Proxima Centauri

You're right, plagiarism does nothing for your self esteem. I don't want to be too self righteous. I've been wallowing in remorse for three weeks.
I wrote my own words to other people's poems and most negligently forgot to make necessary attributions. And someone had so generously hosted them on his website. I can hardly take pride in my poems any more. And the words are 99% original. Only the rythem and metre were copied. So don't plagiarise. It isn't worth it. I can hardly bear to look in the mirror any more either. Plagiarism isn't easy? Really? I wish unintentional plagiarism were less easy. :notworthy

Please feel free to post the topic elsewhere. I do not have the computer skills or the connections to develop the idea myself. I posted it here hoping other people would take it up.

Proxima Centauri

Thank you for your offer, Writer@Large. As I said in my last post I cannot do the work myself and was hoping other people would take it up.

Ptarmigan

Plagiarism is bad. I hate it when people do that. Its wrong to say its your work, when its someone elses. I remember at a high school, a teacher got some people in trouble with plagiarism, then some parents complained that their child got a bad grade and she had to change it. She also got fired. Those educrats told her to reverse the grades. What has this world come to??????

Writer@Large

You can take away that second space when you pry it from my cold, dead hand.

--W@L, purist.

Defiant Heretic

That's just insane. No wonder the world's being run by idiots. (Well, the US anyway.)

Hey, using the arrow was my idea! Where's the reference?

Ptarmigan

Those kind of people give America a bad name. I hate those idiots. Makes me a firm believer inn eugenics.

Boro Nut

I was a great fan too at one stage. Then Annie Lennox left.

Proxima Centauri

A New Possible Type of Unseen Examination to Prevent Plagiarism.

May I suggest the following new type of unseen examination to prevent plagiarism. For this type of examination candidates would have no access to textbooks or would have limited access to textbooks. They would have access to a computer and to the Internet. Their use of the computer would be monitored. This would make it impossible for them to use material from the Internet without attribution. The aim of this examination would not be to test candidates' memory of their subject. It would be to test their ability to do research in a situation where they could not cheat. Tutors and lecturers would not only be able to check on dishonest students. Tutors would also be able to look at the research techniques of honest students and suggest possible improvements.
I do not suggest this new system to replace traditional unseen examinations or traditional marked assignments. I suggest it as a way of supplementing traditional ways of assessing students. The parts of the testing system where plagiarism is possible would be reduced. Further students who do better at assignments where plagiarism is possible would be under suspicion. Such students would not necessarily be plagiarists. They may be students who perform poorly under the pressure of examinations.
This system could, I feel reduce the extent to which plagiarism is possible. It could also sometimes identify possible plagiarists.

Gunnaheave

I teach at a tribal college, so whatever I'm supposed to be teaching, I really end up teaching basic college skills like� "Don't plagiarize!" One of my biggest problems is that people are so used to approaching tasks as family projects that it is virtually impossible for me to get it accross that take-home assignments are supposed to be completed by the students themselves. If someone else in the family is a good student, that person is expected to do the paper, and they don't even try to hide it form me. I once had a couple take one of my classes, and they both turned in virtually the same paper. I gave them an incomplete, explained to the husband that they had to write separate papers, and that I would give them a month to do the assignment over again. When I got their papers again, they were still virtually identical. So, I explained it to the wife this time, and gave them another month. Several months later I heard the wife had called the office secretary and demanded that I change her grade to at least a 'C'. UGH!! I've also had numerous students copy verbatim out of the textbook. And another student turned in the web sources she had copied verbatim. I am continually amazed at how difficult it is to get it accross that students are supposed to do the work themselves, and I can't help but wonder what the other teachers are doing about this stuff. They must be getting by with this in other classes.

Proxima Centauri

Here's a few web sites you could use to show these students how they should be doing their work.
Plagiarism: What it is and how to Recognize and Avoid it. Produced by Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Preventing Plagiarism This is from 'Research Resources' by Turn it in.
Avoiding Plagiarism This one is from Purdue University.
If you do a Google search for plagiarism you will come up with any number of other similar sites.