Using Yahoo Answers To Cheat Doesn't Always Work

It isn't necessarily cheating, it would be the same if the kid had just trolled the internet for the answer. But this kid could have been a lot smarter about it.

It would be plagiarism if somebody gave them the answer and they didn't reference them as a source.

How was he supposed to get the answer?

1. Read the textbook

2. Research using outside sources (internet, books, TV)

3. Ask someone

They all seem valid ways to learn, but of course asking on Yahoo answers would be most likely to return nonsense instead of information.

It's bad enough to references Wikipedia without any other written sources to back up the info... but referencing Yahoo Answers is an all time low.

as an educator this is SO AWESOME!!! Hahahahahaha!

I don't answer what appear to be homework questions as a rule.

I may give the asker a push in the right direction though.

"It would be plagiarism if somebody gave them the answer and they didn't reference them as a source."

If we were required to reference the source of every piece of information we gave first we'd all be guilty of life-long carriers of plagiarism and afterward we'd never get anything done. The mere idea that anyone is required to source every piece of information they communicate is ludicrous and you are full of crap.

Actually, if the person is directly quoting the answer and not citing it, it's plagiarism. Since this kid thought that they could get the answer out of someone else and not do the work, my guess is that they would also just cut and paste whatever answers appeared and turn it in as their own work. That IS plagiarism.

@clinton robert labombard
"The mere idea that anyone is required to source every piece of information they communicate is ludicrous and you are full of crap."

Did I say that everyone had to reference every piece of information they communicate? No, but in a written assignment for an educational institution, they should reference all arguments they did not come up with independently.

You don't even have to directly quote someone without citing them for it to be plagiarism. Technically while it's more difficult to police, even using somebody else's ideas or argument without citing them is also plagiarism.

Realistically I think asking somebody for hints and ideas is acceptable, but asking someone to find the answer for you and then pretending that you came up with it on your own, at least by university standards is plagiarism.

Is it reasonable to assume that kids are going to use the Internet as a source of information? I used an encyclopedia, the local library, and textbooks when I was young. I didn't learn to cite references until University. But I knew what plagiarism was.

I think someone saw this student was trying to get the answer without doing any work, and pretended to be the teacher, just to be funny. Just like someone who would deliberately give a wrong answer. That's why you can't trust your sources.