For those of you who participated in reading "You Don't Know Me" by David Klass in my book club, I don't think it's hard to remember a certain chapter: "Chapter 7: Torture Island." In this chapter, John passes a note to the prettiest girl in school. In the note, he is asking her out on a date. And here is what happens:
"She folds my note back up. Without looking at me--without even an eye blink or a nose wrinkle--she raises it to her lips. For one wild instant I think she is going to kiss it. But then her lovely lips, like twin rosebud petals in spring sunlight, spread themselves open. Her pearly teeth part. She eats my note" (pg.72).
The other day, Justin and I were sitting in our Script Analysis class, and I was very bored. This particular day in class, something caught my eye. A girl in the row in front of us was tearing a plain, white peice of paper into strips. Nothing freaky or funny, just a little unusual. Not something most people do. I decided to watch, just for the fact that it was something different to stare at.
Well, what happened next? She folded one of the strips into a small square, put in in the palm of her hand, put her hand up to her mouth, and slipped the paper into her mouth. She then proceeded to chew the paper and swallow it. I was in shock. I grabbed Justin's arm and couldn't find the words to describe what I had just witnessed. Justin and I then both watched as she downed the entire sheet of paper, strip by strip. We've watched her eat up to a sheet of paper a day for weeks.
Justin and I have our own ideas into this girl's activity, but we'll never know for sure. Anybody have any theories?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What Will It Be?
I thought it would be fun for everyone to try and guess the sex of our baby. We will not find out until November 23rd, so everyone should think long and hard and get their guesses into the comments before then. yay fun.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thought
Random thought for the day: Lyoto Machida is completely unbeatable.
*I am saying this as he prepares for his first title defense on saturday, he better not lose now because I said that.*
*I am saying this as he prepares for his first title defense on saturday, he better not lose now because I said that.*
Monday, October 19, 2009
Plagiarism?
So, as you all know, Justin and I don't take very many things seriously. School is one of those things. Sure, we're working hard to complete our degrees, but... uh, wait, that's not really true either. We do what we need to do to get by. Sometimes we like to have a little fun while we're at it. It keeps it more interesting.
One of the fascinating classes Justin and I are attending together is called "Communication Theory." To be honest, I'm still not sure what it's really all about. Basically, we talk about how people communicate and why. We just turned in our first paper a little while back. The topic was on plagiarism. Justin and I have gotten the distinct feeling that DSC has had some issues with mass plagiarism among students in the past. Here is the paper explanation from the syllabus:
Mzik (2009) writes, "Any time we talk about research or theories we have to explore the idea of plagiarism. For this paper, I want you to do just that, really explore what it means to plagiarize. So, start with our policy here at Dixie, and in your own words, tell me what it says and what it means to you. Then, I want you to go some research on plagiarism (yes, that means you have to have citations!). I want you to find two sources that talk about plagiarism. This paper needs to be at least 3 pages (900 words) or longer, typed, double spaced, proofread, and handed in on time with two references cited APA style. There is no right answer here, but this is to help you understand what it is and what the consequences of academic honesty are when writing" (pg. 6).
I know! It sounds like such an interesting assignment! I can just imagine our professor reading paper after paper about naughty plagiarizers, such fun! Thirty students spewing the regurgitated evils of stealing and cheating and citing inappropriately. Gag me.
The next class after we turned in our papers, our professor had read through the papers. She didn't hand them back but she informed us that everyone but two people had plagiarized their plagiarism papers. I assumed that she meant citing errors. No one would blatantly plagiarize in a paper like that. I also assumed that Justin and I probably made some citing errors, too. I mean, it took me a long time to try and figure out APA style, and I wasn't 100% sure about it. Our professor promised she would go easy because it was the first paper. A couple class periods later, our professor handed our papers back. Everyone perused their mistakes, and that's when Justin and I realized that we were the two that hadn't plagiarized. All our citing was completely correct. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Justin and I decided to argue FOR plagiarism. Here are our papers if you want to read them:
Jesse's Paper
Justin's Paper
So, the two people who were arguing that plagiarism is a-ok are the only two people who didn't plagiarize on our papers. The irony is delicious, isn't it? So, we get our papers back and in way of discussion, our professor says this: "There are people in this class who think it's perfectly okay to plagiarize off of your work. What do you think about that?" Basically, for the entire class, we sat back, listening to everyone say how horrifying this thought was. One guy said he believes that "Plagiarizing on a paper is one step away from cheating on a test, which is one step away from cheating on your taxes, which is one step away from cheating on your spouse." In that case, I guess we better watch each other closely. Our professor prodded the conversation on, trying in vain to get us to jump to plagiarism's defense. I have never been in a college classroom and had such an obvious one-sided debate happening for such a long time. These people were feeding off of each other, bolstering each other up in their amazing points. And the teacher kept egging it on, hoping to stifle any dissension in the ranks.
Justin and I could tell that our approach to this paper had greatly offended and angered our professor, and we knew she wanted to eat us alive with debate. It was fantastic, hilarious, mindboggling. We felt pretty powerful, to be honest. We didn't participate in the discussion, we didn't really feel it was necessary.
We took a test in that class a few days later. The last question on the test was, "True or False. Sometimes it is okay to plagiarize." Passive-aggressive much?
References
Mzik, Kellie. (2009). "COMM 1050 Introduction to Communication Theory Fall 2009 MWF 11 AM; Hazy 204."
One of the fascinating classes Justin and I are attending together is called "Communication Theory." To be honest, I'm still not sure what it's really all about. Basically, we talk about how people communicate and why. We just turned in our first paper a little while back. The topic was on plagiarism. Justin and I have gotten the distinct feeling that DSC has had some issues with mass plagiarism among students in the past. Here is the paper explanation from the syllabus:
Mzik (2009) writes, "Any time we talk about research or theories we have to explore the idea of plagiarism. For this paper, I want you to do just that, really explore what it means to plagiarize. So, start with our policy here at Dixie, and in your own words, tell me what it says and what it means to you. Then, I want you to go some research on plagiarism (yes, that means you have to have citations!). I want you to find two sources that talk about plagiarism. This paper needs to be at least 3 pages (900 words) or longer, typed, double spaced, proofread, and handed in on time with two references cited APA style. There is no right answer here, but this is to help you understand what it is and what the consequences of academic honesty are when writing" (pg. 6).
I know! It sounds like such an interesting assignment! I can just imagine our professor reading paper after paper about naughty plagiarizers, such fun! Thirty students spewing the regurgitated evils of stealing and cheating and citing inappropriately. Gag me.
The next class after we turned in our papers, our professor had read through the papers. She didn't hand them back but she informed us that everyone but two people had plagiarized their plagiarism papers. I assumed that she meant citing errors. No one would blatantly plagiarize in a paper like that. I also assumed that Justin and I probably made some citing errors, too. I mean, it took me a long time to try and figure out APA style, and I wasn't 100% sure about it. Our professor promised she would go easy because it was the first paper. A couple class periods later, our professor handed our papers back. Everyone perused their mistakes, and that's when Justin and I realized that we were the two that hadn't plagiarized. All our citing was completely correct. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Justin and I decided to argue FOR plagiarism. Here are our papers if you want to read them:
Jesse's Paper
Justin's Paper
So, the two people who were arguing that plagiarism is a-ok are the only two people who didn't plagiarize on our papers. The irony is delicious, isn't it? So, we get our papers back and in way of discussion, our professor says this: "There are people in this class who think it's perfectly okay to plagiarize off of your work. What do you think about that?" Basically, for the entire class, we sat back, listening to everyone say how horrifying this thought was. One guy said he believes that "Plagiarizing on a paper is one step away from cheating on a test, which is one step away from cheating on your taxes, which is one step away from cheating on your spouse." In that case, I guess we better watch each other closely. Our professor prodded the conversation on, trying in vain to get us to jump to plagiarism's defense. I have never been in a college classroom and had such an obvious one-sided debate happening for such a long time. These people were feeding off of each other, bolstering each other up in their amazing points. And the teacher kept egging it on, hoping to stifle any dissension in the ranks.
Justin and I could tell that our approach to this paper had greatly offended and angered our professor, and we knew she wanted to eat us alive with debate. It was fantastic, hilarious, mindboggling. We felt pretty powerful, to be honest. We didn't participate in the discussion, we didn't really feel it was necessary.
We took a test in that class a few days later. The last question on the test was, "True or False. Sometimes it is okay to plagiarize." Passive-aggressive much?
References
Mzik, Kellie. (2009). "COMM 1050 Introduction to Communication Theory Fall 2009 MWF 11 AM; Hazy 204."
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Fun Fact
There are 23 gun related homicides in Great Britain PER YEAR! There are 32 gun related homicides in the U.S. PER DAY! Great Britain has some of the most strict gun laws in the world. Hmm...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)