The Whine thread.

[Alelou]

My students' research papers SUCK. How many times do you have to tell a class that Wikipedia and USA Today and various wacko web sites don't count as academic research????

Also, I tried to drive to school this morning because I get up so early I didn't realize they just hadn't posted the morning cancellations yet.

Then I had to spend an extra two hours sending out individual reports to everybody who couldn't make it to this morning's class so they have a chance to revise their horrible research papers, since I couldn't just hand them out.

[enterprikayak]

*snicker* ahhh, to be a teacher of the iPod generation....... I don't envy you.


When I was in Eng 100 at college (in 2000), I was completely BOWLED over at the general illiteracy of the class. We were doing peer editing, and I'm looking at this thing this 19 year old guy wrote, and I'm just thinking, like, um, how exactly do I "edit" this? It's a single four-page garbled sentence that makes no sense and has no nouns in it.

This isn't to toot my own horn, but holy cripes my classmates were dumb in that particular group. I worked in the college writing workshop for a bit, peer editing, and the ESL (english as a second language) kids, no kidding, were WAY more on the ball than the BUCKETfuls of Canadian kids working in their own language.

Yeesh. We're just illiterate, my generation. And we didn't even have iPods or the internet. Can't even imagine how bad it is now.

I read a lot; I guess that saved me.

[Bether6074]

My students' research papers SUCK. How many times do you have to tell a class that Wikipedia and USA Today and various wacko web sites don't count as academic research????

Also, I tried to drive to school this morning because I get up so early I didn't realize they just hadn't posted the morning cancellations yet.

Then I had to spend an extra two hours sending out individual reports to everybody who couldn't make it to this morning's class so they have a chance to revise their horrible research papers, since I couldn't just hand them out.

Oh boy. Doesn't sound much like a good day.

Maybe today will be better?

[honeybee]

My students' research papers SUCK. How many times do you have to tell a class that Wikipedia and USA Today and various wacko web sites don't count as academic research????

I have it on my syllabus and on each individual assignment sheet - Wikipedia may NOT be used as as source. If it appears on your works cited page, it is an automatic failure of the paper. I also take them to the library for a lecture by the reference library on finding good academic sources, in which they are shown the online databases like EBSCO, Project Muse and others.

And they STILL use Wikipedia. But it does help me grade faster, because I check the works cited first and then don't bother to read the paper if Wikipedia appears.

However, I always cling with joy to the three or four students who do the assignment correctly and well.

[Aikiweezie]

My husband has to deal with recent college grads at work and he is always complaining about how poorly they write. He spends (wastes) a lot of time re-writing their work. He also says they have very poor crititical thinking skils.

Here's my whine. Its 1 degree. It was 3 when I woke up. How low can it go????? I hate winter. The black ice on the main streets makes driving loads of fun, too. AND IT'S ONLY DECEMBER 10th!!!!

[Alelou]

Sigh. I spent the entire day and night grading yesterday. Seriously, it takes at least half an hour to grade each research paper. Thankfully, I finally got some A papers. That cheered me up immeasurably.

So yes, Bether, it's a better day today, but I have a headache and some late papers to grade. It hasn't been a fun week. And since I'll probably get a ton of revisions in, the rest of the semester looks pretty painful too. And tomorrow's class features a good proportion of people who have been in denial about their research sources, so they're going to be in a pissy mood. (Not that I care.)

And Honeybee, you're not kidding. By 8pm last night I was just so delighted if a student hadn't put his paper up on Turnitin yet, so I could say, "What, no Turnitin? No grade! Bwa ha ha ha!"

[honeybee]

Alelou - an hour and a half is very long! I used to do the same thing. But I highly recommend a system called minimal marking

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/minmark.html


When I interviewed for my current job, I told the chair I spent about a half hour to 45 minutes on each paper. She said, you'll burn out if you keep that up. Use minimal marking - it will cut the time in half. It works!

[Alelou]

That's a good idea, though I'm not sure some of my LD students would be able to cope. Worth trying, though.

And I'm usually only spending a half hour, not an hour and a half!

It's not so much the marking of sentence errors on these papers -- it's the use of or failure to use research, the quality of the sources, the citing, etc. etc. I spend a hell of a lot of time just trying to figure out how they made their choices, and that's even after they've marked their sources up.

[WarpGirl]

It took me forever to learn how to site sources, (I know I panic) anyway at least I knew what sources to USE. Wiki is fun for general nonsence stuff. BUT you DO NOT use it for grades.

[Alelou]

My favorite so far is the guy who PLAGIARIZED from Wikipedia. He can't even just fix how he used it, because he's not allowed to use Wikipedia.

[enterprikayak]

Ahahahaaaaa! You poor thing. Where do you even START with that kind of student?

[Distracted]

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."[1] Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination of employment. Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or give the appropriate citation. While plagiarism in scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old history, the development of the Internet, where articles appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the work of others much easier.

You could start by making him memorize THIS Wikipedia quotation.

[enterprikayak]

the punishment fits the crime.

[Alelou]

Honestly, most of the plagiarism I see, and probably this too, is just ignorance mixed with a dose of laziness. I'll consider it a teachable moment as long as the student is amenable to correcting the problem. That zero certainly has a way of getting their attention, at least.

[honeybee]

I handle accidental plagiarism the same way. I fail them and give them an opportunity to redo the project, if they are contrite and show understanding of their mistake.

But I'm a very huge, witch with B if I think they cheated on purpose.