Know Your Student's Voice

Written work that causes "red flags" should be explored. This could include work submitted in one medium (e.g., a discussion forum) that doesn't read in the same style as work submitted in a different medium (e.g., as a formal paper). Granted, different mediums lend themselves to different writing styles. I would not, for example, compare a chat history to a submitted paper. In a chat, the writing style is generally casual and there is more leniency around grammar and punctuation. Even if your requirements for discussion forums, for example, are more casual than a submitted paper, there are usually indicators such as word choice, heavier use of passive vs. active voice, or the use of colloquialisms, for example, that provide a clue that the work may have multiple authors.

Other indicators may include:

• Content that reads like a published article
• Unexpected changes in tense or person that later reverts
• An example that seems out-of-synch with the overall purpose of the paper
• Use of jargon that is substantively more or less advanced than the student's program placement
• Incomplete or excessively brief draft papers that are followed in rapid succession by a comprehensive completed work

Next, we will discuss honor codes—rules of conduct that specify what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.