Kids Today
Oy Vey! So, because of my own tardiness, I have to read tons of student papers today and tomorrow, and have read about 3 or 4 today before getting to one that just strikes me as....well, too well written, if you know what I mean. As advised by several people, I log onto the internet and delve into tons of web sites that offer essays and lots of other web sites that have similar explanations to just about every paper I have read. There is only one of me and tons of these web sites out there, so what do I do? Technically as I can not prove anything but find it very hard to believe that this paper was written solely by the author, what can I do? The student does not even include a works cited page.
Basically, I just do not get college students today. The only thing that I hounded and hounded to them was to use outside sources, and barely a third did. Only one student has properly used citations. Some only after quotes. Most use none. And this is the problem. When is it plagiarism instead of just all this "sloppy citation" business I keep hearing about? Perhaps my background in history is why I find all of this shady business inexcusable. It's best to cite everything and cite often. I'd often find resources that backed up each other, simply so that you could switch back in forth in your paper as a way of bulking the evidence you had found. I still love researching and finding tons of stuff that corroborates with someone else, because obviously it's more frustrating and problematic when they don't.
Also, I do not remember a single professor during my undergraduate days taking time out to talk about plagiarism either. Yes, that was many many years ago, when you would have to do some real honest to goodness work to cheat in the first place, copying from a book or other source, having to dig through some sorority or fraternity pile of papers.... But is it something more than just the increase in technology? I've found that the students of today feel more entitled than my generation did. I did not expect an A simply for sitting in class each week. I worked for B's. With more people having access to a college education, in some sense it seems evident that there are people here who should not be, do not want to be, and will not put in the effort that is involved.
Bah!
Basically, I just do not get college students today. The only thing that I hounded and hounded to them was to use outside sources, and barely a third did. Only one student has properly used citations. Some only after quotes. Most use none. And this is the problem. When is it plagiarism instead of just all this "sloppy citation" business I keep hearing about? Perhaps my background in history is why I find all of this shady business inexcusable. It's best to cite everything and cite often. I'd often find resources that backed up each other, simply so that you could switch back in forth in your paper as a way of bulking the evidence you had found. I still love researching and finding tons of stuff that corroborates with someone else, because obviously it's more frustrating and problematic when they don't.
Also, I do not remember a single professor during my undergraduate days taking time out to talk about plagiarism either. Yes, that was many many years ago, when you would have to do some real honest to goodness work to cheat in the first place, copying from a book or other source, having to dig through some sorority or fraternity pile of papers.... But is it something more than just the increase in technology? I've found that the students of today feel more entitled than my generation did. I did not expect an A simply for sitting in class each week. I worked for B's. With more people having access to a college education, in some sense it seems evident that there are people here who should not be, do not want to be, and will not put in the effort that is involved.
Bah!
posted by Molly | 12:32 PM
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