Q & A s

[Peachy66]

Not a question, just interested in the number of questions that could so easily be answered by Google etc. Yes I love this site too but Its sad that so many people don`t actually pick a reference book up for the answer. Maybe I`m getting on a bit but I love my ref, books. Is it just me who feels like this?

[squarebear]

A few people feel like this but there is no point in having the site if everyone suggests "use google" for every answer.

[VHG]

I believe over 50% of the answers on answerbank could be answered with a few searches in Google (maybe more).

I have often answered a question on a topic I know nothing about just by searching Google.

However questions that ask for opinions on things (good holiday resort, best airline, good book to read etc) still have their place.

I dont think people realise just how good Google is at searching.

People think you can only put one or two words like "Paris" or "Michael Jackson" in Google.

But I have put in long quotes, lines of poems, lines of songs etc and got answers to questions.

[flicrat]

I am guessing that this site will have far fewer queries now the schools are about to break up for the summer and the teachers don't want to mark homework,so don't set any!

[Lil O'lady]

Most of the 'homework' type questions that get posted in this section are from schools and colleges. Some of these organisations may be using software to pick up plagiarised work ie where students have copied and pasted chunks from existing websites and presented them as their own work. because your answers on this site go to the students' private email, they are not as easily detected as plagiarism, especially as many regulars answer in their own original writing rather than, in turn, copying and pasting from another site.
It may be in some cases that the [point of the set task is to go away and research an unseen topic and present it. Most youngsters automatically turn to the internet to look for the answer rather than do the research because they can't be ersed with it.
It may seem harsh but it really is 'doing their homework' to give anything but the briefest of answers to such posts.
There are subscription-based websites that for a reasonable sum enable students to get hold of answer papers and you can even get people to complete work for you, for money.
End of the day it's personal ethics. If you consider it's OK to do your own child's homework, to encourage others to pretend to research they haven't done, or to do work for a student for free, then this forum allows you to do that, and the point of the forum is surely to express viewpoints on subjects such as this.
But my view is, make the blighters do their own homework.
PS look out for a crop of questions from the summer cramming schools for thick rich kids who failed first time round.

[Lil O'lady]

Soz, first line shd read 'from students in schools and colleges'.