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Subject:Re: Ethics - Helping with a Thesis From:DAVID IBBETSON <ibbetson -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 4 Dec 1995 13:29:41 -0500
>The ethics involved in this type of question pose some interesting
>questions, don't they! ce rather than the creation of the work
>itself, there is a great deal of room for good editing and tutoring
>without falling into an ethical bind.
I must admit to old age, I'm 62. When I got my degree in the UK, and later
did a thesis on statistics, I was expected to be able to express myself in a
literate manner.
c.1982 the small company I was then working for took on a new engineering
graduate from a major Canadian University. Because I fear it isn't
exceptional I won't name it. He did about three months work on a new product
and then produced an illiterate report that none of us could understand. He
was sacked and I spent the next couple of months respecifying the product
from scratch.
To my mind the danger if helping a student with _any _ aspect of her/his
thesis is the danger that one has helped him/her cheat. If the student's
supervisor will go into writing and say it's permissible to correct the
student's English I suppose one goes ahead, but I would be slow to employ
any graduate from that university without asking him/her to write an unaided
essay.
David (idiot boy) Ibbetson
ibbetson -at- idirect -dot- com
