"Favorite" student sentences

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Not quite sentences, but two darling phrases from a student paper:

fish hunter

suicide boomer

So, was the 'fish hunter' supposed to be a 'fisherman/fisherperson?'

[Parasaurolophus]

Not quite sentences, but two darling phrases from a student paper:

fish hunter

suicide boomer

So, was the 'fish hunter' supposed to be a 'fisherman/fisherperson?'

Yup!

[marshwiggle]

Not quite sentences, but two darling phrases from a student paper:

fish hunter

suicide boomer

So, was the 'fish hunter' supposed to be a 'fisherman/fisherperson?'

Yup!

But "fish hunter" conjures up more of the scuba-gear-and-speargun image, which is way cooler than guy-in-a-boat-with-a-net.

[FishProf]

So, was the 'fish hunter' supposed to be a 'fisherman/fisherperson?'

Yup!

But "fish hunter" conjures up more of the scuba-gear-and-speargun image, which is way cooler than guy-in-a-boat-with-a-net.

Or THIS

[apl68]

So, was the 'fish hunter' supposed to be a 'fisherman/fisherperson?'

Yup!

But "fish hunter" conjures up more of the scuba-gear-and-speargun image, which is way cooler than guy-in-a-boat-with-a-net.

Or THIS

And we thought a bear swiping a salmon out of a stream was impressive!

[FishProf]

And we thought a bear swiping a salmon out of a stream was impressive!

Like This?

[apl68]

And we thought a bear swiping a salmon out of a stream was impressive!

Like This?

Guess that bear doesn't realize that the object is to get the fish out where you are, not to join the fish where it is....

[WidgetWoman]

"The ideology of massless, ideal, linear, and frictionless springs adjusted the problem to a reasonable candor."

I've never had problems of reasonable candor, nor am I sure what those would look like (I'm in a technical field; "springs" = bouncy devices, not seasons. We really don't delve into ideology)

[RatGuy]

"The ideology of massless, ideal, linear, and frictionless springs adjusted the problem to a reasonable candor."

I've never had problems of reasonable candor, nor am I sure what those would look like (I'm in a technical field; "springs" = bouncy devices, not seasons. We really don't delve into ideology)

Is it possible that this has been run through one of those thesaurus programs? Because I am trying to imagine a such a spring and my imagination is failing me.

[WidgetWoman]

"The ideology of massless, ideal, linear, and frictionless springs adjusted the problem to a reasonable candor."

I've never had problems of reasonable candor, nor am I sure what those would look like (I'm in a technical field; "springs" = bouncy devices, not seasons. We really don't delve into ideology)

Is it possible that this has been run through one of those thesaurus programs? Because I am trying to imagine a such a spring and my imagination is failing me.

It definitely reads that way. I may need to do some more investigation, sadly.

[downer]

I was recently trying to track down the source of student writing that had clearly been run though a paraphrase site. I noticed that there seemed to be more such sites than last time I looked, a couple of years ago. Also, that there was quite a lot of variation on the quality of the paraphrasing. My student had seemed to use a really terrible one that made more nonsense of the Cliffnotes they had used than the ones I tried.

I found the source by identifying some obvious thesaurus-equivalents. They had something like "cadaver" when the original had "corpse." It took some searching but I found it eventually. Names don't get changed, so they can be useful to keep in the search terms.

[the_geneticist]

"The ideology of massless, ideal, linear, and frictionless springs adjusted the problem to a reasonable candor."

I've never had problems of reasonable candor, nor am I sure what those would look like (I'm in a technical field; "springs" = bouncy devices, not seasons. We really don't delve into ideology)

Is it possible that this has been run through one of those thesaurus programs? Because I am trying to imagine a such a spring and my imagination is failing me.

That's what I think.  Try swapping out "candor" and put in "fairness".

They probably found information about the behavior of an "ideal spring" in physics (e.g. no friction) and tried to make the answer fit the question you asked.

[Charlotte]

I was recently trying to track down the source of student writing that had clearly been run though a paraphrase site. I noticed that there seemed to be more such sites than last time I looked, a couple of years ago. Also, that there was quite a lot of variation on the quality of the paraphrasing. My student had seemed to use a really terrible one that made more nonsense of the Cliffnotes they had used than the ones I tried.

I found the source by identifying some obvious thesaurus-equivalents. They had something like "cadaver" when the original had "corpse." It took some searching but I found it eventually. Names don't get changed, so they can be useful to keep in the search terms.

How do you generally handle this when it occurs?

[ciao_yall]

I was recently trying to track down the source of student writing that had clearly been run though a paraphrase site. I noticed that there seemed to be more such sites than last time I looked, a couple of years ago. Also, that there was quite a lot of variation on the quality of the paraphrasing. My student had seemed to use a really terrible one that made more nonsense of the Cliffnotes they had used than the ones I tried.

I found the source by identifying some obvious thesaurus-equivalents. They had something like "cadaver" when the original had "corpse." It took some searching but I found it eventually. Names don't get changed, so they can be useful to keep in the search terms.

How do you generally handle this when it occurs?

My students are getting better at plagiarism. My usual trick of copying/pasting sentences into Google is not bearing much fruit. I mean, I guess if they ran something through a translator and then edited it themselves, and it makes sense and meets the assignment requirements, worse things have happened.

But I can just tell these are written by professional writers and copied and pasted. IT'S DRIVING ME BATTY!

[downer]

I was recently trying to track down the source of student writing that had clearly been run though a paraphrase site. I noticed that there seemed to be more such sites than last time I looked, a couple of years ago. Also, that there was quite a lot of variation on the quality of the paraphrasing. My student had seemed to use a really terrible one that made more nonsense of the Cliffnotes they had used than the ones I tried.

I found the source by identifying some obvious thesaurus-equivalents. They had something like "cadaver" when the original had "corpse." It took some searching but I found it eventually. Names don't get changed, so they can be useful to keep in the search terms.

How do you generally handle this when it occurs?

This last time I just gave the student a 0 for the assignment.
The last time, when I worked out that there had been a pattern of cheating, I reported it to a dean and provided evidence. The student got zeros for the work they cheated on but I think they passed the course.