ADVICE

I sent this out via e-mail, but thought I'd post here too so that I'd get advice from whichever form of communication you check first!

My D student who I approached about plagiarism last week e-mailed me this morning asking me how my holiday went, and what I thought about the newest draft. I'm considering the following response (HELP!):

Hi Damian,
I'm glad your vacation is going well; mine has been pretty busy with work, but thank you for asking! I've just finished reading your paper, but haven't written on it yet because I need help understanding a few things:

1. I was looking at your works cited, and after each citation it says "April 28, 2010" - why is that?
2. There are 4 sources in your works cited, but only 2 used in-text (Bernard and Donoghue), so you'll need to either do some more research if the two sources don't apply, or you'll need to utilize them (to complete the project you need at least 5 sources).
3. I've noticed that you've cited Donoghue throughout your paper, but there are a few in-text citations that don't match up with the information being discussed (one example being the final paragraph on page 3 which discusses info about 2003 and 2007, but Donoghue was published in 1990, so the source CAN'T fit).

I don't mean to sound suspicious, but there are aspects of your paper that really aren't adding up here. I've asked for counsel on the matter, and it's been suggested that I run your whole paper through a plagiarism-checking website. Before I do that (because I hate the idea of it), I want to give you the chance to help me understand your paper. Last week, you turned in 3 pages for the rough draft with your works cited marked as page 10 (suggesting that you'd already written the paper before the workshop - which is doable, and I don't have a problem with at all!), but that's when I commented on your use of un-cited information from Wikipedia. You've taken out the photos, but there is still information from Wiki in your paper in the form of direct and indirect quotes (in spite of your taking the citation off of your works cited). If it's possible, I'd like to talk with you face-to-face on Monday so that we can sort this out.

Best,
Elisa J.