Thank you, Bob, for the response.
Perhaps there is too much vagueness in the
descriptions students often get, of good style,
good citing of texts that are used, etc.
I remember going to a used book store last Saturday,
and came across a "How to talk to other people" book
from around 1925. Tiny little book - one of those canvas
covered pocket-sized textbooks from way back when. [why
are books so *huge* nowadays, and cover less?]
In it, it had very simple - naive, but simple - rules
for engaging in conversation. And one of the thing it
said, was (paraphrased) "Every story must have a hero.
Make sure when you tell a story, or relate something
that happened - make sure there is a hero."
These simple little things can make all the difference
to a student - even if the rules are sometimes arbitrary...
For example, perhaps a check-list for students
where they can make sure they are not plagurizing.
1) Did you quote more than two sentences from another
a) if so, reduce quote to two sentences.
2) Did you rewrite the words from another book
in your own words?
a) if so, you are plagurising.
i. Rethink what you are trying to say
ii. etc. etc.
I wouldn't even know how to put together such
a list, but I can think of many things in high school
that would have been made easier, if there was a
Flowchart - a logic chart - that I could check
my paper with, and have a better idea what the
teacher is thinking.
It also might help students who feel they are
more cunning than the teacher, realize that the
teacher has seen it all before, and is rarely
as fooled as it may seem at first.
[my biggest problem in school was making
papers too long. I have the same problem in
e-mails - ie - no editing skills for my own words :-) ]