How to tell someone to remove his plagiarism [closed]

Question

I have to write a report with 3 other people about a project work.

We split it up in different parts. First things went slowly and but a week later one group member have written a very good complete introduction, even that he was struggling heavily with other parts. As an information the report isnt in his native language.

After a while I noticed the whole introduction is copied from 2 other sources. Hardly a word was changed. In a first try I told him to write down his sources for the information but he just said something like: there is no source everybody knows that so he does too.

How can I tell him to rewrite his part without being to harsh but still being clear he has to do it?

Answer 1

Look at your situation realistically. You figured out quite easily that he copied someone else’s work. Your lecturer has a lot more experience, so there’s no chance this goes undetected. If you don’t make him change his part, your whole group will fail, and may worse than fail.

If you don’t tell him, your lecturer will. In a way that doesn’t just hurt his feelings, but in a way that hurts his career. So how do you tell him? Any way that works. For example: “I know which two sources you copied, and so do you, and so will our lecturer. You have the choice of either rewriting this introduction, or we will remove your introduction and yourself. There is no way that I will damage my career because of your plagiarism. “

This is harsh. Considering the consequences for everyone, it is not too harsh. It’s much less harsh than your lecturer would be.