Reply #132: separated at birth?

[NJCher]

Except for burning out and quitting, I could have written your post!

I loved this part of your post because it shows that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure:

After that I figured out ways to prevent plagiarism: I had them hand in stages of their work (first their notes and an outline, then a rough draft, then a revised draft), did lots of short personal assignments in class so I got to know their individual styles, and gave them specific and complicated assignments they couldn't fulfill by copying stuff off the internet. It worked -- no more problems.

In addition to what you state about the stages of work, it teaches them good work is done in small parts--not in one marathon session the night before the paper is due. How can there be much of a process if they wrote the entire paper in one cram session at the end of the semester?

In addition to what you mention above, I also keep their writing sample from the first day of class. It's their own handwriting, which has been a convenient reference on a number of occasions.

The specific and complicated assignments you mention might be comparable to my "topics" list. I put an extensive list together (much of it from reading I do right here at DU). They are supposed to choose their project from that list and if they don't, they have to get the topic approved by me.

I'm sorry to hear you burned out. You sound like the kind of professor students need.



Cher