Plagiarism prong has arrove (McAdoo plagiarism uncovered by Pack Pride hooligans)

The recent news that former UNC-CH football player Michael McAdoo was suing the NCAA and UNC-CH (covered here by WRAL) led to one of McAdoo’s papers becoming public.  It took less than one afternoon for McAdoo’s apparent plagiarism in this paper to be discovered by UNC-CH’s least favorite group of message board yahoos.  The plagiarism story has now been picked up by several outlets, first by Sports by Brooks, and later by Sports Illustrated and the DTH.  The Sports by Brooks piece is especially good in that it goes through the material in detail, proving that much of the material in the paper was cut and pasted.

Also, I am not sure who put together this pdf, but it goes through the first few pages of the McAdoo Frankenpaper and shows,using a clear format and in detail, how much material was lifted and exactly from where it was lifted.  For example, it explains the actual source behind such dubious sentences as:

These winds have been blowing with metronome regularity for eons, carrying dhows laden with cargo.

McAdoo (in glasses) pictured above at a Washington, D.C. 2011 post-draft party with Quinn and Coples.

Alert readers will remember that McAdoo was ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA for his involvment with both the tutor and agent prongs.  You can read this past SFN entry for a recap.  Readers who want a full understanding of the McAdoo saga should explore this pdf document.  It contains transcripts, exhibits, and other items connected with McAdoo’s eligibility appeal.  For example, on page 73 of that document, you can read a transcript of the NCAA appeal hearing, in which McAdoo says:

Since I arrove at the University of North Carolina, I have had a lot of support as a student athlete and have trusted a lot of people to help me be successful.

Yes, that’s right, he said “arrove.”  All SFN readers are hereby officially ordered to work the word “arrove” into the next conversation you have with any UNC fan who has ever taunted you with the word “amphibious.”

Regarding the paper itself, if you want to, you can read it beginning on page 127 of that same pdf.  This quote from the DTH article does a good job of explaining the nature of the Frankenpaper if you don’t care and/or don’t have time to read through it and its sources in detail (emphasis mine):

McAdoo’s paper uses three consecutive paragraphs from a Tanzanian journalist’s blog post “Know the history of Swahili language and its original culture.” The paragraphs are nearly word for word from the blog post, which was written less than two months before McAdoo’s paper was turned in on July 13, 2009.

The paper also takes two paragraphs from an article entitled “The Brief History of the Swahili Language,” which was found on the Zanzinet Forum.

There is no mention of the blog post anywhere in the paper, including the works cited page that Wiley was found to have done for him.

McAdoo’s paper takes a substantial amount of work from Charles Cornelius’ “The History of the East African Coast.” McAdoo cites some usage of the book but claims several paragraphs as his own throughout his paper. On page four of his paper, McAdoo uses an entire paragraph that is nearly verbatim from the second page of the book’s introduction.

According to the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, Section II.B.1, plagiarism is defined as “the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words,thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise.”

McAdoo’s professor Dr. Julius Nyang’oro is out of the country and did not immediately respond to emails.

It will be interesting to see how McAdoo’s lawyers spin the previous claim that the Frankenpaper was McAdoo’s original work and that he only cheated by getting help with cite forms.  Also from the DTH:

“This work reflects his ideas exclusively,” said Steve Keady from UNC’s legal counsel during McAdoo’s appeals teleconference with the NCAA. “It is not a rip off. This really is his work.”

and

“We are arguing that this was Michael McAdoo’s work, even the citations were his work. They were not formatted correctly, however,” UNC athletic director Dick Baddour said during the appeals teleconference.

I guess by “his work,” they mean that McAdoo himself hit control-c and control-v repeatedly.   Just for fun, let’s take a roll call of all the adults connected to UNC-CH who had access to this paper.  I am sure I have missed some, but included in the group must be:

UNC Honor Court? Check.
AD? Check
Tutor(s) paid for by the University and/or under the private employ of the Head Coach? Check
McAdoo’s UNC-grad Attorneys? Check
UNC Professor? Check

You are telling me that NONE of those UNC-CH-connected adults recognized McAdoo’s Frankenpaper for what it was?  They really supposedly believed that a person who would use “arrove” in a formal setting could also write things such as “These winds have been blowing with metronome regularity for eons…”???