there was an assignment we did for an anatomy&physiology course some years ago: to make and present an infographic poster about certain complex in-depth processes that weren't part of the course material. it had to cover specific questions while being digestible for a layperson - a ton of information condensed, simplified, and arranged in form of a poster. we were split into pairs and given the topics.

the poster was worth 10% of the final grade, which might not seem like a lot, but the course was super hard, the prof was a notoriously tough grader, and his tests were RIDICULOUSLY difficult. most of us were barely passing his midterms and finals in both courses he taught that semester, as well as the courses we had with him the previous year where 8-10 people out of 40 failed. we cared about every single crumb of a mark we could get from him because, for a lot of us, even a fraction of a percent could mean the difference between passing and failing.

then we would present it, which was worth an additional 5% i think.

this assignment was the first and only time he gave us an "easy" way to contribute to the final grade. otherwise it was all tests on paper. half multiple choice, half short and long answers. 100-120-150 questions in one sitting, and he'd deduct marks for tiny mistakes in drawings and diagrams we had to do on plain paper as part of the long answers - and that would be worth 15% of the final grade.

anyways -

Cara and i were assigned to work together. we weren't friends and had barely interacted before, and when we first met up to discuss how we were gonna do it, it became clear that our approach to research and group projects is very different, which was immediately discouraging as i thought it was gonna be a whole struggle.

luckily, she mentioned how the information part was the easiest in her opinion, and what bothered her the most was the design & illustration aspect. i was like - hey, i actually feel the exact opposite! how about we both do some surface-level reading on the subject to get a rough idea of what we're dealing with, then make a plan on what points we want to include, then you work on the info and i'll deal with making a poster out of it?

she liked the idea, so we agreed that i'll be doing sketches, she'll be summarizing the text material and sending it to me; i'll be fact checking it and suggesting changes, and we'll meet up every few days to discuss how it all fits together. awesome!

shortly after, the school closed for some reason - i can't remember why exactly, but classes were suspended for a few weeks. some profs gave us extensions, other didn't, and this assignment was among those that we didn't get extra time for.

since there were no classes, Cara left town to be with her family, so we couldn't meet up like we had planned and instead communicated through fb, google docs and occasional facetime.  her part was easy to discuss as it was all text, but mine was way more vague and abstract from the pov of a person who didn't fully understand the vision. i would show her sketches and outlines etc, and she seemed to be fine with all of it. when she was done with her part, it was up to me to finish everything off, send her the final work for approval, make adjustments if necessary, and submit it online along with the APA-formatted references page she made (since the campus was closed, the prof wanted us to submit digital versions before the original deadline and then we'd deal with prints and presentations when we'd be back to class)

long story short, after hours of work and a couple late nights, i finished the thing barely making it on time which made Cara stress out for a bit (my bad), but it was all good in the end. 

she was very happy with the result, said she didn't expect the final product to look so good, and also admitted that she had been feeling like i was just there doodling and offering small adjustments on her part while she was doing all the heavy lifting, and that she had regretted the way we split the load, but after seeing how it turned out, she realized she was wrong, etc. i was happy with how she did her part as well. overall, we were pleased with the outcome and hoping for a good mark.

some time goes by, the marks are up: 8/10. got max points for each rubric except 0 for the references page which was worth 2/10.  comment from the prof: failed to cite image sources. 

we were like - oh crap, he thought we used someone else's drawings

i emailed him, he didn't respond. went to talk to him during his office hours when the school reopened. turned out he hadn't had a chance to read my email yet.

i told him we didn't include anyone else's visual material - i did look at photos/drawings/diagrams in books and online but drew everything myself, and here's the shit ton of proof i have.

(btw, most of the drawings in question were super basic - literal circles and smudges. a few were more detailed, but again, basic. i'm no artist by any means)

he was like - wow, i didn't even consider the possibility that one of you guys drew it. however, you still had to include a clause on the references page saying that you made the drawings so that there wouldn't be any suspicion of plagiarism

i was like - ok it's just we thought that since the title clearly indicates that Cara and i are the authors and we didn't cite any sources for art, it implies that the illustrations are original. also i looked up APA requirements for cases like this before coming to talk to him, and from what i understood, i didn't need to cite my own work.

he's like - nope, you still had to

-gave the same reasoning as before but then turned it into a "but i understand why you were confused, and i'm in a good mood today, so i forgive you and will adjust the grade" type of thing.

go to look at the adjusted grade later that day - 9.5/10, and the missing 0.5 is still for the references.

i go to talk to him again because our conversation left me with the impression that he'd give us full points for the refs since he said that, aside from failing to cite artists, everything was impeccable. 

he tells me we lost the 0.5 because, even though the drawings were original, i did look at images created by other people in order to draw the stuff on my poster. i haven't seen the cells and tissues with my own eyes, i based my illustrations on the work of some photographers and artists, so their names needed to be included in the references. i don't remember what he called it exactly and what the format should have been, but that was his response.

i was like- ??? but you didn't say a word about it last time we spoke?.. he was like- i don't remember why i didn't, but that's how it works.

i didn't have much to say except for asking, "does every artist who illustrates an anatomy textbook have to cite another artist or photographer who took the actual photos of cells and tissues they used as reference for their drawings?"

he said yes. and that was the end of it

Cara thought his explanation sounded like bs, and so did i. i was pissed and also felt really bad that Cara lost half a mark for the part i was responsible for.

i thought i'd consult other profs who definitely know everything about plagiarism and APA, and if he's actually wrong, i'd go back again and ask him to give us that 0.5 

but then we did the math, made sure both of us are most likely passing the course anyway, and decided to let it go. 

it's been years, and it still pops up in my mind annoyingly often. i recently tried to figure out whether what he said was correct, and again, from what i gather, it wasn't.

if you read the whole thing and know the correct answer FOR SURE, let me know