Told ya so...

Post Grad MK

I told you I couldn't stay away...

;)

If you're interested in keeping up with my life post-graduation and post-magazine writing, do add that to your following list!

The last hurrah...

I think it's safe to assume this will be my last post in this blog.

I really liked this assignment. I've been a blogger since I was 12, and writing a blog with a theme and a purpose has really changed my thoughts about blogs on the web in general. So many people have so many things to say. To have the freedom of posting your own thoughts for the world to see...that isn't a newspaper or magazine, is kind of an astonishing thought. It always baffles me when I found out how many people actually read my blogs too. For example, I know that Hannah follows this blog, but I never thought she actually bothered to keep up with it. But at the Provoc dinner, she asked me a question about something I recently wrote on my blog and said with a smile, "Yeah, I always read your blog!"
You feel good when someone reads something you wrote--and enjoyed it.

Today is the last day of Magazine Writing. I think it's a relief to everyone in the class that it's over, but I wish people would honestly grow up. As I've said in the past, the workload was unevenly distributed among the group members. I know that I'm doing most of the writing for this assignment, and although another member of my group wrote a section of this article, I had to re-write it last night out of surprise...just because it was not up to par on what I had done in the previous sections. Things like that. I know that people work in groups all the time in the "real world." In fact, that's most of what everyone does--is work together. But there are always going to be the people who take on most of the work, and there will always people who will make excuses as to why they cannot do their share....or at the very least, do it, but do it poorly. Since the workload was uneven, we definitely don't deserve the same grade.
I'm not going to complain anymore about that. I'll have enough to say on the peer evaluations. I did it. I'm going to edit it one more time before class. I'm going to hand it in. And it's done. It's just done.

One thing I discovered while in this class is the importance of re-writing things, and I think my writing in general has improved. I look at articles that I wrote for the Provoc at the beginning of the year, and compare them to the one I just wrote last week, and they've improved so much. It's always so hard to believe how much you learn in one year.

I think most people signed up for this class thinking they were going to learn the art of the magazine. I did too. I thought we were going to write and pitch several different articles for several different types of publications. But at the same time, the course is called Magazine Writing, and I suppose, well, that's what we did. We wrote a feature article.

We're going to post our articles on a website that will link to the Telegram and Gazette website. If I find out what the link is, I'll post it here for those who are interested in reading what I've been so utterly frustrated about this entire semester.




In general, this week is very bittersweet. I hate all the work I have to get done. I'm so frustrated. I'm tired. I don't have enough time to do everything. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless. Next year, I may relocate to Boston, live at home, or something else...and my friends will all be scattered as well. We say we'll be in touch and hang out all the time, but I know that at least for the first few months, my job, whatever that may be, is going to engulf my life. My social contacts will be pushed to the back burner. My concentration will be devoted to doing a good job, and keeping my job. I'm sad. I dreamt about graduation last night, and I dreamt I was crying. I'm happy. I'm ready to get out of my dorm room. I hate living with five girls. And I'm reflective.

I learned so much since the beginning of this semester...but wow, remembering freshman year? That's a roller coaster ride.

I do have to get going. I have to edit and do a lot of other work. But thank you all for reading my blog. Professor Santos, I know you've been keeping up with this, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it. Hannah, I hope you had fun reading this too. And I always have to mention Katherine, my sister, who never fails to read any of my blog entires--no matter what site they're on. And to any other anonymous person who happened to stumble upon this blog, I hope my toils are moderatly interesting to read.

I'll most likely open another blog up on this account.

I'll keep you posted.

:)

This isn't getting easier

I have a lot of other work to do right now. A hell of a lot of work to do, but I'm drawn to writing in here right now.

I'm very frustrated with this assignment. I know I've been saying that all along, and that I really need to grow up and see the light--things don't always work out the way you want them to--people suck--it's the end of the year--it's warm--etc...

We deserved the grade we got for the first one. I would never argue for a higher grade on that piece of shit. I also don't like putting the blame on other people. I had an interview the day the paper was due, and I had my internship the night before. So although I met with my group several times to put this thing together, I wasn't there the night before...and I think I would've caught a lot of things if I were there.

So I volunteered to write the final draft. My group members were so frustrated, that when we sat in the computer lab to try and compile it all together, all we could do was stare at the screen. So once again, I decided to carry the bulk of the project on my shoulders.

I guess the reason why the project frustrates me is because I'm not an expert on certain sections. I'm given these articles that are mediocre about the subject, with people I've never seen or talked to. So how am I supposed to write those leads? How am I supposed to make you believe what I'm writing is true?

The work isn't even, no matter how it's split up.

Say Again?

Well.

*sobs*

It's over.

We essentially have to start from scratch. And my entire section got crossed out! Literally. The mark-up of our second draft had one entire page x-ed out, and it was part of the article that I wrote...

All of my group members are beyond frustrated, but, eh, I'm taking it with a grain of salt. Maybe it's because I'm a senior, with 2 and a half weeks left of classes. Maybe it's because we deserved that B, and also really need to re-write it. Maybe it's because the issue isn't the lack of information, it's the lack of enthusiasm we're gathering from this project. The longer it goes, and the more we go in circles, the more discouraged we get, and the lazier our writing gets.

The solution to our problem of laziness? Fear of getting a bad grade! We talked about that as one of our solutions to plagiarism, which, oddly, none of us ever thought about. A student in class brought up the fact that turnitin isn't just a detection software, it's a software full of fear that will prevent students from plagiarizing if they know they have to feed their paper in it for a class. That was interesting for me. I never thought about it that way.

Our final draft is due Monday. Then it's getting published and out into the public for the whole world to finally read....unless of course, you've been keeping up with my blog ;)

I think people need to make an effort in order to succeed in anything.

I'm going to contradict my last post and take away general laziness for the whole sum of plagiarism. Because, today I was overwhelmed. And judging from the state of mind I was in for the entire day, I can see why students would plagiarize something if they got back from a day like I had, and had a paper due the next day that they unexpectedly didn't have time to complete.

I don't have any big assignments due tomorrow, and it's a good thing too...

My boyfriend from Maine is on vacation from school this week, so he came down by bus to come see me. He had a big term paper due on Friday, but got an extension for it. So he emailed it by Sunday, but his school has a specific rule that their paper needs to be handed in both in a hard copy and electronically. His professor told him the email wasn't good enough, and that he needed to have the paper handed in by midnight in his mailbox...or some catastrophic thing would happen to his grade. So we drove up to Maine and back in about 7 hours...and it was exhausting. The whole way up, I was dwelling over how my job interview went last week, how the hell I'm going to write an essay for them, and if I'll even get called back for a second interview.

There's always this voice nagging at the back of my brain saying, "Hey Megan, you have to get a job.....youuu haaaaveee to get a joooooobbbbbb." It's a friggin' ghost. And I can't shake it.

I had one interview, and that took (and still is taking) so much time and energy out of me. I can only imagine I'll have to go through at least 10 more before I finally land one.

Anyway, my worries could have easily been, "Shit, I need to get back to my room and write this paper. Dammit, I'm not going to have the time or energy to even think about coherent things if I get back to the dorm at 11:30 p.m....gaahhh." Hence, therefore, plagiarism shows up on the radar and, bing, a felony has been committed.

I wish, I wish, I wish there were less to worry about.

Finally

We didn't have class today, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it.

My group is putting our finishing touches on our big article. We changed the entire thing, so I hope it turns out for the better.

I won't be in class on Thursday either because my big ego helped me land my first official job interview. Remember how I was talking about being passionate about cover letters? Well, it finally worked. Once I got my head out of the bucket and stuck my chin up in the air despite the bad economy, I guess companies saw the optimism in my words and decided to act on it, and see if I really am a good fit in person. I had a phone interview this morning, which went well. But the real interview I'm concerned about is Thursday's. I'm traveling into Boston at 8:30 a.m....and probably won't get back until later in the day. Someone likes me, guys. Two people, actually, have liked me on paper.

Finally!

Now, they must like me in person.

This is kind of a far fetch...but what if you lied about everything you did? I wonder if people lie during their job interviews. That's certainly a form of cheating/plagiarism. Do people say they're more qualified than they really are? And then once their boss finds out, what happens to that person? Are they ruined for life...or do they just go from job to job, sneaking around and about...? It's an interesting thought.

But once again, the feeling you get from accomplishing everything you put down on a full-blown resume is nothing but pride. I look at my resume and think to myself, "Wow, and these are only the things that have significance for me and landing a job." I actually had to leave some summer jobs off of my resume just to fit it all on one page.

Life's exciting.

Why waste it on cheating?

A boost of self-esteem

I often have this looming and dooming sensation that I'm always doing the wrong thing.

I was taught how to write a cover letter, but they still feel wrong and impersonal.

My resume was revised at least 33 times, but I still feel like it's wrong.

No matter how many times I look over the pages for the Provoc, I know that I'll pick up the paper on Wednesday and find at least three mistakes in the first two pages.

My future seems wrong. My internship seems like it's leading me into a cloud of dust. I'll finish it and step out of the door and be bombarded with nothing but confusion and rejection. Something's wrong there....

My article for the class seems boring. It seems monotonous and repetitive. It doesn't have that edge I want. It doesn't have the spiked pages, or tingling sensations that shoot up and down your spine.

I doubt I'm the only one that feels this helplessness in my work. I think students are not confident in what they do. If they get knocked down on their first try, they'll get discouraged. Instead of trying to fix their mistakes, they're just going to take someone else's work that they know is right...because they purchased it off the internet.

I met with my group to go over our article, and instead of sitting down and writing it out, we ended up talking about the future. We talked about how hopeless everything seemed. Most of my group members are only sophomores, but this sense of economic doom is very prevalent for them as well. Because of the intense competition out there for jobs, they feel like they must start their portfolio now. They have to build up perhaps twice the amount of stuff that I have sitting in my desk and on my hard drive. They all looked at me intently and said, "What the hell are you going to do next year?"

And I just said calmly, "I don't know."

Actually, to be perfectly honest, I applied for a job that I really want. The pay is little, but the cause is great. I sort of stumbled upon it while looking for nonprofit jobs. And I don't see a better reason for a job than to write and help people out at the same time. The job was posted a while ago, so I might be too late. But one can hope....one can hope.
At the same time, I must set myself up for rejection. I have to picture myself at other jobs. I have to picture myself waitressing if it boils down to simply making money to get by.

Ultimately though, the greatest happiness in life comes from doing what you love to do.

For the past few weeks, all I could think about was my pessimistic and panicking view on the future. I kept thinking, "I'm never going to get a job, my life is miserable, everything for me will ultimately fail and I'll be the next Pam Beasley."

Then I went to a funeral this weekend to honor my Great Aunt. She wasn't married. She didn't have children. She didn't live a luxurious life. She worked as a secretary for most of it, but she loved doing what she did. And she made the most of every opportunity she had. She was never mean to anyone...and she had a light heart. It made me realize that I was being very selfish in my endeavors. I wanted only to please myself, but a better cause would be to help other people.

So I wrote that in my cover letter. I chose to be different. It might not work. The position might already be filled--and the post was just an old one online. Who knows.

All I can think, though, is that students too must choose to be different. They must take their ideas and run with them--the way that they think is right. The ideologies of this world and country are based on creative people. We cannot shy away in the corners and assume that we'll never make a difference. Don't take someone else's ideas because you're afraid yours aren't creative. Because they are. We can make a difference.

And I will.

Gramm..err?

No, it's grammar!

I don't know how many people misspell that word. I see grammar spelled grammer, grammerr, etc...all the time.
I see people misuse to, too, and two.
Definitely is not spelled definately
You're crazy because you can't use your mind properly

We had a grammar throw-down last class. I have always been a bit rusty on the grammatical side of things. My sentences also tend to be too wordy. My commas are always in the wrong places. I attribute quotes incorrectly. <-I end my sentences with adverbs. There are countless problems with my writing.

But the only way to get better is to learn what exactly you're doing wrong. Some people may have thought that this grammar throw-down was just a fun little challenge, but I actually learned a lot. For some of the questions, I was overly confident in my mistakes. I guess if you do something long enough the wrong way, you eventually think that it's correct.

Besides the grammar, we're in the process of writing the second draft of our group paper. My group is meeting tomorrow to lay down the re-write.

Another group in class might look into the aspect of students just being downright lazy as one of the reasons plagiarism occurs. I actually think that's the main reason as to why plagiarism occurs. I've been asked before if I could write someone's paper, or if they could see what I wrote for a class. I always denied that favor.
Even if students ask it jokingly of one another, it points out a trying problem that's occurring with our generation. People don't want to do their own work. People don't want to do work at all. They want work to be fun and enjoyable, and they don't want their full time job to be this dim 9-5 job that's stereotyped in the movies as a pointless office cubicle career that leads you no where. Or even worse, you become so lazy, that like in Office Space, you're offered a promotion..?
I don't know why the country's in a recession. I never understood recessions or why they occur. But if it happens with our generation, I'm just going to go ahead and blame it on laziness.
If students don't do their work in college, then I think it's safe to assume they aren't going to do their work for their jobs. They'll somehow find a way around it. And if the work isn't getting done in the work force, then people are going to hit dead ends. Things will slow down and stop working properly. Companies will fall apart. People will lose their jobs who deserve to. People will lose their jobs who don't. And people entering the work force have less of a chance of getting one because of the stupidity that has come before them.

Lucky us.

I've often been labeled a pessimist with my friendships, my relationships, and my outlook on the future. And I'm sorry about that. But things just seem much too fake when you're optimistic about it.

Take plagiarism for example. Sure, I could be optimistic and say that there's hope for the future. There are solutions. Things are working to reduce it. But that's all false. If anything, it's just going to get worse.

Like Aladdin said in the Disney movie..."You're only in trouble if you get caught."

Editing

I really have to get used to criticism.

I've always been the type of person who never wanted to be wrong. Even if I knew in my head that what I was saying was wrong, what I was doing was wrong, or anything at all...I never want to admit it. It's downright embarrassing.

For example:

• The other week, I told a reporter that I was sure that Nguyen was pronounced just the way it looks: "Ni-gu-yen", and she pronounced it like so on the 10 p.m. news, only to exit the newsroom and get hounded by her boss who said it's pronounced "Win".
  
• Whenever there's something physically wrong with me, I frequently "wait-it-out" to see if it will get better, when I know that it won't unless I use medicine.
• And most recently, I refuse to believe that my writing is confusing, when clearly, it sometimes is...

And we talked about this in class. Editing is something writers have to deal with, even though they get "attached to their words." But I guess the problem with me, is it's not so much that I'm attached to my words. You can rip my work apart all you want. You can say I need a comma there, or that word needs to be replaced with that word. I'll accept it. I'll change it. I'll definitely do what you say...but I'll hate it every step of the way. I'm embarrassed that I'm not this writing prodigy that can spew out a miraculous article in one night. I'm embarrassed that I didn't know that comma went there, or that I didn't capitalize that word, or her title. I'm embarrassed that I forgot to look over that page, and completely missed a sentence that was about 50 words long. I'm ashamed, and I don't like being a shitty-writing spectacle for the entire class to see.

I remember one time in high school when I thought I handed in an awesome paper. Well, the next day, my teacher said exactly this, "Some of these papers were amazing. Some were not." He rolled the over-head projector to the front of the class, switched on the blaring light, and up popped my essay.
"Oh wow!" I thought. "He's going to show this as one of the good ones"
Well, he didn't make it past the first three words before he started criticizing my writing..and proceeded to allow the rest of the class to rip the entire essay apart, sentence after sentence....saying every little possible thing that was wrong with it. I felt hot in my chair, mortified that I actually thought I produced decent writing.
I went home and cried that day, vowing I would never pursue English as my degree.

Four years later, I sometimes find myself thinking the same things.

Yet, I came to this realization four years ago--and I have come to it again: I am not, nor will I ever be perfect the first time through. It's downright selfish of me to think or even expect that. Once in a while, I will get praised for my writing, and that boosts my self-esteem, and certainly backs up my career choice.
When I get bumped down, it hurts. It's not easy, but I know that I have to soak up every aspect of criticism in the next month-and-a-half. Because whoever my boss is won't accept misplaced commas, 50-word sentences, or confusing transitions. It could someday cost me my job, not just an hour of humiliation.

Updates

I'm going to be brutally honest...working as a group to write one article doesn't really work that well.

We divided the tasks. But they're not really that even. I volunteered to do the writing...but it's extremely difficult to piece together four articles on different topics, and furthermore, to have them make sense.

It turns out our thesis and angle is that there ultimately are no solutions to plagiarism. We can't defeat the problem. We can only decrease it.


On a separate, more personal note, I applied for a job today as a copy editor for a small branch of newspapers. I inquired what newspapers the company was hiring for in my application, and someone replied very nicely to me explaining what they were. I thought, okay, thanks for the heads-up. Then I scrolled further down in the email and came across a one-line entry from another source that said, "Clearly not qualified, seeing as this is not an entry level position..."

I don't think I was supposed to see that. It seemed like it got stuck in transit in my message that I received. But how would you feel if you saw a note that you weren't supposed to, clearly insulting your intelligence? Just because I'm fresh out of college certainly does not mean I'm not qualified to be a copy editor at a night-time news desk, especially with my degree and my experience at both a news station and my school newspaper.

Why should I limit myself to only entry-level positions, when I know I can challenge myself to something else?

Reject me. Don't invite me to an interview. That's fine, acceptable, and understandable. In fact, I need to get used to a lot of rejections for the next few months. I'm sure there are other people out there with better and more impressive resumes than me. But I assure you, if you graduate with a degree in journalism, I sure as hell hope you're qualified to be a reporter.

What is an entry-level position for a reporter, anyway?

....getting coffee?

No grades?

So for our first draft of our long articles, our professor is not giving us grades. She says this is a test to see if our research and theories are true--Do students do better when they aren't under the pressure of grades?

My theory is no, at least not for me personally, and definitely not at this stage in the game. I'm a second semester senior, and although grades do matter to me right now, I'm much more focused on what I already have on my resume so that I can show that to employers...not that I don't care about my grade on this first draft, I do. But the fact that we aren't getting one doesn't change my attitude towards it. In fact, it will probably just make me more worried about the next two drafts because they'll be worth more in the long run.

As far as how our article is going for group 3? A little slow. I've sort of been assigned as the writer, and all the other group members are currently gathering all the information, so I'm in the twilight zone as to where I stand personally in the project. I need to wait to gather ALL the info so I can write a superb article. That's why in class we had such a lame lead....because we didn't do all the work yet.

I have a lot of work to do this weekend. Sometimes if I sit down and think about all the work I have to do, I begin to panic. That's why I usually take things one step at a time...

If I lied and said I was someone else, I'd totally get hired...

Today was a depressing and frustrating day for me.

I spent all day searching for jobs online. All. Day. Long. I found some jobs that I'm interested in...and qualified for, but that took me hours. Most of the jobs I looked at required 2-3 years of experience in the field or a field similar to what I was looking at. Some of them even said, 1-2 YEARS EXPERIENCE, INTERNSHIPS DO NOT COUNT

What! Wait a gosh-darn second here, Mr/s Employer! I went to school for 4 years, had an internship, am totally qualified for your job, but you won't even take a second glance at my resume because I wasn't employed by some other company...doing the same things I do in school? LAME. Yeah. At this point. It's lame. My parents keep reassuring me I'll get a job even though the economy is down because employers are more willing to hire recent grads because they'll pay them less. That's crap. Because apparently my four years of experience doesn't matter.

I'm tempted to write this in my cover letter:

Dear So-And-So,

I'm very interested in your position because I have four years of experience writing and editing at my college newspaper, writing and producing my own radio shows, interviewing and filming people for a newscast, and writing for a newscast. In fact, writing is all that I usually do. I noticed you mentioned in your job description that the desired candidate needs 1-2 years of experience in the projected medium. Does all of my experience count? Are you going to toss my resume aside because I'm a recent college graduate? I know I'm not supposed to ask questions in my cover letter, but, I'm biting my nails over here wondering if I have to make stuff up just so people will look at me.

Did I get your attention? Can I work for your company based on my superior-eye-catching skills based on this cover letter?

Thanks for not deleting this message! If you would like to set up an interview, I can be reached by cell phone or email. I check them constantly.

Sincerely,
Megan

What do you think? :-/

I wouldn't be surprised if people did make up things in their resume just so employers will look at them. Not exactly plagiarism, but cheating and lying none-the-less.

I would never do it. Not even out of desperation.


In other news, I got rejected as a reporter again today. If you're a student, seriously, you get the shaft. I was out trying to get interviews for another class. But I still think it's relevant to put on here because I'm assuming my other classmates run into similar issues that I did today.

I'm doing my audio documentary on running for my seminar, and I thought it would be a great idea to get people in the industry--selling shoes and apparel for runners, and who are runners themselves. I went to a small specialty store near my town. With my notepad and recorder, I walked in with a smile and went up to the desk.

"Hi! I'm a college student and I'm doing an audio documentary on running," I said.
"Yeah..." said the owner of the store.
"I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about running," I inquired.
The store owner didn't look at me when I said this, but looked at his customers instead.
"I can wait for when you have time," I said, noticing his haste.
"Yeah not today," he said quickly and threw me his card, brushing me aside to get to another customer...

I said I could wait! Or better yet--interview you while helping a customer!
I didn't bother him after that. He looked thoroughly annoyed that I even approached him without a $100 pair of shoes to purchase in my hands.
Next time, I'll call first. But I really didn't think it would be a problem. Like I've said in previous posts, I go out with reporters all the time and people never brush them aside like they're a hassle, especially when they're getting publicity about their company.
But hey. I'm a student. I'm just a college student trying to build up my portfolio so I can get hired by a company.

Maybe I'll go back when I'm working for NPR. I wonder if he'd throw me his card then...

Anyway, I guess my point for this post is don't pretend to be someone you're not. Don't lie about who you really are on your resume just to let people find out you're a cheater.
Be yourself.
Right now, I'm just a student. I might get rejected, but sooner or later someone's going to take a glance at me and notice that I do have some serious potential and a great asset to their company.
It might take a few months, but I'll get there.

Pondering...

I just finished re-organizing the re-write of my feature article for class. I like it a lot better now.

Now I have to start thinking about my group project and how we're going to combine all of our ideas into one kick-ass article. At first I thought, "Wow, this is going to suck. How in the hell are all of our brains supposed to magically work together to punch out a beautiful babe of an article?" Then I thought, "Well, self, it may not be that bad after all. Two (or three, or four) minds are better than one."

So we'll see how that works out. My group has the solutions aspect. And quite frankly, I'm tempted to type out in size 72 bolded font, THERE ARE NO SOLUTIONS. Because there aren't. We can pretend that there are solutions. We can tell kids to wake up in class and cite their sources right. We can give them a slap on the wrist and say, "Hey, do you think that you're going to get anywhere in life if all you do is cheat?" But it won't stop it.
It's going to be hard to work back down to a clean slate in the plagiarism bubble.

Erica messaged me and told me she had an interview with Donald McCabe this week. He conducted a study on plagiarism on college campuses a few years ago, and I took a lot of my facts in my article from that study. I think it's awesome that she found him and talked to him. When you see names on a study or an article, sometimes you forget that they're real people--not just words on a screen/piece of paper. That's why interviewing people is so amazing. You get to talk to real people. Why in the world would people ever want to make stuff up like that? Or copy and paste from someone else's interview? It's so much cooler to do it in person.

For example, I was at a press conference last night at the Worcester Police Station to cover the hit and run accident that happened in Worcester last night. I was there with all the other big-shot reporters from the other stations, observing them ask the questions about the accident. Nothing is more exciting than to stand there with actual reporters and get quotes from a police officer about a crime that happened a few hours ago. What was more interesting was going home to watch how each station covered the story. They all put a different twist on it and used their own words, clipped different sound bytes from the press conference, and had different video of the accident.
Where's the fun if only one reporter showed up and all the others took the story from that reporter?
It's much more interesting to get five different accounts of the story and five different angles. You learn more that way.

Ah. I get it now.

We're all investigating plagiarism. But we all have different angles on the story.

We learn more that way.

A variety of things...

Going over my article in class yesterday gave me a better angle on my story. Although I already knew I wanted to focus on intentional plagiarism as a moral issue, I didn't know how to go about that in the best way. So my article ended up being much longer than I intended. I just had so much information that I wanted to put in it.

Now I'm really going to zone in on this as a moral issue. Personally, I don't think that plagiarism can ever be solved. Students are going to be lazy, no matter what. Plus, plagiarism is easier to do--but also much easier to catch. Some of the professors I talked to blame it on the internet. Back in the day, people didn't have access to fully-written papers so easily, Wikipedia, or other online sources to copy and paste. They actually had to sit down with a book and do the reading.

People seemed shocked yesterday at the quality and depth of my interviews yesterday. That made me proud. My article may have been long and in need of better organization, but I have all the information. I put in a lot of effort for this, and I proved to myself I can investigate and report. I think students need that confidence and reassurance in their work. I don't think a lot of students in that class feel confident contacting people they don't know and interviewing them. A lot of them just want to do the email-easy-way-out. I can sympathize with them, but they should know--you feel much more accomplished when you put in that extra push to get the good quotes. Then the story will just write itself. All you have to do is narrate it.

The issue doesn't disappear with reporters. I mentioned in an earlier post that a Telegram writer got fired for plagiarizing an article almost word for word from Sports Illustrated. But look at this: http://www.observer.com/2009/media/fortunes-barney-gimbel-leaves-magazine-amid-plagiarism-charge A Fortune writer resigned from his position because he was accused of plagiarism. His case isn't as bad as the writer from the Telegram. In fact, I see reporters paraphrase like this all the time, especially in the TV business. They'll get a wire or a press release, and simply re-phrase the wording much like Gimbel did in Fortune. It's an iffy issue, but it's clear that Gimbel didn't do the research and interviewing/investigation that he needed to do for an original article. Plus, the one he plagiarized from was written so long ago. I'm going to go with the assumption that he was too lazy to do the work himself. Since he didn't do the work and a deadline was coming up...he had to come up with something.

This class is pushing me. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I just get overly frustrated at how much work I have on my plate. But I have to wake up, and other students do too. Life is going to be frustrating with the amount of work that will always be piled up on my plate. I'm almost positive it will never be cleaned off.

This semester is just preparing me for that.

This stuff is tough

People are freaking out around me.

My classmates have constant looks of terror and anguish on their faces when they discover they need to go out and get more interviews, meet more deadlines, yadda yadda yadda.

I'm with them. At the same time, I have to constantly tell myself not to be the biggest baby on the planet.

"This class is Jouranlism 2? Not Magazine Writing? What? I wanted to take this class because I want to learn how to write for Vogue! or Cosmo! or People!"

Surprise kids. Should've gone to beauty school for that. Or, "How to write celebrity gossip 101." They might offer that at some other school.

I think the problem with college journalism classes is that a lot of students take them, thinking they'll have to write easy feature articles about book reviews, movie reviews, or any of that other "entertainment" reading. Especially at Assumption. People don't want to leave this pristine bubble to go get "real" interviews with "real" people and "real" professionals. The ones on campus won't cut it because we're familiar with them.

Hey. I'm to blame too. All I want to do when I get back from my internship or from my classes is sit down with a 3 Musketeers bar and watch the Gilmore Girls gossip about going to Yale and Lane's latest crush, not make a few phone calls to other professors at other campuses, or hunt around online for better interviews. I have to resist the Gilmore temptations because those are never going to get me anywhere in this world. It'll just give me a few extra pounds and bad grammar.

Our feature articles were tough to do. I went home last weekend so I could concentrate on how I wanted to pitch my story. I knew if I stayed on campus my roommates would bug me to go out drinking, or to push my work to Sunday night. I know it's not perfect, and I know that because I sat in class nervously tapping my shoe on the ground, waiting to see if the professor would call my name next to have my article be peer reviewed in front of the whole class. One girl had already gotten ambushed for not having a great lead. I was next on the chopping board.

Thankfully my wrath might not come until tomorrow....

Anyway, I can't say that I'm not learning. All my life I've been pushing myself to be more outgoing, to get out there in the world and uncover something incredible, dive deep into a story someone's been too afraid to do. I want to hide behind a curtain way too much, and my classes and internship this semester are finally telling me to brush my hair out of my face and look people directly in the eye and ask them the important questions.

"So tell me, why do you cheat and lie?"

Breaking News

Okay, things are looking up for my story.

I got in touch with a student that goes to Clark. He seemed upbeat about being interviewed about plagiarism because apparently just a few days ago in one of his English classes, a girl got caught plagiarizing.

I'm going there tomorrow morning to interview him. Hopefully I can get in touch with the girl, but he said she was really upset about the situation. If she did talk to me, I doubt she'll go on the record.

But my question is--why did she do it? Did she know she was plagiarizing? Was it unintentional?

We shall see...

Super Stressed

If there's a word that exists for "beyond stressed out", I would like to insert it here.

I know that I'm focusing on Journalism in school. I know that I'm interning at a TV station. I know that I ultimately want to work somewhere in the news force. But currently, 2 classes and my internship are bogging me down with having to go out and get interviews--for different things--all under deadline.

For Magazine Writing, we're conducting an investigation on plagiarism. Right, you already know that. I interviewed an English professor here. That went well. I contacted the chair of the English department at Clark and she said she was really busy, so she agreed to a phone interview yesterday. It was okay, but I didn't get everything I was looking for once I listened to the recording again, but now she says she's too busy to do a follow-up interview. I contacted another professor from Clark last week, and she only got back to me yesterday that she's very crunched for time and can't do an interview this week.
COME ON PEOPLE. I intern at Channel 3, and I see them get interviews like it's a piece of cake. In fact. I interviewed the Mayor the other week. Me. Yeah. I interviewed the MAYOR, and a few professors can't even put down their pencil to talk to me. People will drop what they're doing for 2 seconds and talk to a "real" reporter, but they can't even sit down for a phone interview, which, mind you, is not even what we're supposed to be doing--I'll get points off for that... It's pissing me off.

Besides all that drama, and stress, and nonsense, I have to start doing interviews for another radio show.

Besides that, I'm interning at Channel 3--3 nights a week now, just so I can build up more clips to send out to stations in hopes of someone trying to set up a job interview with me. And if I were even lucky enough to get a job interview, I'd have trouble putting it into my schedule because of everyone else's schedules that I need to work around.

Besides that, I'm trying to write an article for the Provoc.

Besides that, I'm still trying to edit things for Thoreau's Rooster.

A number of people I vented to suggested that I make up interviews to get these assignments done. I wanted to slap them in the face.

Does anyone understand how unprofessional, and downright stupid it is to make up interviews? Agh.

I know I should get used to the stress. Reporters have to go out and get loads of interviews in one day. But they're focused on one subject. They don't have 6 classes under their belts. They're already secure in a job. They can go home at night and turn on the TV instead of freak out at their computer, thinking that they still need to read for advertising after they post this blog entry, and pray that the student from Clark they just emailed will get back to them for a face to face interview Thursday morning.

Are you stressed out reading this?

Even the big guys plagiarize

I was surprised to find that even the big-shot journalists plagiarize when they're in a time crunch. In 2005, Ken Powers of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette got fired for plagiarizing big chunks of a column that Peter King wrote for Sports Illustrated on the Patriots and the Superbowl.

Link to Peter King's Article in Sport's Illustrated

Link to article in USA TODAY about Powers plagiarizing the article

It's one thing if you're looking to someone else's article or column for information and leads so you can get a start on your story. I see reporters do that every day. But to copy whole paragraphs almost word for word? That's stupid.

I don't have any sympathy for Powers. He got what he deserved--losing his job and lots of public outrage at his crime. I can see how someone might plagiarize in the newsroom accidentally though. Last night at my internship I was handed two T & G articles and was asked to write VOs (voice-overs) for them so that the anchor could read them during the 10 p.m. newscast. The reporter said to me, "Here, summarize these into VOs as best you can, short of plagiarizing the articles."
But the articles were short little blurbs that were hard to put into my own words. So I did my best to change things around, put names and titles in a different order than they appeared on the page, but the reporter ended up correcting me on them anyway. In the news, you can't put the name before the title or the town the person is from (if they don't have a title). So she ended up wording it almost word for word in the article--without even knowing it.

If reporters are supposed to live and write by the book, and they all follow the same book--then many reporters are bound to start out with the same exact lead. The first few sentences are hard to make different from everyone else's.

There are so many loopholes in this investigation. Sometimes I feel like I'm going around in circles.

The Apple

Half an hour ago in the living room...

First Roommate: I'm so nervous about this test that I have tomorrow. So much material to cover...
Second Roommate: Is that for the class I was in last semester? Oh! I remember that chapter! That test wasn't that bad. I could probably take it again. In fact, I could even show you the test if I still have it.
*First Roommate looks bewildered. Sits in silence biting pencil*
Second Roommate: Do you want me to see if I can find the test?
First Roommate: No thanks. I think I'll do this on my own.

APPLAUSE! ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO FIRST ROOMMATE FOR RESISTING THE TEMPTATION TO CHEAT! Bravo, my dear friend. You are one of the few who would resist that test. It's like God during Lent, dripping melted chocolate into your face every chance he gets when he knows you gave it up for the season. And to see that test, slipping out of your roommate's fingertips, into your lap...with all of the perfect answers.... Ah, kudos to you my friend. Nothing but cheers.



As for me, I just finished typing up my Works Cited page for the re-done research I did from last week. I guess even as a senior in college I still have issues with citing sources correctly. I thought for this past assignment we just had to put a little blurb as to where we got our info, but my professor noted none of my sources were cited correctly. I also made a big generalization at the top of my paper with no source to back it up. So did I plagiarize? Perhaps unintentionally. Wow--isn't that scary? Here I am ranting about how easy it is to just cite your sources, and here I am doing it incorrectly.

I must confess. I was busy the night of that assignment. I had 3 other 1-page papers to write for courses after I finished editing in the newsroom for the Provoc. By the time I got back to my room, I decided the easiest thing to do would be to slap down the author and journal title and I'd be all set--or just list out the website where I looked at info about plagiarism.

Lazy. I just should've stayed up the extra half hour to do things the right way.

But once again, I'm backing up my theory. People, myself included, are just so goddamn lazy.

Interns

I'm interning this semester at a local TV station. I love it. The people there are awesome. They're down to Earth. They understand my witty humor. They let me do things and take on responsibilities like interview the mayor of Worcester, videotape Kenny Rogers, help them edit and put pieces together in the editing suites, tape stand-ups, and hopefully a lot more as the semester progresses.

But interns get the shaft.

No where does my name show up that I did any of the work. I'm not getting paid. I carry around tripods that are almost as big as I am. I'm there 16 hours a week, neglect my other work for school, and am really exhausted by the end of the day. And for what? To be thrown out into this shitty economy hoping that experience will lead me to a bigger and better station?

I don't get credit. And I know I'm an intern. I know I'm the little bitch that's supposed to go get someone's coffee. But if I'm right there next to the reporter, researching their story, helping them write some of their script, and doing a lot of the grunt work, shouldn't my name be somewhere in the credits...?

I guess you could consider this a stretch on the whole plagiarism concept. Someone could easily argue against me, and certainly win the argument.

But I could win it too.

Baffled

I guess I'm just baffled.

It's so easy to not plagiarize. My research involves education and perhaps people accidentally plagiarize because they weren't educated well enough on the subject. But after interviewing one of the English professor's at Assumption, I don't think that's really the case. Professors usually address the severity of plagiarism in each one of their classes. Furthermore, if they catch a kid plagiarizing by accident, they re-teach their students how to properly cite and give credit to sources.

Even in class last week when we went to the library to do some research, I found out that EBSCO has an option to put the article you found in proper bibliographic format. How much easier could it get?

In general, I'm kind of aggravated that students still cheat. Plagiarism is a moral issue. Just do the work! People would feel better about themselves if they knew that they were capable of getting an "A" on a paper.

Supporting my Theory

I think my theory has at least proved true in the media. Here is a scene from the popular sitcom Grounded for Life where Lily plagiarizes a paper simply because she wasn't interested in the topic she was assigned. The same happens to her mother, Claudia.

Click here to view Grounded for Life

I also interviewed a student who knows at least 3 people who have plagiarized in her 4 years at Assumption. Here's that section of my transcribed interview:

Megan: Do you think it would help if there was one class devoted per course about plagiarism and about citing sources correctly? Do you think that would help? Or do you really think it’s just like laziness and people just don’t want to do their work?

Holly: I think it’s really just laziness. I don’t think it would take that long to lay down the basics. I mean, maybe part of a class, but I think most professors do that anyway. They have it in the syllabus and they usually go over the syllabus the first day of class, so as long as they do that then that pretty much clears it up, and the rest of the plagiarism is just people being lazy and just as long as their punished for that I think that will help


I don't know how much more blunt I could get...

Research

We discussed some aspects of our research yesterday in class. Quite frankly, a lot of the answers people came up with were complicated. PBS called our generation an overachieving culture, so we are quick to find answers to get to the top of the ladder. Apparently, some students feel that there's too much pressure on the grading system, and that grades diminish from actual learning. And of course, we can blame it on education and the school systems--they aren't integrating enough class time to teaching about plagiarism. If we just had full classes about it, people won't do it anymore.

I'm going to have to disagree, not to be annoying, but quite honestly, I had a bit of a revelation. I personally believe a lot of students plagiarize simply because they aren't interested in the subject or topic assigned to them.

Think about it. If your professor assigns you a 12 page research paper on the history of Germany, and you have no interest in that subject, aren't you more tempted to find an easy way out of the assignment? Or for an English paper, you're assigned to annotate and discuss the writings of Samuel Beckett, but you despise his work and don't give a care in the world about him or his thoughts, wouldn't it be easier to snag someone else's? Because, I personally know that if I'm in love with the subject, I'm going to want to impress the professor. If I love the writing of Virginia Woolf, I'm going to spend wanted hours writing and musing over my work. I want to be proud of the things I love. And the things I'm annoyed with, or that are a simple hurdle in the path of my dreams--I'm just going to try and bypass them as quickly as humanly possible. To some, that pass is by cheating.

I came by that revelation thinking about my own life for this semester. I'm taking an Advertising class that I have no desire to be in. I don't want to go into advertising. I hate advertisements. I want nothing to do with that field. But I was nudged by "the wiser" that it would look great on my resume in a pinch if I needed to find a job. And since I'm taking six classes this semester, and am completely bogged down in work, I'm constantly thinking of an easier way to get that work done... Will that lead me to plagiarism? I sincerely doubt it, but I'm sure if others were placed in my situation, they'd be looking for quick ways to get six classes under their belt in a timely fashion.

So going back to the research aspect of this assignment---what are the solutions to this problem? Everyone faces hurdles in their life that they don't like.

Because I think that even without grades or forcing professors to teach classes about plagiarism won't stop the whole problem.

How can we convince students to do the mature thing and "grow up"?

Assignments

Research assignments were given out in class last week. Our professor split us up into three groups, each of us researching a different part of plagiarism:

1. Why is it happening?
2. Repercussions
3. Solutions

With these three researched topics, each group will compose a long article going into detail about what they found in journals and government resources, as well as what they find in interviews.

My group is researching solutions to the problem. What can be done to prevent plagiarism from even happening in the first place? What can professors and students do?

But this is very complicated. What I really want to find out--and hope I can get the assistance from other students in the class is: can plagiarism ever really be stopped? There are professors and universities out there that stress plagiarism as a bigger deal than other schools. I discovered that from my research some universities and schools require professors to address plagiarism several times throughout their course, not just offhandedly on the syllabus like most professors do here at Assumption. Is that why this is a growing problem on this campus--because professors don't address the issue well enough? So then, is it the professor's fault when a student plagiarizes in his/her class?

The questions are endless. I also found articles devoted to just the definition of plagiarism and how fuzzy that term is. Each university has their own way of dealing with the issue. Could we even go so far as to instigate a national punishment for plagiarism? Now that's certainly a big thought...

I hope that I find that some of these solutions are working through my research, and perhaps pass the word on to the administration here.

Maybe plagiarism is preventable.

But then again, maybe the human race is just getting lazier and lazier every day...

The Media

What exactly constitutes plagiarism in the media world? Last class, we discussed all the different types of media out there. There are videos, blogs, facebook, twitter, email, websites, essentially anything you can imagine, there's a site for it online. But I must ask the question--are all of these sites citing all of their resources? For example, broadcast news searches for their stories, and often reads them off of AP wires, but they don't always cite that source. Is that just assumed knowledge? People copy and paste videos off of YouTube and put them on their own blogs. Is that plagiarism--or not, because people know that they got it off of YouTube? And what about watching TV shows on websites not directed from the host channel?

With the media growing wider and wider today, I couldn't help but think that plagiarism and downright stealing other people's work is soon going to get out of control, but that's something we can't be overly concerned about.

We must focus on investigating the academic level. What about academic honesty in colleges? Stealing someone else's term paper and putting your own name on it is much more serious than posting a YouTube link on your website, or reading press releases off of AP wires--which brings me to my final thought; if students are cheating on such a high scale as undergrads, what will they steal when they enter the "real world"?