So what's the solution? I'm unsure it's about them not reading, either; when I was an undergrad, I was pushed to include as many citations as possible in my papers. "Do you have evidence? Back up that claim," they said. That's all well and good, because for a cogent argument you want to use extant research as support- but I felt it was going a bit overboard. At the same time, I recognized that my advisor was trying to mold my writing into that accepted by the scientific community. So is it a matter of students not knowing how to write...or simply that they're being told by the system that a "good" paper is essentially a lit review, devoid of original thoughts?
no subject
I'm unsure it's about them not reading, either; when I was an undergrad, I was pushed to include as many citations as possible in my papers. "Do you have evidence? Back up that claim," they said. That's all well and good, because for a cogent argument you want to use extant research as support- but I felt it was going a bit overboard. At the same time, I recognized that my advisor was trying to mold my writing into that accepted by the scientific community. So is it a matter of students not knowing how to write...or simply that they're being told by the system that a "good" paper is essentially a lit review, devoid of original thoughts?