Labouring over a college paper is not something many of us have ever relished.

From spending hours in the library researching the topic to pulling an all-nighter to get it in on time, preparing and ultimately completing an essay for university is no mean feat.

So, it's no real surprise that one female student from the States was left gobsmasked when her paper was returned to her with more than a passing implication that the work she handed up was not her own.

Tiffany Martinez took to Facebook to highlight her plight after her college professor suggested she had plagarised her paper by insisting that Tiffany would not have used the word 'hence' of her own accord.

No, seriously.

After being told to 'go back and indicate where she had copied and paste', Tiffany shared an image of the corrected paper online and wrote: "I was hurt badly this morning and publicly humiliated in front of my peers by a professor."

"They assumed I plagiarized my paper because it sounded too scholarly. How many degrees do I need for someone to believe I am an academic?" Tiffany asked.

In a blog post which followed the incident, Tiffany insisted that her professor's impression of the paper was based on her last name.

"My last name and appearance immediately instills a set of biases before I have the chance to open my mouth. These stereotypes and generalizations forced on marginalized communities are at times debilitating and painful," Tiffany wrote in a post which has been shared thousands of times.

"As a minority in my classrooms, I continuously hear my peers and professors use language that both covertly and overtly oppresses the communities I belong to. Therefore, I do not always feel safe when I attempt to advocate for my people in these spaces…My professor assumed someone like me would never use language like that."

"As I stood in the front of the class while a professor challenged my intelligence I could just imagine them reading my paper in their home thinking could someone like her write something like this?"

Tiffany's post has resonated with thousands online, with one social media user writing: "I got an ‘F’ with the word ‘PLAGIARIZED’ written at the top in bold red letters."

"She proceeded to yell at me and tell me to shut up (in front of my peers) when I protested,” they continued. “I’m 30 and I still think of that sometimes."

According to BuzzFeed, Tiffany has not spoken with the professor since the incident, but the incident has been brought to the attention of the chair of Suffolk University’s sociology department, who has launched an investigation.