Although university studies may be strenuous, they are extremely valuable and prepare one for the future life. This is a phase in a person’s life where he has a chance to enhance his skills and learn new ones. As a university student, one needed to enroll in a course and take lots of classes to complete his studies. Some of the courses will require written assignments to complete accordingly. Therefore, in this paper, I will reflect on my experience during my university time when I failed an assignment.
It was my first semester at university and had three courses at that time. In these three courses, two were my majors, and one was an art course. The third course was a philosophy course on ethics and values. I was doing well in this one since I had passed all the midterms and term was commencing; therefore, we were required to submit a term paper on the last day of class. The term paper was worth twenty-five percent of the overall grade of the course. In the paper, we were required to choose one question from provided ones by the instructor. The question was supposed to be answered in essay form, where we are supposed to apply critical thinking and theories we had studies throughout the course.
Since my weak point was always English, and I was required to submit a long, coherent, and free-flowing essay, I got stressed out. To avoid the final rush, I tried starting the essay one week before the submission date and explored several internet sites to grasp skills on how to tackle these long term papers. When I was surfing on the internet, I came across an advertisement on the webpage, showing that a professional writer can do an assignment for you in a few bucks and help you a achieve good grades. In the lust of grades, I was convinced by the services they were offering, which clouded my judgment. Then, I checked out by paying all the money and giving all the details and rubric required for the assignment. They completed my assignment, and without checking, I submitted it. After a few days, I got an email from the instructor that I had submitted a plagiarized assignment and needed to visit his office.
I was under stress, shattered, and I even cried while at home. I explained to my parents what had conspired, and they advised me to believe in such scamming sites and to believe in myself. The next day, when I visited my instructor, he said that most of my writing was word-to-word plagiarised. Also, the assignment was not answering the question properly, and there were many grammatical errors in the paper. My instructor advised me that if I feel English grammar is a problem to me, I should read the book, “A guide to Canadian writing”, visit a writing or learning center in the university, where after writing an assignment, they will point out your errors and suggest for you ways to improve your writing. He added that if I need more help, I should visit him instructor or other instructors during office hours. He also mentioned that it is a mistake that needs to be rectified, and I should not give up since I was doing well in other exams. However, he stressed that due to the strict university policies against plagiarism, this would not be recorded on the student record. He even advised me to attend a lecture on plagiarism for new students at the university.
In the end, I believe it was my mistake to trust in these webpages. There are many sources available outside the classroom that can help one to write a good term paper. If next time I get the chance to write a long essay, I personally do a thorough research online and in the library as well as consult my instructor. After writing the assignment, I will visit the writing center or learning center to get help in pointing out the grammar and sentence errors and try to improve them with suggestions given and my own ideas. If I require further assistance, I will consult my classmates and see how they are approaching the assignment and even go further to reach out to students who completed the course.