4A -- Thursday, September 6, 2012
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4A - Thursday, September 6, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
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ASHLEY GRIESSHAMMER
JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ADRIENNE ROBERTS ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Imran Syed isthe public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@michigandaily.com.
Explicit guidelines
Vague acadmic honesty policies pose problems
A t Harvard University, more than 100 students are being
implicated in a cheating scandal after they were caught
writing nearly identical answers for a final exam, a set
of take-home essay questions. While the exam directions forbade
collaboration with other students, many students claim that group
work with both other students and instructors was normal in the
class. Though the students were entirely in the wrong - academic
honesty should be expected from all'- the policies were unclear,
and defining what constituted misconduct was difficult at best.
Universities should work to define explicit cheating policies and
punishments, and professors should reinforce these guidelines in
individual classes, in hopes of avoiding similar scandals.
"I often disagree with Republicans, I.
actually never learned to hate them the way
the far right that now controls their party
seems to hate our president.
- Former president Bill Clinton said during his keynote address at the
Democratic National Convention in Charlottes, N.C. Tuesday night.
Re:Learning how to e-mail
0
If the students are found guilty of cheating,
the university suspend the students for a year
if found in violation. The diplomas of the stu-
dents who graduated in 2012 will be revoked.
According to The New York Times, some fami-
lies of students are threatening to sue Harvard
should these sanctions be enforced.'
It's impossible to defer total blame to the
students if they are unsure of what consti-
tutes cheating. While the course was assisted
by graduate student instructors, their teach-
ing methods varied between class sections.
Several instructors essentially gave answers
to the students. If an instructor was actively
assisting students on the exam, it's under-
standable that students would think collabo-
ration was acceptable. The take-home exam
was also "open note, open book, open Inter-
net," etc. This policy allowed students to use
a multitude of resources - though the exam
directions clearly stated that the examinees
were not to use each other.
Professors must be wary of too few explicit
guidelines defining academic honesty. As
professors control the course, they shouldn't
pass on grades entirely. Still, the responsi-
bility lies on the graduate student instruc-
tors teaching the courses and grading the
exams in a discussion class - as it does on
the students who took advantage of an "open
book" exam. Though ignorance or confusion
regarding rules is not an adequate defense,
it remains that universities such as Harvard
should employ a clear zero-tolerance policy
for academic dishonesty.
Many work environments are pushing for
team based efforts, which rely heavily on
workplace collaboration. College students
should be learning to collaborate effectively
with peers to better prepare for whatever
happens after graduation. Students should be
encouraged to work together as an effective
study tool.
To avoid future scandals, universities
should work to ensure plagiarism and cheat-
ing policies are completely transparent. Pun-
ishments for these actions should also be
made clear by clarifying what is and is not
academic honesty in written, oral and online
form. These rules and consequences need
to be transparent enough that all involved
understand the university's policies.
For me, e-mailing is an almost
painful form of communi-
cation. Opening my Uni-
versity e-mail homepage is a bit
frightening, as
30 new e-mails
marked "Impor-
tant" glare at me
behind urgent
subject lines.
Even if many of
these e-mails are
from Groupon
informing me of ADRIENNE
the latest mas- ROBERTS
sage deal, it still
takes a substan-
tial chunk out of
my day to go through and appropri-
ately respond. This is without a real
career, where the amount of e-mails
must increase exponentially.
But e-mail is a fact of life at this
point. It was quite the shock this
summer - I spent nine to five in
an office environment - to see just
how many e-mails were exchanged
each day. From internal e-mails
with links to Buzzfeed articles
about Ryan Lochte's narcissism to
a 20-e-mail exchange just to set up
a meeting with a client, my inbox
filled quickly. It seemed as though
e-mail trumped almost every other
form of communication, including
face-to-face conversation.
E-mailing about anything and
everything - and taking a substan-
tial amount of time to do so - was
not unique to my workplace. Grow-
ing up, my mom, a teacher, would
always dedicate her Sundays to
checking and responding to e-mails
she received over the weekend. I
never understood why she did that
until now.
It seems as though people con-
sistently complain about e-mail, yet
use it obsessively. In a way it makes
sense, because it's the only form of
communication that people from all
generations can use with relative
ease. And written communication
will continue to trump face-to-face
conversations and phone calls in
business settings.
But that doesn't mean the art of
writing an e-mail is innate. Like
anythingyou draft, it takes practice
to develop your voice in an e-mail
while simultaneously getting your
point across effectively and con-
cisely. And it takes some people
more time than others to master
this skill.
Just like any other form of com-
munication, we subconsciously
judge the tone and style of e-mails.
Adding too' many exclamation
points runs the risk of looking
juvenile and unprofessional. But, if
you're too short and direct, you risk
reading demanding and rude.
For any job, even that first job in
high school, e-mailing is an over-
looked, yet important skill. Accord-
irig to new data released from the
McKinsey Global institute, the
average employee spends 28 per-
cent of their workweek reading and
responding to e-mails. That may
not seem like a lot, but it adds up to
about 13 hours a week, or 650 hours
a year.
A series of studies from 2005
found that the. sender of an e-mail
is overly egocentric in how they
believe their e-mail is received. One
study in particular found that sar-
casm in e-mails was only commu-
nicated effectively about half the
time. Clearly, miscommunication is
common between coworkers, man-
agers and their clients.
It's ignorant to assume that
e-mail is a trivial form of communi-
cation. But, most universities don't
exactly prepare you for proper
e-mail etiquette, Michigan includ-
ed. The Sweetland Writing Center
offers one-credit courses in the
rhetoric of blogging, approaches to
the podcast and new media writing
for non-profits; all very important,
yet less-widely used forms of com-
munication. Sweetland should look
into offering a similar course for
the art of e-mail writing. It's a text
that provides a great opportunity to
analyze the impact of a particular
word choice,.or the how a certain
tone sounds to other people.
Online
communication
skills are vital
to learn.
0
Long-form writing, while
important, should not be taught
exclusively with more specific com-
munication omitted. My generation
is used to obtaining information
and communicating briefly, from1
a 140-character Tweet to a hur-
ried text message. Being persua-
sive in as few words as possible - a
skill extremely important to many
careers - is not emphasized enough.
Whether it's a one-credit course on
how to write an e-mail or an English
class solely based on short-form and
new media writing, this should be a
priority at the University.
Ideally, people would take
advantage of other forms corre-
spondence. From Facebook groups
to Tweeting, these alternatives to
e-mailing will hopefully prevail.
They're less stressful to read, and
they're certainly less intimidating
than a stuffed inbox. But until that
point, e-mail remains strong. And if
there's one thing Ilearned this sum-
mer, a misplaced exclamation point
can be uncharacteristically killer.
- Adrienne Roberts can be reached
at adrirobe@umich.edu. Follow
her on Twitter at @AdrRoberts.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Kaan Avdan, Eli Cahan, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein,
Patrick Maillet, Harsha Nahata, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski,
Sarah Skaluba, Caroline Syms
MAURA LEVINE|
Lessons from South Africa
The new jack-of all-trades
When I came home from Africa, I gave
away half of the clothes in my closet. After
meeting children with no shdes huddled in
unheated shanties, I wanted to live with less
in order to live with more. Those clothes
wouldn't find their way to the deprived com-
munities I had experienced. I suddenly felt
disgusting for jamming my drawers with
shirts of every style and color of the rainbow.
The poignant eyes of the African children
looking up at me inspired a lifestyle change.
Let me let you in on a little secret: Happi-
ness can indeed be achieved without material
goods. What brings meaning'to our lives? Usu-
ally pursuing what makes us happy. As students
at a top university, we should think persistently
about how to make other people - and ourselves
- happy, and the world a better place.
On our ten-day trip to South Africa this
summer, the University's Women's Glee Club
had several moving experiences. Not only did
we sing with the most spiritual choirs in the
world, but we shared our music with people
who have nothingmore than the shirt on their
back - people who live day to day not knowing
where their next meal will come from.
In general, the South Africans I met had
an easier time seeing the important things in
life than Americans. Part of their culture is to
embrace ideas that make them happy instead
of focusing intently on subjects that don't
give them pleasure. They sing in the streets
and smile by default. Many are dirt poor with
no running water, yet they did not cast judg-
ment when we drove into their shantytowns
in Mercedes buses. Instead, they looked up
at us with tears in their eyes after we sang,
blessing us for sharing our music with them
in a church or rustic banquet hall.
When I arrived back in the United States, I
had a revelation. I bolted up in the middle of the
night - perhaps due to six hours of jet-lag -and
made plans to push material things out of my
life and pull the spirit in. I sorted my clothes
into piles. I took them downtown to a local
community center and felt a gratifying twang.
in my heart when I handed over the bags.
This story is not a pat on the back for donat-
ing clothes, nor is it about how you should go
clean out your closet (though I do suggest the
latter, it's an amazing rush). Americans, and
college students in particular, get too caught
up in superficiality. We get too obsessed with
the newest pair of rain boots or the costly
bottle of booze, and that's without mention-
ing the new pair of jeans every girl "needs" to
make sure she looks just right. On the other
hand, the South Africans have an optimistic
outlook, originating from a wise sensibility.
We need to look at life like the South Afri-
cans I met. I ain not saying everyone who
cannot sing needs to try; rather, every per-
son should pursue what he or she truly loves.
Care less about what you are wearing and
more about what you are doing while in those
clothes. Try looking at your material goods as
non-essential items for daily living, because
chances are, half are unnecessary. Here at
Michigan, we need to make sure that the con-
centration we choose is going to help us make
a positive difference in the lives ofothers, not
necessarily a difference in our bank accounts.
Maura Levine is an LSA sophomore..
rowing up, I was often told
I was on my way to becom-
ing
a jack-of-all-
trades. I had
a plethora of
interests and
activities, and
had no idea how
I would ever be
able to choose
a single focus HEMA
later in life. In KARUNA-
high school, it KARAM
was apparent
that I was pretty
good at alot of things but not truly
excellent at any single thing. Every-
one around me seemed already
narrowing down their interests or
cultivating a particular talent but I
was lost. I had always loved being
the jack-of-all-trades. Couldn't I
just stay that way?
There was, of course, a time
when it would have been accept-
able to have so many interests and
talents -'the Renaissance. So-called
"rebirth" of European cultural
and scientific advances in the 14th
through 17th centuries spawned a
number of people with historical
figures in a wide variety of arenas.
Great minds such as Leonardo da
Vinci still escape traditional single-
word occupations, and were revered
for their many interests and abili-
ties. Da Vinci, for'example, was a
painter, scientist, musician, cartog-
rapher, inventor and much more
- the quintessential "Renaissance
man." This was an era where society
not only accepted, but highly valued
multi-talented people.
But, obviously society has
changed alot since those days. We've
now come to channeling our efforts
into a single direction for increased
specialization. Students are expect-
ed to choose a field of study early on,
and the people who are most revered
for their knowledge in our world are
those with Ph.Ds - which are noth-
ing more than testaments to a per-
son's full expertise in an extremely
narrow, specific discipline. Some-
one who does many things but can't
choose a single one to gain expertise
in is deemed a jack-of-all-trades. The
connotation is overtly negative, as
he or she is not just the Jack-of-all-
trades- such a person is often con-
sidered a "master-of-none." Perhaps
it's important to choose a specialty,
a single-word occupation for the
world to know each of us by. But I'd
like to think there is still some value
in being knowledgeable or talented
in many areas.
I'm an engineering student, but
I took a class in environmental law
last semester. I'd eventually liketo go
into this field, but it isn't entirely rel-
evant to my undergraduate studies.
Although I intended to take it purely
out of interest, I was surprised to
find that it provided the most rel-
evant background for my internship
this summer. My employer was more
impressed with my knowledge of
American environmental legislation
and regulation than any of my engi-
neering studies, and it played a daily
role in the work I did there.
My experience could be written
off as isolated, but I've talked to many
fellow students who've had similar
experiences in the workplace. Inter-
disciplinary approaches to problems
are becoming more valuable and
appreciated. Too many students fall
into the trap of over-focusing on a
single subject. This kind of focus can
be beneficial to many disciplines, but
it also can detract fromtheir market-
ability and performance. Times have
certainly changed since the Renais-
sance, and today's society demands
more specialization. This specializa-
tion, however, shouldn't come at the
loss of a general awareness of other
subjects. The oft-referenced "absent-
minded professor" comes to mind:
someone who is brilliant at what
he or she does, but is confounded
by everyday life. Sure, society isn't
breeding us all to be so extreme -
but it is certainly beneficial to be
knowledgeable in areas outside our
immediate focus area.
Carve your own
niche of interest,
but stay open
minded.
So go ahead and take that class
on the discovery of DNA or fascist
cinema or American business his-
tory. Carving a niche for yourself is
important, but so is being aware of
the world around you. We may not
all be Leonardo da Vincis. However,
we can still do our part in growing
a generation of well-rounded, multi-
talented thinkers and leaders - the
new jacks-of-all-trades.
- Hema Karunakaram can
be reached at khema@umich.
edu and @hemakarunakaram.
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