If Yahoo!answers had been around during your college days, would you have used it to gather material for those painful sociology (or whatever subject that didn't float your boat) essays? Would it have been considered cheating or research? Younger folks should feel free to give your opinions or information about it, too.
2006-07-14 08:31:30 · 10 answers · asked by md_51900 2 in Social Science ➔ Sociology
Borderline cheating, depending on the specifics. And yes, I probably would have at least flirted with the borderline...
2006-07-14 08:37:26 · answer #1 · answered by norcalirish 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In some ways, college would have been easier because there's so much information at our fingertips these days. I remember the countless trips to the library and having to figure out which reference books would have the precise information I was seeking.
On the other hand, there's so much information now at the click of a button that I might have been distracted by all that's available on the internet. Not to mention the fact that you can't always trust the sources you're reading. Who's to say that any information gleaned from the internet is accurate? It can be a good launching point for a course of study, but it should never replace the real thing. (There are many interesting topics discussed on YahooAnswers, but I would be loath to use so much opinion as fact.)
Having said that, I think overall the internet would have been more helpful to me. It's just so convenient. And because it's so convenient, it can be (and often is) abused very easily. The important thing to understand is that the internet is just a *tool.* It is one *source* of information. It's important to highlight that word: source. In the same manner copying verbatim passages from books is plagiarism, so is it plagiarism if you copy word-for-word from the internet. The bottom line is, whether gathering info from a book or internet, the work(s) you're studying belong to someone else. It's ok to learn from what you read, absorb the content, assimlilate it with other sources. But it's the responsibility of every student come up with their own ideas and statements.
Plagiarism, whether from hard-back or internet, is cheating. It's stealing. It's taking credit for someone else's work. It's morally and ethically wrong. By plagiarizing, by not doing one's own work, a person suffers the (severe, in my opinion) consequence of never having formulated their own thoughts and opinions. That's a pity. That's an *education* wasted.
2006-07-14 16:38:14 · answer #2 · answered by Jen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In my sociology class I took the first assignment and went out and did the research. I took detailed notes and wrote my paper and received a low B. Every paper after that I did no research and wrote what I thought the teacher was hoping I'd find out. I ended the course with an A.
So I wouldn't waste my time, my preferred method is quicker.
2006-07-14 15:51:02 · answer #3 · answered by Samuel C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just having the internet has made college soooo much easier. It's not cheating if you cite and don't plagiarize. Just know your sources are legit. Most journals are online know, so that is such a time saver. I would only ask for sources on Yahoo Answers. Not answers!
2006-07-14 15:42:47 · answer #4 · answered by Phoenix, Wise Guru 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, I wouldn't have used Yahoo! Answers for my essays (cursed with a strong conscience), though I would have appreciated searching the Internet as opposed to doing all my research in books. Frankly, it would have been nice to have a word processing program. Back when I was in college, cutting edge technology was an electric typewriter. Didn't have graphing calculators (or ANY calculators) for math and science courses. Somehow, we made it through.
2006-07-14 15:42:19 · answer #5 · answered by just♪wondering 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I might have used it to get recommendations for research materials or promising lines of thinking, but most of my papers required citations from reputable sources, so the internet would have been useless as a direct source.
2006-07-14 15:36:40 · answer #6 · answered by Torero In Red 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I remember having to do a survey for one of my classes and I hated it so much that I ended up making up people and answers for it. Something like this would have been a lot easier.
2006-07-14 15:36:29 · answer #7 · answered by J_Sunstar 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nah, I would of just made up the answers anyway and used Yahoo Answers for serious real stuff, like what celebrity is cool or not, or who did this or that....
2006-07-14 15:35:49 · answer #8 · answered by dje 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would have done my own research. Questions that are just blatant attempts to get total strangers to do school or work assignments are a crashing bore!
2006-07-14 15:41:59 · answer #9 · answered by nimbleminx 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, you can't rely on the information you get on this site. How the heck do you annotate that as your source?
2006-07-14 15:37:03 · answer #10 · answered by LindaLou 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋