This is How We Do It: Two Takes on Students in Today's Society

The readings that we had for this week made me think a lot. As a student, I never really thought about how I do my work and whether it is right or wrong- other than in the sense that it is marked right and gets me a good grade. It definitely took the class discussion for me to understand the whole picture that was within Nathan’s piece. I initially took it as she was calling all students out on not being proper students at all, but merely getting by with amazing cheating skills. I then realized that she was only pointing out information so that the audience could then make a decision. I was thoroughly surprised to learn that such an extremely high percentage of students have been found to participate in academic dishonesty. When I think of cheating, I imagine students looking of others’ papers during a test, improperly citing or completely forgetting to give credit to a source, or looking up answers during online tests. I never thought that working with a person on homework that confused you could be considered cheating.

            Before I came to college, I felt that my work would be solely my own, to be done all on my own. I’m shocked and annoyed that almost everything is group work. There are workshops for Chemistry, GCOM speech groups and even groups to take tests with in Biology. It seems as though teachers place- rather stress- the importance of counting on others to succeed in classes. I can see where this could be extremely misleading. Within the classroom, if group work is placed so highly, why is consulting others on homework so bad? I am in no way saying that copying answers is ok, but to discuss confusing work and put two heads together to come up with conclusions is perfectly fine. Professors are definitely projecting the wrong image by having so much group work in classes- that creates a dependence on others to have or come up with answers.   

            In terms of what Kleine had to say, I never thought about what my research writing actually consisted of. I admit that I am stuck in the high school rut up summarizing information from multiple sources to type a paper that wasn’t much more than a synopsis of a topic that I did not know much about. I also share a little bit of the experience of the academic writers as well, in the respect that I too do no writing until I feel that I have read and learned all that I can. Research writing is supposed to, yes, be a learning experience but one has to think too about all of the things that they are putting together and do more than repeat information that is already out there.

            I feel that both writers provide very relatable situations to students. I know that I often consider the true meaning of cheating and what society places on the meaning of cheating, as well as how I think I am conducting research. These are things that I know will always be with me, in terms of ethics and directly carrying out research. I know that I will take information from both of these sources and do a bit of reevaluation of how I carry out my work, but I feel that professors need to also consider these findings. Information like this is crucial to adjusting the learning experience so that students truly benefit and are not just getting by.