Politicians.

This past Monday, I had the pleasure of hearing Barrack Obama speak at the Monona Terrace - he was eloquent, handled himself well, and delivered a well-prepared argument to the people present: he gave a speech. It was extremely well laid out in terms of its infrastructure; transitions between thoughts were relatively seamless, he present an idea and proceeded to provide supporting evidence, and he opened and closed with similar messages - "help me with this campaign by volunteering and voting, and I'll be sure to help you!"

All of this of course, whilst delivered by Barrack Obama, was not (speculation, but the statics of this statement have been proven time and time again) of his own writing. He was exceptionally charismatic and really involved the audience. He touched on the points specific to his particular audience - by mentioning/tailoring his speech to those living in Wisconsin and the students. But knowing that the probability of the fact that he probably did not write his own material for the speech he is currently giving me made me extremely skeptical. I was essentially analyzing his argument the entire time he was speaking. Thus, I paid particular attention to his rhetoric (which the Ghost writer did an amazing job in incorporating and addressing the main points of weakness in his argument and "debasing/qualifying" them).

It was very interesting seeing my reaction to the speech that was at the time, being delivered to me. I was wondering if others went to the speech and whether they reacted in a similar fashion..?

It's Illegal for a Reason

Plagiarism is ILLEGAL - and that's because you're using someone else's words - hard work - and calling it your own. I don't know how some people can plagiarize a paper, and fall asleep at night before it's due (thinking that they won't get caught). Like someone said in class yesterday, I probably wouldn't a) Be able to do that, b) sleep that night, c) get any sort of sleep for the next few weeks until I received my paper back (and EVEN THEN, I would feel SO guilty). When I finish with a paper or project and it has MY NAME on it, I have this sense of pride: I accomplished this! I did this!

After partially plagiarizing the paper, especially after having ghost-written for someone else, it just reinforces the idea that this is SO wrong on SO many levels. Claiming ownership and the sense of accomplishment for something you didn't even do! How could anyone feel good about that? I think this is where the line is drawn for me: for presidential candidates/presidents/anyone else in politics, it's OK to have a ghostwriter. Here's my rationale: the president is the one who ultimately delivers the speech - puts his own twist on it, elaborates on certain areas, emphasizes certain phrases that personally tug at his own strings (or he knows sound EXTRA good). I'm okay with people who ghostwrite for politicians, and people who ghostwrite for those who aren't as articulate (but need to get their story published - example off the top of my head - a Mexican immigrant conveying his side of the story - about how he/she has mouths to feed, how the Mexican Government is so corrupt, and how the economy sucks in Mexico. How is he different than any other immigrant in the US pursuing the "American Dream"? Yet he is the one who is protested against - CONSTANTLY). If he is illiterate but wants to educate those bigoted Americans who are ignorant and/or racist, sure - get someone to ghostwrite for you. But I still think that the ghostwriter should still be listed as an author. EX/It says the author is Miguel Higareda as told by/in collaboration with blah-blah (insert name here).

I mean, seriously people, it's not THAT hard to give credit where credit is due... is it?

Ghost Writing Reflection

My ghostwriting experience wasn't all too bad, but that doesn't mean that I condone the idea of it! I still think it's a horrible practice that shouldn't be done (in certain circumstances) in today's society. I GUESS the president of the United States is allowed to have a ghostwriter, as long as it is a collaborative effort!

The person I ghostwrote for was extremely pleased with the outcome. She congratulated me on my ability to "emulate" her style (however, she had no idea what her style was). She pointed out to me that i did a good job listing things in three's (which she does in her writing quite frequently) and the subject matter was good too.

I wrote about the making of the baptismal water (Amrit) in Sikhism. The paper is heavily cited, and very formal (more formal than I usually write), but it was not a bad experience. I think the fact that it was heavily cited, and I used the book as a constant reference for quotes/paraphrasing (as my writer does, so she doesn't plagiarize), made the paper easier to write. The writer was pleased, and I was too.

However the feeling of writing something for someone else, but they get the credit for it is very unsettling. There's just something that bothers me about the whole ownership of it. Maybe for the name/essay, it can be like (written by Sukhmani for So-and-So). That way people know it was me.

YOU STOLE MY WORDS! NO... you stole MY words... nooo... you stole HIS words... but he stole too?

Plagiarism. So many feelings, so little words to express them. Actually, I'm very confused with plagiarism and what exactly constitutes plagiarism. Because if we use the UW academic policy as the BIBLE in regards to plagiarism, we'll find that many people these days plagiarize in the form of ghostwriting or otherwise. I WISH I could see just ONE of the essays I turned into turnitin.com and see how much of it actually came back as having been plagiarized (especially, as of yet in my academic career - no telling what the future holds - I have not plagiarized). Yes, I am currently using the same words as everyone else to express feeling, emotion, and to write on this blog; however in that case, before people started even speaking this language, we've plagiarized/not cited our "sources" of where we get these particular vowel sounds, etc.

There's no clear-cut defined border of where plagiarism begins and thinking you're original and really smart (even though someone already came up with that idea/metaphor) when you're really not! And I firmly believe that as time progresses, we will have people expressing similar views in surprisingly similar terms (ie - things that would constitute plagiarism, even though the individual came up with the ideas "originally").

I wonder how my kids will cope.