Plagiarism Spat

In Colin Purrington's legal dispute with CPBR, it came as a surprise to me how immature the whole situation was. CPBR clearly plagiarized some of Purrington's work, but when asked to take it down, they turned it back on Purrington. The whole legal threat really could have been avoided. The situation really made me look at plagiarism in a different light. I always associated plagiarism with high school/college students reading articles online and either copying ideas/examples or words to add to their papers. In reality, it seems reasonable to believe that this is where the plagiarism rules originated from. CPBR copied Purrington's work and tried to pass it as their own. They posted it in a public setting and didn't even mention Purrington in any form. Even a high school student could tell you that's not right.

Everything is a Remix

The "Everything is a Remix" video really opened my eyes to the lack of originality in the entertainment industry. To create new projects, they often times look at other forms of entertainment and seek ideas and concepts to use for their own. Similarly, I often times do this in my writing. When assigned a topic to write on, I usually ask  my peers how they are going to go about writing theirs or I even look up ideas on the internet. Not to copy in any way but to get a general idea of what direction I should be going towards. This concept goes with what we're discussing in class. Plagiarism. When it comes to writing papers, it's often times easier to get inspiration from other papers and assignments, just like the entertainment recycles ideas.

Plagiarism Lines Blur For Students in Digital Age

In Trip Gabriel's article "Plagiarism Lines Blur For Students in Digital Age", he expands on the widespread plagiarism across universities in the country.  As millennial babies, we grew up as technology really was beginning to advance. We were ones who transitioned from books to the internet as our main source of information. Although technology plays a vital role in our paper writing process, that's all it is. Just one role. Many can argue that plagiarism allows for "lazy" students to write papers on topics they can't articulate on. Writing is a process and sometimes we need other sources to formulate our own ideas and opinions. Often times, we don't even know how to properly cite our sources.

Why don't we complain?

   Our task this week was to read through the author's point of view, or in other words, read like a writer. Before reading William Buckley's "Why Don't We Complain?", I envisioned a dry narrative on how to complain. As I read through Buckley's writing, my attention was caught almost immediately. The style of writing in the 1960's, I imagine, was much more proper between author and reader, but Buckley took a more laid-back approach to reach his audience. His personal anecdotes really strengthened his claim and I think it worked in his favor because it was easier for his audience to relate and agree with him. I also noticed his vocabulary wasn't too informal or too proper, but achieved a perfect medium to reach his audience. Through his use of diction and day to day examples, it's pretty clear Buckley knew who his audience was. 

   His argument in context to our modern day life is just as relevant as it was back then. I think this is something we could read now, not knowing it was written in the 60's, and be able to relate to it. His timeless examples are something we experience in our lives on a daily basis. Being able to captivate an audience's attention is something thats pretty important in everything we write. 

    While listening to the podcast, I had trouble finding the connection between the topic and how it relates to an English class. It wasn't until the last 15 minutes of the podcast where I understood how the information would help us; the creators of the podcast stressed the importance of many people working together to create and finalize something ready to post to the public. In the same way, we would be working in groups to perfect our written assignments. Also, they pointed out how sometimes they edit their own work, knowing it's not the best it could be, but have no idea how to improve it or how to change it. I've experienced this many times when writing papers. The bloggers also mentioned at the very end how it actually took many months to produce a blog worthy of publishing, which makes me realize great work doesn't happen overnight, or over week.