Comments on: Reducing Plagiarism in Writing Classes

By: Sin

Sin — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 01:36:15 +0000

It’s not just in college though. In my high school, mainly because our access to primary texts was fairly limited, we didn’t really even know what plagiarism was all about, and the company for which I worked insisted more on citations and acknowledgements than on actual attribution, which meant that large bodies of work were technically “plagiarised”. By the same token though, I think that things like the MLA lead to a massive focus on the “technical” angle of plagiarism, without really addressing the core issue of allowing people to express their own ideas and views. The line between inaccurate citation and plagiarism is alarmingly blurred.

By: verbalchameleon

verbalchameleon — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 19:01:37 +0000

Yikes– in-class essays are a nightmare. So badly written. So unlike what gets written elsewhere. So I assign them for some exams, but I detest reading them.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:44:19 +0000

I wonder if writing will become a classroom-only exercise, in order to weed out those that create an essay Frankenstein-style. It’s a shame, but I’m sure something will happen to sort out all of this. It usually does.

By: verbalchameleon

verbalchameleon — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 18:38:04 +0000

Hi Matt!
Sorry your comment got sucked out by Spam Karma for a bit.
Safely reinstated now.
Anyway–wow, they leave the hyperlinks in? Not too savvy, high school kids, eh?

By: Matt Butcher

Matt Butcher — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 21:37:48 +0000

Boy, I could tell stories of high schoolers turning in freshly printed web pages for their essays–with the blue hyperlinks still on there. That is a great idea about plagiarizing first in order to teach against it. I am going to file that one away for a rainy day.