Interesting Cory

Post 8, 11/22/09

After watching http://www.lisnews.org/cory_doctorow_interview, an interview after one of Cory’s talks, I relished in his thoughts about copyright laws. At first I was baffled, but after a little piece placing and logical thought. I understood the ideas he was trying to convey and how influential and futuristic his reasoning was. I never really thought about libraries and digital files as complementary.

The idea that files shouldn’t be revoked after a subscription is broken with a company was brilliantly explained by comparing it to a journal subscription that’s cancelled and not taking back the previous journals. This hlepd me greatly in understanding what Doctorow was talking about.

I really do like him now, and am kind of upset that I missed his talks here on campus. His ideas are occasionally over my head, and his lingo is slightly confusing because some of the words and acronyms he uses in speech are not contextually easy to understand, but other than a bit of a language barrier. His ideas are brilliant for the most part; however, they are extremely socialistic which does not compliment the United States capitalistic society.

Quotes

Post #7 11/15/09

In Dan Vergano's article "Scientists Explain Why They Plagiarize," He states that " About 42% of the duplicates also contained botched data, calculations or images." This shocking statistic is something that I would never have even guessed that professionals in fields would just create data out of thin air. This is something that I would hope stops in the future. The supposed "reliable" data from "Professionals" needs to actually be reliable.

Another quote that I particularly liked was one of the first articles we read, "A Circuitous Path to Professional Dilettantism," by Emily Callaghan. She states " How do 18-year-olds know what they want to do with the rest of their lives? lives that will last far longer than ever? with retirements that will come way late in the game?" This quote is the opening sentence for Emily's article, and its a real attention grabber for a freshman in college. I really enjoyed her article, but her opening sentence was what really caught my eye and made me think about my own plans for the rest of my life.

Plagerism is evil

Post 5, 11/8/09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt1jodvhy1s

This is a humorous video which briefly explains plagiarism, and how and when to correctly cite sources. The in-your-face filming really grabs your attention and entertainingly talks about plagiarism in a manner which anyone can understand. It is likely that this may have been done for a school assignment and is obviously not professionally done, but I liked and enjoyed it.

When the student begins to talk about reasons why people plagiarize, I thought back to the discussions when people were saying that they may have not understood the assignment, or that the deadline was too close and a lot of other work was do around the same time. These were similar thoughts that our class was expressing in the discussions.

Also, he gives “handy-hints” that can be used to overcome plagiarism. Such things as: researching and learning more about plagiarism, citing text when doing research, summarizing while doing research rather than writing verbatim. All of the tips are useful when working on an essay. In the “How Can We Help You” Thread, there were a lot of references suggesting to do the same thing while researching and taking notes.

Overall, I feel like this video was really similar to thoughts that our class was having as a whole. It isn’t a lengthy video, but it’s informative and funny.

Words in Text

1. Rhetoric- is the ability to use language effectively. This word has been mentioned in every class to describe how we are supposed to be writing and interpreting text. I haven’t really grasped this word completely until reading a dictionary definition to clarify its true meaning.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26284198-5013871,00.html

2. Freewriting- is a writing technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism. I like this term because this is usually how I begin papers which I am having trouble starting. Writing down spastic thoughts of ideas I want to incorporate really helps me.

http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/writingexercises/ht/freewrite.htm

3. Scholarly- concerned with academic learning and research. This term struck me as interesting because it is all relative. There is no definitive way to determine if something is scholarly. I also chose this term because we, inexperienced writers/researchers, are to determine the scholarliness of an article.

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill20.html

4. Pathos- the quality or power in an actual life experience or in literature. This is another word that I was having problems understanding, but after seeing this in a definition I understand this word so much more completely.

http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/webclass/web/project1/group4/

5. Summary- a comprehensive and usually brief abstract, recapitulation, or compendium of previously stated facts or statements. This is a term that is used many times throughout the Allyn and Bacon text. It is an interesting word because we summarize all of the time. Whether it be telling a friend what happened in a television episode, or what went on during your day.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E7D7143CF937A15756C0A96E9C8B63&scp=1&sq=summary&st=nyt