A: Do you remember Walter Peter, used to teach history at the university?
B. Yes, he had quite the reputation.
A. Lazy as sin, among other things. I was his grader in the late 60s. He never looked at a paper or at an exam. When a girl would complain about a grade, I'd tell them to go see Professor Peter. Some of them would, some of them wouldn't dare. There was this one young nubile maiden, very beautiful. She had a D on the mid-term and didn't show up for the final, so of course I gave her an F. She was one of those who were willing to see Professor Peter in his office. I never heard back from her but eventually I took a look at the grade sheet. He had changed her grade from F to B. I asked him, how come?
B. Did you get any kind of explanation?
A. He said, I talked to her, and I felt sure she would have gotten an A on the final, if she had taken it, so I changed her grade. He said it with a straight face.
B. I wonder if he thought you believed him.
A. I don't think he even cared.
B. Let me tell you my favorite plagiarism story. I was handed a paper which began, "Moreover…." Student just took a couple of paragraphs out of the middle of a chapter. Didn't even bother to change the first word.
A. There's also the story of the student who handed in a paper with the bill from the ghost writer still in it.
B. Here's one I heard from Don Baker. He was teaching in Mississippi, early in his career. Freshman English. He receives identical papers from two students in the same class. He gives an A to one and an F to the other. This would be in the 1950s sometime. The F student comes into his office. He says, "Uh, uh, Mr. Baker. I have a friend in the class. I sometimes study with him. He, uh, uh, handed in a paper, kind of, uh, you know, similar to mine." Baker says, "and." The kid says, well, he got a much better grade than I did." Baker says, or at least he swears he says, "Oh, but I like him. And I don't like you."
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