At Home: Job Posturing

Your mother always told you to sit up straight, and it turns out she was right?if you want to land a job, that is. As the Calgary Herald reports, a new study by CareerBuilder Canada suggests a strong link between body language and successful job interviews.

According to the study’s results, 37 per cent of the Canadian hiring managers surveyed cited ?bad posture? as an interview no-no. Also on the list of practices to avoid: failure to maintain eye contact (68 per cent of managers considered this to be a faux pas), ?crossing your arms, fidgeting, a weak handshake, playing with an object on the table and touching your hair or face.?

Watching your body language during an interview can indeed make a difference in favourably impressing hiring managers, according to CareerBuilder’s Allison Nawoj. As Nawoj told reporters, ?When You’re meeting someone for the first time, you want to make sure . . . that You’re conveying the positive parts of your personality,? adding that ?paying attention to your body language is part of that.?

This news is nothing to frown at. After all, ?a friendly smile? is also ?key? to a successful interview.

In Foreign News: Stolen Words

In a university environment, the emphasis on academic integrity is high, but access to online information has led to some confusion over what constitutes plagiarism. In fact, many students plagiarize web-based content, like Wikipedia?and aren’t even aware It’s wrong.

As The New York Times reports, studies show that fewer than ever students ?believe . . . that copying from the Web constitutes ?serious cheating?.?

Theorists are divided over the cause of the shift. Teresa Fishman, director of Clemson University’s Center for Academic Integrity, believes that the fault lies with the prevalence of web-based content. ?Now we have a whole generation of students who’ve grown up with information that just seems to be hanging out there in cyberspace,? Fishman told reporters.

However, anthropologist Susan D. Blum, of the University of Notre Dame, feels that It’s part of a deeper shift in the younger generation’s perception of individuality and uniqueness. While prevailing views on authorship are ?rooted in Enlightenment ideas of the individual,? she argues that today’s students are ?less interested in cultivating a unique and authentic identity . . . than in trying on many different personas.? Not surprisingly, she points to the similarity between students who cobble together work from several originals and ?TV shows that constantly reference other shows.?

But Donald J. Dudley, who manages the discipline office at University of California Davis, thinks the answer is much simpler: laziness. ?Writing is difficult, and doing it well takes time and practice,? he told reporters, adding that frequently, discipline cases result from students being ?unwilling to engage the writing process.?