Feeling regret for sending my code to my classmate

Question

As an international student, I found hard to integrate well with other classmates. I only have two relatively close friends in my class. When my classmate asked me to send my code to him, I did not reject him as I was afraid of losing this friend. Now, I feel extremely regret as I am facing an accusation of plagiarism. I will never allow others to access my work. I actually have evidence that all works are done by me.

However, I worked extremely hard on my assignment and amended it four times before submission. I do not think that I deserve mark reduction. Are there any things that I can do to change the professor's mind instead of mark reduction? I hope I can do any other things to compensate for my fault instead of mark reduction.

Answer 1

You may plead your case to your instructor in writing as you have here. Your best option is to demonstrate that you did not get the warning of the first offense until AFTER you had already committed the second offense.

Agree that what you did was wrong. Admit that you did the wrong out of partial ignorance (you knew a rule existed but did not understand its implications fully). Demonstrate that you were given a warning of the first violation only after the second violation had already occurred. Show that you immediately stopped the unlawful action at the warning. Ask that your total penalty be reduced (but not removed) in accord with a plea of doing the wrong from partial ignorance rather than willful intent. See some of these legal readings for insight.

https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/research/ignorance-of-the-law-may-be-an-excuse.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/I/IgnoranceoftheLaw.aspx

This is not necessarily a criminal case, it is more a civil one. Also, this is not necessarily one where the full implications of the rule were made clear enough at the outset.

On this latter note, since you have read the code now, you absolutely cannot plead ignorance that a code even existed. You can only plead ignorance of the full implications of the code. You should keep your personal story of a need for friendship out of the discussion. You gave the other person the code with the intent to offer insight, not to offer an answer key. You ignored the fact that your action could be easily abused (by a "cheater") and you were ignorant of the fact that such abuse by a cheater had real consequences not only for the cheater but also for you.

Having had cases such as yours multiple times in my career, I am well tuned to the distinction between intent and ignorance. Your instructor may be as well, and he/she may be willing to provide grace with sufficient grounds that remorse is sincere. On the other hand, I am also just as well tuned to spot someone who wants to play games when pleading for reduced penalties. Do not go down that path, lest your instructor is equally well tuned.

Finally, chalk this one up to experience. Some students take a lot longer to have this type of situation hit them. By that time, they often more than deserve the strong penalty that follows. You can now move to the next level of your life with greater confidence that such will not be the case in your future.

Answer 2

You are entirely at your professor's mercy or lack thereof.

As a student, you are responsible for knowing the regulations of the course and the school. This includes plagiarism and academic misconduct charges. You were told to do all work individually. On multiple occasions you violated that principle and knowingly did so because you did not want to lose a friendship. You intentionally made a choice and now you must face the consequences for making that selection which fell afoul of regulations.

The fact that you did all the work individually does not clear you of misconduct because you intentionally aided someone else in violating the academic misconduct regulations. If your friend had stolen your work without your knowledge, that would be an entirely different issue. However, you willingly participated in the process, which makes you just as much of a "cheater" as your "friend."

So, you may try to argue about your lack of culpability but your instructor is within rights to pursue academic misconduct charges against you. Any offer of a "reduced" sanction or punishment is entirely at your instructor's discretion.