Please Read

Hey guys,

I am not going to be in class today (which is obvious if you are there right now.) I am not feeling good and I haven’t been absent yet.

Could you let me know what we did/talked about in class? I did all my work and stuff and I am on top of things, but I hate being absent and I want to know what I missed.

Thanks for your help!

~Meg

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Porter, DeVoss, and Howard

Hey Guys,

I enjoyed both of these readings because they seemed to be looking beyond the current hysteria concerning internet plagiarism. In Porter and DeVoss’s Computers and Composition 23 they talk about the idea of writing and ownership. On page 200 they say: “the purpose of writing in not to reward the author, or for the author to gain prestige” but they do say: “the ultimate aim of writing lies in its ethical effects: to improve society, inform individuals, expand knowledge, assist communities, and so on.”

In the next paragraph they say: “Whenever you write, you borrow ideas, phrases, images, sounds, details from others – and then you weave those pieces into a new cloth…” I find this argument about intertextuality to be very important because I use the ideas of so many people – from so many sources whenever I write anything. Sometimes it’s hard to acknowledge all of the different sources that we draw upon when we write (or when we speak), but we know that everything that we say isn’t wholly original. In this same paragraph they speak about this nature of intertextuality regarding some of our nations most important culture bearers. They say: “some of the most revered writers and speakers of American Culture – Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King – could from a narrow perspective, be accused of plagiarism. But we see them, rather, as effective writers – who remix cultural tracks to create significant new compilations.”

This is not to say that we shouldn’t be concerned about the new nature of plagiarism and the Internet. In Howard’s article, Understanding “Internet Plagiarism”, she talks about the British “dodgy dossier”. This was the intelligence paper produced by the British government concerning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The paper had in fact been plagiarist from online academic sources. That this information was used later by Colin Powell in his speech before the U.N. Security I found to be very troubling. I think that there is an important lesson in this “dodgy dossier” affair. I think that it’s important to cite the sources of information that we use not for the reward of a particular author, but for the benefit of the reader as Porter and DeVoss state, “for its ethical effects”.

Steven

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File-Sharing

There’s no question the internet makes plagiarism enticing to even the most unintentional observer. With resources right at your fingertips in endless amounts, it’s effortless to view someone else ideas or thoughts –but is this plagiarism?  At this point in my life I know the difference between stealing someone words and generating ideas from someone thoughts.  Often times I will read literature and have a difficulty time understand the message or idea being conveyed so I reach out for assistance from what DeVoss and Porter call “file-sharing” or “Fair use.” It’s reading the ideas of others who are knowledgeable in their field, which many times generates new ideas with me.  In the article “Why Napster matters to writing…..” they explain it this way, “Given this sense of aim an ethic of Fair Use based on reciprocal file sharing promotes these broad goals, not a negative ethic of plagiarism and punishment, but a positive ethic that promotes collaboration, sharing, and Fair Use.  Writing is an act of sharing and borrowing as well as of creating.”

 I think this statement holds true that taking someone’s words and claiming ownership is stealing another person’s work and is ethically wrong.  However, to read someone else’s thoughts and ideas on a similar topic that generates new thinking and “…you weave those pieces into a new cloth and onto new fabric and with new threads and that becomes ‘your’ writing.” I am a true believer that there is something to be gained from the collaboration of good writing.

Cheers,

Lucinda

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You Tube vs Boob Tube…

The competition the internet provides for other entertainment sources are exciting.  By putting videos on television that do a better job of cornering the market advertising becomes easier.  With the popularity of internet sites like youtube.com the advertising landscape changes dramatically.  The marketing now must compete with the speed and the availability on websites.

Within these changing markets  competition again begins.  This ensure us that capitalism will continue even in a cyber-tech universe.  The status quo as Garfield states is not long for the changing world.  The advertisers and the companies are now at a fork in the road.  They must begin to pull money out of television advertising, creating a drop in prices, and begin to subsidize web designers.  This switch changes many thoughts on internet business vs. corporations or what we knew as corporations.

Reading this article just makes me more aware of the drastic changes we are beginning to discover.  When billionaires seem to be built in about three hundred days and competing companies grow in a free domain.  This area has no rent just opportunity with only time to lose and everything to gain.  This is our future and it is happening right in front of our eyes.

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Current Events

I would like to apologize for my absence from class and blogging.  My slight eye infection did a good job of getting into the other eye.  It is not as bad as is sounds.  I just sleep more I guess because I had trouble opening my eyes.

On a more serious note the recent events at this school have been an eye opener for many.  This will change every student and teacher at this University.  Commuters will now fear night classes on this campus.  Kids on this campus now are scared to be near their dorms.  Enough problems now we need answers.

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Why?

It’s hard to write a blog this week about something fun and exciting in my life when there’s so much sadness hovering over our campus right now.  As a mother myself, I can’t imagine the anger and despair this family must be feeling over their son’s senseless death.  Your whole being as a parent is to keep your children save and protected from the tragedies in our society.  Then that time comes when you must send them out into the world – hoping and praying they will be safe, happy individuals and the world will be kind to them.  I just don’t understand how someone can then just end another person’s life so brutally without a thought  as to his dreams, his family, his friends – I mean – am I naïve??  What the hell is happening in our society – its just not fair.

Lucinda

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Tuesday Night @ Rowan

Hey guys,

Is anyone going to the Darfur Awareness thing tomorrow night at Rowan? I unfortunately can’t but I wish I could. I did a presentation last semester for a class project on Darfur and the unfortunate genocide that is going on there.

I don’t want to say I am a spokesperson for the awareness of the genocide going on there, but I really hope you guys attend if you can. I think it’s important to spread the knowledge.

~Meg

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Napster and Worries for Teachers

The Devoss and Porter article on Napster talks about the controversies with file sharing. On the bottom of the second page, it states:

“Napster should matter to writing teachers because it represents a paradigm shift: from an older view of writing as alphabetic text on paper, intended for print distribution, to an emergent and ill-understood view of writing as weaving digital media for distribution across networked spaces for various audiences engaged in different types of reading. Writing is no longer just alphabetic text—writing is also audio and video. And writing is also hypertext and the delivery of multimedia content via the Internet and the Web. And writing is chunks of tagged text and data floating within databases and underneath the Internet in P2P spaces.”

As a future teacher, I feel like there are so many things for teachers to worry about. It’s hard enough to determine plagiarism, but now they are adding the twist of online text and that makes it even more difficult. How are teachers supposed to determine plagiarism in students’ writing?

The article also talks about the “death” of Napster. I’ll admit I used to have Napster and engaged in illegal file downloading/sharing but there are still programs such as Limewire out there for people to download illegally. So when are they going to require users to pay for Limewire? It seems like an impossible task to accomplish.

Later on in the document, the authors talk about the “value added” to buying a CD versus file sharing. They say:

“The value-added that is missing in digital filesharing is, in part, nostalgic—the
feel of the CD case and the opening of a Brand New Product. The value-added, however, is
also tangible—the artwork and inserts that come with a purchased CD.”

I personally buy CDs just for that reason. For certain artists, I will intentionally go out and buy the CD for the artwork. It’s a sort of authenticity about having the actual CD in my hands that makes me appreciate the CD more.

Are people looking too much into this copyright and plagiarism thing? Just like the other article, “Understanding Internet Plagiarism” by Rebecca Moore Howard, it is believed that plagiarism is becoming increasingly harder to deal with. Howard states:

“In all its forms, new media constitutes yet another revolution in access to text, and one of
its controversies is the anxiety of authenticity. With so much text universally accessible (at least potentially), readers are suddenly detecting far more plagiarism than ever before. “Are today’s students more unethical than in years past?” asked Brian Hansen, the Congressional Quarterly researcher who interviewed me in 2003. My answer is, “How would we know? On what basis could comparisons be made?”

This right here shows how complex the situation has become. This is the beginning of a whole new textual universe. Howard goes onto say,

“The very fact that the question arises, though, indicates a cultural fear that indeed this might be the case. This fear arises from a belief in widespread plagiarism—plagiarism that, because of boundless access to text, cannot be controlled. And that belief arises from the availability of text online not just to writers but to readers. It is readers’ access to copious text that makes them believe in writers’ plagiarism.”

So the fact is, the most text there is to have access to, the more chances and reasons to believe that students are plagiarizing. Is there any way to fix this situation?

~Meg

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Rowan Tragedy

It is with deepest regret I am writing to inform my fellow Rowan classmates that one of our own has died this weekend. Donald Farrell was brutally beaten Saturday night a little after 9:00pm. He was approached by a group of people asking where the homecoming parties were and they preceded to assault him taking his cell phone and wallet.

Donald died Sunday afternoon around 1:30 from his injuries. He was only 19.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. My thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. I hope that everyone on our campus takes extra precautions when walking on campus at night.

To read the rest of the story, go here.

~Meg

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Scary movie poll

Hey guys,

Just thought I’d ask this question in the spirit of Halloween… Do you prefer the old scary movies like Psycho and The Exorist or do you like the new gore fest films? Or how about a movie like the Ring? I think the old movies are good and have a creepy vibe to them without totally grossing me out (i.e. Saw III making me pass out after the first ten minutes).

Has anyone seen the Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween? I wanted to see that but never did. If so, was it any good?

~Meg

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