Craig Sullivan’s GSW 1110 Blog

After reviewing the academic honesty part of GSW, I now understand how important it is to one’s studies to be honest. Honesty has always been a value of mine, and this discussion helped me realize how important it is when you are in school. Some of the major points that stuck out to me were the topics of plagiarism and threatening of students or faculty members. At any school, plagiarism is something that is taken very seriously. Teachers will all agree that it is something that is horrible for students to do, and the punishments should and will be very bad. Some forms of plagiarism are simply copying a website or book and not giving credible references, using an older student’s paper as your own, and even purchasing papers. When I read the last one, it truly didn’t make sense to me. How could someone act so lowly and buy a paper for a class. A student should always do the work him or her self.

Another form of academic dishonesty that stood out to me was threatening of faculty members or students. Students sometimes use force in order to get good grades by either threatening a fellow student into helping or writing a paper, or even threatening faculty members into getting high grades. I could understand how students would threaten fellow students, but I couldn’t understand how a student would have both the courage and stupidity to threaten a faculty members. Usually teacher will be bigger than the students, although not always, but I feel that most faculty members have a sort of power of their students. Maybe it’s just something I believe but I would never threaten a faculty member, or student for that matter. This discussion about academic dishonesty helped me understand more about the different types of academic dishonesty, and the consequences that they bring.

I have now completely watched the Frontline video dealing with the internet and how it affects teenagers. For my second paper, I will write about whether or not I believe parents should be allowed to monitor their child’s web accounts, such as Myspace or Facebook. I chose this topic because i believe that a teenager’s parents can be a little over protective and do things that may affect their relationship with their teen in a negative way. If a teenager’s parent decided to go onto his/her computer and look up his/her web account to look at it, that teenager would most likely be very angry about it. That teen’s web page is probably their one of few places where they can have privacy. If a parent invades that privacy, then the teen becomes even more sheltered than they were previously.

I believe that if i parent needs to invade on their child’s web account, then it should only be if that parent has good reason for doing it. If the parent feels that their child might be in danger or if the parent recieved news of a predator, then they have the right to invade their child’s privacy. But if the parent only wants to see what their child is doing, then they shouldn’t go onto their child’s web account without permission. Although the kids are only teens, they still deserve a little bit of privacy and perhaps the kids feel that the internet is their only escape.

This is my Thesis for my second paper and I will think of more supporting arguements to help me pursuade the people reading my paper. This is only my belief, and everyone obviously has different beliefs. I am only stating what I believe.

For my second paper:

• the final draft are due: 9/30/09
• peer review sheet and the rough draft are due 9/23/09

I will write my arguement essay on the topic of whether or not parents sould be allowed to monitor their children’s various web accounts, such as email, IM, Myspace/Facebook, etc. I believe that parents should have the right to monitor their kids web accounts, to an extent. If the parents feel that they have good reason for invading their children’s privacy, such as the example of the teens getting drunk before a concert and one of the teens dads getting on her website and deleting the pictures. In that case, the parent had the right to go on and help his daughter.

In order to make my essay the best, I will follow the steps on the ebook. The steps are:

1. Invention and Research
2. Planning and Drafting
3. Critical Reading Guide
4. Revising
5. Editing and Proofreading

These five steps will help me make sure my essay is the best it can be. I will think of good arguements to support my side, and also look at the other side of the arguement to learn more about it. I want to make sure that I fully understand what I’m arguing that way I can think of the best ways to support my side. In addition to fully understanding my arguement, I will also review my draft and figure out what is my draft’s strengths, and what are it’s weakness. I will improve on the weakness and use the strengths to repeat them.

Good Argument Points

• sources to back up your arguments
• factual information to argue about
• know what you are arguing
• know why you are arguing
• give examples to support your idea
• stories with examples of your argument

Arguing has been around for a long time and most people in the world argue, whether they want to or not. I believe that arguing is just part of human nature. When two or more people disagree on an issue, they tend to argue to either try and get the other person to believe what the arguer believes, or just to get his/her point across. Either way, both are types of arguements and in order to argue effectively, one should have a good idea on what they are arguing.

Some people argue to get a point across, others do it to annoy the other person. In most cases this is called a contadiction. Basically the person just shouts out “No it’s not!” or other variations of that phrase, just to get a rise out of the other person. In the video example from “Monty Python”, the man who was getting paid for an arguement was only contradicting the other man who was paying for the arguement. Everything the guy who was paying would say, the other would just disagree, with no facts or sources to back up his arguement.

When one argues, it is good to keep a few things in mind. The arguer wants to make sure he has sources and facts to back up his arguement. Also he/she needs to know exactly what they are arguing about, and why they are arguing. If you just argue for the sake of arguing, and have no idea what the topic is about, then its pointless to even argue in the first place. When peope argue they need to know effective ways to argue and also know what the topic is about at least somewhat.

The revision tip I chose was “is it clear what this paper is about?”. I chose this because i believe that my paper clearly states what my belief is and also has a well-developed story to support my belief. I allow the reader to get into my story as if it were their own and therefore the reader can more easily understand my paper. I make sure that my story is full and well put together so that the reader can not only be entertained by my paper, they can also take something from my paper. I’m not saying that i want to change the reader’s beliefs. I’m only stating that i want the reader to understand what i believe, why i believe it, and maybe help them realize why I think it’s a good thing to believe.

Similarities within “This I Believe”

• Stories
• Life-changing events
• Situations in stories

This I believe is a book that has all kinds of different essays in it. All of the essays explain a certain person’s belief and how they came upon that belief. An repeating similarity in all of the essays are the stories within the essays. Each of the stories tells of an event that the author had to go through and usually is life changing. In one essay titled: “The Art of Being a Neighbor”, the author was taken out of her comfort zone, which was the city, due to her loss of a job and was then forced to start over in a new town (in the middle of no-where). She survived thanks to the hospitality of her new neighbors. She learned through this experience of how much it matters to be a good neighbor.

Another similarity throughout the essays is the types of situations within each essay. Most of the situations in the stories are ones that are not favorable. Usually it takes a horrible situation for a person to find what his/her true beliefs are. In the essay “In Giving I Connect with Others”, the author’s daughter was very sick and ended up passing away. The author then realized that “you only have what you give”. She not believes that the only way to live a full life is giving to others.

“This I Believe” is a great book and honestly an easy read. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially those who want another outlook on life.

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Why is writing important? This is a question that many people ask themselves. For me personally, writing is a way to express one’s-self. Writing is a great way to let others know what we believe and is a great way for communication. Whether it be blogs, letters, e-mail or any other way of writing, we have created many different ways to keep in contact or share our beliefs, and it all comes back to writing.

Writing helps people gain intelligence on their own beliefs and the beliefs of others. You can find out a lot about a person just by reading a blog or letter by them. For a writing teacher, I believe it is a great way to shape the views of those around you. In teaching a writing class it allows that teacher to see other people’s way of writing and maybe improve their own way of writing.

For most kids, writing is boring and not fun. I want to change that. Even for little kids, writing can be loads of fun. Writing will make you smarter, it will get you thinking about different things, and it will also introduce to new people and new ways of writing. I’m glad that schools have kids write because within writing there is a secret to finding one’s-self. Even at a young age, writing is still vitally important.