I get that, just seems a little extreme. My son writes about 10 papers (some short and some long) a year for school and while he cites his info there have been times the professor marks him down for not putting enough citations in the paper. It is a technical error, no difference that a grammatcal error in my opinion. I get if if the paper is for a masters or phd program or something for publication, but 2 sentences out of a whole essay seems rather extreme.
I don't disagree. It is not unlike getting a speeding ticket for 71 mph in a 70 mph zone. It is technically breaking the law, but who the heck really would throw the book at you for that?
Sure, it is up to the discretion of cop and for this student, his teacher. However that is why many crimes have different levels like self defense to 1st degree murder. I would think the teacher could have punished him without calling it plagarism as its implacations can really hurt a student.
Wouldn't some of this depend on the two sentences, what they are and how they are presented? Were they presented as his own ideas or general discussion of an issue? Let's pretend for a moment that Thomas Jefferson had a blog back in 1776 and he wrote in his blog the following two sentences:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Now if someone came along behind him and used these two sentences in their own paper, passing it off as their own original thoughts, would that be plagiarism? Not saying that's at all what happened here. All we know is what the OP presented from his own perspective.