RE: Looked like cheating
Deb, having told them in the syllabus what summarizing is not, do you then show them examples of a proper synopsis? If you don't, how will they learn just what a summarization is? Make it a good day. --Louis-- Louis Schmier [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of History http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698 /~\/\ /\ 912-333-5947 /^\ / \/ /~\ \ /~\__/\ / \__/ \/ / /\ /~\/ \ /\/\-/ /^\_\/__/___/^\ -_~/ "If you want to climb mountains, \ /^\ _ _ / don't practice on mole hills" -\
RE: Looked like cheating
At 07:20 AM 2/1/99 -0600, Paul C. Smith wrote: >Sue Frantz wrote: >> After a bit more probing, I discovered they both >> had been taught (by separate teachers in separate school districts in >> separate decades) that to summarize something, you take each sentence >> and reword it. No wonder they looked alike! >> >> I explained that's not the best technique for summarizing. :-) > That is the reason why I put in my syllabus a sentence in bold capital letters stating that summarizing is not taking random sentences out of the article or just switching a word or two in the sentence. Before I began doing this, I would get article summary papers like that all of the time. Students are required to turn in the entire article they are summarizing and I have had a few students kind enough to highlight the sentence they copied from. When my intro to psych students do this, I give them a chance to rewrite the paper without copying it the first time I catch them (of course, they may not and get an F). Deb Deborah S. Briihl, Ph.D. Dept. of Psychology and Counseling Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698 (912) 333-5994
RE: Looked like cheating
Sue Frantz wrote: > After a bit more probing, I discovered they both > had been taught (by separate teachers in separate school districts in > separate decades) that to summarize something, you take each sentence > and reword it. No wonder they looked alike! > > I explained that's not the best technique for summarizing. :-) In one of my sophomore-level courses I regularly ask the entire class about this. Large percentages (I'd guess around 40%) report that they had been taught to summarize that way, and in fact that a perfectly acceptable paper could be made by doing nothing more than that. Remember that I'm asking the class as a whole, when the class members have no reason to say that if it weren't true (i.e., I'm not asking AFTER having discovered that a student did that, and I'm asking after having made it clear that they won't be doing it that way in my classes). I'm convinced that _many_ students come to us honestly believing as a result of prior education that one writes papers by rewording original sources a sentence at a time. I suppose you might argue that skill is a necessary developmental step in learning to write papers, and obviously there's the strong possibility that students are learning that, but their high school teachers aren't actually TEACHING it (in other words, that the students are misinterpreting the teachers). Paul Smith Alverno College
Re: Looked like cheating but wasn't
On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, Erica Klein wrote: >I failed them on the test...They came to see me, swearing they had not >cheated. I questioned them all very closely, separately, and to make a >long story short: You failed them before you talked to them? Isn't that problematic? Paul W. Jeffries Department of Psychology SUNY--Stony Brook Stony Brook NY 11794-2500
Re: Looked like cheating
Here's one of mine from a few semesters ago. I had my students working with journal articles. One part of the assignment was to summarize the discussion section journal articles. Two students turned in summaries that were *very* similar. And I was baffled because, one, I didn't think they knew each other, and two, because they were both excellent students. So, I called them into my office and asked for an explanation. Neither of them had any idea. After a bit more probing, I discovered they both had been taught (by separate teachers in separate school districts in separate decades) that to summarize something, you take each sentence and reword it. No wonder they looked alike! I explained that's not the best technique for summarizing. :-) -- Sue Frantz [EMAIL PROTECTED] Faculty Office Bldg, 2400 Scenic Drive Office: (505)439-3752 New Mexico State Univ. - AlamogordoFax: (505)439-3802 Alamogordo, NM 88310 USA http://web.nmsu.edu/~sfrantz
