Come on.  I need to get this paper done.  I have no idea what to write.  This blank page is just staring at me; it’s so intimidating.  I guess I’ll just go on to Google and look up some information…or maybe I could find another essay and just use that. Hmmmm.  Maybe, just maybe, I could do that.  If I use that paper, it would at least sound like I know what I’m talking about. 

This is a familiar scenario for many students who are in a rush to write a paper.  Why do they do this?  Students who actually write their papers sometimes do have a paper of worse quality than a student from 15 or 25 years ago.

Jane Beyer, English teacher of 18 years, when asked if she had noticed a change in the quality of students’ writing, said, “Oh, yes.”

Beyer stated, “It seems to be that the more prevalent the access to the Internet, the more decline [in quality] there is.”  Beyer also said that if a student sees what someone else wrote on the Internet, they think that their paper can never be as good as that, so there has been a jump in the number of students plagiarizing.  “Now it’s a competition [for the best paper].”

Many people attribute lower writing quality to technology and the overuse of it to do work for a person.  The Internet is where most people get their information, whether it’s the news, weather, gossip, videos, etc.  Beyer wasn’t as sure that it was only technology causing these problems.  “Yes, it’s partially to blame,” but she also acknowledged that students don’t get to write for any other audience other than what standardized testing calls for.