What is the issue you wish to research and evaluate? Why did you pick it?
Formulate a strong statement about your topic that you think you will be able to prove. Remember a thesis isn’t a
statement like “Nuclear power is cleaner than coal fired electrical power.” That is a statement of fact. A thesis is the
answer to an argument: “Given our huge need for clean fuel, nuclear power is a viable alternative to coal fired plants,
despite fears of nuclear meltdown suggested by last year’s Japanese tsunami incident.”
Why does this issue deserve attention? Why does it matter? Discuss the strong claims you will make to identify and
perhaps solve or take a stand on the issue.
Describe your research progress. What research have you come upon so far that is new ground for you? What research
problems do you have with this paper so far?
What questions of your peers do you have regarding advice?
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three page……
What is Intellectual Property?
Joyce Stashenko
30 30 unread replies. 34 34 replies.
Discussion: A.) Please read “It’s Not Theft, It’s Pastiche” by Christine Rosen, which appeared in the Wall Street
Journal. The piece is a review for a book called My Word, by Christine Blum. Blum’s book is about college students and
cutting and pasting from the internet. Read the article and be able to answer the following questions regarding the
review itself:
Blum, the author of the book being reviewed, has been accused of being soft on college students regarding plagiarism.
Why does Blum think students plagiarize so freely? Cite evidence from the article. Is she an apologist for the way
students write today, in your opinion?
What does Rosen think about Blum in this review? What is her point of view, specifically? How can you tell? Cite
evidence.
What is the definition of plagiarism, in your own words? If 70% of college students admit to having cut and pasted text
from the internet into their papers, what does this indicate about changing moral values regarding intellectual
property?
What is pastiche?
Is there ever an excuse for taking credit for someone else’s writing, in your opinion? Explain.
Discussion B.) Please read this comment that was posted in response to “It’s not Theft, it’s Pastiche” in 2009 and is
still posted online by The Wall Street Journal. When you have finished, please answer the questions that follow and post
them along with the work you did above so we can have a class discussion:
VICKI LAGUE May 10, 2009
This is what I’m planning to say to my college students in the Fall:
Writing is not a means to an end, the “end” being a passing grade. Instead, it is an end in itself, expressing your
ideas in a way that disseminates them to other people in the world. If you can’t think long and hard enough to come up
with and express your own ideas, what are you doing in college where thinking and expression are at the heart of
learning? It is possible to succeed in the world without presenting others’ ideas as your own, in other words without
cheating to get ahead. Cheating ultimately hurts everyone. If you don’t give credit to people whose good ideas you use,
why should you expect to get credit for your own good ideas later in your career? For example, how would you feel if,
someday on the job, your manager takes all the credit for a great idea that you came up with? How would you feel when he
or she then gets the great bonus pay or the wonderful promotion based on your idea and you get nothing?
Saying that cheating permeates our culture isn’t good enough, either. That attitude is nothing but a rationalization
that leaves you, and perhaps the country, intellectually, and perhaps economically, deprived. Can you say Bernie Madoff,
mortgage securities, AIG, and Enron? We can’t afford to forget these things because we, or our children, will be forced
to relive them in the future. Yes, I know, this implies a broad definition of cheating, but I think it’s needed.
If you cheat your way through college, you may be able to graduate and have a piece of paper with your name on it, but
what will that paper mean? If you have a degree in accounting that your cheated you way into getting, are you really an
accountant? Think of it another way, would you want a surgeon who cheated his way through medical school to perform your
bypass operation or remove your gall bladder?
Instead of giving in to “the culture,” we all need to struggle to stay intellectually honest, which includes keeping our
writing authentic.
What is Lague’s most persuasive idea? Why did you find it so?
Do you agree with Lague’s idea that cheating permeates the culture? What examples do you have of cheating? What should
be done about it, if so?
Is downloading music cheating or stealing intellectual property? How is it different from cutting and pasting someone
else’s writing into your own?
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