[etni] Fw: re: copying vs. writing


----- Original Message ----- From: Shelley Cooper - shelleycooper2002@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: copying vs. writing

I am appalled at the level of education in this country, when I hear that even a 5 point student in Grade 10 cannot easily write a summary of an informational article in their own words, in their native language. Students in the United States and Canada are able to summarize fairly complex articles with ease by the time they are in Grade 6. This is a skill that must be taught as early as grade 1. Instead, the norm in this country is to have children copy robotically from the board or do rote exercises in workbooks.

No wonder our educational system ranks so poorly among those in the developed countries.


Ester wrote: 
Let's be honest: in University when we submitted term papers
and / or did a thesis we all quoted word for word from other
sources and then noted the places with a number , and source
in the Appendix.
Writing projects should, in my opinion, help the pupils learn
how to write other serious research papers and I feel it is
legitimate for weak pupils to copy small portions from "ready texts,"
as long as they don't download entire projects. I'm sure some
teachers won't agree with this-- to each his own :)

Sharon wrote:
Ester is right - I'm a teacher who doesn't agree. 
It is certainly legitimate to quote provided that you provide
quotation marks and give credit to the source. (Do our students do that?)
However, no one submits a term paper that is just a collection of
quotes. Most of the writing has to be done by the student with
only a few scattered quotes here and there where appropriate.
Having students just write an introduction and summary, with a
large part of what is in between just copied is not acceptable in
my opinion and defeats the whole purpose of the project -
which is to have students write.

(To read the rest of the original message, go to -
http://www.freelists.org/archives/etni/09-2006/msg00175.html )


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