Discuss the statement: “The world wide web has destroyed the quality of students’ assignments.” Support your claims with appropriate grounds and warrants.

Rothenberg (1997), a professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, acknowledges that his students tended to make a considerable decline in the excellence of writing and the way to express their thoughts compared with the previous semesters. That could lead to the argument which is the world wide web has partially wrecked the quality of students’ assignments. The world wide web may be defined as a virtual place that gathers information and meets the demands of users around the world. The spread of computers and the Internet should have signaled the dawn of an era of efficiency in the school, leading to the increased quality of students’ assignments. Nevertheless, statistics show that the students’ performance in academic work has dropped since the world wide web became ubiquitous all around the developed world. By those exclaimed statements, more insights into the desired and detrimental effects of the world wide web will be obtained through this essay. One of the world wide web’s adverse influences on the excellence of students’ assignments is that a substantial number of sources on the web is usually unavailable. A huge deal of information on the Internet is not possibly updated periodically and it would be strenuous to choose the most reliable source for the research papers. David (1997) mentions that when a query is thrown to a search engine, 234, 468 supposed references may be detected but one of them is likely to be advantageous; and they are not classified in a relevance order. Thereby instructing students in scrutinizing information as well as references would aid in determining their validity. Simultaneously, lecturers are expected to hold some classes for helping students improve their critical thinking which is certainly the crucial skills for them (David, 1997). In addition, the most hazardous drawback of the word wide web affecting students’ assignments is that students appear to violate academic integrity on the Internet in some cases. Students, as well as ill-equipped international ones, intend to commit plagiarism acts. Indeed, a 2002 research on 698 students in 9 colleges and universities in the United States indicates that copying text without citation was reported sometimes by 16. 5% of students and often or very frequently by 8. 0% of them (Scanlon & Neumann, 2002). As a consequence, lecturers should show students methods to write an essay, organize more practical assessments and give tutorial support to international students who find themselves backed into a corner. On the other hand, the world wide web can also be used as a reputable source. An enormous number of features can be found on the Web compared to the sources that students use in schools’ library. Lenore (1998) admits that in this age, detailed materials in relation to universities and institutions’ research, law makers and profit-making federations, along with non-profit-making ones are able to be gathered easily with Internet usage. Consequently, when students use those updated and fascinating materials, it is probably more sufficient in doing their research than reading numerous books from library. Another overwhelming advantage of the world wide web is that it would be considered as an alternative teaching method for teachers. In fact, nowadays, academic materials from lecturers could be placed on the Internet, hence it is conceivable that students have an ability to retake and upload their lost assignments on the Web with a view to “saving time for face-to-face consultation” (p. 22). Furthermore, the Word Wide Web could also afford students and lecturers a virtual space or chat rooms to argue an assignment topic (Lenore, 1998). Therefore, students will always have more time to ameliorate their assignments’ quality instead of finding academic materials and receiving “face-to-face consultation” (p. 22). In conclusion, along with the advancements of the Internet, its pros and cons are absolutely manifested through on students’ assignments. Not only is it considered as unreliable sources and unethical academic acts but it is also used as a reputable source and an alternative teaching technique for teachers. However, if no effort is made to mitigate the disastrous effects on students’ assignments, the merits of their academic work may be left under the threat of decrease. Ultimately, should we execute those warrants disclosed in this essay, the quality of students’ assignments would be enhanced.