The Battle Aganist Plagiarism at AUC

There was such as sense of achievement, relief and pride when I posted the final edit of my final project to Soundcloud (mostly relief).

This 14 minute and 26 second audio documentary is the product of blood, sweat and tears and fueled by memories of pain, anger and frustration as I yelled continuously at my laptop and Audacity, the music editing program I used to create this.

My project ‘Plagiarism at the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) was an incredibly interesting one. Not only because as students, we talk amongst ourselves about the classes that we can ‘get away’ with not citing a few sentences here or there, but also because students think (incorrectly) that the reason that they haven’t been caught or haven’t been turned into the Academic Integrity Committee (AIC)  is because they were too smart for their professors.

Plagiarism has become easy with the Internet. Photo by Dina Meky

I decided on the topic after a conversation with a friend of mine about her doing a semester aboard and one of her colleagues getting caught for plagiarism. The University immediately kicked her out of the program and sent her back to Egypt. It had gotten me thinking about the precaution and consequences of plagiarizing at AUC and at Egyptian Universities in general, and whether it mattered or not. Some professors at AUC take plagiarism very seriously and use things like turnitin.com to detect it.

However, most professors do not.

When I heard that the Academic Integrity Committee at my school was launching an awareness campaign about this topic, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to investigate further. I had originally wanted to tackle a wider scope but time constraints and lack of time had me narrowing it down to focus just on AUC.

However, trying to find students to talk openly about plagiarism is one thing. Getting them to talk while you shove a microphone in their face is a whole different ball game.

Tim Warren. Photo by Dina Meky

The main issue I had was finding my interviewees. From the faculty point of view, it was easy. Professor Timothy Warren, a Rhetoric and Composition Instructor and member of the AIC as well as Kathleen O’Neill, the Coordinator of the AIC were more than accommodating in answering my questions. They couldn’t give names of students or faculty (because of the delicacy of the topic) but they did their best in giving me the answers I was looking for.

Mariam Matar was a freshman when she was accused of plagiarism and had been told that she was going to be taken to the AIC. Mariam is a prime example of when professors…well, you’ll have to listen to the documentary to get the answer.

Through Mariam, I found Mary Ibrahim, an undergraduate who admitted to plagiarism and to not getting caught. Though she gave me a pseudonym, I had some of the answers I was looking for—students could and did get away with constant plagiarism.

 A very publicized plagiarism case in Fall 2011 by a Journalism and Mass Communication student was an interview I was dying to get. After chasing the student down, and after sending multiple emails, the student preferred to speak to my Professor, Kim Fox, on the condition of anonymity.

Mariam was accused of plagiarism her freshman year. Photo by Dina Meky

The difficulty for me was the editing phase. I am not the best person when it comes to technology. The editing took the most time for me and was the most painful. The tracks in Audacity kept shifting and moving and rearranging themselves until I was nearly in tears. Plus, finding music for the documentary was harder than I expected, but it was fun, nonetheless.

Throughout the semester I had been making mental notes when I heard any sort of upbeat music to put into my project. These included:

 It’s Time by Imagine Dragons

 Beat It by Michael Jackson

 EuropeanAssault Main Theme by stigno87 on YouTube

 Scary Creepy Piano(Original Composition) by MusicLoverOriginals on YouTube

Luciano Pavarotti’s Rossini’s La Danza

I also thought it would be appropriate to include One Republic’s Secrets and One Republic’s It’s Too 

Late To Apologize (sort of fits when we’re talking about plagiarism, right?)

My sound effects were the bell by Jojikiba (great sound effects!) and the Applause Crowd Cheering was from theHalloweenHaunters, both available on YouTube.

All of the interviews and Nat sound were recorded by me using an M-Audio recorder. The narration was recorded mostly (believe it or not) in my closet. Later narration that was added was recorded underneath a blanket in my room (the dedication of a journalist...).

Overall, my documentary is what I wanted it to be. I would have liked to change certain things and I would have liked it to be a bit longer, but I am very proud of what I’ve done and I hope you all enjoy it as well.