Plagiarism

[Walsingham]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7275452.stm

 

I ran across this, link-jumping on the Beeb. I had no idea essay writing services even existed, and if I had I would never have considered using one.

 

1. Do people here think the use of such services is on the rise?

 

2. Is the use of such services higher in non-native English speakers?

 

3. Why do people use these services?

 

4. Might it not be possible for a University to sue an essay writing service if it was complicit in committing plagiarism?

[Humodour]

Plagiarism. Should be closed down.

 

Yeah, it's annoying how many ESL students plagiarise. It's a problem over here in Aus where we have one of the biggest international student populations in the world (at least by percent intake).

[Walsingham]

I was particularly startled by a comment left which suggested that the pressures on foreign students meant they had no choice but to use essay writing services! What the hell happened to the antiquated notion of working hard to get commensurate rewards?

[Humodour]

I was particularly startled by a comment left which suggested that the pressures on foreign students meant they had no choice but to use essay writing services! What the hell happened to the antiquated notion of working hard to get commensurate rewards?

 

Hahahahaha. That's comedy gold.

[SteveThaiBinh]

MA students pay, and overseas students pay around three times what home students pay, in the UK at least. The universities need the money - they get very little money from government or undergraduates, certainly less than before. It's bad business to fail a paying customer, and if everybody's being lenient there's less risk to your institution's reputation, I suppose. It's also true that in order to attract more students, many universities have lowered their requirements for English proficiency too far - some MA courses only need IELTS 5.0 score, and that's too low in my opinion. Of course these students struggle to complete courses that are supposed to be testing even for native speakers of the language. There's also the cultural issue that many overseas students are coming from education system that not only tolerate plagiarism, they encourage and require it. It's part of our Western culture to value the students' own words, but many non-Western teachers would say it's better if students can simply repeat the words of the 'expert' verbatim.

[Walsingham]

Fair point about student's home cultures, Steve. But surely a lot of the point about going to a UK university should be that it stamps you with different, more robust educational standards.

[Tigranes]

I can talk about some first-hand experiences, since I am an immigrant myself and have had contact with many.

 

Personally, I have never had a problem, but I came here when I was 8, so you pick up things quickly, and the demand isn't as crushing. I also have an affinity for languages, or did, anyway. But I've seen many people who, for example, would never have got their BA without their more English-literate boyfriends, someone in their last year of the undergraduate degree who writes idiotic things like "I have to should the..." in their essays (he was, yep, my group-work partner. He still passed!!), so on and so forth.

 

Now, some of them, definitely, are just lazy. You do have to feel sympathy for anyone who lives in a country where you dont know the language: it is a very difficult thing, not only because it is inconvenient or whatnot, but because it really undermines your strength. This happens to everyone. You become unwilling or afraid to talk to people: to follow up on services or ask questions: you feel like everyoone is scrutinising you, and so forth. But that is, for most of them, a challenge they have accepted and I find it a moral lack to find anyone who even considers cheating / writing services as a solution. To my mind, you try your best: if your best isn't good enough for a certain mark, then you suck it up and take it. That gives you the kick and drive to do better.

 

I must note that a lot of the time, though, buying essays is not just because the English is difficult: it is also because essays are difficult. Koreans, for instance, don't need to write a western-style essay until Masters level (though it's starting to change now). At best, they just need to do short reports. They have never learnt how to write essays, and never learnt what essays are about, what kind of research, structure and style is needed. I am not excusing them for buying essays, but it's important to recognise that it's not just because of, say, grammar difficulties.

 

But that's exactly why I feel that it is a socio-cultural by-product for not only immigrants but for native speakers as well. Don't delude yourselves: whether you are in New Zealand, USA or England, the quality of the 'essays' many of your native undergraduates write are absolutely shocking. There is bad grammar, a small range of vocabulary, no sense of structure, flow or purpose: there is no sense of good research. Above all, there is a serious and absolute lack of ethics in academic work all over the world, not just amongst immigrants. For many, native and immigrant, writing essays, or writing in general, is just a mechanical chore where they just touch the bases, and I think you will see writing services really spread to the 'natives' as well once there is a local instance to make it catch on. i.e. It will take just a few isolated instances where some natives are introduced to it, develop a taste for it, and you will see it become almost as endemic as it is among foreign students. So many students never ask themselves crucial questions such as what is the purpose of my essay? Why am I writing it and what good will it do? What is writing and what is the purpose of my writing? How should I write? It just doesn't come up.

 

Which, incidentally, is one of the reasons that academia, especially in the human sciences, appears more and more parochial and 'ivory tower'.

 

There are many exceptions of course. But I would not be surprised at all to see 'writing services' spread to a huge proportion of natives in the next couple of decades. Heck, we are starting to get basic spelling and grammar mistakes in official government, bank or whatever documents (e.g. their/they're).

 

You know, for a rant about writing essays, this post is so unfriendly to the reader. Heh.

 

edit: nice post by steve while i was writing. Let me add that while we are all (rightfully) worried about the standard of essays some immigrant / exchange students come up with, and the value of their degrees, we should be equally worried about that of the natives. I've seen work from undergraduates and postgraduates in US, Canada, NZ, , , Korea, and well... there are a lot of UGs and even PGs that I wouldn't ask to write my letter to my mom, for fear of embarrassment.

[Walsingham]

Thanks for taking the trouble to post at length, Tigranes. Helped me see the alternative angle, and moreover the key point that essay writing is hard.

 

I think a big problem is that writing essays is a distinct skill, that evolves separately from your skills. Or to misquote 11xhooah, clear concise, insightful essays are not crapped magically out of a science rainbow." Or something.

 

I turned my essay writing around from 52% average to 81% average in two years by implementing just a few rules:

 

1. Accept that writing an essay isn't just about putting your knowledge on paper, it transforms your knowledge.

2. If you accept your knowledge is being transformed you also accept by the end of a first draft you will be attacking from a different angle to when you started.

3. Write your first draft really fast, then write notes on what you've written. Throw the first essay away. Burn it.

4. Reorganise your notes so they flow logically

5. Re-write your essay using these notes. Re-write it from scratch.

6. Note this second essay, and throw it away.

7. Write the essay again.

8. This may seem like it's going to take more time, but because it's low stress it will take LESS time than agonising over a single draft.

9. Exam based essays can be helped by writing a one paragraph answer twice over, then starting.

[Hurlshort]

Most of my ESL students have a hard time comprehending that I EXPECT them to struggle with language. If they turn a nearly perfect paper, that's when I get concerned. I've has some really blatant plagarism over the years. One kid took the text from a website that sold African Masks, and he left in the sales information. Either that or he was trying to sell me his mask.

[Humodour]

Most of my ESL students have a hard time comprehending that I EXPECT them to struggle with language. If they turn a nearly perfect paper, that's when I get concerned.

 

Yep, that's a very good point.

[Tigranes]

1. Accept that writing an essay isn't just about putting your knowledge on paper, it transforms your knowledge.

2. If you accept your knowledge is being transformed you also accept by the end of a first draft you will be attacking from a different angle to when you started.

3. Write your first draft really fast, then write notes on what you've written. Throw the first essay away. Burn it.

4. Reorganise your notes so they flow logically

5. Re-write your essay using these notes. Re-write it from scratch.

6. Note this second essay, and throw it away.

7. Write the essay again.

8. This may seem like it's going to take more time, but because it's low stress it will take LESS time than agonising over a single draft.

9. Exam based essays can be helped by writing a one paragraph answer twice over, then starting.

 

Absolutely, Wals. The heart of the matter is, our society no longer produces individuals which are disposed to write essays at all. I have tutored and looked at the living and studying habits of numerous high school students, and what really strikes me is just how bare their life is. You are a fifteen year old. You don't read. EVER. Your movie-watching is limited to action flicks and maybe internet porn. You're not likely to go to museums, art festivals or anything of the sort. Your consumption of music is limited to Justin Timberlake and/or Linkin Park. All of your conversation, writing, and thoughts, except for what you (sort-of) do in school, revolves around the familiar topics of friends, high school romances, the new cool thing, etc. It's a depressingly accurate, and unbelievably stereotypical, view of many high schoolers in our society. Now, if you have lived a life where you have never written ANYTHING on a regular basis (and don't need to), have never read anything on a regular basis either, and you have never thought about any philosophical questions, know nothing about politics, never thought about the way society works, so on and so forth - well, is it surprising you don't know how to write essays?

 

I've seen people graduate universities with B.A.s without ever (a) planning an essay, (b) researching an essay, © drafting an essay. They just agonise about it (while doing nothing) for days and days, letting the stress get the best of them, then write the whole thing in 3 hours, then go to the library, pick out some random books with likely names, and conjure up a bibliography. And that kind of crap actually passes (because universities always change their standards to meet their students). Not saying everyone is like this, but there are many people like this. And that's because our society has produced a way of life which is antithetical to reading and writing.

 

Hurlshot: That's a good point - from their POV, I would suggest that many just can't take it. It's not a question of arrogance, but it's a severe blast to your ego the moment you realise that you, a 24-year-old, will be handing in work that has the content of a six-year-old's picture book, with mistakes. I think many ESL students have trouble facing that reality.

 

But then, you would think that they would actually be good at plagiarism. I think it's because while many teachers are good, some teachers are so lax, they just get fooled by it (or don't care).

[alanschu]

I'm a jerk and have never really had a hard time writing essays haha.

 

Important things I find are to:

 

Be concise. All that high school wordiness will kick your ass at the University level as profs can read through BS like nobody's business!

Being concise also makes it easier to get to the point. Occasionally some lead in is required to ensure the reader understands the content that follows, but remember to take the time to acknowledge your audience.

Take some time to review the rules of writing. When you're reading your own work, you know what you were thinking while writing it, so the point may seem obvious to you, but if you start having passive voice and comma splices, the point may become obfuscated.

 

 

Usually I only need to do a single draft of an essay, with editing afterwards. Occasionally I'll have to rewrite some areas of my paper, or possibly cut content (which can be scary since you may feel it's necessary for future parts).

[Gorgon]

Sounds like a nice gig writing for dumbasses with too much money.

[theslug]

Tigranes I have a friend who does the exact same thing. He'll get something that isn't even mildly difficult; first he'll blow it out of proportion, make some empty promises to wake up early and get it done right away, then the night before it's due crap together some horribly written paper. The kid is obviously not cut out to be in academia what so ever. He seriously had something around or below a 2.2 gpa and they still let him in the university under the guise of some kind of academic probation period. Since then he's failed political science twice and barely made more than a B or two throughout a semester.

 

I can't exactly relate to the problem people are facing but I can definitely say in complete confidence that you pretty much nailed it on the head. I took two English courses at my college. The first one, I was by far the best writer in the class, the only competition left in the begining of the year. I'm not even a sub par writer but I managed to get a 96 on all 4 of the major papers we had to write. 2 of the papers required some sort of anecdotal response and every paper I read was complete garbage. People's stories were a mix of complete fantasy, inappropriateness, and writing skills I possessed in the 6th grade. They lacked the essential ideas of what a foundation for an essay should be. They had no form, a cloudy vocabulary and just a genuine lack of concern in their writing. There is no excuse either, these things have been pounded into our skulls for the last 12 years of our lives and they still can't get it right.

 

My second English class was a complete joke. The poor guy's sister died a week into the class but the professor was still a crack pot through and through. His syllabus was rife with grammatical errors and every message he sent to the class was some kind of sick joke of run ons and fragment sentences. The guy couldn't even figure out how to use a comma right. I'll admit I hated the guy. I wrote possibly the best work I have ever done in my then 19 years of life and he gave me a C. It was a small homework assignment but I was enraged, greatly. He was obsessed with the word specific and made sure we knew we had a lack of it in our writing. That was his go to phrase for everything and everyone and even though I changed my writing to adapt to his retarded ideals it still quite wasn't enough to satiate his demonic hunger for some kind of backwards ass retardedness i hatehim admanit :'(

 

/rant

 

Any who, I'm going to go ahead and say that there's a large percentage of children and young adults who are just plain retarded and sadly these people are employed while young strapping men such as myself are seen as outsiders just becuase I enjoy silently judging people and subconsciously wishing god would drop something from the sky bludgeoning them to death.

[Calax]

Ahh Plagarism.

 

not necessairly on essays but I thought this was an interesting case of plagarism.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134443

 

It's image heavy (as it's art being plagarized)

 

The only time I've seen plagarism in a good context was in a remake of "the computer that wore tennis shoes" where the main character is in the process of plagarizing an essay when he gets the contents of the net dled into his BRAIN!

[Xard]

Ahh Plagarism.

 

not necessairly on essays but I thought this was an interesting case of plagarism.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134443

 

It's image heavy (as it's art being plagarized)

 

The only time I've seen plagarism in a good context was in a remake of "the computer that wore tennis shoes" where the main character is in the process of plagarizing an essay when he gets the contents of the net dled into his BRAIN!

 

 

................

 

 

lol

[Walsingham]

I'm a jerk and have never really had a hard time writing essays haha.

 

Important things I find are to:

 

Be concise. All that high school wordiness will kick your ass at the University level as profs can read through BS like nobody's business!

Being concise also makes it easier to get to the point. Occasionally some lead in is required to ensure the reader understands the content that follows, but remember to take the time to acknowledge your audience.

Take some time to review the rules of writing. When you're reading your own work, you know what you were thinking while writing it, so the point may seem obvious to you, but if you start having passive voice and comma splices, the point may become obfuscated.

 

 

Usually I only need to do a single draft of an essay, with editing afterwards. Occasionally I'll have to rewrite some areas of my paper, or possibly cut content (which can be scary since you may feel it's necessary for future parts).

 

It's all well and good saying 'be concise'. But people lack the procedural knowledge to make it happen! I know 'cause I've been there. Teachers say impressive but pointless things like 'be concise', 'have a beginning, middle and end', and 'less waffle'. But unless you know how to move your feet (so to speak) you're no better off. That's why I hope my explanation was clear enough. You follow those steps, and each draft will be better. It's that simple.

 

If anyone still finds starting the first draft is tough, I always recommend writing a 'comedy' first draft. It's easy enough, and you'd be surprised how much good stufff you can get down befoer you even touch a textbook.

[Tigranes]

theslug:

Tigranes I have a friend who does the exact same thing. He'll get something that isn't even mildly difficult; first he'll blow it out of proportion, make some empty promises to wake up early and get it done right away, then the night before it's due crap together some horribly written paper. The kid is obviously not cut out to be in academia what so ever. He seriously had something around or below a 2.2 gpa and they still let him in the university under the guise of some kind of academic probation period. Since then he's failed political science twice and barely made more than a B or two throughout a semester.

 

Absolutely. The thing that gets me is, how are these people allowed to pass, and by extension get degrees, and by extension, get to actually work in these fields? The entire system is geared towards a passive acceptance of mediocrity, which gives people no desire to do any better. In fact, doing better in some cases becomes counterproductive.

 

I am not without sympathy though. I am well aware of clear deficiencies in my own writing, and know that there will be people who look at my writing and think, "how can he bear to write something like this?". That's not facetious self-deprecation, that's just reality. Not only writing but in other things. My anger, or rather, a combination of righteous anger, despondent disillusionment, wry cynicism and sincere concern, is at the fact that our society is designed now to raise kids who live their lives without ever thinking about these things or learning about them, and that this mediocrity and lack is accepted and catered for. It cheapens all of us.

 

t's all well and good saying 'be concise'. But people lack the procedural knowledge to make it happen! I know 'cause I've been there. Teachers say impressive but pointless things like 'be concise', 'have a beginning, middle and end', and 'less waffle'. But unless you know how to move your feet (so to speak) you're no better off. That's why I hope my explanation was clear enough. You follow those steps, and each draft will be better. It's that simple.

 

Absolutely. You tell someone, 'be concise', but people have never learnt to analyse writing properly. They can't analyse their own writing, and work out what is 'being concise'. Writing is a craft, but very few take that to heart. It is exactly like woodcutting, football, organising concerts or learning the guitar: it's a craft. That means, IMO, even more than perfect spelling or grammar, it's about understanding what each word, turn of phrase and sentence is doing for your reader, and working to engineer a desired effect.

[Walsingham]

I'm not sure one can really be sure what effect a word or turn of phrase is going to have, even if one restricts oneself to the crudest four letter Anglo-Saxon. Surely that's one of teh things that makes English (among others) such a glorious instrument.

 

One thing I should say is that I have ALWAYS been criticised for writing as if I am having a fireside chat. I've been doing it since I was 9!

[alanschu]

It's all well and good saying 'be concise'. But people lack the procedural knowledge to make it happen! I know 'cause I've been there. Teachers say impressive but pointless things like 'be concise', 'have a beginning, middle and end', and 'less waffle'. But unless you know how to move your feet (so to speak) you're no better off. That's why I hope my explanation was clear enough. You follow those steps, and each draft will be better. It's that simple.

 

If anyone still finds starting the first draft is tough, I always recommend writing a 'comedy' first draft. It's easy enough, and you'd be surprised how much good stufff you can get down befoer you even touch a textbook.

 

 

I disagree that telling students to "be concise" is a pointless thing. People feel compelled to add useless drivel to boost their word count, but rather than sounding impressive, it obfuscates the point and irritates any critical reader. Simply cutting down the wordiness of my essays moved my marks from 50-60% to 80%.

[Tale]

I have a friend who does the exact same thing. He'll get something that isn't even mildly difficult; first he'll blow it out of proportion, make some empty promises to wake up early and get it done right away, then the night before it's due crap together some horribly written paper. The kid is obviously not cut out to be in academia what so ever. He seriously had something around or below a 2.2 gpa and they still let him in the university under the guise of some kind of academic probation period. Since then he's failed political science twice and barely made more than a B or two throughout a semester.

[Tigranes]

alan: it's not that it's 'useless', its just that it's telling them to run when they dont' know how to walk.

[Walsingham]

It's all well and good saying 'be concise'. But people lack the procedural knowledge to make it happen! I know 'cause I've been there. Teachers say impressive but pointless things like 'be concise', 'have a beginning, middle and end', and 'less waffle'. But unless you know how to move your feet (so to speak) you're no better off. That's why I hope my explanation was clear enough. You follow those steps, and each draft will be better. It's that simple.

 

If anyone still finds starting the first draft is tough, I always recommend writing a 'comedy' first draft. It's easy enough, and you'd be surprised how much good stufff you can get down befoer you even touch a textbook.

 

 

I disagree that telling students to "be concise" is a pointless thing. People feel compelled to add useless drivel to boost their word count, but rather than sounding impressive, it obfuscates the point and irritates any critical reader. Simply cutting down the wordiness of my essays moved my marks from 50-60% to 80%.

 

But as you just said, you don't find essays a problem. If you aren't lucky enough to possess the metacognitive and procedural skills to manage the damn things then it's like telling me to 'stop wobbling the airplane' after I hijack it.