'Sloppy copy in exam raises ire'

[geoftw]

VCAA has been accused of 'plagiarism' for the Language Analysis piece they put into the 2011 English exam
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sloppy-copy-in-exam-raises-ire-20111109-1n7eo.html

The article says: "The English exam featured a column on tattoos by Melbourne writer Helen Razer without her permission and without acknowledging she was the author."

ohhhh.....'Mr Shortal said under the terms of the Copyright Act the VCAA was permitted to use and adapt written material for exams without seeking prior permission to maintain the security of the exams.' I guess VCAA is the boss of everyone else   

[Hamdog17]

I'd be pissed if I were her

[lexitu]

ohhhh.....'Mr Shortal said under the terms of the Copyright Act the VCAA was permitted to use and adapt written material for exams without seeking prior permission to maintain the security of the exams.' I guess VCAA is the boss of everyone else 

What's wrong with this? It's actually fair use. What's bad about this is that if there's enough kerfuffle it might not come up on VCAA's website under past exams. And there is the whole thing of being sloppy and lazy - is it really that hard for them to create their own piece?

[burbs]

Hmm.... whilst this is pretty poor behaviour, the comments by students are pretty atrocious. 'It's attempt to be cool frustrated me and I could not write to the best of my ability' paraphrasing but... seriously? If attempts to sound hip in langanal annoy you then about 50% of every langanal article is going to annoy you.

I understand why people are annoyed, I do. But all this talk I see on FB, the forums and those comments about voiding the analysis because it was plagiarised and modified is annoying me a bit. Yes it was hard - but it was doable, albeit not to the same level of a better article. It makes sense why VCAA did it, as Lex said.

That said, I think Helen was pretty good in the article, admitting that students would probably not be biased because of her name. If it said Helen Razer in the exam I'd just think 'that sounds very familiar, also Razer is a cool name" and go on.

[geoftw]

why are people assuming im annoyed about this/about the LA? ==" im just sharing this link...

i didn't mind the Lanuage Analysis part of the exam

[nacho]

the only aspect of vcaa's behaviour i disagree with this is that the writer has been defamed..
a part from that, i found this LA way more approachable than last year's one - i would have totally flunked last year.

[simpak]

Just saying, it's the only way the woman's going to get 40 000 people to read her opinions (even if they're not phrased beautifully) so she shouldn't be so cut.

[geoff_821]

The awkward moment when we learn throughout our schooling life to not plagiarise and the company of our curriculum contradict themselves

[Panicmode]

The awkward moment when we learn throughout our schooling life to not plagiarise and the company of our curriculum contradict themselves

Lol, this made me laugh.