Battling Term Paper Cheats - Question 4

The whole idea of trusting yet still having the need to verify is flawed as it defeats the meaning of "trust". Trusting students to stay away from plagiarism means that one would have to place full confidence in them respecting honour codes without having the need to check up on their honesty. Having to verify the scripts of students only highlights the fact that schools are still sceptic of acts of dishonesty, thus showing their distrust in students. Despite justifying verification by using it as a safeguard against dishonest acts, this may incense students as the "trust" that the school has in them is practically non-existent when checks have to carried out. In Singapore, many schools have also turned to plagiarism-detection sites, like Turnitin.com, to check for plagiarism by its students. Regardless of how much a school trusts its students, it is inevitable for a black sheep to be amongst the crowd to give a reason for distrust, hence it is still essential for schools to verify the works of its students.

As feasible as the idea sounds, it is unrealistic because it is impossible, as pointed by Tim Dodd, "to fight technology with technology". Fast-developing technology in society only means that new technology that can override the old will constantly be invented, and this will give students an opportunity to work around the current systems being put in place. Moreover, with school students forming the majority of the IT-savvy generation, "kids will always be two generations ahead", thus giving students an added advantage over the school authorities.

All in all, the idea of "trust but verify" cannot be really carried out because by verifying students' works, it can be implied that schools simply do not trust their students enough to entirely place their faith in them. In a society like Singapore which is so heavily reliant on technology, verification is necessary as there is easy access to the Internet, making information so accessible and retrievable to students, to the extent that they may be tempted to cheat. While schools may choose not have to verify all term papers, students should not take it for granted that they can get away with plagiarism with a stroke of luck. Instead, students should be instilled with a sense of integrity which will curb the problem in the long-run when technology ends up defeating technology. Even so, schools should not be too reliant on verification methods, as as mentioned in the passage, there will always exist means to get around these barriers. A balance has to be struck between the right amount of verification and the right amount of trust a school should place in its students.

- Baorong, Bryan, Melissa, Ruisi 09S06J