December 11, 2008   Grading papers and exams sucks. I always
have high expectations for the work that will come out of
undergraduates in a 400-level class. I don't expect them to
write publishable papers or even come up with a new or original
way of looking at a skeleton. But I do expect them to write in
complete sentences, to check their paper for typos (particularly
of anatomical terms), complete all aspects of the assignment,
and, most importantly, fully cite their work and include a
bibliography. Do undergraduate classes no longer require in-text
citations? Only one student out of 15 cited things properly in
her final paper for me: author, year, page number (if relevant).
I gather that some of them are being taught a weird style, like
APA, but honestly, I don't care about style as much as I care
that they don't seem to know when it's appropriate or necessary
to include a citation. They don't include them when they first
mention a methodology they're using (e.g., the Phenice method
for sexing the os coxae)