In the High Peaks
















Saturday, December 4, 2010

Another Week, Another Post? Plagiarism Has Slowed Me Down

My reading life has come close to a stand-still, though this morning I finished a memoir I've been reading. I've had so little time to read.

I'm looking forward to another way of life, when I have mental space and time to read.

My time has been devoted to tracking down all the malfeasances in my students' research papers. It's so easy to plagiarize these days; so easy to cut and paste off websites and online database articles. No wonder colleges and universities are at their wit's end about it. But the trouble doesn't stop with plagiarism. I've got students playing all kinds of games with sources. I have spent days tracking down all the foul play. I'm more than disappointed, particularly considering how much time I spent teaching them how to do a paper the "right way." Some of them have been quite ingenious in their criminal activities. If only they put this mental energy into doing the work, imagine what they could accomplish...

1 comment:

  1. Judith,
    What a horrible experience for you, no wonder you're disappointed. But they're letting themselves down, more than anything else. Hopefully they'll realise that they can't get away with it so they might as well buckle down and do the work.

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