Francine's Pilfered Paper

Summary
Francine copies and pastes information from a web site for her entire five-page report.

Plot
Mr. Ratburn asks the class to write a topic based on Thanksgiving, giving each person in the class a specific topic to research. Francine feels that she will not be able to handle the topic (What the Pilgrims ate), so Brain shows her that she could look up information on the Internet and gave a warning that that not all the stuff she might find is accurate.

She goes home and finds a website that she feels suits her topic. She copies the information and pastes it into a new document, complete with the title "Food For Thought". The next day she hands in the assignment early and surprises her classmates. Mr. Ratburn complemented on the neatness and timing of the assignment. Buster checks Francine to make sure she is not a robot.

The next day, while everyone is working on their assignment, Francine is watching the football game on TV. She gets called in by her sister Catherine, who tells her that she found a website that might help her with her assignment. Francine was surprised and tells her that this is her assignment, as it was the website she had copied it from. Catherine is surprised, and when Francine tells her how she composed her paper, Catherine tells her that she can't use someone else's work as her own, and explains that doing so is plagiarism. Francine is horrified to learn that she unknowingly stole someone else's work and could be suspended if she is caught, and Catherine urges her to tell Mr. Ratburn what happened. At dinner, Oliver Frensky, Francine's father, talks about "stealing" a recipe he used to make dinner. This causes Francine to feel guilty about her assignment. She asks to be excused from the dinner table, and then rides her bike to Mr. Ratburn's house.

Mr. Ratburn meets Francine at the door. He assumes she has come over to get her assignment. He walks over to his desk and grabs a marker and marked Francine's project with A minus. He says that there was some inaccurate information regarding when yams were introduced to the pilgrims, but that the paper was excellent overall. That night Francine has a dream that she is a highly successful novelist as an adult who capitalized on the success of her plagiarized work, only to be confronted by the website's original author who publicly denounces Francine as a plagiarist.

On Monday morning she gets to class early, tells Mr. Ratburn about her accidental plagiarism and gives him a different report. In class, Mr. Ratburn was handing back the Thanksgiving assignment. He comes to Francine and says to her how original her real report was. Francine looks at the assignment and sees that she earned a B plus. Arthur asks her what was so exciting for her that she earned a B plus. She replies that it's because she turned in a paper that happens to be original, and the episode ends.

Major characters

 * Francine Frensky
 * Nigel Ratburn

Minor characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Alan Powers
 * Binky Barnes
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Pal
 * Oliver Frensky
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Aunt Frensky
 * Article author (Francine's Pilfered Paper)

Background characters

 * Maria
 * George Lundgren
 * Fern Walters
 * Alex
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Helen
 * Steve
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Grandpa Frensky
 * Bubby
 * Laverne Frensky
 * Julie
 * Mr. Morris

Mentioned characters

 * Boris (greengrocer)

Trivia

 * During the prologue, which takes place before the first Thanksgiving, Francine is the only one who doesn't speak like a pilgrim.
 * Mr. Ratburn says that the report has to be at least 5 pages and Buster says it must be what college is like, however Mr. Ratburn said to the class in The Boy with His Head in the Clouds about another 5 page report, but it didn't seem like they were bothered how hard it was.

Cultural references

 * WooHoo! is a parody of Yahoo!.
 * In the prologue, Francine has a red letter 'P' on the front of her cap. This a reference to The Scarlet Letter, while the 'P' presumably standing for 'plagiarist/plagiarism'.
 * The character who appears in Francine's dream is a parody of Erik, better known as the Phantom, from the novel/musical, . One of the problems Erik faces is that the opera managers, ashamed of Erik, pass off his operas as their own, angering Erik.

Animation errors

 * When Francine is watching TV she is wearing socks. Then, when she goes into her and Catherine's room she is wearing shoes.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Dancing Fools (DVD)
 * Arthur: Season 11