Can you believe it? Tim just wrote an 8-page research paper in Spanish. Pretty remarkable when you consider that 15 months ago (when we arrived in Peru), he couldn't really carry on a basic conversation. I'm so amazed by how far he's come since then.

Speaking of 8-page research papers, we're baffled and curious about how these are going to turn out. From what I've seen so far, even the (seemingly) smarter people in class are copying word-for-word from their sources, not citing anything, and then giving a few of their own thoughts in the conclusion.

Besides the fact that we see them doing it in the computer lab, it's also made clear in that all the oral presentations are exactly the same (since they used the same texts). Needless to say, this is making for a rather tedious week of listening to the presentations.

Is this an acceptable way to write a paper in post-graduate work? The syllabi all give strong admonitions against plagiarism. Do they really mean it? Are all these people going to get zeros? Is the definition of plagiarism different here? Are the teachers (incorrectly assuming the students understand?

I'm not sure if I'll ever find out, since I don't intend to take a poll of everyone's grades. Then again we might get a class speech.

Another possibility is that my paper (done according to the standards I learned) is going to be unacceptable by their standards. Hmmmm. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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