How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers

David Rothenberg:

-is a professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

 In this essay, he discusses the recent decline he’s noticed in the quality of his students’ writing, critical thinking and originality due to their increasing reliance on the World Wide Web as a research tool. In addition to outlining the Educational hazards of the World Wide Web, he stresses the responsibility of teachers to help develop students’ critical thinking ability, including the hard work of reading closely, working through arguments and assessing and synthesizing sources.

  In the past before the arrival of World Wide Web, he could read and evaluate students’ research paper with their own ideas and thoughts that came up after his guidance and classroom discuss. But this semester, he finds students’ research papers declining in both the quality of writing and the originality of thoughts.

In the past, he could read research papers which students made after they studied many books, consulted teachers, experts and concerned people and visited field. They were the result of students’ careful study, hard work and under the guidance of their teachers or experts.

But in recent days, in students’ research papers, he finds bibliography with no books or books containing outdated information. There are beautiful pictures and graph neatly inserted in their papers, they look impressive as if they were the outcome of careful work and analysis, however they are the cut and paste from World Wide Web, they contain nothing that represent students’ own idea, thought and analysis; furthermore, the pictures and graphs inserted have no or little relation to the subject described. They add unattributed quotations and only the information that are available on the net.

Rothenberg is not against the new technology that provides instant information but opposes the hunt-and-peck method of writing paper. He also claims that the decline in the quality of students’ research papers is not only the fault of the students and www but also the fault of teachers. Stressing on the fact that it is better to rely on books, library and other reliable source for originality and critical thinking, he wants teachers to be aware of such new arrivals in the market.

David Rothenberg’s major criticisms:

While writing research papers using the World Wide Web, students have:

-declined the quality of writing, critical thinking and originality of thoughts,

-used outdated sources that consist of articles and Web links but not in depth commentaries found in books.

-used graphs that look impressive but often bear little relation to the paper topic.

-used random, superficial research methods avoiding careful, analytical and logical work and synthesis of sources.

-increased plagiarism and neglected the use of library.

-become lazy and inattentive.

Opposing view

Richard Cummins in his letter to the editor suggests that Rothenberg overemphasizes the influence of World Wide Web and falls to the common misleading notion of blaming the medium instead of the ways it is used. He says that World Wide Web provides an opportunity for students to reflect on topics that are relevant to their academic success including the nature of critical thinking, information against knowledge, plagiarism and locating evaluating and documenting library and web sources.  Www is a recent arrival as a source. We should teach our students the strategies how to use it and take it just as a tool.