Bruce Wilson's Review of Article

Title of Article : A War of Worlds

Publisher : The Journal

Date of Publication: September 11, 2007

Author: Jim Patterson
Link: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21221

Summary of article

The article talks of a program called Paper tools Pro that helps studens organize their notes better so they will avoid plagarism when writing a research paper.
It seems that not all educators are happy with these kinds of programs. Charlie Low the spokesman for CCCC ( Conference on College Composition and Communication) seems to think that these programs label the students who use them as potential plagarizers. He thinks it
crosses the line of infringing on their rights. He goes on to talking about opposing computer programs that put students papers in a national database called iparadigms that allows teachers to compare students papers agains others.
He feels students should be responsible for their own work and learn first hand about sighting sources properly in their work.
I looked at the program and I can understand the opposing views on this topic, but being a special education teacher I tend to lean more toward the proactive approach to the problem. The program is ideal for people with organizational problems. I think it’s a great program as it makes students aware of the process of writing a paper. I downloaded a sample copy. It gives you a step by step approach which I think is helpful for students who have not written a paper before or for individuals who are learning disabled and have extreme difficulties organizing their ideas. It teaches the difference between plagiarizing and paraphrasing. It also shows them how to cite sources and create a bibliography.
I see Mr.Low’s point about being responsible and having an understanding about citing sources. Students should not rely solely on a program like this.
Mr.Low also goes on to talk of the issue of keeping terms papers in a data base and using it to compare papers. I believe that is an infringement on student’s rights, but then I do find that a whole other issue of discussion.
If I were teaching older students I would allow them to use this program as a teaching tool. Once they got the hang of writing a research paper I would only allow it for students with I.E.P.s. Writing a paper can be very intimidating to students and you want them to feel comfortable but at the same time you want them to learn to do it on their own. Whats next? Will we have programs that will write the whole paper for you. Whats your ideas about this program and others like it.? Do you think we should be encouraging students to use programs like Paper tools pro?

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