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Articles on U.S. Study
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Dear Plagiarist |
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By G. Thomas Couser, founding director of disability studies and a professor of English at Hofstra University
Adapted by FEAC from: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/07/02/couser
Dear Student,
When you got your paper back with a grade of F for plagiarism, you reacted in predictable fashion -- with indignant denial of any wrongdoing. You claimed “you cited everything” and denied that you had committed intentional plagiarism, or ever would.
This response is all too familiar to an experienced professor. Only once in my three decades of teaching has a student I caught plagiarizing owned up to it right away. And in that case, I believe (perhaps cynically) that she (a graduate student) thought a forthright confession might lead me to lighten the penalty. It didn’t; I failed her for the course and wrote her up. Indeed, I found out later that she had been caught plagiarizing by a colleague the previous term and let off lightly. I suspect that, because too many professors (many of them adjuncts fearful of student backlash) overlook or are unwilling to pursue plagiarism -- the process can be labor intensive, and it is always unpleasant -- cheating has become a way of life for many students, and they are genuinely surprised at being held responsible for it. So I don’t doubt that your shock is real.
When I declined to believe your initial denial, you reiterated it less strongly (“OK, I used SparkNotes, but I reworded everything”) and appealed to me for leniency on various grounds: first, that you didn’t know that paraphrase required documentation; second, that you had in fact read the book you were supposed to be analyzing (Susannah Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted); and, third, that the low term grade resulting from your F on the paper would cost you your scholarship.
With regard to your first claim, I have to admit that your paraphrase was very thorough, so much so that Turnitin.com, to which you were required to submit your paper for screening, did not lead me to SparkNotes. There were other clues, however: the potted nature of your off-topic observations and, more obviously, your paper’s entire lack of specific page references to your primary source. Also, earlier, less skillful plagiarists had alerted me to the SparkNotes on Girl, Interrupted, so I knew where to look.
Your second claim is also familiar; student plagiarists often claim that they thought documentation is only necessary for quotation. For all I know, this excuse may have worked for them before. But any adequate discussion of plagiarism will correct that misimpression, as I do in course documents you should have read. As a college student, you should know that the key to responsible use of secondary sources is to cite them openly from the get-go and to indicate clearly the boundary between your words, insights, and ideas, and those of your source. But you relied almost entirely on SparkNotes for your observations on Girl, Interrupted.
As for your third ground, you must understand that I cannot take your financial circumstances into account here. In any case, can you see how ironic it is to plead, in effect, that you had to cheat to keep your scholarship?
This brings me to what is, from the professorial point of view, the heart of the matter. Your use of the online “study guide” SparkNotes is a problem not only because it was unacknowledged but also because it entirely short-circuited your thinking process. Such guides very rarely enable students to carry out independent analysis of primary sources; rather, they tend to inhibit or completely block it because they trade in canned, bland summaries and commentary. When they are sound (which isn’t always the case) they may be helpful for quick review of material a student has actually read (as a student I occasionally used them that way myself), but such general-purpose commentary is no substitute for -- or stimulus to -- the kind of analysis and argument that are characteristic of true college writing.
You had been prepared for this paper by a sequence of selected reading assignments (for which study questions were provided), directed class discussion, and finally a workshop that walked you through the assignment. Once you consulted SparkNotes, however, you had difficulty focusing on the topic. SparkNotes did not help you analyze the text; it came between you and the text.
The reason that plagiarism like yours makes professors so sad – and, yes, sometimes mad -- is that it entirely defeats our attempts to educate you. We work hard to put you in a position to reach understandings that you would not otherwise be able to attain. (This is what makes a real course a course.) Cannibalizing a source like SparkNotes is not “extra research” for which you should be lauded (as you claim); on the contrary, it’s a substitute for (and the very antithesis of) the intellectual work that you were asked to do, and which your professors see as being at the heart of a liberal arts education. The opposite of academic honesty is not actually academic dishonesty; it’s dishonesty that is decidedly unacademic. To commit it is to suggest that you don’t understand, or don’t value, the kind of education for which you (or your parents) are paying so much. The problem is not so much rule breaking as point missing.
Disappointedly yours,
Professor Couser |
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The G.R.E. vs. the GMAT |
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THE REALITY
There’s a feud brewing in the ¬graduate-school testing world.
The Graduate Management Admissions Test has been required by MBA programs for more than 50 years, while the Graduate Record Examination is the standard for graduate schools in general. The Educational Testing Service administers the GRE and used to do the same for the GMAT before losing the rights two years ago to ACT Inc. and Pearson. Now it is trying to get some of that business back, lobbying business schools to accept the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT: more than 115 have agreed, including at Stanford, MIT and Johns Hopkins.
What’s the difference between the tests? Both assess verbal and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and writing. “Contrary to what people might think, there are no business or finance aspects of the GMAT that make it specialized,” says David G. Payne, an associate vice president of ETS.
THE GRE PITCH
For business schools, the GRE offers a chance to increase their applicant pool by tapping into some of the more than 600,000 people who take it annually. For students, the GRE is less expensive ($140) than the GMAT ($250).
ETS is sweetening the deal by adding a noncognitive component in July: a mentor can fill out a questionnaire on creativity, ethics, communication and other qualities, resulting in a score on something called the Personal Potential Index. “Some students may not have gotten the best grade point in their undergraduate career or maybe aren’t great at standardized tests,” Mr. Payne says. “They may want admissions officers to take other things into account.”
THE GMAT STANCE
More than 1,800 business schools accept the GMAT, which was designed by business school deans to predict how well applicants would do in their pursuit of an MBA.
High scores on the test correlate well to success in the first year of business school, says David A. Wilson, head of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which owns the GMAT. The lack of long-term GRE validity studies for business students, he says, could deter schools from signing on. What happens if the MBA program you want doesn’t accept the GRE?
Mr. Wilson acknowledges there are few differences in content between the two tests (although GMAT ditched analogies a few years ago). But, he says, “schools turn to the GMAT because it is a valid, trusted and robust assessment. One way to think about it is that you don’t want your dentist to buy drill bits at Home Depot.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
Many admissions experts say that, for now, they would advise students who want a business degree to take the GMAT, or both tests.
Alex Duke is a senior admissions consultant at MBAPrepAdvantage and a former director of admissions for the executive and part-time MBA programs at the University of California, Los Angeles. Countering the new GRE ads, he advises would-be graduate students to know what programs and schools they want to get into before beginning the rigorous process of taking admissions tests. And he suggests that only a narrow population take the GRE alone for business school. “If you’re an international student, say from a third-world country, and you only have the financial means to take one test for any graduate studies, then I could see taking the GRE is a good option.” |
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The Case for (and Against) Early Decision |
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By Kathleen Carmichael, Ph.D.
Adapted from http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/articles/index/101522
College planning can be stressful for both students and parents. Long before they face the challenge of finding college funding, students face an equally important challenge - the college admissions process. Filling out college applications and waiting to hear from admissions committees can make for a nerve-wracking senior year. But now schools are taking steps to alleviate student stress by instituting early admissions programs. This means that high school students who already know their top college pick can now send in their applications as early as September of their junior year and find out whether they'll be accepted at the school of their choice. A great deal? Some students think so. Early admission can take the pressure off senior year, allowing students to finish high school secure in the knowledge that they have a spot reserved in the school of their choice. But be careful. Because while early decision can secure the student's place, it can also limit his/her options. While statistics indicate that the odds of admission improve for early applicants, students who apply early face a much more competitive applicant pool. Likewise, schools have less incentive to offer extensive financial aid packages to early applicants, reasoning that such students are more likely to make up the difference on their own. Finally, students can change their minds a lot between junior and senior year. A student who had his heart set on a school out east might well change his mind when he sees his friends migrating to California. But if he's opted for early decision, he'll be required to attend his first choice. How It Works Early decision" and "early action" are two standard options. Both allow the student to apply early, usually in November before the regular pool of candidates send in their applications. In return, the school lets the student know whether they've been accepted long before the usual acceptance date - often as early as December, before other students have even applied. Early decision is binding, which means if the student applies he or she must attend that school if accepted and given a reasonable financial aid package. Additionally, the student must withdraw any applications they sent to other schools. The student should apply for early decision only if they are absolutely sure about where they want to go to college, if their profile suggests that they will be accepted and if financial aid is not an overriding factor in their college decision. Generally the student should not just be interested in the school, but in specific majors, programs or faculty at the school. It is inadvisable to try to beat the system by applying for early admission at more than one school. Top schools often share lists of early applicants. If a student's name appears on more than one list, he/she may be barred from all his/her top-pick schools. Unlike early decision, early action usually isn't binding and the student can apply to a number of schools and compare all admissions and financial aid offers. Most of the time, the student can wait until the late spring before having to make a decision. But college's guidelines vary, so a student should be careful. As with early decision, a student should apply only if they are sure they can compete with other early action applicants. Students with weaker applications may wish to use their junior and senior years to bolster their grades and activities. The Pros and Cons of Early Decision and Early Action It's important to weigh the pros and the cons of these programs. Everybody is different: Early decision and early action might be right for one student, but could be a mistake for another. Pros If accepted, the student can bypass all the admissions stress that comes with senior year. If the student isn't accepted, the application is deferred until the final acceptance decisions are made - so they will have more than one chance to get in. Additionally, the student will have more time to thoroughly explore other schools. Applying through one of these plans is a good way for students to communicate their interest in a school - which might convince admissions officers to consider the application more seriously.
Cons Students will have less time to make educational and financial decisions and less time to explore their options. Also, by committing to one school, a student rules out other schools that may offer more attractive financial aid packages. The student won't be able to improve his/her profile with senior year grades and activities. Early decision and early action candidates are usually very qualified, so it's harder to make an application stand out.
If the student is interested in early decision or early action, he or she should speak to guidance counselors, ask the prospective school for more information and read the guidelines carefully. Then decide if early decision or early action is right for them.
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Cheating Across Cultures |
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By Elizabeth Redden
From Inside Higher Ed May 24, 2007 When Duke University found 34 first-year business school students guilty of collaborating on a take-home test late last month, officials announced a variety of penalties: Pending appeals, nine of the Fuqua School of Business M.B.A. students would be expelled, 15 would receive a one-year suspension and a failing grade in the required course, nine would simply fail the class and one would fail the assignment alone. Not surprisingly, some of the students are contesting their sentences. This week, a Durham lawyer who’s filed appeals on behalf of 16 of the students cried foul to the Associated Press, arguing that all nine of the expelled students were from Asian countries, and that the students in question failed to fully understand the honor code and the judicial proceedings. Excuses, excuses? Maybe; maybe not. Regardless, the complaints serve to spotlight some of the particular challenges inherent in addressing issues of academic integrity involving international students, many of whom come to American colleges with different conceptions of cheating. As the number of international students has increased in recent years — and the number of academic misconduct incidents involving international students has risen accordingly — educators have increasingly embraced the need to address academic integrity concerns proactively, recognizing in their actions the various cultural influences that can help cause one to cheat. “These issues come up in unusual ways. It doesn’t mean there isn’t cheating in China [for instance]. There is,” says Sidney L. Greenblatt, senior assistant director of advising and counseling at Syracuse University and an expert on China (he’s currently writing an essay for a collection on cultural aspects of academic integrity, and has co-authored a publication on “U.S. Classroom Culture” highlighting these issues). “People present false credentials to the American embassy and corruption in the system is about what it is here.” “These things do exist, but very good, very committed students are caught up in plagiarism for cultural reasons, and splitting those up is no easy trick.” Most of the concerns surrounding international students and cheating center around plagiarism, a form of cheating that’s all too common among American undergraduates, some of whom say they were never taught what was legitimate and what wasn’t. But while international students certainly are far from alone in cheating, their circumstances are often unique, and international student advisors and experts cite a whole host of specific reasons why international students might knowingly or unknowingly circumvent the system. Read more ...
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