I imagine many of us have been irritated by the increase in lame questions from Clueless Newbs attempting to get their homework done for free. Well, according to the New York Times, there's a plagiarism plague:
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College students have flooded into computer science courses across the country, recognizing them as an entree to coveted jobs at companies like Facebook and Google, not to mention the big prize: a start-up worth millions.
The exploding interest in these courses, though, has coincided with an undesirable side effect: a spate of high-tech collegiate plagiarism. Students have been caught borrowing computer code from their friends or cribbing it from the internet.
( See "As Computer Coding Classes Swell, So Does Plagiarism", NYT 2017-05-29 )
So the next time you are about to jump in and answer a Clueless Newb's question because it will show off your skillz, consider choosing the admittedly less satisfying option and point them instead to beginners' doc. You will be better serving not only the questioner, but also Truth and Justice.
The way forward always starts with a minimal test.
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