Mixtape

I kind of did a post for the mixtape project last week, but I will try to add onto my argument. Listening to a few mixtapes from classmates in class on monday really showed the level of creativity that this project sparked. I cant speak for everyone, but i know that this project allowed me to show creativity with music that i otherwise just kind of threw to the side. Its a completely different realm when you have to listen to each song over and over to try and find the perfect place for it on the cd. I was already a huge music lover, but this project really cemented that. For the first time in years i actually took the time to listen to each individual song, realize its meaning and use that to organize a flowing cd. After finishing it, i also realized that this project was really not all that difficult. I mentioned in my last post that it was harder than i thought it would be, I dont feel that the project was what was difficult, it was trying to get away from being so used to something that was so easy, the ipod playlists and the shuffle button. This project provided a way to be original while using anothers work too. Early in the semester a lot of our talks focused around what it meant to be truly original and if that could be achieved when using ideas from other people in your field. This project has shown that that is truly possible. The mix cd created, although it used existing songs that others had devised, was still an original work. The combining of multiple artists onto the same cd, created somethign that may never have been created and was in itself an original work of mine. Using another's ideas does not mean your work is not original, it can actually allow yuo to create something that is more original than if you had created everything from scratch.

Seeing that we are about to come to a close on our mixtape session I feel that that is a good subject for this blog post. I always use to make mix cds of all different types when I was in highschool so that I would have something I enjoyed listening to if the radio started to drop in quality. I remember just mixing different genres together that should not have been on the cd just because they were songs that I liked and I didnt really care if there was any order to the cd that I was making. Needless to say, these mix cds were not very good and the randomness at times was too much, but it wasnt worth all of the work to organize at the time. I wasnt always in this rush to create my mix for the road though, when I started playing cards with a group of friends, I would generally get a rap or rock mix going that everyone would enjoy listening too. When it came down to these I actually put a little more thought into what I was doing, and they generally flowed pretty well. This is something I thought was a thing of the past though. After I got my ipod I never thought that I would be making a mixtape again, yet here I am trying to create a well flowing, energetic mix for someone to run to. It is yet again proving kind of difficult. I became so accustomed to the random shuffle on the ipod when it came to how my playlist plays while I run that there was never really any thought or effort put in on my part. Ive again realized that it can be extremely difficult to get the perfect mix, especially when it is not being created for my own use, but for the use of another. Creating a good mix cd is no easy tax, and it really is a great way to show a form of creativity that you cannot really display in writing alone. It has kind of brought back memories of sitting at the computer years ago trying to make that perfect mix, and it has reminded me how the ever increasing technology kind of hinders creativity and thought in music. It is so much more difficult and thoughtful to create a cd for a friend than it is to just let them pick what they want out of your itunes library.

Well i tried to upload my image from the in class cut up that we did last friday, but yet again i was unable to upload anything to blogger. But this cut up method of William S. Burroughs provides a way to express creativity in a different fashion than would be normally thought of. If time is placed into getting some organization to the cut up, it is amazing how vivid and flowing a story arises, from things that are from multiple sources. An example is from the cut up i made with articles from the badger herald and daily cardinal--- On top of that, then its cold for everybody. Where you finish the record weekend jam-packed with weather as an excuse. It doesnt make the most sense, but to combine the thoughts of multiple people that already laid out what they wanted, to make something completely different, adds a new aspect of imagination to the writing world.

New Writing Process.

The article by Geoffrey Sirc presented a fairly confusing means of displaying an argument. It seemed that he was just jumping to unrelated points between each of the three parts in this essay at first look. He did tie them together, but to me it didnt seem like a very strong argument was made by him for anything. Even with this there were some good ideas that I got out of his essay. His discussion about minimalism and how to create a mix tape led me to the question of whether these approaches should be applied to the writing process. Would more unique and better written works come about if they were broken into smaller parts and then unified into a flowing body? If freshman composition courses took these approaches, maybe success in writing would be more apparent when looking at different individuals writing. The writing process as of late has plenty of flaws, but is there any real way to make changes to something that has been with us so long?

Multiple Personalities

So i realize that this post is slightly late, but I'm kind of glad i waited until after our class discussion today to make this post. Our talk about how we have different personalities around different groups, and Pat's mention of his differentiation between the Professional Patrick and the student Pat was interesting. It got me thinking about myself and situations like what we discussed and I realized that I'm the same way. When it comes to school or work, I always make sure to use my full name for the sake of sounding more professional and more mature. When applying for internships or for a new job, using nicknames is not something that would aid in the acquisition process. This doesn't just come up between professional and non-professional settings though. After placing thought into this idea, I realized that the different people I hang out with call me different nicknames, now I don't know if that means I act different around them, or if it is simply that I introduced myself different ways. But when i spend time with coworkers, most just use my first name, whereas with high school friends or close friends from when I first came to Madison, I'm known by only my last name. It has kind of made me want to be more attentive when I'm around different groups of people to see if there are slight changes in actions or personality when being put into these different situations.

Sampling Experience

To start off, when this assignment was first introduced I didn't think that it would be very difficult at all. I made collages and all that type of stuff in the earlier part of my life, but I definitely underestimated the effort and time required to do this project well. Also, did anyone else have problems getting photoshop to work exactly how you wanted it to? That was my biggest problem with everything, photoshop, if never having used it before, is extremely difficult to really learn in such a short time. Moving on to the project itself, I liked the second project slightly more than the first one. It provided a sense of security to know, that everything being used in it was OK to actually use. I was able to find a lot of similar pictures using the creative commons website, but it also allowed me to find pictures that I was not able to find just searching google regularly, which I feel, made my project better. This project also made it even more clear though, how much the ridiculous copyright regulations actually are. Although I found pictures I liked more through the creative commons, it still limited the amount of creativity I was actually able to use throughout my project.

Downloads

After getting through more of Lessig's book, some startling news has been revealed. The fact that so many American citizens could be classified as felons is unfathomable. This information should tell the lawmakers something, and that something is that there is clearly something wrong with the approach taken towards copyright and especially its relation to the music industry. Im not trying to advocate that all laws regulating music downloading and sharing should go away, but there are better ways of regulating out there. Stealing in no way should be warranted but in many instances downloading music is a way to hear an artist you may not be sure about, or sharing music with friends through the internet to try and spread your taste in music. Granted by putting your music on the web it does make it available to more than just your friend, but we live in a world filled with increasing technology. It takes far less time to upload all of your music to your computer to share with friends. Also, it allows a spreading of tastes to friends that may not be within range to just hand them a cd. Some people do download music so that they never have to purchase a cd again, but the entire country should not be denied their rights to progress our society because of the actions pursued by others. And honetly, in the end, I don't feel that the artists are really losing out on much. They may sell fewer cds, but they may gain extra fans at concerts that they would not have otherwise had. The regulations on music arent to benefit the public, or even the artists, they are solely there to protect the huge corporations and that is something that needs to change.

Copyright: Too strict or just right

All through the semester the idea of what it is to be an author has continually come up. The desire to find out what it does actually mean has led to many discussions about what plagiarism truly is and about the copyright laws that in my opinion plague this country. I do understand that for someone to produce a work, they have to be sure that that work stays their own and cannot simply be stolen and profited from by anyone out there. But where do these restrictions cause more problems than they solve? The strict copyright restrictions that are in place in the US are more of a hindrance than they are a protection. So many great things come from building off of the work of others. Whether these advances are in technology or music, sometimes the remix or advanced work is simply better. The works of those who sample are producing something very different and creative, although they are using the past work of well known artists. The work of these people do advance the music industry. But with the severe copyright laws out there, they either have to pay ridiculous amounts to artists to use their work, or have the fear that they will be sued for stealing the work of others. Also, when it comes to file sharing, I do not think that this is necessarily a bad thing. It allows the public to listen to and get a taste of music that they may never have thought of purchasing. And in the long run, do the already rich artists get hurt that much by the download of a few of their songs, or because a DJ has decided to remix their work. In a lot of cases I can’t help but feel that they do not get hurt by all of this as much as they at times claim to. My one thing is though, if they become too lax, would it hinder the production of new work because of lack of motivation?

Plagiarism Experience

From the beginning of the plagiarism paper I was extremely skeptical about the whole idea. Since middle school when we are first introduced to the wonderful world of research papers, teachers make it a point to scare us away from plagiarism. It is the worst thing that you can do academically.

Then this assignment came along and told us that it was our goal to plagiarize and do so to the best of our abilities. When it was first introduced I had the idea that this would be the easiest of our papers, since all that was required of us was to steal the work of others. After getting a start on the paper I realized that this was definitely not the case. This assignment really showed me the hardships that can actually arise when attempting to plagiarize the work of other people and do so in a fashion that makes it difficult to be found out. Everyone that plagiarizes generally does so in order to cut corners and finish their papers quicker than if they actually wrote it on their own, but after going through this assignment, I learned that it is actually much easier to just do ones own work than attempt to plagiarize. Not only did I learn that this paper would have been finished faster if it were in fact my own work, but there is a guilt that is associated with plagiarizing. It is no different from stealing from a store and in that sense it is not something I could ever justify doing.

Another thing I realized in completing this assignment is that there are many out there that plagiarize, or so it seems. In my attempt to find the plagiarism of the people’s papers that I had, I found that the information that they found on one website, I was able to find word for word on a completely unrelated sight. It really raises the question of whose work I am actually reading when referencing the internet.

Finally, it is actually amazing how easy it was to find instances of plagiarism in most of the papers. I thought that I took some clever approaches to plagiarizing my paper, yet most of what I plagiarized was discovered. It really shows how risky and worthless plagiarizing actually is and it truly is much easier and rewarding to simply do your own work.

Ghostwriting Reflection

A little background into the ghostwriting that I attempted is as follows. My roommate is an opinion columnist for the Badger Herald and writes an article for each Monday’s edition of the paper. This week he decided to write about the United States lagging internet industry when compared to the rest of the world and how steps need to be taken to improve the internet for many economic reasons.

In class while discussing the ghostwriting assignment I realized that there were a lot of people that felt uneasy while completing a paper for a different person. I did not get these same feelings. I felt that it was almost easier to write a paper for someone else than it is to write one for myself. All of the main ideas were laid before me and all I had to do was simply put them into meaningful sentences.

The arranging of the ideas into sentences is what caused the most problems for me though. I had to make sure that my style did not overpower the paper, since it was meant to be written in a form resembling the person I was writing for. It was not a sense of uneasiness that made this assignment difficult; it was an inability to prevent my own ideas about the topic from shining through. My roommate told me exactly what he was planning on having in the article and exactly how much time I was supposed to spend discussing each main point, but it was difficult to not add my own twist and other topics since I had a little bit of a background on the topic. I continuously caught myself attempting to put this twist on the entire paper when in reality it was meant to be in his form and be his ideas.

Running into these problems led me to a better understanding of what the term “author” means. While writing this column for my roommate I was not the “author” of the work, because my ideas were not the ones being expressed and in the end my name was not going to be associated with the article. I have learned a better distinction between what it means to be a writer and what it means to be an author. When going through this assignment I learned that it is entirely possible to be either a writer or an author and it is not required that if you are one than you must be the other. It is possible to be a published author without actually being a writer. From this assignment I’ve learned that an author is the individual that has their name on the completed work, whether they are the ones who actually did the writing or not. All of the true work when completing a work lies with the writer or writer that puts all of the ideas together coherently and makes sure all of the ideas flow.

I can’t help but wonder if professional ghostwriters run into the dilemma of knowing that they are great writers but not considered authors. I would have been honored to have the article I wrote published, even though I would not have been associated with it, but I would have been left wondering if I would have been published had I submitted it myself. If one has the ability to be a writer, is it within reach for them to become an author also and submit work under than own name rather than the name of the famous author that employs them. Are professional ghostwriters immune to this because it is their career and they have to push these thoughts out, or like me, do they get the feeling that they could be doing more with their talents?

Plagiarism

After reading the articles for the week on plagiarism I have been left with unwavering concerns about how this "crime" is treated. It seems that each university, even each individual professor has their own idea about what plagiarism is and what to do to prevent it and this poses a great problem. If the threat of plagiarism that is facing our society is to be hindered and eventually stopped, a universal definition must be coined. Everyone individual cannot be left to define what plagiarism for themselves because if this continues to be the case people will never know when they are actually plagiarizing. For certain areas of study information that is considered common knowledge and does not require citing may not be considered the same in a different area of study and if not cited this is plagiarism. The biggest problem facing plagiarism and a lot of times, the lack of knowledge that it has been performed, is that it is such a broad topic. There are far too many other things that come into play when trying to determine whether or not something has been plagiarized and this also makes it difficult to determine a level of punishment. If someone subconsciously copies someone else's work they should not be punished the same as a person who blatantly steals another's ideas just to meet a deadline. The problem is though, how does one know whether the ideas of been stolen on purpose or by accident? What signs are there that tell professors and officials that a person maliciously stole the work or did it by accident? These are questions that need to be answered before any steps toward ending plagiarism can be taken. Also when does the idea of having ones work influenced by another turn into stealing that other person's ideas and thoughts? In our society I don't feel that one can distinguish a line between influence and plagiarism, there is definitely one there, but it is so thin that it is hard to determine if one has crossed it when their whole work is not ripped off.

Ghost Writing

When it comes to the idea of ghost writing i have mixed feelings. In certain instances the use of ghost writers to create a work is in my opinion a positive process. When reading autobiographies of celebrities or important figures, it is acceptable to use a ghost writer. Most celebrities would not be able to create a well written work, nor would they have the time it takes to sit down and write an entire book. The problem of ghost writing comes about when these people are employed to write novels. I am the type of person that likes to know the person that has written the books that I read and knowing how extensively ghost writers are used one can never really know if their favorite author is actually the one named on the cover. The deceit needs to stop and if a book is ghost written, they should be given a spot on the cover. The person that has come up with the ideas for the book and has laid out the plans for publishing can still have the most recognition, but the name of his/her ghost writer should be known also. If a book is well written the name on the cover is not as important, but it would still be nice to know whose work I am reading. Also, why is it acceptable in the literature world for this type of deceit when in most other parts of society it would be looked down upon and taken as being the easy way out?

Technological Connections

In class on Wednesday the thought that all of the technological advances our generation could result in less social capabilities. I feel differently on this subject when it comes to technology and social skills. I believe that all of the advances in technology could actually result in greater social skills for our generations and those coming into the world after us. I know that I grew up in a relatively small town that lacked diversity. The advances of online blogs, and things like facebook and myspace provide an opportunity to connect with people that one may not otherwise have had the chance to converse with. One of the most important social skills is the ability to get along with and find ways to relate to people that are different than yourself and the internet opens up the means to do this. Also, cell phones and texting do not worsen or social skills, they instead give us the opportunity to make them better. It is true that if something is hard to say in person or over the phone we can now use text messages because they allow us to remove ourselves from emotional attachment to the situation. Cell phones and texting do make it easier for people connect and set up meeting times and keep in touch in situations that would not allow for a phone conversation. If something important comes up when in a movie theater or other places where answering the phone is beyond rude, we can still get the message we need. Cell phones allow our generation to keep in touch better than the generations before us and this can be seen through the smart mobs that have organized through the use of cell phones. Technology will keep improving and it is for us to decide if we want to go along with it our remove ourselves from it and go back to the means of communicating that came before. Technology will continue to bring us together and the more advances that come through the years will only make it easier for everyone to keep contact.

Simple Influence or Plagiarism?

Since the first mention of the Howard article I have been contemplating the idea of plagiarism versus influence. In the Howard article she discusses originality has a difference between high and low culture. If being influenced by those that have come before us is considered plagiarism then would everyone in society be considered a plagiarist? Originality is considered important to being part of high culture but I believe that even the so-called high culture “authors” could be placed into a group with all those that have ever written anything as a plagiarist. Due to this reasoning I came to the conclusion that a significant difference exists between influence and plagiarism. Everyone has some form of influence in their life, whether it is their parents or the work of another student in their college English course. If society focused on avoiding the influence of others, due to the fear of being called a plagiarist, our world would not be able to advance. Whether or not the best authors, the best doctors, or best actors are willing to admit it, they have all been influenced in their work. The medical and literature fields have all advanced since the very first in the fields. It is only those people that can say they published the first book that are fully original; all others have learned from them what to do. Theses people are not plagiarists because the do not copy the work of others, they advance the information and improve the ways in which the information is portrayed. Influence and plagiarism are two separate entities and all of us should continue to improve society by looking back at what hasn’t worked and continue to build upon everything that has come before.

A Quick Introduction

I dont really know where to begin, I've never really been to keen on writing about myself in situations like this. That is part of the reason why this is my first time blogging and if it was not a class assignment odds are I never would have even given a second thought to the idea. With that out of the way, I am a junior at UW-Madison studying political sciences with the hope of going to law school. I believe whole heartedly in having fun and living each day like it was the last. I try to be as social as I can, although in class I'll most likely come across as shy because I don't like talking in the classroom. I'm always up for trying new things, which is why I really hope to travel the world some day. That is pretty much me in a nutshell, and see everyone in class tomorrow.