In the world of academia, cheating is known as “Plagiarism.” Plagiarism is seen as an immoral act. It is defined as stealing someone’s idea or work and using it as one’s own; paraphrasing without citation or failure to follow citation rules is also plagiarism. To survive in the college bubble, most of the students fear this word.  These students might not know the in-depth concept of plagiarism, but they know for sure about its negative consequences towards their career. Jennifer A. Mott-Smith in the essay “Plagiarism deserves to be punished” in the book, Bad Ideas about Writing, talks about different methods that plagiarism should be taught and not punished. She leaves her audience with a better concept of plagiarism. Many times, student writers unknowingly make mistakes which leads to charges of plagiarism. Instead of punishing plagiarism, professors should teach students the ways to avoid it. They should explain the importance of academic honesty. There is a difference between direct copying and failure to follow some convention rules.

To begin with, there are a few primary reasons that result in academic dishonesty. In the book, My word! Plagiarism and college culture, Susan Blum talks about these reasons, such as students’ inability to cope up the pressure of their fast going lives, fierce competition, the pressure to get good grades and better jobs, lack of personal integrity also results in academic dishonesty. Students explain unknowing plagiarism as accidentally forgetting to put quotation marks around used quote (Blum 175). These factors result in varied forms of plagiarism.

There are different types of plagiarism. Professional plagiarism includes double publication or unauthorized republication; while student plagiarism includes buying or importing paper, patchwriting or imperfection in citing sources.  Each type of plagiarism deserves different punishments. Blum explained, “Penalties for each type of would vary along a continuum from the kind of plagiarism that is clearly fraudulent, and deserving of severe penalties, to the kind of plagiarism that is uninformed, and deserving of education.” (Blum 27). If the mistakes made are not similar, then it should be punished differently. Failure in following the citation rules should not be punished, instead, rules should be taught to be followed. Students should be explained the importance of citation, such as quoting in writing is essential because it separates the author’s voice from the sources or references used. It expands the interaction of another source author, and researchers follow the citation list to track down the sources used.

Student writers are required to back up their voice with the help of reliable sources for any writing class. They face many complexities while using sources. Mott-Smith said, “taking ideas and using them in your own writing is a sophisticated skill that requires a good deal of practice to master.” (Smith 248). Implementing and analyzing different sources is a skill which freshers develop in their first few years of college which most likely result in patchwriting. Patchwriting is the way of writing a summary for the fresher students who are just learning to paraphrase. Rebecca Moore Howard in A Plagiarism Pentimento  states, “it is the outsider’s membership application, a way of acquiring the language of the target community.” (Howard 240). Students write a summary to understand the information they are learning for the first time. This process helps them put the learned material in their own words. Many first-year college students struggle to analyze source information whether that is quoting, explicating, paraphrasing or engaging in discussion

Moreover, citation rules are summarized as “give credit.”  Professors who teach basic college-level English are the unappreciated heroes for teaching rules. They try to educate the students about the basic citation rules rather than the faculty or administrators who make some guidelines for plagiarism and expect students to follow them throughout all college classes. College students struggle with the different expectations from their teachers in different classes. Citation rules vary from one field to another; these different expectations are hard to meet for student writers. Blum addresses this confusion with the example, “in engineering, for instance, the quotation is not considered desirable, while in the humanities it is expected.” (Blum 165). It even differs from source types like using magazine, online database or referring from movies or shows. English teachers cannot teach all these variations in expectations, within the class of a few weeks.

However, student writers face more negative outcomes compared to professional writers if caught plagiarizing. Susan Blum said, “At the most of colleges and universities, students are threatened with expulsion.” (Blum 20) Plagiarism severely impacts student’s grades; it follows the student throughout the academic career. It is “academic death penalty” Blum quotes Rebecca Moore Howard. (Blum 20). The students tag themselves as a cheater for further years of their life.

Plagiarism policies should be evaluated.  Faculties should be explicit about what needs to be taught and what needs to be punished. The correct definition for plagiarism should be direct cheating such as knowingly and willingly buying a midterm paper, falsifying bibliography or copying and pasting someone’s ideas. Every student does not lack academic integrity, so they should not be punished for their unmindful mistakes. Learning citation rules and implementing them in different classes takes times. Students should be taught how to cite and paraphrase, so they can use sources or references without the fear of being plagiarized. Campuses should develop honor codes and create an academically honest atmosphere, which can help students learn without thought of cheating.

Works Cited

Blum, Susan Debra. My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture. Cornell University Press, 2009.

Howard, Rebecca Moore. “a Plagiarism Pentimento.” a Plagiarism Pentimento – the Citation Machine, www.citationproject.nets/2018/03/Howard-Plagiarism-Pentimento.pdf.

 Mott-Smith, Jennifer a. “Plagiarism Should Be Punished.” Bad Ideas about Writing.

The tradition of grading student writing started in the late 19th century. As the number of students started enrolling in schools and colleges increased, the grading system eventually moved to percentages. Mitchell James in the essay, “Grading has made writing better” in the book Bad Ideas About Writing talks about how grading has impacted student writing. A letter grade does not tell students how they can improve. Students are often unmotivated when they get low grades and end up thinking themselves as bad writers. The better idea is that instead of grading student writing, teachers should start giving individual feedback or hold conferences, so students can work on their mistakes and become better writers.

There is a difference between grading and assessment. Grading is just one-sided evaluation done by professors, whereas, there are two different kinds of assessment. First is Summative evaluation, in which students just get a letter grade. Another is a Formative evaluation, in which students and teachers often have one-on-one conference. As James talks about different evaluations, he says, “formative evaluation creates safe spaces for student learning because students are not focused on trying to avoid failure but, instead, are searching for insight and growth.” (James 257). In a graded atmosphere, students just do the work because they don’t want to fail. Whereas, in a non-graded atmosphere, students don’t worry about grade and professor’s expectation. They tend to be more creative and independent because their work is not going to be judged (graded).

In the chapter, “Its Broken-Fix it” in the book, Alternatives to Grading Student Writing, Liesel Hagan talks about Professor Presley who always said to his students that, “his class was just one composition class and that the students would continue to become better writers with every paper they wrote.” (Hagan 8) Professor Presley observed that when students receive letter grades they would see the grade and put the paper aside. So, he decided to not grade student writing and held conferences instead. If college at least eliminates grading from English classes, then students will be a lot more comfortable in writing and sharing their ideas. It will be easier for professors, instead of pointing out students mistakes they can explain students how to do it in the correct way and help them to be better writers. In the article, from the book, Schools without Failure, William Glasser says, “Grades have become almost more important than education itself.” (Glasser 10) Most of the time when a professor gives an assignment, the repeated question they hear from students is whether they need to turn this in for a grade. If something is for a grade, students are more likely to stick to the rubric. Students only do the assignment according to the requirements of the assignment sheet and don’t think outside the box. After the end of the semester, the letter would be just a left off number without any value of knowledge or understanding.

In one of the surveys conducted by Hagan, a college student wrote: “I feel I’m an average writer. I base this on grades I’ve received in English throughout the years.” (Hagan 10) Grades have a negative impact on student writing. A student starts questioning their writing skills. Some students start to hate writing and throughout their life thinks themselves as a bad writer. The author talks about the research which has shown that “in a nongraded atmosphere, students are motivated without grades, and at the same time, their self-esteem is preserved.” (Hagan 6) For some students, their grades are their pride. If they get low grades, they compare themselves with others; thinking they are not smart enough.  If the grading system is eliminated, students will stop comparing and competing and start acquiring knowledge from it. 

Hagan and other authors conducted a study about what students think about the grades they receive. One student said, “I don’t even understand what the grade means on my paper. The top says something like a B and then all the comments say positive things and then there are all these errors marked.” (Hagan 7) Professors work hard in evaluating the paper and give a letter grade. But if the student themselves don’t understand what they did wrong then what’s the point of giving them letter grades, give them some good feedback which can make a difference in their writing. If a mistake is learned through praise(comments) instead of punishment(grades), a student is more likely to not do it again.

In English, a student’s intelligence should not be measured by grades, instead, it should be measured by how they improved during the semester. It’s hard to eliminate grading from the whole education system at once. Professors, faculties, and administrators all together should take the first step towards eliminating grading system. As Hagan talks about Professor Presley in her book, if some professors, especially in English classes stop giving letter grades to student paper and start giving feedback; then eventually other professors and schools will start following this practice. It’s not only the professor’s duty to comment on student papers, but even students should also start seeing their professors and ask for feedback and help. The only way to stop grading system is to take an initiative.

Works Cited

Glasser, William. Schools without Failure. New York: Harper, 1968

Hagan, Liesel. “It’s Broken-Fix It!” Alternatives to Grading Student Writing, by Stephen Ed. Tchudi, National Council of Teachers of English, 1997, pp. 20–30.

James, Mitchell. “Grading Has Always Made Writing Better.” Bad Ideas About Writing, pp. 255–258.

Writer’s block is just a self-imposed limitation. It’s not even real. Some people don’t know how easy it is to maneuver around a specific problem that probably already has over a thousand solutions. When talking about a certain topic for example basketball, there is almost an inexhaustible amount of information that can be discussed if you expand your horizons. Writer’s block happens when your perceptions are too narrow, but your options will open up once your mind does. As Edmund Bergler said, there is a lot of different types of ‘writer’s block’. You have the “No Talent Theory of Writer’s Block”, the “The Publisher’s Block”, also the “Plain-Laziness”, etc. Writer’s block does not really exist. It’s just a term used when people believe that they wrote everything possible to write about a topic. When that’s actually false. It is very rare when someone has spoken or written about a topic to the point where there absolutely nothing left to talk about.

Edmund Bergler is an American Psychoanalyst born in Ukraine. He has written a lot of articles and books that garnered a considerable reputation. He was known for his theories in homosexuality back in the 1950s. The books he wrote varied from Mid-Life Crisis to Loveless marriages to his book about if writer’s block even exists. When talking about writer’s block, Edmund mentioned how many different types of writer’s block there is. As said in the previous paragraph, Bergler spoke about different types of writer’s block. Not only does he believe that writer’s block is not just a rare thing, but he also believes that it is a neurotic disease. “Naive contemporaries, however, have been violently denying the very existence of “such a thing. There are, in general, ten fallacious arguments which are brought forward, either singly or in combination, by the negators of ‘writer’s block.’” (Bergler 1). In Edmund’s article, he described the ten fallacious arguments proving as to why and how writer’s block is not necessarily a real problem it is more a trick of the writer’s mentality.

For example, a research paper about basketball could focus on a number of points. You have the who’s greatest of all time debate, or the how to become a better basketball player ted talk, or you could also have the who’s the greatest player by the position of all time conversation. There is really an exceptional amount of information that can be spoken on, on the topic of basketball and its sub-categories. Bergler brings up the point that writer’s block can often be confused for just plain-laziness. It is not that the information is not there but the fact that the author is just too lazy to put the necessary effort in when it comes to doing his/her work. “What he attempted to do, in effect, was to “supplement” my account of the unconscious reasons for “writer’s block” with the theory that a writer who doesn’t write is just “plain lazy.”” (Bergler, 46). When I was younger, I would keep making excuses when it came to writing papers. I would say that I’m trying to come up with an idea or I would think the paper would be easy and end up doing it last minute. When in reality I would just be plain lazy as Bergler said because I didn’t have the motivation to actually get up and get the necessary work done.

Geoffrey V. Carter, the author of Writer’s Block Just Happens To People believes that writer’s block is a common issue that people struggle with, including the greatest writers that have ever lived. “Whenever someone trying to write says that they are suffering from writer’s block, the first word that comes to my mind could be misunderstood as uncharitable: slacker.” (Carter, 99). Carter believes that while everyone sufferer’s writer’s block, he believes that if a writer is struggling they would be considered as a slacker or just plain lazy. Writer’s can be considered slackers because they don’t have the strength to hunker down and do the work. They can just sit there and pass time giving other things priority over their responsibilities. Lots of students are guilty of this. I used to be one of those students, trying to push my responsibilities on either somebody else or to the point where I barely have enough time to do it on my own. Lots of students do this and in the end, they use “writer’s block” as an excuse for not having anything on their paper.

Dennis Upper, the author of The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of “Writer’s Block” makes a compelling case that writers can either be a real thing or just plain laziness because other writers can and have made their cases on it. He even plays devil’s advocate when he was showing what happens when you let it go untreated. While it is a satirical take on the problem, it also lends itself to the students who submit blank work. Recently, writing a paper for my amazing professor, I had “writer’s block” when in reality I just wanted to go play basketball some with friends thinking the assignment was going to write itself.

To sum up, writer’s block is not necessarily a real thing. It is just a self-imposed limitation. Geoffrey V. Carter believes that writer’s block is a common issue that people struggle with every day when writing something. Edmund Bergler believes that writer’s block is actually a neurotic disease but there are compelling cases that writer’s block is not real and people just get lazy because it is technically impossible for somebody to writer everything possible about a certain topic. When writing about basketball, there is an utmost amount of information on that topic. I believe that writer’s block is not a real thing and I approve this message.

Work Cited
Carter V.Geoffrey, WRITER’S BLOCK JUST HAPPENS TO PEOPLE, (2017),Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bergler Edmund, The Writer, and Psychoanalysis, (1950),New York: Doubleday & Co

Bergler Edmund, DOES “WRITER’S BLOCK” EXIST?, (1950), American Imago, Vol. 7, The Johns Hopkins University Press

Upper Dennis,THE UNSUCCESSFUL SELF-TREATMENT OF A CASE OF “WRITER’S BLOCK, (1974),JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS,VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL, BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS

        So, here’s a bad idea about writing: “Excellent Academic Writing Must Be Berious”, as claims English Professor Michael Theune in his article of the same title (Theune 181) in the book Bad Ideas About Writing. This is a bad idea because it neglects to consider the value of actually using humor for composition development.  An always serious classroom often leads to a dull and unstimulating classroom, unpleasant for both the student and the teacher.

creative commons/stovak

          A better idea about writing is that humor can be used cleverly for excellence in academic writing. Humor engages a bored mind and energizes in a way that enlivens a dull classroom. In her article, “ Not Just a Humorous Text: Humor as Text in the Writing Class”, language arts professor Nina Murakami lauds the use of humor as “both a motivator and a reward”.  Greater effort to improve writing is naturally evoked, as students strive to reap the reward of laughter. It’s a positive feedback loop! Success as exhibited by laughter is a stimulant to produce more of the same! (Murakami 40). Additionally, such skills as creative and critical thinking, purpose, style, and audience, evolve through working with humor, becoming a valuable part of the writing tool kit for other classes.

Get Smart!

            Ann and Don Nilsen, educators and co-founders of the International Society for Humor Studies, along with Don and Marie Donaldson, state in their article “Humor For Developing Thinking Skills”, that “Humor, whether it’s being analyzed, used, or created-forces people’s minds into modes of thinking that are investigative, seeking, grasping . . .” Working with humor calls upon an especially motivated drive for mental pursuits.  Wanting to know, wanting to understand, and employing strategies to get there is like a game, like figuring out an answer to a puzzle that students are keen to comprehend. (Nilsen et al. 63). (Indeed, gamers in particular might find this sport of academic endeavor quite tantalizing!)

          Nilsen et al. go on to make the point that creative thinking takes greater effort. Interpreting information demands each person to judge for themselves what is meant, often needing to discern meaning without it being specifically laid out. Thinking creatively therefore is a highly stimulative mental process, calling upon students to dig deeper, searching for meaning not always obvious in the joke! (Nilsen et al. 65).

Energize!

           Used skillfully, humor is engaging and energizing, and a bored student is not as likely to become engaged as an energized one, so humor becomes a powerful tool for the younger writer. As Theune notes, “it must be recognized that humor simply tends towards the irreverent, and that that is, frankly, ideal. . .empowered young writers . . .  can feed off of transgression”.  It is part of human development that young adolescents/adults are questioning and challenging the status quo.  Comedy most often deals with contemporary culture, and youth and popular culture go together! Using that energy source and channeling it towards productive academic work is a good idea! The more connections made between life inside and outside the classroom the better, creating deeper and longer lasting development in the young student (Theune 185).

          Murakami adds her praise for the “level of effort, avid listening, and thoughtful response that I don’t often see during the writing process of other assignments”.  This is a notable indication, as educators must be keen to continually monitor and adjust their methods. When something works, pay attention! (Murakami 39).  Case in point: Theune refers to professor Bev Hogue who used humor writing in a nonfiction course.  The overall quality perked right up, being “polished, sophisticated, and often very funny.” It was still clear the papers were indeed research papers, but do to the “adventurous [nature] . . .a very few created final papers approaching art.”  What a treat!  In this instance, humor writing had become a key into artistic expression and talent that otherwise may have gone undiscovered. There is enough effort in higher education towards all things of a serious nature, including writing. Why not place effort  towards balancing the heavy with the humorous? (Theune 185). 

Smile!

          The classroom vitality is palpable, observes Murakami, as she has “seen the student’s enthusiasm, and heard students’ true voices, not only in their writing, but in their classroom interaction as well . . . all with smile on their faces”. How lovely! What a gift it becomes for everyone to see how students develop and trust their true voices.  The atmosphere of the classroom is invigorated and invigorating. Drudgery is lifted, laughter lightens the air, mind expansion ensues, and animated exchange is achieved. Students are actively learning and doing so “with smiles on their faces” (Murakami 40).

          The combination of energy and skill development in the classroom focused on humor easily produces collaboration, another key attribute of the writing process. As Murakami illustrates, “students often take pleasure out of sharing and working on their humorous writing with their classmates, making them more open to the idea of the writing process as well as the sense of community that is vital to the writing class”. The positive experience of working on humorous writing within the classroom with others, enables students to see how that sort of collaboration builds community. Revising and feedback take on fresh enthusiasm and meaning. Feeling a sense of community relaxes the atmosphere in the classroom, providing a space that feels safer to take risks, more open, and therefore more life-giving (Murakami 39).

creative commons/ken whytock

          Truly, it is a bad idea to limit academia to the sphere of the serious. Who wants to be serious all the time? Who wants to be in an environment that is serious all the time? Who wants to think of education as being excellent only if it is serious? Alternatively, who wants to take a writing class that has the reputation of being fun while developing valuable skills?! Who wants to join the revolution and help turn this bad idea on its head and revitalize the composition classroom?

References

Murakami, N. “Not Just a Humorous Text: Humor as Text in the Writing Class.” Teaching English in the Two Year College, 34(1), 2006, pp. 32-40. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/220963371?accountd=11226

Nilsen, Alleen, et al. “Humor For Developing Thinking Skills.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 44, no. 1, 1987, pp. 63–75. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42579317.

Theune, M. (2017). “Excellent Academic Writing Must Be Serious.” In C.E. Ball and D.M. Loewe (Eds.), Bad Ideas About Writing. (pp. 82-87). Morgantown, WV: Digital Publishing Institute. https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf

A big bloke dressed as a pink fairy 

Teri Holbrook and Melanie Hundley essay ‘Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged’. The essay discusses the multiple bad ideas but tends to emphasize the negative idea of putting unhealthy standards and publicizing unrealistic expectations for writers in modern times. After doing some research with  Alcohol and the Writer, by Donald W. Goodwin,  The Pursuit of Perfection: and How It Harms Writers by Kristine Kathryn and  ‘’The Trip to Echo Spring,‘ by Olivia Laing.” In these sources, I have come across a few new perspectives with bad idea’s and have found possible solutions that could conclude with a better idea.  

Holbrook and Hundley’s ‘Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged’  helps to depict and illustrate how media has influenced public opinion that writers are messy, chaotic, and uninhabited to normal day-to-day life.  In ‘Alcohol and the Writer’ by Donald W. Goodwin (pg.11-20) the text agrees with Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged’ by offering a strong opinion when it comes to stereotyping a writer’s relationship to alcoholism and drug abuse. Goodwin illustrates the history of writers and insists that their own personal experiences are not mutually exclusive to the lives of every writer.  Goodwin also suggests that throughout media the idea is often too glamorized and compared to success especially in television and film. With doing so it encourages people and aspiring writers to view craft as a self-destructive and potentially dangerous. Goodwin overall suggests that the best idea would be to disconnect the stereotype all together and stop selling the narrative of the alcoholic writer and instead illustrate depict a realistic image of the everyday writer.  Unlike in ‘’The Trip to Echo Spring,’ by Olivia Laing, who gives an interesting perspective on Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged and goes on to explain how famous works and their creators can go hand in hand with alcoholism. She discusses multiple writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver and talks about how their works and public images are cultivated by their personal trials of addiction. This helps to compliment the better idea that no one is perfect not even writers. No matter if they excel in their literary career, and default in their personal life. Laing illustrates that not even writers who uphold a magical reputation are perfect which brings me to the points made in my next source.  In The Pursuit of Perfection: and How It Harms Writers  (pg.130-131)  by Kristine Kathryn she discusses how within popular films and television shows writers are seen at magical creatures who create fantastic works of literature within a simple montage and a cup of coffee.  She goes on to detail how writers are consistently going through trial and error, with drafting and re-writing just to find perfection in their work. By pushing the narrative that perfect writing just comes naturally does a disservice to young aspiring writers who seek acclaim. As a result, aspiring writers are turned off by the idea and unrealistic expectations of the craft.  Kristine Kathryn continues to agree with Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged by describing the self-destructive patterns and habits writers face in everyday life when it comes to creating original work. She depicts the lengths that writers go through just to find perfection in every detail. She suggests a better idea is to not set unrealistic standards for writers in today’s time and to not publicize that behavior as a positive. Instead of attempting to create the ‘perfect’ writing, but to just enjoy the process of the craft itself.

After analyzing each source, and their views on their bad idea it is easy to come to the conclusion of a better idea.  The first better idea would be to stop publicizing all the negative habits and addictions that some writers face. Instead, the media should not applaud the downfalls and should not associate their addictions with acclaim. If we continue to applaud and shrug off that behavior, it perpetuates the idea that drug abuse and alcoholism is acceptable if you are a writer. Which it is not. Another better idea would be to show the realistic settings and challenges that writers go through for perfection in their words. It would be better to display the writing process as a natural experience instead of a magical experience where words just spew in a mythical fashion. That way the public can allow themselves to fully digest the realistic views of writers as everyday people. Who happen to create amazing works of literature through hard work and diligence.  Overall, I feel the better idea is to show the hardships and accomplishments that come along with every aspect of the craft. To show writers in a realistic light throughout media is to display their hard work overall is the bigger and better idea. The reason this is important is that it offers a human perspective to average people and displays writing as an attainable career for everyone, not just the lucky few.

                                                    Annotated Bibliography

1. “Alcohol and the Writer.” Alcohol and the Writer, by Donald W. GOODWIN, Penguin Books, 1990. pg.11-20.
2. Osborne, Lawrence. “’The Trip to Echo Spring,’ by Olivia Laing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/books/review/the-trip-to-echo-spring-by-olivia-laing.html.
3. Rusch, Kristine Kathryn. The Pursuit of Perfection: and How It Harms Writers. WMG Publishing, 2013. pg.130-131.

The Scoop on Failure

How hard is it to avoid failure? I would say it is basically impossible. I can only think of one way of avoiding failure, and that would be not trying at all. And not trying is the equivalent to failing. So why do so many people view failure as an end to all means as if it is unavoidable. The standard of the human life has become so based upon our peers and acceptance that we fail to see the values of failure. Instead often people become disappointed when faced with adversity and failure. Failure sparks inspiration and creativity, while people try to avoid failure their entire life in actuality it should be almost pursued. Pursuing failure would allow people to spend more of their life learning and less of it regretting.

In Agreement: Another Look

            An author that shares similar aspects of my opinion while also adding in their own flavor is Allison D. Carr. She talks about her thoughts in her excerpt “Failure Is Not an Option” included in the book Bad Ideas About Writing. Carr speaks on how she also feels as if “[f]ailure should be welcomed” in order to expose oneself to new opportunities (76). She describes the importance of failure in writing as “integral” to the process of success (76). Carr is stressing the need for resilience and perseverance when faced with failure. The realization of many greater ideas have blossomed because of failure and the toughness to fight through it. “[F]ailure is a significant part of the entire scene of learning,” when learning how to do anything there is a high possibility that the first time you are going to do it wrong (79). For some this may spark the fear of repeated failure in the mind therefore shutting down any chances of possible success leaving an idea unfinished. This is a fear that some would blame households for or traumatic experiences, but this blame can also be place on the education system. Thankfully, Carr and I are not the only people who feel failure shaming in education and society is something that needs to be denounced.

Inner City Research: Kids Who Need It Most

            Ingfei Chen has found and wrote an article on an actual experiment based around the concept of failure acceptance. The article “New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed”, which can be found on PBS NPR, talks about Stanford researches and their discoveries on the adolescent mind when exposed to positive feedback on failure. The survey exposed inner city kids to 30-minute interval sessions of video clips, and simplistic motivational phrases such as, “If you make a mistake, it’s an opportunity to get smarter!” (Chen). These methods actually provided positive output from the students. A short 30-minute session sparked inspiration in the children showing a 14% average increase in half the students GPA by the end of the semester. Honestly it is shocking to see that even just exposing kids to the “growth-mindset” for 30 minutes showed astonishing results. Even though half the children were not affected by the video maybe it was too late for them. It makes me wonder if promoting this mindset from youth could have a larger impact on students test results and stress levels even on a national scale.

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/36603/new-research-students-benefit-from-learning-that-intelligence-is-not-fixed

From East To West

             Katrina Schwartz talks about a Berkeley, California middle school teacher and her efforts to encourage failure, in her PBS article, “A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes”. Katrina explains the no grading strategy used and created by Leah Alcala a middle school math teacher. Leah does not grade her students papers she simply highlights the mistakes and hands the paper back with one chance at a retake. By doing this she is trying to show her students “how powerful it can be to study their mistakes”. Katrina also touches on the struggles that Leah’s students encountered initially including motivation and understanding but an overall positive reaction from the students showed that thing could be done to inspire learning. These efforts will hopefully help an education system lead astray “refocus class on learning instead of on grades” while also reducing stress on students to succeed. I can personally vouch for this method because my Spanish teacher uses this exact same method for test in his class and the students appreciate it.

Start With YOU

Authors like Carr, Chen, and Schwartz are just some of many more authors and people that understand how much learning from mistakes can benefit our future. These authors chose to fight from the roots which is implicating these methods through the youth. This is not the only set of people that can benefit through learning from failure anyone who is facing adversity should adhere to this rule. Don’t allow yourself to be stunted by your failures analyze and improve on them then reapply them to your life. This is the key ingredient to succeeding while also being the hardest to obtain. But ability to persevere will never let you down.

Work Cited

Photo 1: https://www.powerofpositivity.com/10-things-to-learn-from-failure/

Photo 2: https://onlinelearningtips.com/2014/01/find-your-motivation-away-from-cliches/

Carr, Allison. “Failure Is Not An Option.” Bad Ideas About Writing, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, pp. 76–81.

Chen, Ingfei. “New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed.” KQED, Pbs, 9 Sept. 2015, www.kqed.org/mindshift/36603.

Schwartz, Katrina. “A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes.” KQED, PBS, 16 Nov. 2018, www.kqed.org/mindshift/52456.

I recently had the opportunity to read an article by Jennifer A. Mott-Smith with the title “Plagiarism deserves to be punished”, that title is the narrative that is heard time and time again from the media, professors and even parents. But when we look into plagiarism and its effects on students, we notice that it actually helps many writers who may be struggling with coming up with ideas for a paper.

She quotes author Lawrence Lessig from his book “Free Culture”, “what it can possibly mean to steal an idea: I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, you don’t have it. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had to put a picnic table in the backyard— by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting it in my backyard? What is the thing that I am taking then? Lessig was getting at the idea that when a person borrows an idea no harm is done to the party from whom it was taken” (Smith 247). The author is understanding what it could possibly mean to steal someone’s work while explaining the reality of how students use other writers’ ideas to create new ideas of their own. An idea may have been created by someone else but that does not mean that someone cannot use that idea to make new or improve that persons work.

Something Borrowed: Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life? by Malcolm Gladwell talks about hearing a play from many of his friends that he needs to see. Finally, when he checks out the script, he soon realizes that the play was completely plagiarized from his work. At first, he was upset about it, but months went by then eventually he considered it a compliment. she used his work in a way that helped her become a better writer. He states “I am happy to be the source of inspiration for other writers, and had you asked for my permission to quote—even liberally—from my piece, I would have been delighted to oblige. But to lift material, without my approval, is theft.” (Gladwell, 2004). The idea of taking a writer’s piece is brazen and in the sense of that writer spending time and time on that piece of writing and just to have it stolen and use the writing as their own is very merciless. On the other hand, he negates his stance on plagiarism by saying “I considered Lavery’s borrowing to be a compliment. A savvier writer would have changed all those references to Lewis, and rewritten the quotes from me, so that their origin was no longer recognizable. But how would I have been better off if Lavery had disguised the source of her inspiration?” (Gladwell, 2004). Therefore, if his work had never been plagiarized then it would have never been recognized by so many people. Because of Gladwell’s work being used and getting so much recognition without it being modified or changed into something new he is appreciative of the writer. The fact that his work made it onto the stage that people actually enjoyed watching was a great feeling for him.

Mott-Smith verbalizes “There are at least three important things to understand about the complexity of using sources. First, ideas are often a mixture of one’s own ideas, those we read, and those we discuss with friends, making it hard, or even impossible, to sort out who owns what. Second, writers who are learning a new field often try out ideas and phrases from other writers in order to master the field. This process allows them to learn and is a far cry from steal- ing. Third, expectations for citing sources vary among contexts and readers, making it not only confusing to learn the rules, but impos- sible to satisfy them all.” (Mott-Smith, 248). This is very important to realize when citing sources, students who patch write or plagiarize majority of the time use sources as a guide to come up with ideas to further explicate their topic. When in a new field a student tends to look to experts for answers and understanding instead of studying and developing ideas independently. Furthermore, as a new writer adjusting to the rules in place for citing sources and giving credit where it is needed can be a difficult thing to do. Consequently, causing the writer to go to a source and use that source to make it sound like detailed statements about the topic but really isn’t. Instead of using that source as a way to come up with new ideas that will guide an essay in the correct direction.

 Patchwriting should not be looked at as a bad way of writing but as a process of collaborative writing in which the writer contributes to the other writer. Where the writer selects parts of the sources to use in order to make this essay effective rather than focus on giving credit or citing properly. This allowed writers to have a sense of confidence in what the writers are writing about. Utilizing patchwriting as a way to find proper sources to help the essay are positive effects.

Ideas are shared thoughts that are utilized ways The strategy of patchwriting for writers is to pick the word or phrases that are the most useful so that the writer can understand how to construct the paper for the essay that the student is writing.  The use of plagiarism is being accepted in a new way for writers whether that is being appreciative of someone acknowledging your work in theirs or in ways that are helpful for a writer to start somewhere and help the writer expound on an idea that the writer was not sure about.