I was accused of plagiarizing a history paper. It was about the beginnings of World War I and I wrote, what I thought, was a pretty good paper.
I was pleased with myself until she handed it back with large red marks over every page with a couple of red circles around specific passages. On the last page was written, "I have had two students turn in similar pages with very similar ideas and specific phrases. One of you two has cheated. As he is the more studious of the two, I am left to assume that you plagiarized his paper and tried to pawn it off as your own."
I was upset and quite vocal about it. She had basically said that I was too stupid to write such a paper. So, I objected and forced the issue. In a meeting with all the members of the instructor's department, the other guy, after fumbling through a bunch of "ummms" and "uhhhs," finally admitted that he had stolen my paper. Turns out when I was working in the library on it, I had left a copy on the computer desktop. He found it and merged his paper with mine hoping that he had changed enough not raise any red flags with the instructor.
The instructor apologized for the remark. I let it go.
For the rest of the semester she seemed to single me out to answer questions in class even calling on me when a sea of hands were up and mine was down. (No, I'm not imagining it as other classmates noticed it to) So, I began answering all the questions with a little disclaimer at the beginning such as: "Well, I'm a simple guy, but...." or "If I had to guess, and by no means am I an expert, but..." or "I'm not a bright guy, but....
Thank god, I only had the one class with her.
