University cheating: ever done it?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by TCO


Grow up. The "my big brother got away with it, so should I" is symptomatic of the lack of maturity. Honor is personal. Do the right thing, Sava. It doesn't matter about Bush or Clinton or any of that crap.

Come on. Whatever your politics it was a good troll.

[Space05us]

Grow up. The "my big brother got away with it, so should I" is symptomatic of the lack of maturity. Honor is personal. Do the right thing, Sava. It doesn't matter about Bush or Clinton or any of that crap.

theres no such thing as honor amongst American youth, there's winning and losing. how you win is irrelevent, the fact is you won.

[Whaleboy]

When will these people learn. Thesauruses were integrated into word processors FOR A REASON!!!! .

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Space05us

theres no such thing as honor amongst American youth, there's winning and losing. how you win is irrelevent, the fact is you won.

The problem is that the rules exist for a reason, which is so that we give employers reasonable confidence in a candidate's ability when they leave our schools.

Rampant cheating (among other things - dumbing down being one) threatens to undermine the credibility of university degrees.

Having said that, at least people who take "Topics in Plato's Metaphysics" aren't like Law students, many of whom actively seek to sabotage the prospects of other candidates by stealing papers and vandalizing reference books.

The worst thing is that some profs seem to encourage this behaviour because it encourages a cutthroat attitude.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
When will these people learn. Thesauruses were integrated into word processors FOR A REASON!!!! .

That doesn't work. You've no idea how I hate thesauruses.

A student will write a perfectly reasonable paper and then hit the thesaurus to make it look "cleverer". The problem is that if you don't understand the words you are choosing, you end up with bizarre papers that don't make any sense at all.

The next time I come across one of these I'll post an extract for your amusement.

[Zero]

I notice a **** load of cheating going on in my uni.

I havent cheated yet. Either morality nor the fear of punishment would stop me, but I havent yet.... dunno why. I guess Im just an idiot.

[Whaleboy]

A student will write a perfectly reasonable paper and then hit the thesaurus to make it look "cleverer". The problem is that if you don't understand the words you are choosing, you end up with bizarre papers that don't make any sense at all.

Where does that sound familiar?

I was referring to dumbing it down to undergrad level... propositions A, B, C, etc....

[Drake Tungsten]

aren't like Law students, many of whom actively seek to sabotage the prospects of other candidates by stealing papers and vandalizing reference books.

The worst thing is that some profs seem to encourage this behaviour because it encourages a cutthroat attitude.

Amen to that. My turn as a pre-law major ended really quickly when I realized that I couldn't ****ing stand the brown-nosing, conniving ****s that surrounded me.

[monolith94]

"Does it have something to do with this ridiculous grade point average thing?"

Basically, yeah.

I would never "nick" an essay from an online source - that's just stupid. But would I let my eye wander over another student's test paper? Yes, I would. And I do. Especially tests that are obviously designed to cater to those who memorize facts rather than have a deep understanding of theories and concepts.

Essay / short answer tests are the best.

[Agathon]

It's so disappointing. I work hard to help these people do their best, and then some still cheat. Despite what some people might think, most teachers like seeing students do well. And when you do the bizarre stuff I like doing, they really need help.

Last year the students had to do a class presentation, so I took each one for coffee and sat patiently with them on my own time, to make sure they did the best they could. This year I translated the most of Parmenides on my own time, just so they could save 20 bucks on a textbook.

Humph!

But there are always a few diamonds. Really bright people who are a joy to talk to - I suppose that makes up for it. At least I get to say I'm a professional youth corrupter.

[Spiffor]

I usually copy passages from the various texts I've read, and I often use the Internet to find a source for whatever topic I heard during the lectures, and for which I need to give a source.

Useless to say, I always reference the documents from which I cite. I have the further excuse that, being French, it is tolerated that I copy whole sentences from correct German rather than writing gibberish.

[Spiffor]

BTW, in Germany, there are several sites specializing in selling university papers. The most well know is called hausarbeite.de, because "Hausarbeit" means the paper of 15-20 pages every student has to write several times a year.

However, some teachers now do check if there has been plagiarism from this source.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I usually copy passages from the various texts I've read, and I often use the Internet to find a source for whatever topic I heard during the lectures, and for which I need to give a source.

Useless to say, I always reference the documents from which I cite. I have the further excuse that, being French, it is tolerated that I copy whole sentences from correct German rather than writing gibberish.

You're a good guy Spiff. Now if only all my students could learn the value of referencing.

[Dauphin]

Re: University cheating: ever done it?

Originally posted by Agathon
I've been teaching a course this semester and a while back I caught one of the students copying from the internet in their essay. It's not hard to spot: basically when something makes sense it's 90% probable it's been nicked.

That is ironic considering that over 90% of internet sites reporting a given subject don't make sense.

Maybe the problem is worse than you thought, maybe most students' work is actually plagiarising off of the internet crackpots, you just don't realise it.

[Agathon]

Re: Re: University cheating: ever done it?

Originally posted by Big Crunch




That is ironic considering that over 90% of internet sites reporting a given subject don't make sense.

That's true. This is why I warn people off using the internet. You wouldn't believe how many crackpots have sites related to my topics.

There are enough good ones around to cause trouble though.