Shattered Glass

1. According to the movie, there are several processes involved in writing. First, a topic on which to write must be sought. Then, the gathering of information and note-taking. Next, the actual writing. After the work is written, it is reviewed and edited by the editor. The facts are also checked. The writers talk about their work amongst themselves, too. Then the work is revised and turned in for publication.

2. Stephen Glass collected data by (supposedly) going to where the news was happening. He went to a Republican convention to see what the young Republicans did during down time. He also supposedly went to a meeting between a software corporation and the kid accused of hacking it. While he was allegedly where the news was happening, he took notes. He then used these notes to write articles.

3. The ethical issue I see emerging in the movie is that of the falsehood of publications. It seems as though Stephen Glass made up his stories in order to become popular and make money. Perhaps the real news stories were dull, so he made up his own to capture attention. It seems as though he made his stories up because none of the people or places he referred to could be traced (he lied about his sources). Another ethical issue that took place in the movie was the firing of the editor. The editor stood up for his writers when they were required to do a lousy assignment by complaining to the boss, and as a result the boss fired the editor and promoted one of his favorite writers to the editor position. The writer who was promoted was not qualified to be an editor, but the boss put him in that position merely because he liked him.

Shitty First Draft

When Lamott uses the phrase "shitty first draft" she is referring to the first horribly written paper that writers, even professional ones, write. This is the paper on which you write down your initial ideas, even if you write them incoherently. Your ideas do not even necessarily have to go anywhere. The first draft is the one that no one will see. Your writing can even be childish; it doesn't matter for a first draft--you write whatever you want. It can also be way longer than it should be. It is really just a very unedited version of the paper. Sometimes shitty first drafts help you realize what you actually want to write about. After you write your first draft, you clean it up for your final draft. She writes, "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts . . . A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft--you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft-- you fix it up . . . And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even" (2). I fix up my shitty first drafts by taking the advice that has been written on my papers. For example, I added a paragraph to my literature review and I made corrections to my works cited page. I will continue taking advice from Dr. Seloni and Bee to make my paper as good as I can.

Covering

One thing I cover is the fact that I am not particularly religious. I cover this because I live in a predominately Christian society and I do not want people to think that I am an untrustworthy, evil devil worshiper because I am not religious. This is not the case. I realize that many people probably would not think this way--at least openly--even if they are religious, but there are the radical people too who would. Another thing I cover is my intelligence. I feel like if I speak all intellectual like, people will think I am a nerd or "uncool". This is probably why I hang out with natural science majors, but when I am around other people I sometimes cover. I also used to cover the fact that I am in the middle class. Growing up, I was friends with the kids of doctors and lawyers. In other words, they were rich. I wanted to fit in with them, so I dressed like them and I drove a (really old) BMW in an attempt to cover up my middle class status. Now I don't really care about my class because all my friends went off the ritzy private schools and I go to a college where most of the students are middle class.

MLA Practice

Liza Burby's article from Better Homes and Gardens magazine is about the contrast between the fun kids have at parties and going to school when they are young and the boredome they experience in junior and senior high school. Russ Quaglia says, "The sense of fun and adventure they have in going to school and learning new things begins to wane by third grade when they've learned the basic skills . . . By seventh grade, with their hormones kicking in and their peers being paramount in their lives, their lament is, 'School is so boring!'" (Quoted in Burby 108).

Activity 33

One important even from my childhood was when I decided to start studying music. I wanted to be like my older brother, who played the guitar. So, I first started with guitar lessons when I was seven years old. I found that I really enjoyed reading and performing music. My love for music inspired me to learn how to play the flute in fourth grade. Since then, music has played a big role in my life. When I was in junior and senior high school, music was what I concentrated on. I participated in many honors bands and band festivals. When I was a senior, my high school dream came true--I qualified for the Pennsylvania State Wind Ensemble, where I ranked 5th in the state.

Studying and performing music itself has brought me great joy and a sense of accomplishment, but it also has other advantages. For one, I have made many good friends in band, including my boyfriend. Even my band director became a good friend of mine. I have gotten to work with and meet many different directors and students from across the state, which broadened my musical knowledge and my social spectrum. I have gotten to travel different places and see what they are like. In addition, I have learned that music education is every bit as academic as every other academic area, and that it should not be cut from schools. Last year, I joined IUP's Concert Band. I really liked working with college level musicians and conductors. Unfortunately, I have not been able to fit any ensembles in my schedule lately. I do believe, however, that my musical talent will help me in my professional career as an elementary teacher, since elementary teachers are encouraged to be creative and artistic. My musical studies started at that one vital moment when I asked my mom to sign me up for guitar lessons when I was seven years old.

I-SEARCH

When I was first considering what to research, I thought about social issues that are not very popular. I wanted to write about something that many people don't know about. As I was browsing the web for something to research, I stumbled across something dealing with sex trafficking. I read more about it and what I found was alarming. Since most people don't know it exists in the United States, I wanted to write about it so others could read about it. As an elementary education major, I am interested in the health and well-being of children, so I wanted to write exclusively about juvenile sex trafficking--it narrowed down my topic too. I found a lot of sources published by the government, and some accounts of sex trafficked victims themselves. I found other sources from reliable newspapers and news networks. Some other sources were written by professors who lead sex trafficking awareness centers at their universities. After looking through all my sources, I concluded that sex trafficking in the United States is more of a problem than most people think it is, and something needs to be done about it. First, I tried to contact agencies that deal with sex trafficking victims, including Indiana's Children and Youth Services, but only one agency out of the 13 I contacted were willing to be interviewed by me. Since interviews were then out of the question, I decided I would get better results if I send a questionnaire to IUP students to see how much they know about sex trafficking. Finding participants is the only problem I have had so far, and I have to rewrite my methodology section to fit my new research method. I think I wrote a good literature review so I am proud of that.

Paraphrasing

Oftentimes, students use too many direct quotes while note-taking. Consequently, they use too many of these direct quotations in their final research papers, which exceeds the limit of having 10% of the final paper directly quoted. Therefore, while note-taking, you should make it a goal to limit the amount of word-for-word material you write down (Lester, 1976).