I'm in deep doo doo

[lacktheknack]

Did you copy/paste it from Wiki? Then 'fess up, you're doomed. If not, then you're STILL doomed because you agreed to bring in the book.

Your only hope is to locate the source that you took from Wikipedia, pray it's a booko, and if it is, track it down by tomorrow. But don't do that, that's just adding to the web of lies.

Next time (if there is a next time), just hand in the sub-par report.

 

[Flames66]

I once handed in an assignment where the only reference was Wikipedia. Don't do that though, my college was a bit slack about that sort of thing, if your lecturer is actually willing to go through facts with you I would imagine yours is a bit stricter.

 

[Dags90]

If this is university, this could hurt...

OPs profile says 1993, which would mean 17 and university being unlikely (but possible). I remember I got a C+ on a History paper for not citing enough. I was kind of pissed about the grade but eventually just really happy about not having to go through all the BS that comes with academic integrity, and I got an A in the course regardless. I also learned that I shouldn't write papers on things I already know or I won't cite enough.

If you're pulling stuff from Wiki in university you probably deserve some trouble. I mean really, I imagine pretty much all universities offer pretty robust online catalogs of scholarly articles. I actually had one professor who caught someone plagiarizing from Wiki and made a point to tell our class that he was going to do everything he could to get the person expelled.

 

[Just_A_Glitch]

Try to find the book online or the excerpt you used. Show that to him/her.

If you can't do that, fess up and tell the truth. Let your teacher know where you got the source (wiki), support that it is in a book that you just didn't have and that you felt it helped your paper, and hope for the best.

He/she already knows what you've done though, so you'd be best off doing both suggestions. Try to find the source online, but tell him/her what happened. That's what I'd do, and what I'd want my student to do.

 

[Flames66]

If you're pulling stuff from Wiki in university you probably deserve some trouble. I mean really, I imagine pretty much all universities offer pretty robust online catalogs of scholarly articles. I actually had one professor who caught someone plagiarizing from Wiki and made a point to tell our class that he was going to do everything he could to get the person expelled.

Most of the research for my BTEC and FdSc at least started on Wiki. As long as the assignment made sense and was correct, most of my lecturers didn't care.

 

[Dags90]

I was guessing by the nature of what he said it was highschool, I guess I was trying to say to him without saying it..."don't do this later or you might really regret it".

And I wasn't sure what year he went to University, 17 isn't unusual at all in my province. It's actually pretty common since they eliminated grade 13 a few years back. (And working in a University let me tell you how much more complicated that makes dealing with 1st year students lol)

Profile also says Austria which mucks things up a bit. I know in the U.S./Canada(?) people tend to call college/university professors...professors. Especially early on when you want to show off how adult you are because now you're in college. Whereas "teachers" usually signifies high school and below.

 

[Scabadus]

You could always say it was a book you borrowed from the public library, and they don't have it anymore (public librarys shuffle textbooks between them on orders from the public. Good thing to know).

Next time, don't lift hardcopy cources from Wikipedia, lift sources that are avalible online. 99.9% of the time you can get away with not even checking them (though obviously you should. Every time. Which every student does.) but just make sure it's something you could have checked.

 

[KeyMaster45]

If I'm understanding what you did right, you didn't have enough sources so you just snagged one from wiki without having any info to attach to it. If that's what you did, then there's no hope for ya and you need to come clean.

However, if there is actually information attached to it (IE you followed a footnote citation on something from the wiki to find the source) you should be able to squeeze by explaining to your teacher that you saw a piece of information that worked for your paper on the wiki page and found that it cited from a reputable academic source.(the book she wants in question) Since the information was there and the source was given to prove it's factual integrity you figured that it was okay to use it, especially since the book was not to be found in your library.

That is actually the most truthful answer you could give your teacher in that situation, as it's not a far stretch of the imagination that's what you would have thought. Despite such a dislike for wikipedia amongst teachers it's actually a great jumping point for research, like most encyclopedias are. I've yet to write a paper where my research doesn't begin with the wiki page for the topic and I've made A's and B's on all of them. I actually just got done writing a paper where the wiki page had most of the books I'd picked out from the library before-hand as sources.

Of course if all you did was slap a source onto your paper that you didn't use that you got from wiki; yeah...you're boned.

 

[noxymoron19]

Tell your teacher you were playing with matches in your room, when you were distracted by a sudden light outside your window. You ran outside to investigate and accidently lit your book on fire, with no other damage to your house. Or you could just tell him you got it from wikipedia, its really not that large a deal