Not only plagiarism, but STUPID plagiarism

[a_cubed]

So, I've just finished marking the essays for my third year students. out of about 150 essays there are two (well, I've one left to mark) that are obviously plagiarised form the internet. for a course on social, legal and ethical aspects of computing and IT, I suppose we should at least be happy it's only just over one percent. What bugs me is the stupidity of the plagiarism. I'm not that harsh about referencing origination (lots of them had obviously copied a small amount of 'bald fact' from a couple of source - some giving proper credit, some not). I just mark them down on their referencing for that. After all they have only had to do one or two essays in their degree courses - that's a different argument I have regularly that we should expect them to write more - written communication is a skill even computer scientists should have. One of them had copied lots of stuff that didn't really answer the question: a quick google and the four sites he'd copied wholesale from (I don't think there was one word of his own stuff in the main section of his essay). The second one had, in his second paragraph a reference to "the example of the beginning of this article" which wasn't there. Again, a quick google reveals the three or four sites he'd copied the entire thing from. That second one had a chinese name and when I started reading I was impressed by the English (a couple of other students, including one with a Chinese name had terrible English, again a different worry) but it did raise some niggling little worries and this was confirmed by the non-existent example.

As with many lecturers I'm annoyed as much by the insult that I wouldn't notice as I am by the violation of educational ethics - on an ethics course as well!

(Spelling note: LJ thinks google shold be capitalised. Tough, it's now a generic verb not a trademark, just like hoover and kleenex (in the US anyway).)

Comments

[ggreig]

written communication is a skill even computer scientists should have

Nice to see someone else saying so. I don't quite understand why so many developers are a bit bad at communicating in English - formally, not socially - when they are perfectly capable of communicating in writing with a machine that in many ways is more demanding.

Computer science is all about communication - with the machine, and with other people.

Think, communicate

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

I keep expecting my students to do two things they seem to object to being asked to do:

1. Thinking: instead of giving them all the answers as they've been trained to expect in school I expect them to work out the answers given the background.

2. Communicating: I keep expecting them to be able to comunicate.

Re: Think, communicate

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

The problem is that they've become so used to being given the answers they find it very difficult to think for themselves. It's a fundamental problem with the modern education system.

I empathise deeply with you. Been there, done it, didn't bother with the t-shirt. There's an interesting cultural aspect to this problem too - in some cultures copying a text from a recognised source is considered the correct thing to do because it shows that you recognise the sagacity and wisdom of experts in the field. So if a student produces a clearly plagiarised piece of work on their first coursework I call the student in and explain that this isn't how we do things in Europe. If they do it again, then they get a zero mark. It's the ones who copy and paste and don't even give a reference that really bug me.

And yes, I agree - the verb to google shouldn't be capitalised. :)