Why do some contributors here insist on doing lazy people's homework?

Question

You all know who you are! You can't resist doing the lazybones' homework for them. But why? Do you weant to help nurture a generation of 'give it to me now', 'I can't be bothered; do if for me' people?

While I am all for guiding people in the right direction on subjects that might be a little specialised I am aghast when people list, for example, 20 facts about Chopin when that information could be gleaned from some judicious use of a search engine, some research with books (remember them?) and, in some cases, actually LISTENING to the music they are asking about (shock, horror - listen to music??).

Perhaps it is people's vanity and 'look how much I know' attitude that prompts them to answer others' assignment questions for them. Of course, sometimes someone might need some help knowing where to look but when it is a brazenly obvious homework question, the answers to which are scattered throughout the internet, it makes my blood boil when they are spoon-fed all the answers by some contributors here (and I'm sure it's the same in all Y!A sections).

I know I grew up a long time ago but I also know that any knowledge I might have picked up over the years, I did so by doing my own research, reading around subjects and LISTENING to absolutely hours of music day after day.

So, all answers gratefully received. Why DO these people do it?

Answer 1

It's a combination of vanity and ignorance and misguided benevolence. Some people forget that this is just a website and that their points here don't matter. And some people lack the moral fiber or are ignorant to the fact that answering these questions for people is often a form of cheating. When I went to school using this site for homework would definitely been a violation of our honor code. Some people try to genuinely be helpful but choose not to see their obvious complicity.



As to the askers: I wonder how anyone can take the time to ask a homework question here, and at the same time be too lazy or too incompetent to use Google. Yet everyday I see such people asking questions here.

At first I did like mamianka and let them know they should DYOH. Now I just ignore the questions. when I first got on this site I asked a related question: https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20080224095700AAx1oMJ





Edit:

To Suwahaks many points, you are quite right that this can be a legitimate resource for finding information. However to quote one of my favorite sources (judge Lawrence Grey) "Consider the source". Y/A is different than print resources in the same way that the Harvard music dictionary differs from wikipedia. This site can only ever be an intermediate step for research the same way as wikipedia should be taken with a shade of skepticism. While most of the time when people answer these homework questions they give correct and good information. The problem lies in the fact that anyone can answer regardless of what they actually know. The person seeking information has no way of knowing who's actually right. This site does not verify the truth of an claims made in answers.



The second point is that there are two classes of people who ask homework questions: the first is people who legitimately have tried to do the work on their own. These people seek more information about their topic or want a sounding board for an idea.

The second class is those who want their work done for them with no interest in learning.

It's the difference between asking "how did Polish culture influence Chopin?" versus "True or false a Mazurka is a Polish folk dance?"

I have and always will help the first class, I can offer little more than pity for the second.

Answer 2

By and large, I agree with most of what has already been said. However, to comment on Suhuwak's response, there are some questions which clearly show a lazy mind and which should never (IMO) be answered. I refer to the multiple choice questions such as:-

Beethoven was

(a) Austrian

(b) German

(c) Inuit

(d) An Australian Aborigine



These are so clearly homework and require no mental effort, beyond the ability to use a search engine, to answer. Again IMO is is demeaning for the questioner to ask such infantile questions and even more demeaning to answer them.



I have one query however. Do American schools REALLY ask pupils to do homework using these multiple choice questions? I had heard over the years that such was the case, but didn't really believe it.

Answer 3

I don't understand why some people don't know how to do research. I will not spend more than 3-5 minutes answering a question, and I honestly answer it only if I know the answer off the top of my head, and sometimes I will do a google search to provide a link/paragraph of information to help them out. I guess the schools are not teaching kids how to do their own research. You need to know how to go to the library, search on the internet, and how to be able to analyze music. You can only get better at analyzing music by doing it over and over again- it's part of learning, and it only hurts you if you don't do your own assignments.

Answer 4

Because they think they're helping, or otherwise they're just desperate for "Best Answers". That's just sad.



I totally agree with you! It makes my blood boil too. Same goes for all the "can I have sheet music for Yanni, FREE?" questions. I've posted an answer to one of these questions in response to one smart aleck who's saying "if you can't help, why answer the question". The next day, the question was deleted by the asker (I believe), who was previously telling all of us to shut up and announcing that the only person who tried to help by giving a link would get Best Answer. I know I'm going to sound really mean, but I was quite pleased that I'd actually gotten rid of one of these questions. (in my answer, I asked the questioner why she hadn't chosen Best Answer since she said she was going to give it to that particular "helpful" user.)



I would help if the asker had already done his/her own research and still need information on where to look. But I will not help those who can't even be bothered to rephrase their question so that it doesn't look like homework. Sometimes I'm tempted to give them all the wrong information and see their expressions when they get back their papers with an F written on it. I haven't actually done so, but I might just try it someday.



Edit (to Suhwahak):



Point 1) That's like the difference between Wikipedia and the New Grove Online Dictionary. Y/A is not the most reliable website to get answers from.



2) Nobody said you couldn't give a quote from a book to *help* a student who genuinely needs help. The question arises when a student does not want to use his/her own brain to try and tackle the homework first before asking for the most basic help here.



3) Again, read my reply to #2. That is why I said I would point someone in the right direction if I can see that he/she really needs help.



4) Nobody said you can't share your observations. Again, you seem to have missed what this question was pointing at - i.e. the lazy students who cannot even be bothered to help themselves.



5) Many of the homework questions asked here come from people who do NOT want to help themselves.



6) A genuine inquiry is different from a brazen "do it for me" question. I can tell the different types of questions apart quite easily. I'm sure you can as well.



7) This is precisely what this question was referring to. Did you even see the question asking the community to write a 300-600 words essay on Mozart's Don Giovanni?



8) You've just offended me. Please don't lump us all together. Don't you get mad when your students ask a parent or classmate to do their homework for them without even trying on their own? That is effectively what many of these homework questions are. Or are there really so few of us who can differentiate a lazy question and a genuine inquiry?

Answer 5

Point Number One: I see no difference between asking a question on this forum and finding information in a book.



The University of Tennessee music department apparently not only allows, but encourages its students to refer to musical analyses in books. The music library even publishes an on-line index for such a purpose:



http://www.lib.utk.edu/music/analysis/



Is it also blameworthy for a student to use that index? If not, then how does that differ from a student seeking help here?



Point Number Two: I see no difference between offering help on this forum and offering help in print.



Is it blameworthy for writers to write the materials which are listed in the above index? If not, then how does that differ from offering help here?



As far as I can see, the end result is the same. In one scenario, a person writes an analysis in a book which the University of Tennessee purchases, which the music library lists on its index, and to which the student refers. In the other scenario, a person offers a similar analysis on this forum. Is the intellectual amusement of analyzing a composition a privilege reserved only for published writers?



Point Number Three: Materials which are available to the respondent might not be available to the student.



I have two very good books on the piano sonatas of Mozart and a very good book on the Well-Tempered Clavier. A student posting an inquiry might not have access to those books.



Point Number Four: A member of this forum could make observations which a student might otherwise miss through library research.



I have noticed a few subtle items in the works of Mozart and Beethoven which the published writers seem to have missed. I see no reason why I shouldn't share those observations with students.



Point Number Five: Some of the students are quite conscientious about helping themselves.

Take, for instance, the student who was analyzing the Dvorak violin sonatina. That student identified the chords insofar as possible but needed to discuss the topic. I see nothing wrong with that.



Point Number Six: You are more than welcome to provide alternatives to student questions.



Don't you ever get curious about whether a restatement is a recapitulation or a pseudo-recapitulation? Don't you ever get confused over whether a chord is a dominant seventh or a German sixth? If so, then why don't you post an inquiry? Why can't anyone but students post analytical questions?



Point Number Seven: I agree that it is blameworthy for students to post simple objective questions.



A student recently asked a question about Mozart's style and time period. I answered that the men wore ruffled shirts and Mozart wrote mostly in three-four and four-four. I got two thumbs up for that response.



Point Number Eight: Those who disapprove of homework help may have their own psychologically unhealthy habits.



I realize I am committing an argumentum ad hominem tu quoque, but I'll write this anyway: I have noticed that the loudest opponents of homework help tend to be the contributors most likely to offer smart-aleck responses to novice music-lovers. If offering homework help is a means of compensating for an inadequate self-image, then so is making donkey ears at people who think Canon in D is a "classical song."

Answer 6

I tend to ignore the "(please)* do my homework for me" questions.



When I am inclined to help, it's just that ... help. Maybe some points to consider, maybe a different angle of attack, or narrowing or increasing the scope of the thesis.



... other times, when it's quite obvious that the asker has no intention to do _any_ of the work, not even skim through a book or view a few websites, they get what they're asking for: cynical answers that will guarantee them the grade they deserve should they opt to cut-n-paste my reply in their homework essay or report.



Oh yeah, 20 facts about Mozart:

1. His first name was Wilfred

2. His last name was Motsart

3. He wrote music

4. He is famous because of the movie Amadeus

5. He was deaf.

6. He couldn't play music, but had people write out the note names for him.

7. Mozart and his big brother Beethoven would play tricks on Bach by changing the way the organ sounded.

8. He wrote really cool bass lines.

9. He wrote Pachelbel's canon for a girl named Elise who was really called Theresa but no one was supposed to know.

10. etc, etc, etc,

Answer 7

I totally agree with you. Have you noticed that there are some particular members here just post the same web site for all this kind of questions? I think they are just up to points not really helping. Unfortunately I am seeing more and more of this kind of questions, including asking for free music sheet, they are just soooo many, I kind of give up on answering, and coming here less often too. As long as there are people keep feeding them what they need, they will just keep coming back without really learning anything, but they don't realize how they are not getting benefit from doing this. From another point of view, that's their loss, and they will pay for it one day.

Answer 8

I hear you! BUT - conversely - when some of us have posted as answer "Do your own homework!" - we have gotten warning messages from Yahoo! If the asker of the question is petty, they complain about our DYOH response - and then we are penalized. I asked Yahoo, why, with the huge amount of Best Answers I have, I would not be listed as a Top Contributor, or Answerer, or whatever the nomenclature is on the Leaderboard. It is because I have had COMPLAINTS from people who are miffed when I tell them to do their own homework, or post elsewhere, etc. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess. So I continue to write when I have time, and stand by my guns. Often, the *reality check* answers to an insipid question are given Thumbs Down, and the ONE person who writes the vapid "You go girl! Jewlyeeurd NEED self-taught ukelele players who sing screamo!" is the one who gets the Best Answer. Ehhh - that's life. I consider this Yahoo thing as Fritos for the brain - my serious discussion happen on other lists - or here is a flash - REAL LIFE. My computer is in my music studio, and when I take a short break from practice, I check email, pop in here for a minute - but it is hardly the focus of my life. As a someone who taught school for 37 years, I saw DAILY the erosion of skills, honesty, work ethics, etc. This place is no different. I will HELP people who need it - and continue to DYOH the lazy people out there. At this point, I am not going to gain anything by having *fewer* penalties - might as well speak my mind.

Answer 9

I think it's fine to point someone in the right direction by linking to wikipedia, but I do agree with you that people shouldn't be answering questions that the questioner is obviously meant to answer for himself/herself.



I think making joke answers is a pretty good idea even if it costs me points. I couldn't care less.

Answer 10

probably cause people the people that ask for the answers are lazy and the people that give the answers probably try to sound smart or to get points for their account

Answer 11

Actually there is a place for non-classical music related questions, and it's called somewhere else. Please do not complain about people who "stupid" things you you go on a classical forum and complain about the people using the system fairly.