Slashdoc
February 25, 2006 6:47 AM Subscribe
Anyone using this "resource" to cheat on school work will get everything they deserve. A cursory trawl through their archive, using "DNA" as the search term, reveals documents chock full of errors (eg. Eric Drexler invented nanotechnology - I think Richard Feynman would have had something to say about that...)
posted by gene_machine at 7:12 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by gene_machine at 7:12 AM on February 25, 2006
Actally, as an educator, I'm glad I've seen this site now. I just got through a mess with a couple of plagiarizers, one who was clever enough to piece together his paper from a variety of different sources throughout the internet, and it's nice to have another resource for checking on these things.
I only caught the two of them because they both pulled a paragraph from the same source.
Know of any other sites I could use to check this sort of thing?
posted by ErWenn at 7:31 AM on February 25, 2006
I only caught the two of them because they both pulled a paragraph from the same source.
Know of any other sites I could use to check this sort of thing?
posted by ErWenn at 7:31 AM on February 25, 2006
You'd have to be pretty foolish to use these essays in school. It would be so easy for the prof to catch you. My wife is a college prof, and if she suspects plagiarism, she just types a sentence from the paper into Google. You'd be surprised how often kids try to use sites like this.
posted by cmaxmagee at 7:35 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by cmaxmagee at 7:35 AM on February 25, 2006
I don't often read essays like most of these, but I'm looking at scholarship application essays and wanted to find samples of what other students were writing on similar topics. It's kind of handy that way.
Does anybody talk about Ethan Frome with this peculiar earnest enthusiasm anywhere outside of a school essay?
posted by Wolfdog at 7:40 AM on February 25, 2006
Does anybody talk about Ethan Frome with this peculiar earnest enthusiasm anywhere outside of a school essay?
posted by Wolfdog at 7:40 AM on February 25, 2006
Doesn't look like they keep the texts away from search engines. Just a quick google of some of the text in these turn up a link right back to them (and to other, similar, sites).
posted by jmhodges at 7:40 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by jmhodges at 7:40 AM on February 25, 2006
I know at one Canadian uni -- U of Toronto? -- all essays have to be submitted through a external web app. It checks for plaigarism. Don't imagine it would miss this.
posted by docgonzo at 8:06 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by docgonzo at 8:06 AM on February 25, 2006
I have read some 5 of these essays, selected randomly, and they are not very good.
posted by Postroad at 8:06 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by Postroad at 8:06 AM on February 25, 2006
Thanks for this. I've emailed it to all my fellow graduate english instructors.
Some of this stuff is unbelievably bad. Junior high school level, in my opinion:
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Two of the character's
fathers are brutishly murdered. The first murdered character is King
Hamlet who is supposed to be revenge by his son prince Hamlet. The
second murder is Polonius who is supposed to be revenged by his son
Laertes. Both Prince Hamlet and Laertes go to seek revenge for the
death of fathers, however they will each use different methods to
accomplish their deeds.
posted by papakwanz at 8:11 AM on February 25, 2006
Some of this stuff is unbelievably bad. Junior high school level, in my opinion:
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Two of the character's
fathers are brutishly murdered. The first murdered character is King
Hamlet who is supposed to be revenge by his son prince Hamlet. The
second murder is Polonius who is supposed to be revenged by his son
Laertes. Both Prince Hamlet and Laertes go to seek revenge for the
death of fathers, however they will each use different methods to
accomplish their deeds.
posted by papakwanz at 8:11 AM on February 25, 2006
I wander how they got 60,000 documents.
simple math is interesting:
Their alexa traffic rank is about 450,000 (very low traffic)
It means about 100 people on a good day. probably less on average because traffic numbers tend to grow.
The site was registered mid oct 2005 (4 months=120 days).
so every day in average 60000/120 = 500 new articles were added.
So every single day, including weekends and holidays the 100 or less visitors and submitters put 500 articles.
That means someone is ripping off articles from somewhere or they have their own library of thousands of articles with copyrights.
posted by nbd at 8:22 AM on February 25, 2006
simple math is interesting:
Their alexa traffic rank is about 450,000 (very low traffic)
It means about 100 people on a good day. probably less on average because traffic numbers tend to grow.
The site was registered mid oct 2005 (4 months=120 days).
so every day in average 60000/120 = 500 new articles were added.
So every single day, including weekends and holidays the 100 or less visitors and submitters put 500 articles.
That means someone is ripping off articles from somewhere or they have their own library of thousands of articles with copyrights.
posted by nbd at 8:22 AM on February 25, 2006
Know of any other sites I could use to check this sort of thing?
Copyscape
It assumes you have an online copy to compare with. I use it on Wikipedia all the time and it's very powerful in finding plagiarism.
FWIW it seems like slashdoc is mostly just a way to get documents into search engines (and online). I doubt anyone would get much value reading it directly.
posted by stbalbach at 8:39 AM on February 25, 2006
Copyscape
It assumes you have an online copy to compare with. I use it on Wikipedia all the time and it's very powerful in finding plagiarism.
FWIW it seems like slashdoc is mostly just a way to get documents into search engines (and online). I doubt anyone would get much value reading it directly.
posted by stbalbach at 8:39 AM on February 25, 2006
I've still got all of my old college essays (some of them pretty good) I wonder if I should post them? It'd be neat to be plagiarized.
posted by wfrgms at 8:48 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by wfrgms at 8:48 AM on February 25, 2006
wfrgms, why not just open your own online essay shop and start selling them yourself? Maybe I should do that. It'd be good to see a liberal arts education put to some use.
posted by cmaxmagee at 8:54 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by cmaxmagee at 8:54 AM on February 25, 2006
I check for plagiarism regularly when suspect phrases turn up in a student's essay -- usually it's too well polished, sometimes it's below the level of writing I see from them (this site has plenty of clumsy examples). Googling usually does the trick, but if they use a pay site (unlikely at the high school level), I'm out of luck.
I tried searching this site in a similar way, plucking a short phrase out of one of their essays, using their search engine, and came up with nothing. Good news for my cheating students. Hope they don't find this site.
posted by kozad at 9:06 AM on February 25, 2006
I tried searching this site in a similar way, plucking a short phrase out of one of their essays, using their search engine, and came up with nothing. Good news for my cheating students. Hope they don't find this site.
posted by kozad at 9:06 AM on February 25, 2006
Very poor essays. Limited search ability. Short list of popular essays.
Too bad that Metafilter doesn't save its "best of". The quality would be much higher.
posted by notmtwain at 9:41 AM on February 25, 2006
Too bad that Metafilter doesn't save its "best of". The quality would be much higher.
posted by notmtwain at 9:41 AM on February 25, 2006
Rather than using plagiarism detection devices, which operate by unethically profiting from using without compensation the papers of tens (to hundreds) of thousands of writers, I sugest that teachers who are concerned about plagiarism talk to rhetoric and composition departments at their institutions or at the local university. These faculty experience unusually low incidence of plagiarism in their classes despite the fact that their students write constantly. They would likely be more than happy to discuss the issue with you, or even provide a workshop for your department.
posted by mrmojoflying at 9:49 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by mrmojoflying at 9:49 AM on February 25, 2006
mrmojoflying, curious about a couple of things. How do those plagiarism detection devices unethically profit from writers? I'd be happy if teachers were using one to keep people from plagiarising my work. I wouldn't expect any compensation.
Also, why do rhetoric and composition depts see less plagiarism, and how do you know this is true?
posted by cmaxmagee at 10:16 AM on February 25, 2006
Also, why do rhetoric and composition depts see less plagiarism, and how do you know this is true?
posted by cmaxmagee at 10:16 AM on February 25, 2006
From August Wilson Biography:
"He dropped out of school after being accused of plagiarism for a twenty-page paper on Napoleon."
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:18 AM on February 25, 2006
"He dropped out of school after being accused of plagiarism for a twenty-page paper on Napoleon."
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:18 AM on February 25, 2006
The easiest way to prevent plagiarism is to develop a quirky curriculum. (I would use the word "creative" if I were talking to my principal.) I didn't develop my lit and comp curriculum for that reason, but it has been a byproduct.
Also, for the longer research papers, I ask for notes and three drafts. You can't swipe that. (Although making sure kids actually reading Crime and Punishment instead of the SparkNotes summaries/interpretations is a trickier proposition.)
BTW, I've heard of people getting through college decades ago by buying papers. As with a lot of things, the Internet has just made it easier. (In the old days, before the Internet, before VHS, if you wanted to watch porn you had to go into a little booth with a super 8 camera running, or go into a theatre to watch the big screen action along with other men...or so I've heard.)
posted by kozad at 10:53 AM on February 25, 2006
Also, for the longer research papers, I ask for notes and three drafts. You can't swipe that. (Although making sure kids actually reading Crime and Punishment instead of the SparkNotes summaries/interpretations is a trickier proposition.)
BTW, I've heard of people getting through college decades ago by buying papers. As with a lot of things, the Internet has just made it easier. (In the old days, before the Internet, before VHS, if you wanted to watch porn you had to go into a little booth with a super 8 camera running, or go into a theatre to watch the big screen action along with other men...or so I've heard.)
posted by kozad at 10:53 AM on February 25, 2006
Rather than using plagiarism detection devices, which operate by unethically profiting from using without compensation the papers of tens (to hundreds) of thousands of writers...
Like cmaxmagee, I'd love to know what you mean by this. Is it also "unethically profiting from using without compensation the papers of tens (to hundreds) of thousands of writers" to go and pore through their works at the library looking for plagiarized passages? If not, what the Sam Hill is the difference?
posted by languagehat at 11:08 AM on February 25, 2006
Like cmaxmagee, I'd love to know what you mean by this. Is it also "unethically profiting from using without compensation the papers of tens (to hundreds) of thousands of writers" to go and pore through their works at the library looking for plagiarized passages? If not, what the Sam Hill is the difference?
posted by languagehat at 11:08 AM on February 25, 2006
First of all the site is not designed to be a plagiarist resource, at least as far as I can tell. That was totaly the poster's supposition.
And really, I'm kind of glad something like this exists. I mean, there could be *some* useful information out there.
For example doing research on "Taiwanese Americans" for a class was almost impossible, there was only one single book about the subject, and the paper I turned in was basically a summary of that, plus my personal observations knowing a few. I tried to post it to Kuro5hin after I turned it in, but it was rejected.
If so without my paper (which, has never been posted anywhere) the only way to research this subject would be to get that book via interlibrary loan, or to interview Taiwanese Americans.
Plus it’s nice for something you’ve done to be used by SOMEONE at least once in the future, you know, rather then just sitting on a hard drive not being used by anyone, waiting for the drive to die and disappear.
posted by delmoi at 11:34 AM on February 25, 2006
And really, I'm kind of glad something like this exists. I mean, there could be *some* useful information out there.
For example doing research on "Taiwanese Americans" for a class was almost impossible, there was only one single book about the subject, and the paper I turned in was basically a summary of that, plus my personal observations knowing a few. I tried to post it to Kuro5hin after I turned it in, but it was rejected.
If so without my paper (which, has never been posted anywhere) the only way to research this subject would be to get that book via interlibrary loan, or to interview Taiwanese Americans.
Plus it’s nice for something you’ve done to be used by SOMEONE at least once in the future, you know, rather then just sitting on a hard drive not being used by anyone, waiting for the drive to die and disappear.
posted by delmoi at 11:34 AM on February 25, 2006
Their Alexa traffic rank is about 450,000 (very low traffic)
It means about 100 people on a good day. Probably less on average because traffic numbers tend to grow.
100 IE users with the Alexia Toolbar installed, you mean.
posted by delmoi at 11:37 AM on February 25, 2006
It means about 100 people on a good day. Probably less on average because traffic numbers tend to grow.
100 IE users with the Alexia Toolbar installed, you mean.
posted by delmoi at 11:37 AM on February 25, 2006
mrmojoflying, curious about a couple of things. How do those plagiarism detection devices unethically profit from writers? I'd be happy if teachers were using one to keep people from plagiarizing my work. I wouldn't expect any compensation.
I write a paper. The plagiarism detector service saves a copy of my paper on their hard drives, and when new documents are scanned they ar checked against my paper.
The detector service charges the university, making a profit off the paper submitted.
Fighting plagiarism via plagiarism (or at least copyright infringement (and yes, universities do claim a copyright on the students work a lot of the time, so legally, you're SOL, but it's not very fair))
posted by delmoi at 11:39 AM on February 25, 2006
I write a paper. The plagiarism detector service saves a copy of my paper on their hard drives, and when new documents are scanned they ar checked against my paper.
The detector service charges the university, making a profit off the paper submitted.
Fighting plagiarism via plagiarism (or at least copyright infringement (and yes, universities do claim a copyright on the students work a lot of the time, so legally, you're SOL, but it's not very fair))
posted by delmoi at 11:39 AM on February 25, 2006
Oh man, they totally stole my idea!111tehoneone.
I'm still gonna do it though, later in the year, because I'm stubborn like that. My theory is, if you put effort into it, it's worth something. And it's not gonna be worth anything sitting around on your HD right? Upload and share!
And this whole plagiarism knee-jerk reaction? Just goes to show how sickly the mind of modern academia is. Would you stop the NYT from publishing their newspaper because every morning they churn out a bunch of copyable articles? Come on.
posted by Firas at 11:41 AM on February 25, 2006
I'm still gonna do it though, later in the year, because I'm stubborn like that. My theory is, if you put effort into it, it's worth something. And it's not gonna be worth anything sitting around on your HD right? Upload and share!
And this whole plagiarism knee-jerk reaction? Just goes to show how sickly the mind of modern academia is. Would you stop the NYT from publishing their newspaper because every morning they churn out a bunch of copyable articles? Come on.
posted by Firas at 11:41 AM on February 25, 2006
Plus I agree with delmoi about the seediness of plagiarism detectors like turnitin.com and stuff. Fuck em.
posted by Firas at 11:42 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by Firas at 11:42 AM on February 25, 2006
Oh, my mom found a plagiarist one time because One of her students basically just summarized, in his own words an entire article to turn in, believe it or not, that was OK under the rules.
The other student chose to simply copy that same article, so my mom recognized the subject matter and found the original. She emailed the student, who professed innocence (!) despite searching for any phrase in the doc brought up the original, word-for-word copy.
posted by delmoi at 11:42 AM on February 25, 2006
The other student chose to simply copy that same article, so my mom recognized the subject matter and found the original. She emailed the student, who professed innocence (!) despite searching for any phrase in the doc brought up the original, word-for-word copy.
posted by delmoi at 11:42 AM on February 25, 2006
delmoi, it's admirable that you want your paper to live on somewhere but there has to be a better place for it than a Web site like this.
You're probably right about this not being designed to be a plagiarists resource, in all liklihood, the owner is just collecting tons of unrelated essays in order to place adsense ads around them and make a little coin. There are tons of sites like this out there that try to gather as much free/cheap content as they can just to generate a little ad revenue. The sad thing is that students probably try to use the questionable articles as resources when there's no context and no guarantee that any of the info contained within is accurate.
Bottom line: this is search engine spam.
posted by cmaxmagee at 11:43 AM on February 25, 2006
You're probably right about this not being designed to be a plagiarists resource, in all liklihood, the owner is just collecting tons of unrelated essays in order to place adsense ads around them and make a little coin. There are tons of sites like this out there that try to gather as much free/cheap content as they can just to generate a little ad revenue. The sad thing is that students probably try to use the questionable articles as resources when there's no context and no guarantee that any of the info contained within is accurate.
Bottom line: this is search engine spam.
posted by cmaxmagee at 11:43 AM on February 25, 2006
IMO, rather then a system like turnitin.com universities should simply post all turned in papers online. You could plagiarism detect just by scanning other universities archives.
I don't disagree with the idea, I just don't like the fact that these companies profit from it.
posted by delmoi at 11:45 AM on February 25, 2006
I don't disagree with the idea, I just don't like the fact that these companies profit from it.
posted by delmoi at 11:45 AM on February 25, 2006
delmoi, it's admirable that you want your paper to live on somewhere but there has to be a better place for it than a Web site like this.
Sure, I could probably just post it online somewhere.
You're probably right about this not being designed to be a plagiarists resource, in all liklihood, the owner is just collecting tons of unrelated essays in order to place adsense ads around them and make a little coin
Hmm, good point.
posted by delmoi at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2006
Sure, I could probably just post it online somewhere.
You're probably right about this not being designed to be a plagiarists resource, in all liklihood, the owner is just collecting tons of unrelated essays in order to place adsense ads around them and make a little coin
Hmm, good point.
posted by delmoi at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2006
IMO, rather then a system like turnitin.com universities should simply post all turned in papers online. You could plagiarism detect just by scanning other universities archives.
+1. Put the papers online, be proud of your students' work.
posted by Firas at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2006
+1. Put the papers online, be proud of your students' work.
posted by Firas at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2006
But umm, it should be opt-in I think. God knows I've written some sucky papers in the past.
posted by Firas at 11:47 AM on February 25, 2006
posted by Firas at 11:47 AM on February 25, 2006
Call me an optimist, but I like this idea. Even if some of the papers included aren't so great, it's always good to have a little extra secondary reading, whether for quoting or for finding inspiration.
I've heard of some pretty nasty stuff going on at universities with regard to plagarism, and I go out of my way to avoid even using similar phrasing to papers I've read.
As for putting essays online: well, I don't intend to sell anything I've written, or submit them to an archive, but I think in the future I could upload my work (probably under a Creative Commons license) - mostly out of academic vanity, but also because I believe that information should be freely exchanged. I doubt I'd ever get cited, though - I know people doing English Literature courses who don't even read the books, preferring to get by just watching the DVD.
posted by Incharitable Dog at 1:10 PM on February 25, 2006
I've heard of some pretty nasty stuff going on at universities with regard to plagarism, and I go out of my way to avoid even using similar phrasing to papers I've read.
As for putting essays online: well, I don't intend to sell anything I've written, or submit them to an archive, but I think in the future I could upload my work (probably under a Creative Commons license) - mostly out of academic vanity, but also because I believe that information should be freely exchanged. I doubt I'd ever get cited, though - I know people doing English Literature courses who don't even read the books, preferring to get by just watching the DVD.
posted by Incharitable Dog at 1:10 PM on February 25, 2006
Dam, I had a domain that woulda been perfect for a site like this, but it was low on my list of projects. I thought it was a good idea simply for the bibliographies provided by reports, which would cut down on hours worth of research
posted by matimer at 3:42 PM on February 25, 2006
posted by matimer at 3:42 PM on February 25, 2006
What delmoi said, and I would add that most papers that are plagiarized are not written by professional writers, they are written by other students (who also retain the copyright to their own work). This writing is being used by detection services for a profit. I agree that the above site isn't one of those...I'm speaking about sites like turn-it-in.
cmaxmagee -- "Also, why do rhetoric and composition depts see less plagiarism, and how do you know this is true?"
I teach in one, and the general consensus is that we experience very little plagiarism (which is also my personal experience). We do, however, often see what we call patch-writing, which happens when students attempting to model more complicated discourse structures inadvertently misappropriate the form or content of a source. This would be the essay you see that has strung many large quotes together, and writing around them rather than using them as support or evidence for an argument.
Also, rhetoric and writing faculty demand much more writing of their students than other disciplines. I will, for example, expect approximately 40-60 pages of non-revised writing (with revisions the number expands) out of a 1st year writing course. About half of that writing is informal, some of it is impromptu (in class). It takes me about two one page assignments to have a basic grasp of where a student is as a writer. It takes not much more than that (10 pages perhaps) for me to recognize a student by their writing. Though students don't know how I know, they *do* know that if they plagiarize I will spot it. As for proving it, syntactic analysis is easiest: looking at sudden shifts in phrase structure, sentence complexity, etc. Plenty of other things to look for though.
Finally, because rhetoric and composition departments teach and research rhetoric and writing, we see a lot of scholarship on plagiarism. The departments that complain about plagiarism the most are the ones where the teacher is least familiar with the student as a writer. Courses in which students plagiarize are the ones where they write only one 15 page paper on a topic at the end of the semester. In these situations, there's little understanding of who the student is as a writer, and what they are capable of. It doesn't take that much more writing in a class to change that. You don't even need to read all of it...think of it as a baseline. Let your students know why you collect it if you want.
Hope this helps...
posted by mrmojoflying at 4:51 PM on February 25, 2006
cmaxmagee -- "Also, why do rhetoric and composition depts see less plagiarism, and how do you know this is true?"
I teach in one, and the general consensus is that we experience very little plagiarism (which is also my personal experience). We do, however, often see what we call patch-writing, which happens when students attempting to model more complicated discourse structures inadvertently misappropriate the form or content of a source. This would be the essay you see that has strung many large quotes together, and writing around them rather than using them as support or evidence for an argument.
Also, rhetoric and writing faculty demand much more writing of their students than other disciplines. I will, for example, expect approximately 40-60 pages of non-revised writing (with revisions the number expands) out of a 1st year writing course. About half of that writing is informal, some of it is impromptu (in class). It takes me about two one page assignments to have a basic grasp of where a student is as a writer. It takes not much more than that (10 pages perhaps) for me to recognize a student by their writing. Though students don't know how I know, they *do* know that if they plagiarize I will spot it. As for proving it, syntactic analysis is easiest: looking at sudden shifts in phrase structure, sentence complexity, etc. Plenty of other things to look for though.
Finally, because rhetoric and composition departments teach and research rhetoric and writing, we see a lot of scholarship on plagiarism. The departments that complain about plagiarism the most are the ones where the teacher is least familiar with the student as a writer. Courses in which students plagiarize are the ones where they write only one 15 page paper on a topic at the end of the semester. In these situations, there's little understanding of who the student is as a writer, and what they are capable of. It doesn't take that much more writing in a class to change that. You don't even need to read all of it...think of it as a baseline. Let your students know why you collect it if you want.
Hope this helps...
posted by mrmojoflying at 4:51 PM on February 25, 2006
I've taught writing and literature at the university level for about eight years and mrmojoflying is right: "As for proving it, syntactic analysis is easiest: looking at sudden shifts in phrase structure, sentence complexity, etc."
Plus shifts in ideation (for lack of a better term right now). In my classes, students write sometimes 2-3 papers a week and when a sentence about Habermas's theory of the public sphere surfaces in the writing of a student who usually can't refrain from using exclamation points for emphasis, this tends to be a good signal someone's been goofing and/or googling around.
posted by josephtate at 5:02 PM on February 25, 2006
Plus shifts in ideation (for lack of a better term right now). In my classes, students write sometimes 2-3 papers a week and when a sentence about Habermas's theory of the public sphere surfaces in the writing of a student who usually can't refrain from using exclamation points for emphasis, this tends to be a good signal someone's been goofing and/or googling around.
posted by josephtate at 5:02 PM on February 25, 2006
And this whole plagiarism knee-jerk reaction? Just goes to show how sickly the mind of modern academia is. Would you stop the NYT from publishing their newspaper because every morning they churn out a bunch of copyable articles? Come on.
posted by Firas
Duh.
posted by papakwanz at 8:42 PM on February 25, 2006
posted by Firas
Duh.
posted by papakwanz at 8:42 PM on February 25, 2006
The best way to catch cheaters is to have your students write a 4 paragraph essay on any topic the first day (or week) of class, and do it in class.
posted by chaz at 8:48 PM on February 25, 2006
posted by chaz at 8:48 PM on February 25, 2006
Sorry, maybe it's not obvious but then you use that paper to check against any suspicious writing you may find later.
posted by chaz at 8:48 PM on February 25, 2006
posted by chaz at 8:48 PM on February 25, 2006
Chaz -- that method is fairly common, but not the best. It assumes that students do not grow as writers over time and that writing unrelated to the genre and topic of writing actually done for the class is a valid proxy. Students have different writing competencies depending on what genre they are writing in and on what subject. It would make sense then that the writing they do at the beginning of the class should be related to their coursework and the topic of the class in general. Second, writers evolve, particuarly in higher education settings where that is part of what they are charged with doing. You might find several students in the class writing at a much higher level at the end of the semester than in those four paragraphs the first day, especially if they are taking a writing course as well. Third, one four paragraph sample isn't going to tell you much about the student as a writer. Though they don't need to be writing much, it is better to have them write throughout the semester. Four pages written over eight weeks is much more convincing than four paragraphs the first day.
posted by mrmojoflying at 8:11 AM on February 26, 2006
posted by mrmojoflying at 8:11 AM on February 26, 2006
mrmojoflying:
I don't think the fact that plagiarism in departments that require more writing is less frequent than in departments that require less has much to do with the way in which the material is taught. I think it has much more to do with the fact that students who want to study composition actually have a desire to write things; whereas, a business major who is required to take a writing course as part of his general requirements is more likely to be looking for a quick out.
I'm sure that's what happened in the class I was grading for. This was in a class being taught out of the math department. It's still a writing class, but the subject matter is mathematics, and in addition to being required to write clearly, sensibly, interestingly, and purposefuly, they also have to learn how to present rigorous mathematical concepts like proofs in appropriate language. I don't think that many of the students realized how much writing would be required of them, and many of them clearly thought they could get away with less work by filling their "intensive writing" requirement out of the math department. So it gets to the night before the paper is due, and maybe the student has barely started. The student Googles a topic to see if they can find an article explaining some concept to them, and they find something that's on a topic remarkably similar to their assignment. They get a bright idea, tack on an awkward opening and closing paragraph, and boom: they can go back to playing Halo 2.
I don't know how other teachers and graders do it, but in every case that I've caught copying or plagiarism, I found it due to some anomaly in the paper itself. Sometimes the sentence structure is far more sophisticated than in previous work (and frequently I see complex phrases so badly integrated into the surrounding text that the end result is completely nonsensical). Sometimes the student writes an apparently well-thought out comment that has absolutely nothing to do with the material assigned. Sometimes two students copy from the exact same source. In any case, the only use I made of search engines and online sources was to verify my suspicions and more importantly, to ensure that I had solid evidence. The last thing I want to do is debate whether or not copying took place.
posted by ErWenn at 8:40 PM on February 28, 2006
I don't think the fact that plagiarism in departments that require more writing is less frequent than in departments that require less has much to do with the way in which the material is taught. I think it has much more to do with the fact that students who want to study composition actually have a desire to write things; whereas, a business major who is required to take a writing course as part of his general requirements is more likely to be looking for a quick out.
I'm sure that's what happened in the class I was grading for. This was in a class being taught out of the math department. It's still a writing class, but the subject matter is mathematics, and in addition to being required to write clearly, sensibly, interestingly, and purposefuly, they also have to learn how to present rigorous mathematical concepts like proofs in appropriate language. I don't think that many of the students realized how much writing would be required of them, and many of them clearly thought they could get away with less work by filling their "intensive writing" requirement out of the math department. So it gets to the night before the paper is due, and maybe the student has barely started. The student Googles a topic to see if they can find an article explaining some concept to them, and they find something that's on a topic remarkably similar to their assignment. They get a bright idea, tack on an awkward opening and closing paragraph, and boom: they can go back to playing Halo 2.
I don't know how other teachers and graders do it, but in every case that I've caught copying or plagiarism, I found it due to some anomaly in the paper itself. Sometimes the sentence structure is far more sophisticated than in previous work (and frequently I see complex phrases so badly integrated into the surrounding text that the end result is completely nonsensical). Sometimes the student writes an apparently well-thought out comment that has absolutely nothing to do with the material assigned. Sometimes two students copy from the exact same source. In any case, the only use I made of search engines and online sources was to verify my suspicions and more importantly, to ensure that I had solid evidence. The last thing I want to do is debate whether or not copying took place.
posted by ErWenn at 8:40 PM on February 28, 2006
mrmojoflying: I don't think the fact that plagiarism in departments that require more writing is less frequent than in departments that require less has much to do with the way in which the material is taught.
ErWenn -- Thank you for your insightful reply. Your point is well taken, but I must disagree with the premise above.
First, a brief bit of context. At most 2 and 4 year universities, composition is a general education requirement. Everyone takes it unless they can test out of it. None of the students in comp classes are comp majors and very few are english majors.
What makes a composition class different is exactly the way it is taught. When multiple drafts of the same text are required, when drafts are peer-reviewed and peer-workshopped, when "portfolios" are handed in that includes notes, drafts, etc., and when assessments of student work is ongoing, the opportunity to write at the last minute, or plagarize, is sorely reduced. The fact is that most students don't know how to manage themselves as writers, which is one of the things a compositionist feels a writing course should teach them.
If you are frequently teaching writing courses in mathematics or are interested in any of these topics, you might find a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) faculty member at your institution. If not, there is plenty of easily digestible WAC scholarship that provides both theory and praxis on teaching writing in a broad array of subjects.
posted by mrmojoflying at 5:31 AM on March 1, 2006
ErWenn -- Thank you for your insightful reply. Your point is well taken, but I must disagree with the premise above.
First, a brief bit of context. At most 2 and 4 year universities, composition is a general education requirement. Everyone takes it unless they can test out of it. None of the students in comp classes are comp majors and very few are english majors.
What makes a composition class different is exactly the way it is taught. When multiple drafts of the same text are required, when drafts are peer-reviewed and peer-workshopped, when "portfolios" are handed in that includes notes, drafts, etc., and when assessments of student work is ongoing, the opportunity to write at the last minute, or plagarize, is sorely reduced. The fact is that most students don't know how to manage themselves as writers, which is one of the things a compositionist feels a writing course should teach them.
If you are frequently teaching writing courses in mathematics or are interested in any of these topics, you might find a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) faculty member at your institution. If not, there is plenty of easily digestible WAC scholarship that provides both theory and praxis on teaching writing in a broad array of subjects.
posted by mrmojoflying at 5:31 AM on March 1, 2006
mrmojoflying:
Ah, I misunderstood your comment, then. I thought you were referring to courses for those who were studying composition, as oposed to general courses taught out of that department. I can totally see how peer-review, workshops, and the other techniques you mentioned would decrease the tendency to want to find a quick way out. The funny and sad thing about the situation I was referring to was that it wasn't even a major paper, just a short 500-word assignment that was given to keep the students writing between larger projects (which will involve a rough draft and at least some workshopping). Thanks for the useful and interesting comments.
posted by ErWenn at 9:58 PM on March 4, 2006
Ah, I misunderstood your comment, then. I thought you were referring to courses for those who were studying composition, as oposed to general courses taught out of that department. I can totally see how peer-review, workshops, and the other techniques you mentioned would decrease the tendency to want to find a quick way out. The funny and sad thing about the situation I was referring to was that it wasn't even a major paper, just a short 500-word assignment that was given to keep the students writing between larger projects (which will involve a rough draft and at least some workshopping). Thanks for the useful and interesting comments.
posted by ErWenn at 9:58 PM on March 4, 2006
« Older You dig what I'm sayin', man? | You know you want to Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Wolfdog at 6:50 AM on February 25, 2006