I've been reading quite a lot of student papers this past week and I'm bothered (as I usually am) by the lack of proofreading that takes place. Students--proofread your papers! Read them out loud. Print them out and read them and mark them with a red pen. The best thing, I've found, is to have someone else proofread it. Some recent favorites:
Something else that I've noticed in quite a few papers is sudden changes in font size and/or style. For me, this is an immediate red flag that plagiarism is afoot.
Here's Taylor Mali on the the impotence of proofreading (WARNING: this is rated PG-13, at least):
If you're still not convinced, here's a real-world example. I was on the search committee for the recent theory/composition opening that we had here at TTU. We had around 95 applicants for the position. When you have to wade through 95 CVs and cover letters, you look for just about any reason to eliminate one of them. One of the first people I ruled out was someone who thought that he would be a great fit for the University of Alabama School of Music.
I attended a performance of Candied by Leonardo Bernstein
After the first half of the concert, there was a fifteen minute intervention
The next piece I heard was Beethoven's "Stephen King" overture, op. 117.
Something else that I've noticed in quite a few papers is sudden changes in font size and/or style. For me, this is an immediate red flag that plagiarism is afoot.
Here's Taylor Mali on the the impotence of proofreading (WARNING: this is rated PG-13, at least):
If you're still not convinced, here's a real-world example. I was on the search committee for the recent theory/composition opening that we had here at TTU. We had around 95 applicants for the position. When you have to wade through 95 CVs and cover letters, you look for just about any reason to eliminate one of them. One of the first people I ruled out was someone who thought that he would be a great fit for the University of Alabama School of Music.