Plagiarism Reflection

At the start of this course, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a goal for myself to improve and learn skills that would make writing less daunting for me. I have learned so many things about my writing that I didn’t think much about before. Another goal I had was to break the cookie-cutter mold that was set upon me throughout high school. During the process of revision, I discovered many things about myself as a writer and techniques that have been effective for me in the writing process.

One of the most important course objectives that I’ve grown accustomed to is the writing process itself. In the writing process, we are able to revise our writing where it is weak and earn a better grade than before. Since I took advantage of the revision process, not only was I able to improve my grade, but I was able to prevent the same mistakes from happening again in other writing assignments. From revisions alone, I’ve learned how to improve my writing skills and catch mistakes that I wouldn’t have seen

Writing is something that I’m not good at because for some reason it is difficult for me to organize my thoughts coherently. One of my major weaknesses is that when writing I have trouble expressing my ideas well enough to ensure that my writing will accomplish the intended purpose. As a matter of fact, I tend to use a lot of words when it is not necessary. What I expect from this course is that I will help me improve my writing effectiveness. I’m looking forward to develop the skills that will allow me to have a better writing, and even enjoy from this activity. Furthermore, the course could allow me to improve other writing skills, such as critical

In the essay "Is Humiliation an Ethically Appropriate Response to Plagiarism?" author (Young) clearly agrees with humiliation to deter plagiarism. “Nonetheless, I am convinced that public disclosure, including the concomitant humiliation, is in the interests of the student because it is the best way to teach the student about the consequences of dishonesty and discourage the student from plagiarizing again. Humiliation is inextricably part of a well-formed conscience.” (Young 258) He believes by teaching students these methods they are less likely to plagiarise in the first place.

I began this course with goals to significantly improve my writing. I knew there were challenges for me to overcome, because I have not written much at all since high school, which has been more than twenty four years ago. Nonetheless, I was up for the challenge and each week I made sure to do exactly as instructed in the weekly syllabus, reading each every assignment very carefully. At first I felt overwhelmed, but as I completed the homework and discussion post assignments for the weeks prior to the major papers, the overwhelming feelings subsided and I concentrated on each task at hand.

It is essential that everyone has some type of basic writing skill because it will help anyone who is reading or writing an essay, paper, or even a book to efficiently communicate with their reader. With the lack of grammar and structure of the essence of writing, it would be meaningless. It is important for anyone to perfect any writing skill that they may be having trouble with as soon as the problem occurs. Once a person has identified their problems they can be left with the decision to practice the problem and research it in order to fix those problems. This past few weeks my English teacher developed a midterm project based on three problem areas in which we had trouble with. We were then told, out of all three we needed to find three resources each, in which helped us improve on all of these areas. I am so glad this project was presented to me so that I could fix not one but all three of my skill areas. The three areas that I felt that I had the most problems with was, introduction paragraphs, conclusion paragraphs, and pronoun-antecedent agreement. First, to aid me in my introduction paragraphs, my resources included: The Little Seagull Handbook, Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab, and About Education- The Introductory Paragraph. Second, to aid me in conclusion paragraphs, my resources included: The Little Seagull Handbook, Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab, and About Education- Writing Your Conclusion. Last, to aid me in pronoun-antecedent agreements, my

Overall taking this course has greatly improved the way I address writing. I learned so much about the importance of language and the inclusion of the proper building blocks when crafting a piece of writing. For instance, our exploration of the use of figurative language in the beginning of the course continued to be very helpful to my writing all throughout the semester. A second example would be the importance of establishing proper objective and obstacles when writing. While we made use of “objective” and “obstacles” in our work with fiction and character development, I was inspired by our exercise to think about the day in terms of what our day to day objectives and obstacles were. As a result I identified a larger connection with both

The college life can be very overwhelming at times. Imagine going to work full time and still have to come home and still deal with more work. I can personally speak on this matter. I work full time and do some my homework on thirty minute break. Plagiarism comes from cracking under too much pressure also. By misrepresenting someone else's work can land you in a series of disciplinary actions.

As a student entering my English course for the term I can admit I was a little anxious about the work I would be doing and the difficulty I would have due to the fact I knew my writing was far from perfect. Throughout the class I did see progress, but I still struggled with the writing process with my narrative draft and revision as well as my persuasive draft and revision. I used text resources available, but that still did not give me a complete understanding not at least until I used video resources as well. By looking at instructional videos provided on YouTube and other sites gave me a more visual understanding which I can say it has helped quite well.

For this course, my goals were to improve my written communication skills that in turn will decrease my anxiety when faced with written communication, also to improve my note taking skills. My plan was to learn the writing process and practice what I learned. Upon completion of this course, I feel I am on a path to accomplish these goals; however, I realize I need plenty of practice. When confronted with a writing project I feel a little more confident that it will not be as much of a struggle as before. A simple example, while taking this course, I was facing a situation with my insurance company, at the last minute, they declined a much needed and anticipated procedure, I had no choice but to write a letter to the grievance department explaining the need and the urgency. Using the concepts, I learned in this course, I fashioned my letter in a logical flow, I also felt confident in my ability to write a

Personal objectives for this course: I want to learn how to improve my overall writing and reading skill. Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of writing. In addition to refining my writing and reading skills, I would like to love writing and not dread it. I want to learn how to create an effective and strong resume, so that I can land a job and internship in my field.

One of the first discussion topics during this course was plagiarism: what is it, what are the consequences of it, how to avoid it. Further along in the year, the class split into groups to create an “event” that is either related to The Other Wes Moore or plagiarism, and my group chose to design and hang up “Wanted” posters that were aimed at famous plagiarists. Despite this being a group project, we only decided on a template, including font, colors, etc., and created an email to write on the posters together. After completing those two tasks, I personally chose renowned primatologist Jane Goodall as my famous plagiarist because she had stolen direct quotes from sites such as Wikipedia. After printing the posters, with a friend from my residence hall, I walked around campus at about nine o’clock on a Sunday night and posted them in different academic buildings.

When I started this course I absolutely struggled with writing in particular. Since the writing of the self-improvement plan I found that I have not only educated myself in proper writing techniques but the overall communication aspect not just writing. My main concern or focus rather was being able to write a great paper and I believe that I have done so with the many assignment that required to write a paper in length. The essay writing from it conception beginning with the outline to its completion of not the essay itself but this final assignment portfolio helped me the most to construct proper papers. It was especially helpful having the detailed instructions that came with the assignments which made it much easier to comprehend and for

Upon completion of this course I still have many aspects within my writing that could be improved. Elevated diction happened to be a problem in my writing early on. For example, “My grandpa pulled the rope resurrecting the deafening roar of the motor.” Somewhere along the lines I developed the notion that big words make you writing sound more complex, but in no way is that true. The ease of reading content that someone understands has a much larger impact upon a reader than a jumbled mess of complex words. After completing my first paper I improved on my word choice and elevated diction was no longer an issue. Another problem that still needs improvement within my writing would be my

I believe I have achieved most of the course learning objectives as I pass this class with a c or higher. I undertook the writing process we learned in class and it has helped me become a better writer. Before I entered my freshman year of college I didn’t know how to write. But as I undertook the writing process I was taught in class I now know how to write. First when it came to writing my assignment papers for my class I grabbed a notebook and did prewriting . I brainstormed a list of ideas for my papers. I then had a plan on everything I was going to write about. I then sit down and write my first draft. I make sure my first paragraph is a strong