Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley June 2008 Issue May 12, 2008 Time to Require Pen and Paper Again? When I was a student at Golden West High School, a particularly well-read English instructor quoted from a text he held in contempt: the Cliffs Notes guide to Albert Camus’ classic novel The Stranger. Dr. Postelle informed us that he had read the same paragraph, sometimes paraphrased and sometimes not, in numerous papers during his career. It was his way of warning us that cheaters would be caught. Now, as an instructor at a university, I am longing for the days when the laziest of students would copy from the same tried (and seldom true) source. Unfortunately, I do catch a few students trying to offer the wisdom found on Wikipedia as their own. As the spring semester ended, I had a university senior offer an entire Wikipedia entry as his paper on a famous scientist. When I asked how he could do something so incredibly brazen, he replied that he didn’t have the time to use Google ...
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