Random musings

[cardinalkarp]

it almost seems weird that you don't have some software to use to grade papers. It definitely seems weird that I just wrote that.

Yeah, like Sigh said....they do. Lindenwood uses a site called turnitin.

[sighyoung]

When I was an economics major in college, I wrote three papers on one topic, the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission), but each paper was quite different, and on a different aspect of its history and theories of regulation. I could reuse some sources, found others, and ultimately learned a lot about the history of regulation and current economic theory in the process.

Then I ran screaming from economics altogether.

[Fat_Bulldog]

it almost seems weird that you don't have some software to use to grade papers. It definitely seems weird that I just wrote that.

Yeah, like Sigh said....they do. Lindenwood uses a site called turnitin.

Yeah, I used turnitin as well. Anything over 30% was questionable in re: to plagiarism.

[sighyoung]

One more thing. I feel badly because I have an open-door policy, and told my students in this one class that I would read every draft they submitted to me and give feedback, and that I would be flexible working with them if they felt overwhelmed or uncertain or needed additional time. I read two drafts per paper with one student in the class. So it's not as if I were Tyrannosaurus Rex in the classroom or outside of it. But for that reason, if they choose to plagiarize, they fail. Sadly, I could have taught them a lot.

[IMADreamer]

I've been entertaining offers on my Vette and for the most part the handful of people that inquired were looking for a stock Vette to cruise around on Sundays. I will admit it takes a special person to want to drive a car that has been made worse for normal driving for the sake of all out speed. So I didn't expect it to sell soon. Now however it's just getting infuriating. I really don't care if I sell the car, I love it, I love driving it, I will miss it. However I don't have room for it any more and it needs to go. Today though a guy looks at it. Wastes two hours of my time and low balls the hell out of me by 10k. That just pisses me off. Not really the lowball offer but wasting two hours of my time.

"it's my dream car but I can't afford your asking price." Well a Lamborghini Aventador is my dream car but I don't expect them to knock off a few hundred thousand just to make me happy.

[IMADreamer]

I guess what I never understood about plagiarism is that it keeps you from learning what you are supposed to learn. You know the reason you are shelling out all those thousand of dollars to go to college. Learn? Don't get me wrong I knew people that cheated and did whatever just to get by in class, but I wanted more then just getting by. I wanted to learn it and be good so that maybe someday it would all pay off.

It's kind of sad people just cheat their way through life.

[TimeForGuinness]

...there could be at least 7 chameleons in my cubicle, and I wouldn't know.

[sighyoung]

I hadn't thought of the band The Chameleons UK in almost 30 years.

[IMADreamer]

Where do you find chameleons? I've never seen one in real life. That I know of. dun dun dun!

[Arthur Dent]

Though they seem to have been introduced after I graduated so I have no actual experience, the automated plagiarism checkers kinda bug me for some reason -- I guess it's the presumption of guilt and the possibility of being falsely convicted by a machine. I assumed that, like sigh's experience, most student plagiarism is pretty easy to catch, and more polished plagiarism doesn't seem like it would be much less work than is expected in your standard college writing assignment. Another alternative to the anti-plagiarism software, that somehow seems better to me, is writing assignments for mid-terms/finals that must be completed like other tests, as in hand written and in a room with the rest of the class that is monitored by the professor/proctor.