niche

Lauren Kanzler

Professor Moody

13 April 2010

Niche

Topic: Was it was easier for students of higher education to plagiarize before the use of computers or now?

Move 1: This topic is important because plagiarism is such a big issue on college campuses. With the awful consequences of plagiarism including, failing, expulsion or in some cases the taking away of degrees, I think it is important to give students a history of how students plagiarized before computers and how they do it now. I also wanted them to look at plagiarism in a different way, as something that has always been done but was, as I’m arguing, easier before the use of computers in higher education. I will be using research done by Sebastian Niezgoda and Thomas P. Way, which describes plagiarism and talks about how plagiarism detection was done before computers and how it works now that computers are being used in higher education. I will also be reviewing a survey done by Patrick M. Scanlon and David R. Neumann which shows how many students plagiarize, how many get caught and how many think that it is wrong to do so.

Move 2: I think that my niche would be that most people would argue the opposite of what I will argue. Most people would say that it is easier to plagiarize with the use of computers because of the copious amounts of sources available on the Internet a student can copy from. I will argue that even though there are more sources for students to copy from now the use of plagiarism detection programs are fairly successful at detecting copying. Before computers professors had to manually check papers for plagiarism and the only way to catch it was if the professor had read those particular words before in a book or in another students paper. I will argue that this made it easier to plagiarize because no matter how well read a professor was a student could have paid someone else to write a paper for them, turn in something that they have already turned in, or turn in something that another student has already used, and the professor has no way of knowing it was plagiarized.

Move 3:

Step 1: The purpose of this paper is to persuade people that plagiarism was easier before the use of computers in higher education.

Step 2: After reading this paper I believe that a reader will be convinced that plagiarism was easier before the use of computers. I will use the research I have gathered along with some of my own assumptions to structure my argument.

Step 3: In order to effectively get my point across I will start my paper by stating my topic and establishing my point of view. I will than give research about plagiarism before the use of computers, plagiarism after the use of computers and statistics about how often students plagiarize (all information which backs up my point.) I will then conclude my paper and tell readers why they should side with me in this argument.

Types of Argument

I think that my argument about how computers have made it more difficult for college students to plagiarize would fall into the category of a factual and a casual argument. Chapter 7 of Everything’s an Argument states that in writing a factual argument “a writer first notes something new or different or mistaken and wants to draw attention to that fact.”(Pg. 182) My Core 4 is a factual argument in the aspect that I found information on a topic that had not been questioned. Most of the research I found was about plagiarism in the age of computers and I found no studies on whether computers helped or hindered the ease of plagiarism. That is why I decided to argue my topic, because it had not been talked about before. Finding information about computers before the use of computers and after the use of computers helped me become educated in this particular field and then lead me to draw my own conclusions. “You need to identify an issue or problem that may already have the attention of potential readers or, in your opinion, should have their attention.”(Pg. 186) I took an already talked about issue and put my own spin on it that hadn’t been talked about yet.

In Malcolm X’s essay “Learning to Read” he give the reader facts to argue his point on why learning to read and write in jail is difficult. He backs up his argument by telling readers that he did not have a lot of supplies in which to learn and that he learned new words by copying from the dictionary. These facts argue his point of how difficult it is to learn in jail but how it is possible.

I also think that my argument falls into the category of a casual argument because it uses cause and effect. The use of computers (cause) has made it more difficult for college students to plagiarize (effect). Chapter 10 of Everything’s an Argument states that “ you could challenge the causal assumptions made by people you don’t agree with.” I think that many people would disagree with my point of view arguing that computers have made plagiarism easier to get away with because of all the sources available on the Internet in which a student can copy from. I understand where those people are coming from but disagree with them due to all the research I have done. I will be supplying all my relevant research in my paper and persuading those who disagree with me to take my side of the argument.