Citing the Source: PLAGIARISM ALERT!

             You’re Expelled! These are two words that I never want to hear. In The Transition to College Writing by Keith Hjortshoj, Hjortshoj explains how to properly cite sources to avoid getting caught in the plagiarism trap. I know that only in extreme copyright cases would a student ever get expelled for plagiarism, but any type of plagiarism can land a student in trouble and this trouble is easy to avoid if you cite properly. Citing properly and knowing when exactly to cite has been an issue of mine since high school. I do not know why I find it so hard to distinguish between what needs to be cited and what does not. Not citing properly can earn me a reduce letter grade, to a failing one on my paper and a trip to the Dean's office, which can be avoided.

Hjortshoj has wonderful citation wisdom, which includes, “A citation at the end of a paragraph does not authorize all uses of the source in previous sentences” (145). What Hjortshoj means, is that when students use multiple ideas from a single source, many students, including me, think that it is okay to just use one citation to denote the author at the end of the paragraph. This is NOT correct.  Each sentence needs to be cited properly, and also using just one source to support an argument in a paragraph of a paper is not sufficient evidence most times to prove the point of that section. The point is that multiple sources should be used  to make the argument stronger and then students never have to worry about using a single citation for a lot of evidence. 

As a result, to avoid all these plagiarism pitfalls, I have a tendency to over-cite in my papers, because I am so afraid of being accused of stealing another author’s ideas.  Over-citing can become detrimental to a paper because then it is just a collection of other writer's thoughts and ideas and none of mine, the paper's author.  Teachers want to hear what I have to say and not just already established voices on the subjects and topics. My voice is lost in the paper and Hjortshoj explains this phenomenon in detail. He says:

“Using you voice as the writer to introduce and integrate sources, you must take charge of your writing and responsibility for it, as all students and scholars must.  This kind of writing isn’t just about “what other writers said” but about what you choose to tell us about the subject, including the words and ideas of other authors you choose to include. When you take responsibility for telling your own story about the subject, you gain tremendous freedom to use the work of other writers to help you tell this story well” (150).

            
            I have to overcome this citation problem to exceed now in college. My professor will not be happy if I just reiterate what others have said and not analyze it or support the evidence with my own voice throughout the paper. I can get so determined at proving my point with sufficient evidence that I forget about my own voice on the subject. It will be a difficult challenge for me to overcome!

Teleporting Around Town

Upon entering a new place, a person is always apprehensive about who they are going to meet and what they are going to find there. I felt that same way the moment I teleported to my first location in Second Life, after changing the clothes of my avatar, so I could blend in and look like I belong there. The first place that I visited was Mexico. It was deserted because it was late at night. I explored for a while and took some pictures.

This photo, one of the best I took, was fun to try and center and figure out how to apply the Rule of Thirds. As for the virtual Mexico itself, anyone who visits this place can see some very creative virtual stone statues and architecture. They can also explore a few temples with many steps, so be prepared to climb! I learned that Mexico is a fascinating place that I want to visit someday in real-life to explore the temples. Avatars can truly get a sense of hundreds of years of culture by visiting Mexico in Second Life.

The next place I teleported to was the Globe Theatre. This was a fascinating place and such a real-life looking replica to me. I have only seen pictures of the theater, but those pictures and the virtual world replica seems eerily similar. The picture above shows how theatre was decorated and looked. I also had an uncanny thought while there about how one of Shakespeare's plays might have looked when staged and preformed for the Queen back in the late 1500's. The only thing that visitors should watch out for are signs that say the place is under construction because you can fall through the floor, which happened to me. Any Second Life member can explore this legendary theater of Shakespeare's time, which may interest users who have read his plays or even educators that teach them.

Afterwards, I visited some other areas, but none were as interactive as the last one I visited on my photo tour of Second Life. This place was the International Space Flight museum. It was fascinating that to see that someone had created rockets in Second Life. I was actually able to play and interact with the rockets, something that could never be done in real- life. I do not know if any other visitors would be as impressed as I was, but I really enjoyed studying the rockets. I wish that there were other people around to talk about them with, but I had to explore on my own. I never thought that Second Life could be used to create such learning- based places!

As my first experience of visiting places and teleporting back and forth came to an end, I was upset, but then I realized that I can go back to visit anytime because they are right on my computer! Second Life just is so amazing in this aspect that it can make history, culture and science come alive in such a way to actually make students want to study them. I am really looking forward to my next exploration and more pictures will come soon documenting my visits. I cannot wait! Where will in the world will I go next? Stay tuned...

Seeing Double

        As of last week, I have officially created a double of myself for my English class. No, not a feat that was accomplished by cloning, but in a virtual world, called Second Life. Second Life allows its users to create avatars, the name of the virtual people created, so they can interact and explore all the virtual places. Last Wednesday, I created my very own avatar and named her Cinderella Caffarelli. Afterwards, I then had the probability of own online persona, but it was not “me” yet.


       Upon first creating my avatar, it had no resemblance to me in real life, but Second Life allows the user to manipulate and change about every aspect of the avatar, if they desire. After Cinderella’s creation, it took a few days of manipulating all her changeable aspects to mold her into the best online representation of me. I changed not only her clothes, to ones I liked, but I changed her hair to be long and curly, and customized many other aspects of Cinderella, to resemble me. I gave her all the features I could that I have in real life and then with the press of a button to save my changes, I looked into my own “online” face. I wanted “virtual” me, Cinderella, to look as close to me in real life as possible, because I just wanted to see if it was possible, and though a few aspects are different, we do look alike. I feel strange about having an "almost" twin, but a least I get to control her.


       I picked the name Cinderella for my avatar because I liked it and wanted her name to be creative. Granted, that the name might not be gender-neutral as my teacher desired, but I wanted to be creative. I am going to enjoy “seeing double” of me!

WHAT? There is something called a Writing Process that require a student to write more than one draft?

         Flashback to the olden days….My high school English teacher gives us the assignment to write an essay, a standard five paragraph essay about a topic we had been discussing. It was due a week after it was assigned. When I got home, that night I put the essay off. That was my first BIG mistake. Then, I kept putting the paper off each day until finally the day before arrives and in class that day my teacher reminds us that we have a paper due tomorrow. So that night when I set to work, I have massive writer’s block. Somehow I managed to crank out the paper in mere hours, working late into the night. My second BIG mistake was not really editing the paper. So after I handed the paper in and waited anxiously for the grade to come back, I received a C on the paper. I couldn’t believe it was a C! I was astonished and I shouldn’t have been, because I wrote the paper last minute. There were obvious mistakes in the essay that I caught upon reading it after it had been graded.


        Obviously as my little story above shows, I am a procrastinator and don’t really have a writing process. I truly am a prime example of the coined term a “One-draft wonder” writer. I am now in college and I know that this process of waiting until the last minute and then just vomiting anything onto a paper just to get it done it not only going to guarantee me a C, but maybe even lower. Upon reading, The Transition to College Writing by Keith Hjortshoj, my eyes really opened up to the fact that I have no writing process and that is a habit that needs to be corrected. I am a big offender of generalizations, because I don’t proofread my work and don’t put enough time into organizing and making my point clear throughout my paper. Hjortshoj says “In general, teachers view typical student papers to be comparable to a rough draft that needs further thought, development, revision, end editing” (57). I am am sure many of my teachers had thought this about my work, but I know that I can do better. I have been in many advanced English classes so I know that I wasn’t put there for no reason, just I always tell myself that I will do better on the next essay, but the next time is the same last minute essay. I really do need to follow Hjortshoj advice when he states emphatically “Start to work as early as possible” (74). Even though it seems like a cliché this advice for me is “easier said then done.” I always take the “easy way out” and write one draft.


         I haven’t written my first essay draft as a college student at the University of Richmond, but I know that the one draft approach is not going to allow me to receive the grade I desire. The teacher is going to chastise me for writing just one draft and turning it in because it is an elementary mistake. I have good ideas and now I just need to show that in my writing. I want to make a good impression on my teacher with the first essay I hand in. I don’t want my teacher to think that I am lazy or be disappointed that I could write better. Also, in The Transition to College Writing, Hjortshoj says “Teachers sometimes find even the best writing in the class disappointing and according to their real standards for good writing, teachers may consider average papers to be poorly written” (57). Nobody wants his/her teacher to think that about him/her. I know that multiple drafts of each of my essays has to be accomplished and even then the essay might not be up to the high standards of my professor, but at least I tried. So really the case and point is don’t wait until the last minute to write a paper… If you get a C in a high school English class, then you are in big trouble for college!