Next Generation of Chancers?

cormie · 12-05-2006 09:26PM #1

I know this wont apply to many college course, but there are quite a few in which, for assignments, many people simply copy and paste large amounts of text into their project, without even reading it. Is this a case for concern for the next generation of professionals? Will they really know what they are doing?

Zillah · 12-05-2006 09:39PM

It is not of concern for the next generation of professionals.

Because those idiots will get done for plagiarism and/or fail their exams. Most of the time. Some will get through the net, but not enough to ruin our nation's economy.

Chucky the tree · 12-05-2006 09:41PM

Zillah wrote:

It is not of concern for the next generation of professionals.

Because those idiots will get done for plagiarism and/or fail their exams. Most of the time. Some will get through the net, but not enough to ruin our nation's economy.

From my experience nearly everyone gets away with it.

Also, i dont actually know anyone who just copy and pastes it straight word for word. THey usually re-write it a bit so its looks a bit different.

Do people think that this idea is just recent? It would of happened in our parents ties aswell, instead of copy and pasting from the internet they would of just went to the library and copied it from a book.

tintinr35 · 12-05-2006 10:10PM

cormie wrote:

I know this wont apply to many college course, but there are quite a few in which, for assignments, many people simply copy and paste large amounts of text into their project, without even reading it. Is this a case for concern for the next generation of professionals? Will they really know what they are doing?

ya its called lazyness and people will and have been getting away with it for years!!!

cormie · 12-05-2006 10:15PM

Chucky the tree wrote:

From my experience nearly everyone gets away with it.

Also, i dont actually know anyone who just copy and pastes it straight word for word. THey usually re-write it a bit so its looks a bit different.

Do people think that this idea is just recent? It would of happened in our parents ties aswell, instead of copy and pasting from the internet they would of just went to the library and copied it from a book.

Doing it from a book you actually read what you are writing. I know of people who just copy and paste word for word. I was talking to some chap at his computer and saw blue links and everything in his word document for an assignment:eek:

Crucifix · 12-05-2006 11:36PM

There's alot of anti plaguerism software around these days. DCU recently picked some up, and apparantly it's already been kicking ass and taking names.

Dave! · 13-05-2006 12:50AM

It's nowt new, and I don't think it's a big enough problem to be the cause of the demise of the celtic tiger....

Oriel · 13-05-2006 02:02AM

I recognise this mightn't apply to many Uni course, but there are a lot in which, for projects, many students simply reguritate large amounts of text into their assignment, without even proofing it. Is this a case for worry for the next generation of workers? Will they actually know what they are achieving?

Tar.Aldarion · 13-05-2006 02:02AM

If they don't proof read it, how could they not get caught?

Dirk Gently · 13-05-2006 02:28AM

I don’t think it’s a minority that does this. When I was in college there was a queue of people copy and pasting entire documents to hand up on the morning of the assignment.

It was the norm. At the start I didn’t really care that much cos I thought it was just the odd person who hadn't nuff time to do it. Students have to juggle jobs, girl friends / college work and sometimes it all gets a bit much so wasn't too worried about the odd person copying now and again to get it done. But it becomes ridiculous when it happens all the time when everyone is doing it. Have to admit I did feel a bit hard done by when putting the effort into write essays and trying to be original and witty, while everyone else seemed to be just handing up the same document they got from goggle and getting away with it. Don't know how they weren't caught cos I seen some of them and they were all the same text, not even bothering to remove underlined links and even with the web site address on the bottom of the print out. Some of them even had the same spelling mistakes on the title of the assignment, same mad over sized fonts. Shocking really how it was never picked up on.

Another problem I found was copying whole drawings from computer hard drives and claiming them as your own. I done architecture and a bit of graphic design and everyone had there stuff saved on files all over the hard drive. You could even get entire classes work from the year ahead of you and simply download there assignments as blocks, change the name and hand them back up as yours.

Needless to say everyone passed college ( assignments making up 60% of marks and exams only 40% ) that means 60% of the work could and in most cases was just straight copied.

Anyway, a few weeks working and you learn 10 times what you learn in 3 years of college so doesn’t matter that much in the long run. If you have an interest in your course you will enjoy doing the assignments. If you copied most of your work and hadn’t got an interest in it more than likely you wont choose that line of work for your career.

deRanged · 13-05-2006 10:29AM

I work in UCC and have the pleasure of seeing some students coursework.

The copying thing doesn't bother me too much - I think the bigger issue is that so many students in 3rd level now can only just read and write.
The basic skill of writing a paragraph about their interests seems beyond an awful lot of them. Problem solving and basic maths are even worse.
I can live with the copying but without the 3 r's I think we will have problems.

Whenever I hear about a new multinational coming to Ireland for the highly-skilled graduates I cringe. But then I remember that they really only come here for the tax breaks so we're grand.

Sleepy · 13-05-2006 12:38PM

deRanged, do you fail your students that are obviously plageurising other's work?

deRanged · 13-05-2006 12:54PM

Sleepy wrote:

deRanged, do you fail your students that are obviously plageurising other's work?

I'm not a lecturer or anything - I'm a demonstrator/lab tutor so it's small assignments that I'd see. We tend to put it down to 'team work' and let it go.

I have called a few people up on it and told them to sort themselves out, but always before the assignment was handed in.

Doodee · 13-05-2006 01:04PM

3 r's

0_o

projectmayhem · 13-05-2006 01:33PM

for college stuff i use wikipedia a lot. now, this could be a bone of contention because no doubt students go there and do a copy/paste job, but i read through and write what i've understood from wikipedia (or other sources).

the difference is that i'm doing some research, whereas someone else is ripping it off and not learning anything.

it doesn't bother me in the slightest. i'm only going to put stuff into my work that i can answer questions on (always assume the worst!). if you're willing to risk copy/pasting stuff that you don't understand then off you go. but god help you if you get a degree and don't have a breeze about the stuff

Doodee · 13-05-2006 02:20PM

actually. if you reference something in a bibliography is it still plaugerism?

Capt'n Midnight · 13-05-2006 10:18PM

Doodee wrote:

actually. if you reference something in a bibliography is it still plaugerism?

Tom Lehrer wrote:

I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarize!

Plagiarize,
Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize...
Only be sure always to call it please, "research".

http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/lobachev.htm

Still there is nothing new under the sun, in many areas of business the same ideas are re-repeated every generation or so, the main change being the "buzzwords"

Next Generation of Chancers?

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