Wk 5 research project/ Manguel

Just the thought of writing a long research paper brings to mind visions of torture and hours by the laptop. Not to mention the task of finding a topic and making it sound like a college student wrote it and not your 13-year-old brother. But in light of all that I’m going to “attempt” to write my paper on political advertising and its psychological interpretation. I’m hoping to elaborate on how people think about negative campaign ads and compare that to positive ads that don’t bash their opponent. Which is truly more effective? Which do most people consider an ethical means of campaigning, and so forth? I still need to focus in on my exact topic and do a little searching through some literature, but that’s the overall idea for my paper. I figure with the current election heating this would be a perfect topic. Also, I’ll be able to compare and contrast who’s campaigns over the recent decades were most effective and how they parallel, or if they parallel this years coming election.
On a different note, this week’s reading from Manguel I found interesting yet again. For a book I was leery about having to read at first, I find myself flying through the pages. This simple task we truly take for granted. The section on picture reading I was particularly drawn to. As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth 1,000 words”. As we look at pictures we are either reminded of events that have passed or we are force to contrive our own ideas as to what is taking place. Manguel uses the “Biblia Pauperum” as an example of picture reading. This book can be seen in two different ways though. First, it could have been a book for the illiterate masses so they could interpret the sermons being spoken to them and second, it could have been a book used by priests and preachers as a helpful reminder to the biblical stories told. Either way, pictures were interpreted to tell a story. We mention in class the idea of book shape. This just led me to imagine a world in which, light handheld books were not the norm for reading. As awkward as it would be, this imagined world is real. It’s called college, where students don’t have 5-10 hand held books, but rather, depending on major, 5 or so gigantic books we lug around and study from. I don’t see the convenience in a 15-pound text, but such is life on campus as a genetics major. No matter what we do reading is an embedded part of learning, no matter what size the book comes in.

Just Who am I Writing to?

After reading Walter J. Ong’s article on the fictitious audience that writer’s must deal with, I really have never thought that in depth on who I was writing for. Never did it cross my mind, what kind of person will read this or where are they going to be reading this? This may stem from the fact that I only have written for teachers and school projects. Thus, making my audience choice for me and I write to the teacher. But I will be honest, I never think about my audience as I write. I have my topic, and how long it has to be, and what my points are going to be. That’s it. I understand that many writers must accommodate the idea of an audience, but as we discussed in class, should the author have a responsibility to their audience? I said in class that I thought authors have that responsibility to their audience, but I'm going to change my opinion and say that authors don't have to write for their audience. This is because I have realized that I don't write for an audience and the more I think about having to change how I write to accommodate others, I’m not a fan. I write some poetry in my free time and it’s so much more enjoyable to write freely. That’s all for now.

Authorship

After reading this excerpt from Rebecca Moore Howard’s “Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty”, I find myself torn between leniency towards plagiarism and keeping the strict penalties in place, but I think I fall on leniency. I agree with Howard’s many attempts to demonstrate the increasing availability of information on the web. This access to papers and journals on a computer makes those “copy” and “paste” buttons all that much closer to a writer’s fingers. So there is no doubt it is getting easier to steal, but there is an extent to which moral issues are the culprits. True, there are individuals that just do not understand citation and how it is all put together, but I would argue that some students that are caught with patch writing intended to do so. They figured it would go unnoticed and their crime unpunished. When they get caught however, who’s to say they don’t just lie about how this came to be. They obviously had the intent to deceive the first time, why wouldn’t they just lie again to save their backsides. I guess this is where the professors find themselves in a tough situation. Who are they to judge a persons intention? Lenient rules allow for this controversy, while a strict no exceptions policy kills any attempt at redemption by the offender. Another interesting thing in Howard’s article is the idea that, we as writers are more of an eclectic assembly of previous ideas. From this, originality is a tough word to define. Where do one’s own ideas start and previous writers stop? What is considered common knowledge and what needs citation? I’m a genetics major and when I started writing papers on various topics, I needed to cite different procedures I explained and listed because I had no idea how they were done and the knowledge was not mine. But after working in a lab for a few semesters now I feel I don’t need to cite those things because I do them everyday. I guess it’s a fine line between yours and other’s knowledge, but better safe than sorry and over cite.

Illegal Downloading

I’m currently on my way to Eau Claire this weekend for a conference bowling meet. Listening to the music on WJJO got me thinking, wow, I want to download this song. So I’m going to give my take on illegal downloading and the music industry. Obviously, I’m a little biased towards being able to download music. I think it should be allowed. It’s a great way for bands that aren’t well known to get their music out there and find new fans. There’s no faster way to get information around than the Internet. Not to mention most people who download music are only downloading singles and a few tracks they like. Some albums are just not worth having and only a few songs are good. Many, including myself, will actually go buy and album after downloading a few tracks to see if I like the new band. I understand that the music industry is losing money on the whole deal and copyright laws make this act illegal, but I doubt any recording artist is feeling the pinch of illegal downloading. Have we ceased to hear about cars, drugs, pimping women, and bling from the rappers? I haven’t heard any monetary hardships suffered by artists. I know the exact opposite argument could be made, but I have little sympathy for those owning 5 cars, 8 bedroom houses in California, private jets and can go and do anything they want. Yes, there may be some jealousy involved. I still hold my position that music downloading should be legal. There are legal ways to download that are fairly inexpensive. I know Napster and Itunes offer $.99 downloads for almost any song. This is okay, but I still don’t agree with paying for a song by a new band, that your not sure you’re going to like. This is a touchy issue, but it seems that the recording industry is winning the battle as more and more programs are getting shut down or required to charge their users. So, to those of you downloading music for free, enjoy it while it last, and those who pay for their tunes, I guess kudos to you for your moral fiber.

Rufman

What is Style? Good Question.

When deciding how to define style, I found it difficult to write a concise definition. I feel style can be many things. It can be how you choose your words, sentence structure, whether or not you use humor, and so forth. Style encompasses so many things, but when you get to the point, style is a writer’s own unique way of expressing their self. As an example, I read John Grisham novels. The majority of his looks are legal thrillers, all of which are tied to settings in the south and usually in smaller towns. He doesn’t write in lengthy sentences and has an amazing aptitude for describing a scene for the reader. I would classify these things under Grisham’s style of writing. Some writer’s prefer poetry, others children’s books.
I’m finding it hard to break away from this simple response I’ve been giving and actually get at something meaningful about style. I feel that when you asked, “What is style?” you knew no two people would write similar answers. This is not only more entertaining for you, but when you think about it, each one of us demonstrating our own unique style. Some of us blunt, some sophisticated with their prose, or even meticulous in their breakdown of the question. Either way, I believe a person’s style is a mixture of all they have previously written and most importantly read. I can’t remember if Manguel’s, A History of Reading, touched on this or not, but how else can a person learn to express oneself on paper, without having seen it or watching someone else demonstrate it. When we are young, the connection between words and what we feel must be facilitated. Now we are at an age that allows us to understand what we write and how we write it. After reading a particular author, we can now emulate that writing if we chose to do so. Even further, we can blend styles with our own to express emotion and life’s adventures in new ways. Thus making style and even harder term to define and classify.
Rufman