When students turn to the internet for information, and end up using material that isn’t scholarly in their essays, who is to blame? If the students have been given guidance about where to look, and in particular using databases and scholarly sources, then they must shoulder some, even much, of the blame. But I wonder whether those who present their claims as facts around the web, without sources or citations, without evidence, without acknowledgment of opposing views except perhaps to dismiss and mischaracterize them, ever think about the students whose grades they are likely to harm. I certainly hope that students will write to the people behind some of these sites and complain, when they realize they have been duped, and have as a result received a lower grade than they otherwise might have.
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