DATE: Friday, September 26, 1997            TAG: 9709250073

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LEIF B. STRICKLAND, FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM 

                                            LENGTH:  171 lines

SITE MAKE TERM PAPERS EASY

IT USED TO BE, when you didn't want to do your own homework, you had to beg, cheat or buy a term paper out of the back of a magazine. Now, you can cruise the Internet and get one for free.

Just go online to a ``cyber frat file,'' select a subject - English, science, business, law, history - find a paper and click on print.

The fact that term papers are available on the Internet is not what worries educators - that's nothing new. Before, commercial Web services offered papers for fees - ranging from $20 to more than $100 - and university students posted their own essays on personal Web pages. But these new services offer all the essays in one place, and they don't cost a dime.

``The tempting thing is that it's already digital,'' said Bill Weaver, an academic adviser at the University of Texas at Austin. ``It's just a matter of copy and paste. Boom, they're done. It's nothing.''

Some sites offer totally free access; others require the contribution of an essay to get the password.

Some sites - with names such as Cheater.com and The Evil House of Cheat - don't mask the fact that they exist for the sole purpose of plagiarism.

But others take a higher road. Kenny Sahr, the 25-year-old founder of School Sucks, contends that his site serves as nothing more than a reference library to help students with research and writing. They can examine the bibliographies, he said, or study the approaches other students have taken.

Although most of the attention and concern over the sites have come from university education groups, high school classrooms deal with the issue, too.

``I don't think it's new, it's just a new forum,'' said Cynthia Sparks, supervisor of instructional technology for Chesapeake Schools. ``We are trying to teach them how to do research on the Internet. . . . Part of the instruction that we teach the children is how you cite things properly. You can't borrow someone else's words without giving them credit.''

The Virginia Department of Education does not have specific guidelines regarding term papers on the Internet.

``That's a little too new for us to have a policy,'' said Joyce Faye White, instructional technology specialist with the department. She added, however, that state education guidelines discuss plagiarism. The department also has devised an online handbook for teachers to help them develop their own acceptable use policies for the Internet.

John, who graduated in May from Arlington High in Arlington, Texas, said he pulled his senior theme paper off a Web site the night before it was due. He just changed a few words and typed his name on the top.

``I just didn't like the whole Shakespeare thing, so I looked for a paper online,'' said John, who didn't want his last name used, for obvious reasons. ``I probably spent two hours just looking for it when I could have spent that time writing something. But I didn't really feel like it.''

He can't remember what grade he received - a B or C - but he said the teacher did not find out, or if she discovered it, never mentioned it to him.

Sahr said most students don't plagiarize from his Web site because of the quality of the papers, all of which are submitted by students. ``They're really bad. Nobody would think of using them.''

Erika Lindemann, director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's writing program, said that poor quality of writing is to be expected with free sites - ``You get what you pay for.''

Attempting to close free sites would infringe on free speech rights, Lindemann said. Rather, she said, professors should overcome the threat by altering their teaching methods.

This spring, she distributed to her colleagues in the English Department a list of all known term paper sites on the Net. Writing professors at the university are encouraged to tell students on the first day of class, ``We know.''

``We don't necessarily think this is an evil thing,'' she said. ``It's a new development, and we need to talk about how students can use it intelligently.''

That approach is not necessarily the norm, however. Although many writing professors are aware of the sites, Eckman said, professors of other subjects are often clueless.

``I feel that in a composition class with 20 students I can monitor the students along the steps of writing a paper,'' he said. ``What I'm worried about is the American History 101 class with 200 students where the professor assigns the same essay every semester.''

That laxness is partly what motivated Sahr to create his free Web site. He wants to improve the educational system by ``waking the professors of this country up'' with the poor quality of papers on the Web.

Well, that and the money. Sahr also profits from ads on his page - he has made well over $20,000 so far.

Who would advertise on a term paper Web site? A recent ad at School Sucks flashed: ``Going to College?'' ``Wow!'' ``Betcha gonna like this! (click me).'' The ad linked to GoCollege (www.gocollege.com), a service tailored for college students with scholarship information, sample SAT tests and college applications online. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

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Term papers on the Net worry educators KEYWORDS: INTERNET CHEATING ESSAY TERM PAPER

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