Mesa Legend - NEWS - Welders find expression in metal fusion

Highway sign depicts the way students should go

Students attempting to surf effortlessly through classes this fall by plagiarizing assignments have a widely varying list of consequences to look forward to.
Cheating has always been a problem among college students; however, the Internet has made purchasing papers more accessible on a wider range of topics.
Aside from the obvious consequences listed in the 2003-2004 MCC Student Handbook, students often overlook the more subtle scam: purchasing papers of questionable quality.
The definition of plagiarism in the MCC Student Handbook includes “the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.”
Sanctions for such academic misconduct defined in the same publication include grade adjustment, course failure, academic probation, college suspension, and college expulsion.
Consequences not listed in the MCC Student Handbook, however, are those involving passing grades on unwritten papers and time freed up for partying and other academically irresponsible behavior.
Students obviously hope for the latter cluster of plagiarism consequences when engaged in the practice.
One student who wished to remain anonymous said that when the deadline came up and he was too busy to write his philosophy assignment himself, it took him 60 to 90 minutes of searching the Internet to find the material he was looking to purchase.
Submitting a plagiarized paper purchased from a fellow student he met online, with the topic “What is Real?” the student got a B minus from his philosophy professor.
When asked if he knew the penalties for plagiarism, the anonymous student claimed, “I was aware of the penalties for plagiarism, but because it was mutually consensual, I didn’t think it was plagiarism.”
However, this situation is a clear case of plagiarism. The student said that even knowing it was plagiarism; he would still do it again if he didn’t have the time to write his own paper, although he would be more apprehensive about cheating in the future.
In an unscientific attempt to survey the quality of plagiarized works, the Mesa Legend staff purchased a paper from an online source for $26.95 on a topic most English professors are familiar with, “The Nature of Evil in ‘Paradise Lost.’”
Although the request was made for a five page paper, only two and half pages were delivered.
The paper analyzing Milton’s epic poem was then submitted for review by three English professors, and the MCC Writing Center.
Professors on board for the analysis of the plagiarized work were Hank Keithley, Jaime Herrera, and Donella Eberle, chairperson of the English, humanities, and journalism department.
All professors docked the paper at least one letter grade due to its lack of a works cited list; a major oversight for a college-level paper, and one which renders the sources listed in the paper untraceable.
Keithley called the paper a technically well written plot summary, not an analysis, and offered the hypothetical student turning in such a paper a D or D minus.
He did add, however, that the student would have to rewrite the paper and hand it back in, a feat which would prove difficult for a student unfamiliar with the material covered.
Herrera also gave the paper a D minus, criticizing its unsophisticated use of common language, and its tendency to go outside the actual poem for the insertion of personal views.
Eberle’s displeasure with the paper was most apparent.
Giving the paper an F, she called it “absolutely atrocious,” feeling it was a book report and not an analysis, and that it had no organization whatsoever.
Tom Perch at the MCC Writing Center was no more generous with the paper, saying it was “not worth a penny,” that it lacked a clearly defined theme, and that it would only be accepted by professors as a “weak” paper.
Such unflattering analysis of plagiarized works by the very instructors who receive such works only begins to flesh out a counterpoint to the success stories of students claiming to succeed with passing grades on plagiarized papers.
Aside from wasting money and turning in an inferior plagiarized product which would only result in a failing grade a student could earn on his or her own, there is also the very real possibility that a plagiarized work will be discovered as just that.
The professors acknowledged that they come to know the styles of students in their classes, and that a quick trip to Google.com or Metacrawler.com can often reveal whether a work has been plagiarized, due to the fact that many plagiarized works are posted online.
Herrera claimed to have seen plagiarized works pop up as first responses on Google when he researched the validity of student papers, and Keithley used the service also, saying that students have handed in papers to him, passing them off as their own, while he’s had the works they have plagiarized sitting on his desk.
In spite of the fact that when instructors have time on their hands, they can often spot plagiarism, a market for plagiarized works still exists.
One anonymous student encountered on campus has a lucrative position in this market, charging about $20 a paper, or as much as he thinks he can get, for original works on topics ranging from earth ecology to economics.
The student was aware that selling papers is against school rules, but the financial opportunity outweighs his reluctance to break these rules.
“Money man, it’s all about the money. I’m a poor college student and I’ve got the skills. If the skills pay the bills, do it man, do it,” he said.
However, the entrepreneurial student said he would never buy a paper written by someone else.


Volume 41, Issue 3. Today is .