1. The student was wrong to plagiarize. He or she should have paraphrased the writing instead. That way, he or she would have gotten the same point across without copying the exact words. If the student had to use direct quotations, he or she could have cited the source by putting a link to it and putting the copied sentences in quotation marks.
2. Instead of using the exact words from the article, the student could have paraphrased and said something like this: There is a feeling of peace and calmness in this painting. Maybe the contrast between the dark shades of blue and the bright warm reds, golds, and oranges symbolize childhood memories of happier, simpler times. The night sky represents the dull sadness of Van Gogh's life as an adult but the stars are there to symbolize the distant memories that live on. That was an example of paraphrasing. I used the same idea of the original text but instead of copying the words, I used my own.
3. It can be tempting to plagiarize, but their are ways to avoid it. When I need to paraphrase something, it helps me to use a thesaurus and find synonyms to replace words from the original text in order to be sure I am not copying directly from the text, after reading it, cover it up and write out your paraphrase. Then, I check the text to make sure I haven't plagiarized any of it. If I must use a direct quotation, I try to be sure to give credit to the author by including a citation.
Plagiarism is wrong and although it may seem easier to just copy something and try to pass it off as what I wrote, in the long run, it's better to put my own thoughts in my own words. It makes the writing more authentic. I don't have to risk getting in trouble and above all, it's just the right thing to do.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
2 Blog Entries I Enjoyed
I recently read Eliza's entry in which she compares Ron and Harry from the Harry Potter series. She starts out by explaining that they are good friends and both have very different hardships. Harry is an orphan and an only child whose parents have left him money and fame. Ron comes from a large, very poor family. She explains their differences clearly. The way she compares and contrasts the two characters is simple, but still interesting. She's straightforward and concise, but she keeps the reader's attention.
I also read Izzy's response to Romeo and Juliet, where she discusses theories about why Romeo and Juliet are attracted to each other and if they are really in love. She does a great job of discussing the main theme of the story, stating her own theories and backing them up with her personal opinions as well as textual evidence.
I liked both of the blog entries I read and I want to read more of Izzy's and Eliza's writing in the future. I feel like I have learned a lot about how they use details that keep the reader interested and how their writing is clear and focused. I'd like to keep reading their entries and use their examples as ways to improve my own writing.
I also read Izzy's response to Romeo and Juliet, where she discusses theories about why Romeo and Juliet are attracted to each other and if they are really in love. She does a great job of discussing the main theme of the story, stating her own theories and backing them up with her personal opinions as well as textual evidence.
I liked both of the blog entries I read and I want to read more of Izzy's and Eliza's writing in the future. I feel like I have learned a lot about how they use details that keep the reader interested and how their writing is clear and focused. I'd like to keep reading their entries and use their examples as ways to improve my own writing.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Juliet
When reading Shapkespeare's Romeo and Juliet, like most teenage girls, I am able to relate to Juliet. I've just started to get to know her character. Juliet is about my age (thirteen going on fourteen), but since the play is set in a different time period, she seems much older than me. If I were living in those times, chances are I would be engaged or married already. My brother and sister who are both 17 would probably have their own children. Back then, people didn't live as long as they do now, so they would get married and start families in their teens.
As strange as it may seem, it was considered normal for a girl to be married by the time she was thirteen or fourteen. However, it seems that Juliet Capulet was ahead of her time. She doesn't feel ready to marry yet, even though her parents have put together an arranged marriage for her and Paris, a wealthy cousin of the prince of Verona. Juliet still wants to hold on to her childhood, but her mother thinks that she should grow up and get married. Juliet is confused. She is afraid of the unknown future. I think that Juliet is torn between wanting to hold on to her youth and her freedom and wanting to obey her parents. She carries the burden of being their only child who did not die at a very young age. Because of this, I think she feels obliged to please them. It can be very pressuring.
Juliet feels like she is too young for love. Its a bit ironic because her parents are encouraging her to get to know Paris and become more mature. Juliet does not think that she is ready, but she does not yet know that when she goes to the ball that her parents have planned, she will immediately become attracted to Romeo Montague, the son of her family's enemy.
As strange as it may seem, it was considered normal for a girl to be married by the time she was thirteen or fourteen. However, it seems that Juliet Capulet was ahead of her time. She doesn't feel ready to marry yet, even though her parents have put together an arranged marriage for her and Paris, a wealthy cousin of the prince of Verona. Juliet still wants to hold on to her childhood, but her mother thinks that she should grow up and get married. Juliet is confused. She is afraid of the unknown future. I think that Juliet is torn between wanting to hold on to her youth and her freedom and wanting to obey her parents. She carries the burden of being their only child who did not die at a very young age. Because of this, I think she feels obliged to please them. It can be very pressuring.
Juliet feels like she is too young for love. Its a bit ironic because her parents are encouraging her to get to know Paris and become more mature. Juliet does not think that she is ready, but she does not yet know that when she goes to the ball that her parents have planned, she will immediately become attracted to Romeo Montague, the son of her family's enemy.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
November Blues
Although I really like to read, I'm extremely picky about books and I have a bad habit of starting books, getting bored with them and abandoning them. That's what happened when I started November Blues a few months ago. Recently I picked it up again and started over. Reading it made me wonder why I had ditched it in the first place. I felt sorry that I had and I'm glad I gave it a second chance.
Like many books I've enjoyed, November Blues is told from two different perspectives(Unit 3 vocabulary word!) One narrator is November, a pregnant teenager. The father of her child is dead and her mother has a whole future planned out for her. When November narrates, she talks about how she always felt bad for teen moms and knew how hard their lives were, but she never really knew until she became one of them. I guess that's how everything is; you never truly know what something is like until you experience it firsthand.
The other narrator is Jericho, the cousin and best friend of November's late boyfriend, Josh. He's also the ex-boyfriend of Ariel, a girl who used to be best friends with November and her best friend Dana, but left them all when she started dating someone else. Jericho feels somewhat responsible for taking care of November and her baby. He knows that Josh would want that.
Like many books I've enjoyed, November Blues is told from two different perspectives(Unit 3 vocabulary word!) One narrator is November, a pregnant teenager. The father of her child is dead and her mother has a whole future planned out for her. When November narrates, she talks about how she always felt bad for teen moms and knew how hard their lives were, but she never really knew until she became one of them. I guess that's how everything is; you never truly know what something is like until you experience it firsthand.
The other narrator is Jericho, the cousin and best friend of November's late boyfriend, Josh. He's also the ex-boyfriend of Ariel, a girl who used to be best friends with November and her best friend Dana, but left them all when she started dating someone else. Jericho feels somewhat responsible for taking care of November and her baby. He knows that Josh would want that.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Viola in Reel Life
If you had a family and friends that supported you, a hobby that you're knowledgeable and passionate about, and you lived in one of the most interesting, beautiful and diverse places in the world, why would you want anything to change? Viola Chesterton, the main character in Adriana Trigiani's novel Viola in Reel Life surely didn't. When 14-year-old Viola was forced to leave behind her family, friends, school and home to go to an all-girls boarding school in South Bend, Indiana, she wasn't at all happy about it. I can't really blame her. Like Viola, I am lucky enough to live in New York City and experience all it has to offer every day. I would never want to leave the place that Viola says is "the coolest place on the planet". Throughout the whole book, I felt that I could really identify with Viola and relate to her feelings.
Viola lived in Brooklyn her whole life, so naturally, she's grown attached. She feels like no place can compare to the city and that boarding school will be dull and depressing. ("I'm marooned. Abandoned. Left to rot in boarding school." pg. 1) To amuse herself, Viola makes a secret video diary of her life at boarding school called the Viola Reels. Viola is very passionate about the art of film and she feels like she knows that that's what she wants to do for the rest of her life. I can relate to this, because for years I've loved acting. I'm pretty sure that I want theater to always be a part of my life. I couldn't imagine living without being able to act or going to a school without a drama program. For Viola, making movies is one of the few things she has left of her old life.
Viola thinks that Indiana won't be a interesting to film as New York is, but she soon realizes that she's wrong. On her first day at boarding school, Viola is filming out in the fields. Later on when she's watching what she's filmed, she sees a mysterious lady in red standing in the field. Viola doesn't remember seeing her before and assumes that she's a ghost of some sort. This leads to doing research and learning about who this ghost woman is and even helps her open up to her roommates and realize that the world is bigger than just New York City and that interesting things can happen anywhere.
Like Viola, I have learned multiple times that even though trying something new doesn't always seem like it'll be fun, life is full of surprises and you don't have to be at the center of all the action to have an exciting experience.
Viola lived in Brooklyn her whole life, so naturally, she's grown attached. She feels like no place can compare to the city and that boarding school will be dull and depressing. ("I'm marooned. Abandoned. Left to rot in boarding school." pg. 1) To amuse herself, Viola makes a secret video diary of her life at boarding school called the Viola Reels. Viola is very passionate about the art of film and she feels like she knows that that's what she wants to do for the rest of her life. I can relate to this, because for years I've loved acting. I'm pretty sure that I want theater to always be a part of my life. I couldn't imagine living without being able to act or going to a school without a drama program. For Viola, making movies is one of the few things she has left of her old life.
Viola thinks that Indiana won't be a interesting to film as New York is, but she soon realizes that she's wrong. On her first day at boarding school, Viola is filming out in the fields. Later on when she's watching what she's filmed, she sees a mysterious lady in red standing in the field. Viola doesn't remember seeing her before and assumes that she's a ghost of some sort. This leads to doing research and learning about who this ghost woman is and even helps her open up to her roommates and realize that the world is bigger than just New York City and that interesting things can happen anywhere.
Like Viola, I have learned multiple times that even though trying something new doesn't always seem like it'll be fun, life is full of surprises and you don't have to be at the center of all the action to have an exciting experience.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Response #2: The Help
I recently started reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. I was going to see the movie, but I wanted to read the book first. Every two chapters, the narrator changes. I have only read from the voices of three characters so far- Aibileen, Minny, and Miss Skeeter. They are all different, but they're similar in the way that they all feel trapped somehow. Aibileen and Minny are black women working as maids for very little pay. They're friends but their personalities are quite different. Aibileen usually keeps to herself and doesn't show her feelings. She gets very attached to the children she takes care of, especially Miss Leefolt's two-year-old daughter, Mae Mobley. Aibileen secretly resents the fact that Miss Leefolt claims to love her child, yet she never spends time with her.
Minny is outspoken and sassy. She's smart even though she was forced to drop out of school before high school to be a maid. She has a good heart, but she's not very good at keeping a job for a long time because of her sharp tongue. At the beginning of the book, Minny is unemployed. She is having trouble finding a job because many people in town know about her habit of talking back to her employers. Both Aibileen and Minny feel that it's time to change they way people treat African Americans, but neither one of them really knows where to start.
Even though she's from a rich, white family, Skeeter feels like she's always being pressured by her mother. At the beginning of the story, 23-year-old Skeeter returns home from college and to her mothers dissatisfaction, she has not found a husband. Her mother thinks that Skeeter is wasting her time by getting a college education and that she needs to find a man to marry. But getting married isn't what Skeeter wants. She wants to reunite with Constantine, the maid who raised her and was the only person who kept her secrets and really understood her. She also wants to persue her dream of being a writer.
I haven't gotten very far in the book, but I already like it a lot. I waiting anxiously to see how their paths cross and what happens in the end.
Minny is outspoken and sassy. She's smart even though she was forced to drop out of school before high school to be a maid. She has a good heart, but she's not very good at keeping a job for a long time because of her sharp tongue. At the beginning of the book, Minny is unemployed. She is having trouble finding a job because many people in town know about her habit of talking back to her employers. Both Aibileen and Minny feel that it's time to change they way people treat African Americans, but neither one of them really knows where to start.
Even though she's from a rich, white family, Skeeter feels like she's always being pressured by her mother. At the beginning of the story, 23-year-old Skeeter returns home from college and to her mothers dissatisfaction, she has not found a husband. Her mother thinks that Skeeter is wasting her time by getting a college education and that she needs to find a man to marry. But getting married isn't what Skeeter wants. She wants to reunite with Constantine, the maid who raised her and was the only person who kept her secrets and really understood her. She also wants to persue her dream of being a writer.
I haven't gotten very far in the book, but I already like it a lot. I waiting anxiously to see how their paths cross and what happens in the end.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Social Awareness: Song Response
"Mean" by Taylor Swift
You have knocked me off my feet again got me feeling like I'm nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard, calling me out when I'm wounded
You, pickin' on the weaker man
Well, you can take me down with just one single blow
But you don't know what you don't know
Someday I'll be living in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
You, with your switching sides and your walk-by lies and your humiliation
You, have pointed out my flaws again as if I don't already see them
I'll walk with my head down trying to block you out 'cause I'll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again
I'll bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now 'cause you can't lead me down that road
And you don't know what you don't know
Someday I'll be living in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
And I can see you years from now in a bar, talking over a football game
With that same big loud opinion but nobody's listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing
But all you are is mean
All you are is mean and a liar and pathetic and alone in life
And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean
But someday I'll be living in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean, yeah
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
Someday, I'll be, living in a big old city
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
Stupid. Ugly. Midget. Nerd. Loser. Yes, I've been called all of these things. And I must admit, I've called some people these things and worse. But just because people do it doesn't mean it's okay. I'll bet that if I walked to school one morning and asked everyone on the street if they'd ever been bullied or gossiped about, at least 9 out of 10 would say yes. And I'll bet if I asked them if they'd ever bullied someone else, chances are that most of them would say yes. Bullying is a problem in every school and even outside of school. Words can hurt. Sometimes an insult can feel as bad as getting punched in the stomach or even worse. I should know, both have happened to me. Kids and teens often don't have very good "filters" for what they say. They don't think about how their choice of words can affect someone else. It can be hard to control the words that come out of your mouth. Bullying is inevitable. Chances are if you're reading this, you've been bullied before or you will be bullied in the future. No matter how "perfect" you may seem, a bully can always find flaws("You, have pointed out my flaws again as if I don't already see them") Some kids are easier targets because bullies are jealous of their good qualities and want to make them seem bad. It's hard to know what to say in certain situations and it can be difficult to tell the difference between defending yourself verbally and insulting someone.
In this song, Taylor talks about how bullying is passed along. Someone who is bullied can become so angry and bitter that they take their anger out on someone else because they're afraid of being that kid again. The kid who feels powerless and small. ("I'll bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold. But the cycle ends right now 'cause you can't lead me down that road") Bullies usually don't think about how their victim is going to feel later on. They don't know the affect that their insults have. There have been many stories in magazines and newspapers about teens who've become clinically depressed because of bullies and have even taken their own lives because bullies have hurt them so much. People need to think about what's going to happen to that kid they're bullying when he or she goes home, not just what's happening in the moment. Is it really worth it to hurt someone's feelings just to impress your friends? Friends like that probably won't even be your friends five years from now. Bullying hurts a lot("You have knocked me off my feet again got me feeling like I'm nothing You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard, calling me out when I'm wounded You, pickin' on the weaker man.") It's funny how a bunch of words put into a sentence or two can have such a strong effect on someone.
Okay, so the last two paragraphs have been pretty depressing and I've basically been just talking about how bullying is wrong. But the victims aren't powerless. They have the choice to do the right thing by walking away with the satisfaction that they don't have to waste their time with bullies. People need to stop letting bullies get to them. A bully wants to see you fail, but there's almost nothing more satisfying than knowing that you're not going to let some bully get you down. I've been criticized. I love to act, but I've been told I'm not talented or pretty enough to be an actress. I love to write but I've been told I'm too dumb to be a writer or that I wasn't a "real" artist. But I know that a true artist doesn't stop when someone puts them down. I know that now, it may seem like the bullies have all the power, but it's the quirky, unique kids who get called nerds and freaks who come out on top later in life. Like Taylor says in the song: "Someday I'll be living in a big old city and all you're ever gonna be is mean. Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me, and all you're ever gonna be is mean." :)
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