Is He a D**k or Naw?

Yesterday, Commissioner Adam Silver proudly graced Donald Sterling, Los Angeles Clippers owner, the MAXIMUM condemnation for his "alleged" inappropriate remarks. Sources said the infamous owner became irate when he discovered his female partner had posed for pictures with African Americans.

SMH. A** whole much. Apparently, Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation have not yet resonated in his soul. 

Keeping it one-hundred:)

When Writings are Reader Centered?

When I first gather my thoughts for a blog post, one of the first things I do is structure my ideas around something I've experienced rather than focusing on something interesting that readers will enjoy. Then, right before I finalize my blog post, however, I’ll manipulate my perspectives with the hopes that it will relate to readers.

Ultimately, I sat down and really consider one of my reflective blog drafts and several questions came to mind. Will readers find the content interesting and get into it? Will it be received as worthwhile to readers seeking to savor the existence of time? But most importantly, is this piece of writing reader centered?

As an avid blog reader, I realize that many readers are minimally interested in ones experiences and/or accomplishments (especially on social networks) if they can’t find what the blog post means to them. Readers, including me, immerse in blog posts for its fresh diverse knowledge and concepts. And a lot of times, a reader may be in search of a soothing tone or a unique voice, if they’re a new blogger. Or they might be seeking for a solution to use as a teaching moment to a crafty project.

So, while readers welcome the personal touch in articles, spewing out too much personality (as this was the issue with my post) will bore and scare readers away. Dr. James Pennebaker, who explores expressive writing, along with other colleagues following his findings, determined that during the writing process, the patterns of our brain waves and the levels of conductivity in our skin changes―all contributing to the writers well being. Thus, knowing that writing is found to have drastic effects on the body how might flowery descriptions be received? 

Plagiarism: A Classy Form of Cheating

Should I Join the Bandwagon?

I’d like to talk about the perception of plagiarism, which I find to be a fancier form of cheating―despite the fact that each has its place in the Oxford dictionary. As a matter of fact, I see a deep connection between plagiarism and cheating. To succinctly clarify my correlation, Kurt Bouman briefly enlightens readers that there isn’t any solid definition for the word plagiarism. Rather, its practices includes: the intent or unintentional submission of anyone’s work or idea and using technological devices to obtain information seeking to claim as your own without giving credited to the rightful owner are deceptive acts of plagiarizers (Rafoth, 2005). In regards to academic dishonesty, cheating is obtaining copies of quizzes, exams, and tests from friends to use as your own or distribute to other. With these in mind, I find plagiarism and cheating to be synonymous… for me they are equally same.

Bouman explains that culture is important as it leads to a collective group of various wisdom, still Western academic rules expect students to develop their unique voices. Another key point he highlights is teachers’ expectations, in how they prefer writers to produce original pieces rather than “parrot ideas” to then regurgitate those ideas on scantrons or terms papers. Accepting Bouman’s take in “Raising Questions about Plagiarism” to be reasonable, I begin to evaluate my own experience. I witness that professors do not respond as they should to cheating on two separate occasions: while completing my education hours at a local high schools and currently when testing in certain classes. During both occasions, I discover students using their phones. Obviously, they are fishing through cyberspace for answers during these exams and quizzes. At the high school I thought, a disciplinary referral was going to be issued and parents were going to be notified.

On the contrary, the teacher walked to the student and quietly asked that she put phone away. That day I said to myself, a great teaching moment was gone and it cannot be replaced. In the same way, it seems like some college professors just need to know that students are familiar with the materials they are teaching because when they spot cheaters they tend to look away and still have the heart to GIVE a grade that is not EARNED. I know somewhere down the line, cheaters and plagiarizers alike will reap the consequences of their own labor. But in the mean time I question, do my professors expect me to assess, think, and reason? Howard Gardner, a professor Harvard once spoke on this issue and he quoted a group who said, “We [the students] want to be famous and successful, we think our colleagues are cutting corners, we’ll be damned if we’ll lose out to them.” So in other words, am I missing the mark?