The Null Device

How to cheat good

A former university lecturer from the US, dissatisfied with the quality of student cheating, has written a guide on how to cheat better:
5. Malaprop big words
Make sure you pick a word that sounds impervious and use it incorrigibly, or inventorate words. We'll be udderly convinced of your genuinity (not to mention your precedential potential).
8. Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text
This is my Number 1 piece of advice, even if it is numbered eight. When you copy things from the web into Word, ignoring #3 above, don't just "Edit > Paste" it into your document. When I am reading a document in black, Times New Roman, 12pt, and it suddenly changes to blue, Helvetica, 10pt (yes, really), I'm going to guess that something odd may be going on. This seems to happen in about 1% of student work turned in, and periodically makes me feel like becoming a hermit.
Meanwhile, in China, where demand for university places exceeds supply by several times, cheaters are turning to extreme measures to get in:
A student in Wuhan, capital of China's central province of Hubei, used earphones so small that they slipped into his aural canal and perforated his eardrum, the China Daily newspaper said.
Another student's earphones required an operation for their removal, the paper said, while an electronic device connected to headphones and strapped to a third student's body exploded, leaving a bleeding hole in his abdomen.

There are 1 comments on "How to cheat good":

Posted by: steff http://ofterdingenandkro Fri Jun 23 01:11:40 2006

A related point on bloated verbiage and essay rhetoric is <a href=http://lecolonelchabert.blogspot.com/2006/06/clerical-calling.html> here</a>.