Hi everyone, I really need some honest opinions on this because I’m super stressed. I’m a college student and for an assignment we had to watch the movie Sinners and pick a quote from it, then analyze it. I DID watch the movie and wrote my entire analysis myself. When it came time to pick a quote, I didn’t want to rewatch the whole movie trying to find the exact wording, so I googled what I thought was a transcript. It turns out I accidentally used the script instead. Most of the lines looked the same as the movie, so I didn’t think anything of it, but the specific quote I chose ended up being a line that was cut from the final version of the film.
My professor reported me for:
Fabricating a quote
Cheating (unauthorized resource)
Dishonesty
But the quote is real, it exists in the official script, I just didn’t realize it wasn’t in the final movie.
The penalty is:
0 on the assignment (lowest grades get dropped, so not a huge deal)
Final grade dropped by a full letter
Academic integrity violation on my record
I had a meeting with her and she basically said she doesn’t care about the explanation because I used an unauthorized source and she’ll fight it if I appeal. I totally understand I technically used the wrong source, but I genuinely didn’t make anything up or try to cheat. It was an honest mistake and now I’m worried this is going to affect my chances of getting into nursing school. Do you think this is fair? And is it worth appealing, or should I just accept it and move on? Any advice or similar experiences would really help.