Purchasing Papers from online writers
How do you feel about students who purchase papers for their discussion boards? Are there any solutions to "know" that they've done so?
At our school we use Turn It In, an online program that scans for previously posted/published work.The student submits through the site and then the paper comes to instructors. Having to use the program at all adequately scares off most students from plagiarism.
Thank you Lisa for your response, but the problem with these "papers for purchase" is that they GUARANTEE their work will not turn up plagiarized. Supposedly, they have some type of agreement with turnitin and SafeAssign where the papers are literally "removed" from their databases.
I didn't know that! Wow! I feel like I know my students well enough by the end of a course to identify their writing style, but in the beginning I probably would have no idea if a paper had been plagiarized!
Lisa,
This is really... a sad, sad story but very real. I had a student who I had in several classes. I spoke with this student on the phone but very briefly each time - until the last course before her graduation. Keep in mind that this student had been in school by this point - at least two years. She had to provide responses to her discussion boards each week and they were "flawless"... MLA was correct... research was terrific. Within this last course - I actually interviewed her for this company that she was to be working with as an intern. I was dumb-founded as I was speaking to her as she did not have answers that she should have known from week one of her schooling. She also did not know common terms such as freelancing and what that was. She did not know any of the elements that were basic principles to her degree program. She could not even form a professional sentence while speaking with her - yet - I had all these "amazing" discussion boards. I actually pulled her discussion board assignments and asked questions relating to her posts and she had "no" idea what I was talking about.
I brought this to the attention of the administration but we were all at a loss. We could not PROVE that she had purchased these papers and as a result - I had to pass her through. I was never so disheartened as an educator in my life. This "one" instance has made me spend "more" time with each of my students on a regular basis and really speak with them before this situation becomes a pattern within our schools.
Dr. Powell
Terry,
this is a problem. You can use TurnItIn for discussion boards as well, but the bottom line is that a cheater will not be productive in the real workforce. As an instructor, we need to keep pushing this info to the student.
Shelly Crider
Lisa,
This is true....knowing that an instructor can find your errors does make it a little more intimidating!
Shelly Crider
The last course I taught had no academic integrity regarding papers. I would incourage citations and students would not complete them, It only affected 20 % of thier grade. it was clear by the language used that it was not thier work, In my on ground job they would have got an F and threatened with expulsion. I think research paper should be coupled with checkers and live presentation to see the true command of the topic
James,
Ouch on the no academic integrity on research papers. I am glad you stand by your morals.
Shelly Crider
The ironic thing is that in my course one paper is an essay about piracy and, yep, I get plagurists.
A paper about piracy that is "pirated."
Sometimes you can copy and paste a sentence in Google and most of the time you'll get a hit. Turnit In is a great tool for this but it's sad that it is even needed.
Sean,
I just had the same experience. Discussion question was on plagiarism.....one response was word for word out of a journal! At least the student used a journal!! And yes a zero did come the student's way!
Shelly Crider
I'm relatively new to online instruction (almost a year into it) and I got to deal with plagiarism/purchasing homework answers in my very first class! The student actually cited as her reference the website where she purchased the answer! The whole situation got very ugly as the student got very upset and tried to defend herself by saying that she was just citing her reference. I think she knew what she did was wrong, but I'm finding that these students really don't have a clue about plagiarism and paraphrasing. None of them have ever used APA style and don't get it that you must cite your sources. It's like pulling teeth to get them to include a reference page on papers. It's just hard to believe none of them have written a paper in APA style even if they haven't gone to college before...very scary!
Angela,
Some things just leave me speechless and this post is one of them. If students have so much money to purchase work, why do they need an education!!!
Shelly Crider
Many schools find that this practice of purchasing papers from online writers to be an abomination. In one sense, this feeling is correct because the students will typically submit the paper without any edits.
On the other hand, the purchasing of a paper can be very helpful to student, particularly if the student takes the time to read the paper, and then craft it to fit the needs of the assignment.
There have been many times in my life when I would've given a lot for an example. There were topics of assignments I just did not understand. A written paper would have made some sense to me. It would've helped me. I would've paraphrased it.
In short, purchasing papers from online writers has its advantages and disadvantages. It's all in how the student uses the paper that they purchase.
Donald,
This is a good point. There are times when a purchased paper can help the student if the student uses the paper as a resource.
Shelly Crider
