You are an English teacher at a high school. One of your pupils is a very bright and gifted girl, whom you have always enjoyed teaching. She has always achieved A grades throughout her school years, and is now in her final year and getting ready to graduate. Unfortunately she has been very ill this term, and missed several weeks of schooling. She has just turned in a report which is worth 40% of her final grade, but you realise that she did not write it herself – she has copied a report found online and tried to pass it off as her own work.
If you report her plagiarisation to the school authorities it will be entered on her permanent record and she will no longer be eligible to attend the prestigious university that she has dreamed of attending all through high school. If you refuse to accept the report, her final mark will be very poor and may harm her chances of being chosen for this university. If you mark the paper as though you believed it was her own work, she will do very well, and stand every chance of getting her desired university place.
What should you do?
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