That's just wonderful. I've heard anecdotally that some profs have been restricting their assignments more and more because of their dread of plagiarism, and I'm not really surprised that some are eliminating take-homes altogether. I doubt very much that this is a purely Canadian phenomenon. Neither, I suspect, is the stop-em-at-the-gates theory of testing, though maybe our less egalitarian tradition makes it easier to justify this. I've always thought that fear of plagiarism really goes too far when it starts preventing people from doing what's right for their students.. I'd like to know if anyone heard Graff on literacy tests on welfare. I missed this presentation. Wendy Strachan wrote: > >Hi Doug, > >The WPA list is having a great time with this message that appeared in the >Calgary Herald... > >Wendy > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Writing Program Administration [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of >Jane V. Nelson >Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:47 PM >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: eliminate writing to combat plagiarism > >And we heard from Graff at the C's about the interesting scheme of requiring >literacy tests to receive welfare, and I think he said this scheme is being >proposed in Canada, although I might not be remembering correctly. > >Jane Nelson > >-----Original Message----- >From: Nick Carbone [mailto:[log in to unmask]] >Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 3:24 PM >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: eliminate writing to combat plagiarism > >I'm not making this up. To combat plagiarism, professors at some Canadian >universities are only doing in class writing assignments -- short essays and >essay exams. They're dropping the research paper assignment and take home >exams. > >But . . . this at a time when there's growing concern about student's >ability to write well and their literacy levels. One school's solution on >that score -- don't let in students who aren't already literate enough. >Sound familiar? Fix literacy in college by limiting who attends based on >literacy. > >Sigh. > >Here's the link: > >TERM papers axed to obliterate plagiarism Calgary Herald - >Calgary,Alberta,Canada > >The dreaded end-of-term research paper is becoming the latest victim of >plagiarism on university campuses -- just as administrators are bemoaning >the writing ... ><http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=849ee48c >-7aae-4551-9cc9-7ad274743c4c> > > > > > >Nick >nick_carbone at hotmail.com (to email, replace at with @, and close the >spaces) >http://ncarbone.blogspot.com and/or >http://ncarbone.blogspot.com/TeachingWriting > >_________________________________________________________________ >All the action. All the drama. Get NCAA hoops coverage at MSN Sports by >ESPN. http://msn.espn.go.com/index.html?partnersite=espn > > > > > -- Dr. Doug Brent Associate Dean (Academic) Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary 2500 University Drive N.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 Voice: (403) 220-5458 Fax: (403) 282-6716 http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask] For the list archives and information about the organization, its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-