A questionnaire on the measurement of apprehension about writing was given to 1,257 students enrolled in their first college course in composition. Scores on the questionnaire did not correlate well with a measure of performance, grades in the composition course. A general measure of verbal facility and skills, Composite American College Test scores, correlated well with grades. These findings raise questions about what is measured by the questionnaire and suggest that achievement in writing depends more heavily on verbal skills than on apprehension about writing.
College freshmen (75 men and 75 women) at Indiana University completed a questionnaire designed to elicit their reasoning about, and attitudes toward, plagiarism. Students wrote their own explanations of why it is wrong to plagiarize, rated five standard explanations that were based on different ethical orientations, and responded to a series of statements about the seriousness and consequences of plagiarizing. Analyses revealed that these students took the matter of plagiarism rather seriously, and that they tended to construe plagiarism in terms of three major issues: fairness to authors and other students, the responsibility of students to do independent work, and respect for ownership rights.
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