Allegation of Academic Offence I received an email from the university saying that the similarity report for my work identified that one of my answers shows a similarity to the answer within the script of a fellow student. They are asking to write a statement and explain what happened. Basically myself and my partner...we are studying the same thing and he copied one of my answers as he came from a night shift and he was very tired and he couldn’t think. Could you please advise what to answer.
He received the same email and he has to write a statement as well. What should he write?
Thank you for your answers and advice.
Well, you let him copy. What else can you say?
Bear in mind that lecturers hate hunting down plagiarism/collusion. In one course, hunting the offences and collecting proof cost me more time than marking all submissions (and these were a lot).
You just created a bunch of pointless extra work for them. Don't increase it, you have already been caught. This is not a court lawyer cat and mouse game. You are not going to get out of it free by technical tricks and it's insulting to your lecturer's intelligence to try, trust me on that.
Put the cards on the table and promise with contriteness never to do it again (and, of course, adhere to this). That's your best bet.