Research Topic

As of now, I believe my topic will deal mainly with the Kindle, a device that is used to purchase and upload books rather than buying the actual book itself.  I may also look into the Sony Reader, comparing the two of them and researching the effects they might have on the book in terms of where they are now and in years to come.  It seems as though people are looking more and more to simply be able to get internet access where ever they go, and in turn get anything and everything they want as soon as they want it.  What does this mean when people are beginning to become even more impatient to even read a book?  Now, one won't have to make the five mile drive to their local bookstore.  No, they can simply get on their Kindle and in an instant the book is there.  

I believe I will be looking into people's attitudes toward books compared to the Kindle and the percentages at which this new device is selling.  In addition, I want to research any information I can find on the opinions of famous authors on the matter.  I've read so far that there are still many books unavailable for purchase on the Kindle.  When I looked at an article about the ratings of particular books on Amazon that were not available on the Kindle, this definitely gave me some insight into the mindset of some people.  People were actually rating books one star because of this fact, some stating that they wished to make a statement to the publishers and hit them where it hurts for not allowing the books to be on the Kindle.  What these people are not considering, however, is the fact that these ratings also have a negative effect on the authors who wrote those books.

Brainstorming on Research Topic

At this point, I sill don't really have any idea of what I'd like to research. I guess I'm having a hard time relating things that I'm interested to with what this class is about, multimedia writing. I'm an English major concentrating in both creative writing and professional writing and editing, but what I'm mostly interested in is my creative writing concentration. In short, I'm a writer, so I love books. Maybe some people have blogs dealing with poetry or fiction, I'm really not sure.

Tenner's "The Rise of the Plagiosphere"

     The quote that sticks out most in my mind from Edward Tenner's "The Rise of the Plagiosphere" is the one before his writing even begins, "How new tools to detect plagiarism could induce writer's block."  After reading the entire article, I completely agree with this beginning statement.  Although I do think that it is mostly a good idea for teachers/professors to utilize the new technology that develops for detecting plagiarism, I also agree that it may cause many students to feel as though they might not even be able to begin to write their own paper.  Tenner states that "40 million pages from the public Web, plus 40,000 student papers" are being added to comparison programs each day.  In addition, he writes that a New Jersey electronic librarian observed that these "programs were so thorough that they often flagged chance similarities between student papers and other documents."  When you consider this and the fact that Google also "plans to scan millions of library books for its Print database," how can students not be apprehensive about writing papers?  

     Even though these programs might be very useful in catching students who cheat and plagiarize, I am not completely sure if I think they are necessarily the best ideas.  Just think about how many students could also potentially be accused of plagiarism when in fact they were simply one of those "chance similarities."  After all, this article does mention how "the clever phrase a writer coins usually turns out to have been used for years worldwide."  With so many possible phrases, descriptions, ideas, etc., it is very understandable that a student could unknowingly create an entire paragraph quite similar to someone else's in this world.

Why I Use the Web

I use the web for multiple reasons. Sometimes it seems as though I get online too often, and then there are days when I won't get online at all. The latter is probably due to either me having too much work to do for classes or being on vacation. The reason I probably get online most often is to check mail and get on Facebook. Although, sometimes I feel as though I don't check my mail as often as I should, so it's actually most likely more for Facebook. During the school year, I might also use the web for research or for getting assignments for different classes. Other times I'll simply get online to look at clothes, find music, look up movie times, etc. Overall, the web is obviously very useful for a great deal of activities.

Hey

Hey everyone.