>
>        I'm not a prof, and probably will never be (don't have the patience...) but
>I personally would just junk the letter and then be very critical of the
>result they finally DO end up giving you. It's likely it was just copied or
>stolen from someone else.
>
>
>
I do teach a single grad class and it still amazes me what people will
try and get away with.  Of course when caught most of them have some
excuse about a dying parent or sick child or something along those
lines. When I first started I swallowed those excuses hook line and
sinker, but no more.  Automatic zero.

The one that pissed me off the most was the research paper that sounded
good for the first two paragraphs and then launched into how "The
Lightspan product provides greater flexibility....."  and the next
several pages where a direct copy from a Cisco white paper.

I haven't does research papers for a couple of semesters, but will have
about 10-15 papers in just a couple of weeks to read.  I'm seriously
considering shelling out my personal money for turnitin.com or
mydropbox.com just to help me in detecting problems.

The problem is that when someone else does their work it is very hard to
detect if the student is bright or getting outside assistance.  What I
catch normally is stuff that I can tell is of a different style and then
google for that phrase.

So - please don't help these leeches.  If they succeed in cheating their
way through school they just might be your next CEO.  ;-)

Dan

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