Professor Gans is a Professor of Chemistry at NYU. Like all professors he has experience with students who plagiarize. Sometimes the plagiarists are particularly inept in their choice of papers to copy.

I had a TA some years back who stormed into my office with a physical chemistry lab report in her hand. She said that the paper was totally plagiarized and that she wanted to give it an A.

Now I could believe the plagiarism part. There are many places on campus where a file of old papers and reports exist. But the “A”?

The answer was simple: She had written the original report as an undergraduate and had gotten a B. She’d always thought that it deserved an A and wanted to give it one.

I thought about it for a bit and told her to go ahead, but that she should attach an explanation to the report.

Two days later I had an abject student in my office, too embarrassed to say anything.