The Most Difficult Thing

My particular student did not fit what I would call the perfect profile of a
plagiarist.  He is middle aged, a Vietnam vet in a wheelchair.  I have not seen
nor heard from him since I confronted him with the evidence.  He admitted it.
Let me say, that this was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do.
(M. Doyle, LRNAAST listserv, 14 May 1997)

This particular student was verbally very eloquent.  So, when I received his first
paper I was not surprised that he had done a good job. . . . The next three were
also superb.  A day or so after I received the [Romeo and Juliet] paper, I spoke to
him on the phone and mentioned some things about Romeo and Juliet.  It did not
take me long to figure out that he had never read Romeo and Juliet nor had he
even seen one of the movie versions. (M. Doyle, e-mail, 16 May 1997)

Doyle's situation is no isolated case.  Electronic media have changed both our processes for writing and our concepts about what writing is.   Certainly computers and the World Wide Web have made the issue of intellectual integrity a far more challenging puzzle than it has ever been.

If we are to deal effectively with such dilemmas, we must be informed and prepared to respond in ways that honor our goals as professional educators.  This article explores some of the issues, including their links to larger issues confronting higher education, and proffers some practical classrooms strategies.  I invite readers to share their thinking and responses via the CoverWeb.

What are the issues?

• The concept of Intellectual Property
• The functions of Search Engines
• Mixed Messages in Higher Education

• Professional Guidelines
• Classroom Ethics
• Well-Designed Assignments

Professional guidelines, clearly communicated ethical standards, and effective classroom practices can provide the platform to re-examine those values and structures of higher education which have created the climate in which term paper mills flourish.  Joan Connell, writing for NBC Online (1997), challenges the current climate:  "for far too many teachers, students and institutions of higher learning, education has become a crass and impersonal transaction:  papers written for grades, money exchanged for degrees."  Unless our own personal and institutional ethics are intact, we have little foundation on which to criticize the ethics of our students.

It is time to re-examine the transaction called higher education, to engage in serious conversation with our colleagues, administrators, and teachers in elementary and secondary schools, where most students first use the Internet.  Electronic media have created exciting new possibilities.  How well they contribute to student preparation for the next century is up to us.

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Copyright 1998  Diane Christian Boehm

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