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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 15, No. 4. March 27, 1952

The Basic Plays

The Basic Plays

It will be apparent that, to the method of play described above, which is usually known as Dishing Up the Same Old Stuff, there are two alternatives:

(1) One is to support the arguments by different facts, or possibly even to support different arguments by different facts, in which case it might be thought that the absence of repetition will ensure that the Examiner does not see that the facts do not support the arguments. This may be achieved by (i) Pure Invention of facts and arguments" or (ii) Reading. Reading again may be (A) from Reading Lists, or (B) Private Interprise. Presenting the Examiner with Pure Invention is strongly to be deprecated (save in certain subjects where all the facts, arguments and theories are Pure Invention anyway, so that there is a reasonable possibility of further invention passing undetected), since it indicates to the Examiner that the Student Does no Know What he is Talking About, the assumption in all such cases being that the Student must be in the same situation as the Examiner. Reading from Reading Lists is again an unsatisfactory method of play, being open to the same objections as Dishing Up the Same Old Stuff. Reading by Private Enterprise, on the other hand, can be very effective, provided some way can be found of ascertaining before play is commenced that the Examiner has (a) read the book in question himself, and (b) approves of it, but has not (c) copied out his lecture notes from it. The point of (b) will be apparent. The point of (a) is to avoid the Examiner's assuming that the Student is playing according to the Pure Invention method. Infringement of (c) brings about automatic disqualification, being considered Unfair. This method, then, requires caution. As it also requires the Student actually to Do Some Work, it is better left to scholarship-hunters and other impractical people.