"Despite the abundance of life they support and hence their importance
as a natural resource, the forests are being destroyed at a dizzying
rate."  This is a statement taken from a sixth grade persuasive paper
I believe was plagiarized.  Any assistance finding the web source is
greatly appreciated.

It might come from a print source, mightn't it?--still plagiarism, but
less easily discovered.

Archae0pteryx

I can't find the whole phrase, but I found the two key phrases.

http://www.earthsbirthday.org/explore/teachers/infostranglerfig.htm

'The abundance of life they support.' (A page about strangler figs.)

http://www.opfa.ca/PFSept2004.pdf

'Destroyed at a dizzying rate.' (A pdf version of a paper on deforestation)

As for importance as a natural resource and a sixth grader using the
word "hence," you're on your own. Best of luck.

I hope we have sixth graders capable of writing such sentences
themselves. That's not inconceivable, is it?

Ok it is sixth grade project, not a college thesis, plagiarism is
wrong on any level, but paying people to incriminate a child is just
wrong.  If you cant find it yourself then better luck next time...
Leave the kid alone, and i agree that some sixth graders do write like
that.


-Ben

It may suspicious, but without corrobration, no conviction.  My son,
now thirty, could read Time Magazine and type a BASIC program before
his was four. By the time he was age 12 he might well have written
such a sentence. Nevertheless, the possible psychological damage of
making an unsupported accusation to a child of that age is not worth
the risks.  Find a way to raise the issue in a nonconfrontational
context.  In short, give the kid a break and this bother you seek
counseling yourself first.  Have a "Nice Day".*
* source unknown.

I don't doubt for a moment that any number of young prodigies could
write a sentence like that.  I've seen the phenomenon at close range,
in my own son.  But he had more than one remarkable sentence in him. 
A youngster who could write one such sentence could probably write
many, and his or her verbal competence would probably show in speech
as well.  I doubt that the teacher would have picked out this one
sentence if the entire paper read like that.  But if it stood out as a
solitary instance of verbal precocity on the part of a student who
never wrote another dependent clause and couldn't define "despite" of
"hence," well, you'd probably agree that the teacher had a right to
wonder.  There'd be an opportunity to teach a life lesson then, and
not just something about deforestation, don't you think?

Archae0pteryx