Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet
(Third edition)
by Sara Baase
Notes to instructors about the term paper assignment
Reducing plagiarism
Many papers on topics related to this course are available for sale on the Web. Several aspects of the term paper assignment should help reduce the likelihood of plagiarism (though my experience indicates that they do not reduce it to zero): the interview or site visit requirement, the instructions to relate the topic to issues or examples covered in the text or in class, and the warning that cases of plagiarism are reported to appropriate campus authorities.
Topic descriptions
I require students to turn in topic descriptions by e-mail so I can easily and quickly make comments, indicate if the topic and description are acceptable, and keep a copy.
Students reading and commenting on another's paper
When students turn in their papers, I redistribute them so that each student gets another paper to read and comment on. They return the commented paper (generally two days later). Each student gets his or her own paper back and turns in a final draft the following week (five days later, with our Tuesday/Thursday class schedule) along with the draft with the other student's comments. This works well. Students benefit from reading about another topic in depth. Some see what a really good paper looks like. Some provide a lot of help to weaker students and to students whose first language is not English. The final drafts that I read are better as a result of the student review process.
I provide instructions to students in class when they get the papers to review. I tell them to mark good passages and examples as well as unclear or weak parts. Generally, they should look at the grading criteria for the term paper and make any comments they think will help make the paper stronger. I tell them to make grammatical corrections if they feel comfortable doing so.
I was at first concerned that a student might take a paper to review and not return it at the next class meeting. This has never been a problem. The students take seriously their responsibility to return the paper with their comments and manage to do so even if they miss class.
Students sign their comments; a few points of their term paper grade depends on how responsibly they did the review.