did not fit the description of the task, nor did it fulfill the requirements outlined on the rubric. He argued and complained to his friends to the point where I felt compelled to remind him that he was very lucky that he was even allowed to hand in anything, and he can either accept the mark that he earned, or he can take the original grade of zero. He chose to stick with the mark that he earned; I decided that there would no longer be any room for negotiation in cases such as his.
The next essay assignment that I handed out included clear instructions that all rough work is to be handed in and the following:
You make get a friend/tutor/someone to help you with the editing process, but MAKE SURE THAT THE WORK YOU HAND IN IS YOUR OWN. Any papers that are plagiarized, in full or in part, will receive a non-negotiable grade of ZERO, and no make-up assignment will be given.
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