# Is Typing someone Else's Work Cheating? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 12, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869 "2009-04-12T18:46:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/21 "2009-04-13T19:52:02Z")
Didn’t Beaver make a big deal out of typing his papers to Miss Landers and his classmates? Or was it that Miss Landers made a big deal out of it? In that case the “cheating” was taking credit for someone else’s effort. Granted it wasn’t much of a cheat. That would have to wait for several more seasons until Beaver caddied for someone who cheated on his golf score to win a bet. By then, those early lessons (lectures) from Ward had Beaver’s moral compass registering fully. Think of the earlier episode as foreshadowing for the later one. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/22 "2009-04-13T20:07:16Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I don’t think it’s cheating, provided you’re not doing anything more than transferring handwritten stuff to MS Word and/or providing spelling/grammar corrections. > > Actually writing someone’s assignment from scratch for them isn’t OK, and I think most people understand that. Taking someone’s poorly spelt, grammatically awful, and handwritten assignment and typing that out for them whilst correcting the spelling mistakes and appalling grammar is fine, IMHO, as long as you’re not doing the actual research or creatively writing anything for them. Ughh…arent spelling and gramar also generally part of the deal as well? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/23 "2009-04-14T01:24:09Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Ughh…arent spelling and gramar also generally part of the deal as well? Not really, at least not anymore. It’s generally assumed everyone has a spellchecker and grammar checker on their typing software nowadays. Which is fine if you speak English as a first language, but not as useful for people for whom English is a second or third language (The difference between “break” and “brake” may not be immediately apparent to them, for example) Interestingly, at least one of my lecturers pings people for using American English spellings instead of British English (hurrah!); which catches a lot of people who aren’t smart enough to change the settings on their copy of Word… ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/24 "2009-04-14T02:24:32Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > The situation described in the OP doesn’t make sense to me. Surely Beaver wasn’t in high school yet, and at the time I never heard of a typing course even being offered before high school. Correct, the set up was Beaver and his friend Gilbert were walking in a downtown area and stopped by a window with typewriters for sale. The sign says a bunch of things and it says “Improve your grades.” And Beaver asks (to Gilbert) “How can a typewriter improve your grades?” And Gilbert says “I guess it’s like when you give the teacher all the right answers and he still knocks points off for being sloppy or unreadable. So it works both ways” So in otherwords Gilbert is implying if the paper is neat and readable the teacher will give you a break, just like the opposite, if the work is correct but sloppy you get points knocked off ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/25 "2009-04-14T03:33:46Z")
Am I the only person on these boards who has never seen an episode of _Leave it to Beaver_? ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/26 "2009-04-14T03:46:20Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Not really, at least not anymore. It’s generally assumed everyone has a spellchecker and grammar checker on their typing software nowadays. Which is fine if you speak English as a first language, but not as useful for people for whom English is a second or third language (**The difference between “break” and “brake” may not be immediately apparent to them, for example)** > Interestingly, at least one of my lecturers pings people for using American English spellings instead of British English (hurrah!); which catches a lot of people who aren’t smart enough to change the settings on their copy of Word… huh…judging by some of the stuff I have read here, some people with English as their first language can’t tell the difference. Just a question for those that did the typing of others way back when - isn’t it pretty much inevitable that in a 8 or 10 page paper there is going to be some errors that you made? How would the teacher have known whose error it was (assuming they were grading for spelling and grammar also) and also, do you really type exactly what you see, or does your brain just automatically correct certain minor errors (such as the ommission of an “s” or changing “a” to “an”) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/27 "2009-04-14T05:03:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Just a question for those that did the typing of others way back when - isn’t it pretty much inevitable that in a 8 or 10 page paper there is going to be some errors that you made? That’s what proofreading is for. And why you get another set of eyeballs on that paper, so that they’ll catch what you skipped over. The person who has someone else type up a paper will usually proofread it again, before the final payment, or the only payment, whichever is agreed. The writer, as opposed to the typewriter, generally would make more mistakes if he’d typed the paper himself, and so is willing to run the risk of some typos slipping past. A fairly good typist can turn out practically perfect papers most of the time, or at least I could, and I wasn’t considered to be all that great. When I did make a typo, I usually knew it at the time, and that’s when the eraser or White-Out came into play. I was, and still am, in awe of those people who could manage more than 75 wpm, 100% accuracy. Back when I had a working TI994/A computer, I subscribed to a magazine that was devoted to that computer. The magazine had several programs per issue, but the programs were not on a CD (didn’t have those then) or even a floppy. No, those programs were PRINTED IN THE MAGAZINE. As in, lines and lines and lines of code. I spent quite a lot of time typing in code, and then I spent even more time going over the code line by line, trying to see where I had typed one wrong digit/letter/symbol. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/28 "2009-04-14T05:59:41Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Correct, the set up was Beaver and his friend Gilbert were walking in a downtown area and stopped by a window with typewriters for sale. The sign says a bunch of things and it says “Improve your grades.” And Beaver asks (to Gilbert) “How can a typewriter improve your grades?” And Gilbert says “I guess it’s like when you give the teacher all the right answers and he still knocks points off for being sloppy or unreadable. So it works both ways” > > So in otherwords Gilbert is implying if the paper is neat and readable the teacher will give you a break, just like the opposite, if the work is correct but sloppy you get points knocked off Bingo! This is the right answer. Way back when, I remember that some teachers made a big deal out of how an assignment was actually presented. Sloppiness or bad handwriting can affect the grade. Not everyone even had a typewriter in those days. There was always one student who turned in neatly typed assignments while everyone else just wrote theirs. It may not be fair, but it was possible to score some extra credit by turning in a neatly typed assignment. ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/29 "2009-04-14T09:36:07Z")
It’s only cheating if the work is for a typing class. My confession: In tenth grade I signed up for typing class. I was very bad and after a week my teacher “suggested” I transfer to another elective . I did. T o this day I cannot type worth anything more than posting on a message board. I hunt and peck with the best of them and I have no idea what “home keys” means. I guess I’m doing okay if people can read my posts. This post took me three minutes to type. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869/30 "2009-04-14T16:34:12Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > huh…judging by some of the stuff I have read here, some people with English as their first language can’t tell the difference. > > Just a question for those that did the typing of others way back when - isn’t it pretty much inevitable that in a 8 or 10 page paper there is going to be some errors that you made? How would the teacher have known whose error it was (assuming they were grading for spelling and grammar also) and also, do you really type exactly what you see, or does your brain just automatically correct certain minor errors (such as the ommission of an “s” or changing “a” to “an”) Somewhat related to this. Back in the day, if you turned in a typed paper (using an old fashioned type writer) or even a neatly handwritten paper, my teachers often allowed this: Lets say I’ve got that sucker all typed or written up. And this isnt a typing class. Or handwriting class. Then I see that I’ve mispelled a word. Maybe I’ve mispelled the same word over and over throughout the paper. I could neatly correct with say a red ink notation, with little or no penalty for the thing not looking like a finished business letter or publishable science paper. They generally had no interest in you typing or writing that thing over and over till it was physically perfect. Though at some point, you generally had a paper where it had to look perfect without any after the fact corrections on your part. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-typing-someone-elses-work-cheating/492869.md?page=1)