Krissi Wester

ENG 102-104
Neuberger, Larry
14 December 2011
What I have Learned About Writing This Semester
English has always been one oI my Iavorite subjects because I love to read, analyze and
absorb inIormation that books have to oIIer. This particular course I Ielt was a strain on that
natural Ieeling oI enjoyment that I usually get Irom an English course. I did enjoy the teaching
style that my instructor possessed although the methods that were taught were not oI the element
that I would desire.
I am one oI the old school students, literally, since I am Iorty Iive and just now working
to achieve my associate`s degree late in liIe. While I do think that digital media inevitably has
its place in today`s society, I do however think that it is also the greatest downIall oI society
today. I came into this class having a cell phone and knowing that things such as blogging and
twitter existed and had never been one who desired to use these methods oI mass
communication. Another thing that I was disappointed with was posting my work on the
internet. Sometimes writing is a personal venue and I am not one that particularly cares to
display such works Ior public scrutiny. As well as being open to the public, the other issue with
writing and posting our work online, we give up many oI the copyrights to the work once it is
made public on another entity`s website.
Furthermore on the subject oI digital media, it has taken the power oI language away
Irom kids today. I have Iive children and by Iar my two youngest children are the dumbest to
date and much oI that I blame on the Ilood oI digital media that the children are subjected to and
taught with today. Children no longer learn the art oI writing, in Iact script is not a Iocus in
elementary education any longer. Children are not taught to write in cursive and penmanship is
not a Iocus in most classrooms today. To me this is a Iailure oI society, because what happens
when technology Iails? What happens when there are no resources to allow one to drive the
superhighway oI knowledge that we reIer to as the internet? Where will all oI our research and
inIormation be Iound? It seems that no one really 7908 anymore. Email, text, blogging and
YouTube are what we have become as a society?
In writing research papers in not only my English class, but others as well, I came to
question the idea oI plagiarism. This is because in essence, anything we write, about any subject
that we are not directly involved in could be considered plagiarism. Let me elaborate Iurther
using as an instance the research paper we did on the Holocaust. In the 1940`s in which the
Holocaust took place, I was not even a thought construed in my parents minds and quite Irankly I
don`t even think either one oI my parents were born until the late 1940`s. ThereIore anything
that I may know about the events oI the Holocaust are second hand knowledge, thereIore I Ieel
that truly anything I would write about this would be plagiarism by deIinition because I was not
present during the Holocaust to gain Iirst-hand knowledge about the subject, thereIore none oI
any paper I could write could be original ideas or Iacts about that subject. Any inIormation I
have on the Holocaust was gained through the knowledge oI others that has been relayed through
the media and print, so even by paraphrasing the knowledge I do have about the issue it could be
considered plagiarism. When a student is asked to write a research paper, it is somewhat
misleading to the student to make them believe that they are writing an original paper about any
historic event, unless the student actually experienced whatever the subject is that they are
writing about. So I question where does plagiarism actually begin? And does the internet and
things such as blogging, tweeting all other social media venues make honesty in writing any
more likely, or does it simply make plagiarism easier, because in posting on these sites we give
up our actual rights to anything we have written and give the website all the rights to our work.
In conclusion, I have enjoyed myselI in this class and am taking away new opinions and
inIormation. I am very pleased to have been a part oI this class.