Blog Post 16

Statement of purpose (what you hope to show/discover):

• The purpose of my study is to learn how students really feel about plagiarism, and to learn whether or not they feel they possess the proper skills to execute a paper successfully, in a timely matter without having to rely on the internet as a shortcut. I am exploring this through the students perspective.

Detailed statement of your research question(s): you should write questions that you can "ask" of your data.

• What I'd ask myself about my data is: Do students rely on the internet or have they just learned an effective way to incorporate the use of the internet in their writing process? Do they still consider this plagiarism? I feel my data shows how students (or a student) feel the internet may help contribute to their writing process in several ways. My participant describes plagiarism, just how most students (or anyone) would describe plagiarism. This led me to ask: Do students feel the guidelines to what plagiarism is should be altered or somehow updated? My data has me wondering if maybe, although students have a clear idea of the definition of plagiarism, do they agree? Just like in my short analysis project, I asked myself what the pattern of laughter may be about when my participant gets more in depth with my topic (plagiarism). In my data, I also saw a connection with how my participants talks about plagiarism and the assumptions and stigma on plagiarism. The connection I saw goes back to the laughter recorded throughout my interview. What I learned about my participants clear directness and then becoming indirect, was that J (my participant) was probably making sure he was being culturally appropriate.

 

List of the information you need to gather: list any additional "data" you will need to complete your project (do you need to: do follow up interviews?  an observation?  look at some writing samples?  etc?)

• I am thinking I may do a very short follow up interview, and maybe even ask to see some written samples, or ask my participant to show me some of his planning process? Not sure if that would take me off topic though.

 

A preliminary list of sources (if you need a research essay => let me know.  Send what you have found so far and give me a detailed idea of what you are looking for)

Discussion of any additional data you will need to collect + how you will collect it

 

• Ill probably collect more data by just doing a follow up interview