How many students who ask questions here cite their source when submitting their homework?

Answer 1

What I hate are the questions that contain "See figure below" with no figure or link. It's like they just copied and pasted from the homework website.

Answer 2

Probably none.

At first, I thought you meant: how many cite the source of their question when they are asking. If I ever found one of my homework questions posted here verbatim, I would ask yahoo to remove it, and if they didn't, go after them extremely rapidly for copyright violation. Frankly, I think some of the textbook companies ought to be doing exactly that.

I encourage collaboration on homeworks, but copying answers verbatim is verboten and grounds for getting kicked out of class. But when they do collaborate with each other, I do not require citation of their collaborators, so I don't see why I would require it from here. (Then again, I rarely assign research papers to my elementary students)

I also never post anything here when I care very much about citation or when I think my work will be significantly misused, as in math or an essay being copied wholesale for an assignment.

Frankly, it is a simple matter to discover when poor students are copying somebody else's answers.

Answer 3

I'm not clear how one would cite an answer given here. Proper citation does two things: provides the reader a place to go to verify what the author cited and provides a sense of validity to the answer.

But, and this is that big BUT I often mention, that latter part is true if and only if the cited material can be attributed to a knowledgeable, recognized expert in the field. I'm afraid none of the answerers, who remain anonymous, can be shown to be experts...including me.

If I were an Asker, I'd avoid quoting an answerer and, thereby, avoid having to cite the answer. I'd also do my own math to ensure the answer given was correct and to ensure what I handed in was my own work. [I rarely do the math for an Asker for this reason and also to ensure the Asker actually works the problem whose solution I've laid out.]

Good question, as always, Alex.

Answer 4

My main concern is that most students who come here seem to find it easier to type

answers.yahoo.com

than

wikipedia.org

Why is that? Are teachers actively discouraging students to use Wikipedia? Are the same teachers providing the same students with valid accounts for Encyclopedia Britannica, which is probably the only other online resource that can compete with Wikipedia on some level? If these students don't get access on the web to the knowledge of the world, do they have access to research libraries at major universities?

What gives? Student stupidity? Teacher stupidity? Both?

Answer 5

it's required that students cite their sources when submitting reports, so unless they explain that their homework has been done for them by Y!A answerers, they fail in class.

Answer 6

I just think that students should be doing their own homework and their own studying! By coming here and having everyone do it for them is teaching them nothing, but how to cheat! They certainly aren't learning anything!

Answer 7

i do! because if i didn't then the teacher could say i was plagerizing. but i only asked 1 homework question on yahoo.

Answer 8

I dont unless its a reasurch paper.

Answer 9

zero

Answer 10

me!!!