<p>Emphatically agreeing with GFG above in post #68. His prof was not a nut nor an out of the norm!!!</p>
<p>These days in our high schools our kids are taught to write Themes (short essays with a point of view and an argument from their own thinking process about an issue or piece they have read). THIS IS ONLY ONE NARROW KIND OF WRITING.</p>
<p>TheGFG says, “That’s why we did RESEARCH papers–we found out what other people had already discovered, proven, or theorized and reported it back, albeit with our own assessment of which arguments we preferred and why we thought they best fit.” I feel the energy in this sentence - it seems like the writing taught these days has ditched research papers. Do high schools even require them anymore? Why the heavy emphasis on the short essay? On analysis instead of synthesis?</p>
<p>So now we have the supposed newscasters on TV (*cough O’reilly etc. *cough) spouting Theses. And there’s a real lack of RESEARCH and factual information in the news. No wonder more people get their news from John Stewart. He does research. He provides lots and lots of information. The snarky commentary is only the icing on a rich cake.</p>
<p>I wonder if some of the kids being accused of plagiarism are simply repeating a style of research writing and synthesis that has been taught in their school systems. What I have noticed is that schools tend to teach a certain style of writing as “correct” without fully teaching about the various types of writing. You can do an essay pitching your point of view. You can do a research paper that reports what others have learned. If you are doing a research paper then you will, I contend, HAVE to repeat content and structure with citation or you will be doing a lousy research paper. </p>
<p>How clear are freshmen prof’s about this distinction? How many kids mess up by doing a research paper format when their prof is looking for a thesis type essay?</p>
<p>How to draw in from the internet correctly for each of these types of papers?</p>
<p>How to recognize that some kids are best at/have been taught and are more practiced in the analysis part and are great creative thinkers while other kids are best at/have more practice in research type papers? Imagine if you have been trained for eight years from fourth grade to 12th to do research papers and a teacher in your LAC frosh English tells you to write a piece with no citations at all. So you research and find what some others have said, and you paraphrase their work into a logically consistent and nicely written three page essay. Then you’re kicked out for plagiarism. Instead of reoriented (taught) about writing styles. This happens! Worst case IMO you should be given a low mark on your piece and asked to visit the prof for clarification of expectations.</p>