Ripped?

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.01.11
Current Song - Ah Leia! (Donnie Iris)

Advice on finding plagarism: If you suspect plagarism has occured, please make sure you've read the piece first.

Really.

I did a take-home essay for my film mid-term about a month back. I was to discuss a significant moment that lighting was used well in a scene from Citizen Kane. I was also to do the same about a camera angle. The way I looked at this - it was 1/4 of the whole mid-term. Something that large had to be well-done.

So I rented Citizen Kane and played it in my DVD player. I was armed with a notepad and the textbook (and I think popcorn and pop). I watched the entire movie and paused, rewound and fast forwarded to try to put together some good notes. I then took the notes and wrote five paragraphs to answer the two questions.

I took the mid-term the next night. I couldn't answer any of the other essay questions because I had only seen the movies once and couldn't find a way to rewatch them. So with the other essay questions not answered, and this one completed, the instructor called me into his office. He thought I ripped the take-home essay from elsewhere. Apparently it was only supposed to be two paragraphs.

So I explained how I wrote it and showed my notes, all while rolling my eyes behind his back. He then read it, and saw that the piece had a poor amount of film vocabulary, he then knew it was not another product.

Problem rectified = 68%, which was "good compared to the rest of the class."

NOW ...

There was a 50-point paper due tonight. I never did it.

It was supposed to be a critical analysis paper on the film I did a review on: De Sica's Bicycle Thieves. I got as far as the prewriting stage. I found things to write about, such as why the onlooker of the theft acted all "ho hum," the double-life of the thief, the similarities of the movie's opening to the casting of the film, and the whole "distruption in a church" thing. These were the main points and I had to try to find something to string them together with - which is something I can pretty much do in my sleep.

However, my plan for the paper was not one of the suggested ways to write the piece. After finding this out, oh a couple of days ago, I was back at square one and dead in the water. I had to work (more on that later).

With the realization of this analysis piece not being turned in, and the suspected "ripping," somehow I think I'm going to relive this moment next week.

For the record, I did complete a 25-point review of a review (Ebert on Freddy Got Fingered) earlier in the semester, and the 25-point review on Bicycle Thieves. I have also aced every quiz we have taken thus far.

I'll just have to see how this plays out.