"Future Writing"

While I was writing the research writing assignment, I realized that I knew a lot more than what I thought I did. I was capable of taking all of my knowledge and writing a 1500 word essay with mostly my thoughts and my research. This type of writing will definitely be used in my field of work. Psychologists have to collect their own research from their studies and sessions on patients, analyze the results from a doctor's visit and use what they have learned from other sources to compile a summarization of the patient and what needs to be done to help the patient. This field is all about research and writing. A psychologist must perform speeches, give presentations and also provide written novels on their research and what they have discovered in their line of work. They conduct their own research for their own work and writings. We used sources in our paper of course, but most psychologists learn their information from other psychologists either by experience, reading another psychologist's book, or going to a lecture from another psychologist. They would also have to cite certain content because some of it is based on certain books, articles or lectures that are not theirs. Psychologists have to conduct experiments or methods to find a way to specifically help that client. This is exactly what we did in our paper. We interviewed people, found out what the problem was, and then we summarized all of our findings and gave an opinion or method on how to resolve the problem. We also gave a picture of how we could better our research for next time. Psychologists go through this same cycle every day with their patients. They may not write 1500 words on every single patient, but they do give a summary and conclude from their research on what to do and it contains research to back that method up from other psychologists. I have learned so much from this paper. It has given me a taste of what I will be doing in the future. I am glad that one of my classes has finally given me a taste of what it will truly be like in the psychology world. When I realized that it was the same process that a psychologist uses, I wanted to do more because it is practice for me. During my internship for psychology after graduating with a bachelor's degree, I will enter an internship that requires these types of skills from me. I am thankful that I got to do this writing assignment. It enlightened me on many things that I did not know about my career and what's coming up next during my college career. 

"Martin"

        In Brian Martin's "Plagiarism: A Misplaced Emphasis," he is describing the different kinds of plagiarism, what each level of writing , and what are the standards on plagiarism for each level of writing. In an education that is placed at a higher level, plagiarism is "grievous sin." In every high school and university, students are warned about the consequences of plagiarism, and teachers, whether at a high school or college level, have a way of detecting plagiarism, but there are no perfect methods of noticing plagiarism (Martin, 448). "Undoubtedly no more than a small fraction of student plagiarism is ever detected and, of that which is detected, serious penalties are imposed on only a minority of offenders," says Brian Martin, but what about community and government leaders (Martin, 448). A student may be punished for plagiarism, but what about the consequences that need to be given to our political leaders. Martin Kuther King Jr. is an example. The plagiarism that Martin Luther King Jr. committed never became a hindrance as a preacher or leader in the civil rights movements of his time. Incidents, such as these, have causes many academics and scientists to hide one's ideas because of "unscrupulous competitiors" who are willing to steal (Martin, 449). To share ideas in this world is absolutely unheard of now due to the dangers of plagiarism. Now, there is also institutionalized plagiarism. This type of plagiarism is when someone else is hired to write for another person. Institutionalized plagiarism is mostly required for the press. When it comes to a politician, sports figure, business executive or movie star, "the actual writing is done by someone else" (Martin, 450). The people that write for these specific types of people are clled ghostwriters because they are either acknowledged in small print, or not at all. Brian Martin calls this "plagiarism of authorship." There are a variety of types of ghost writing plagiarisms from honorary plagiarism which is in scientific research, and political speechwriting which refers to politicians and their speeches. 

        Many argue whether plagiarim laws should be enforced or not. Many scholars and academcs believe that it is a way for students to get ahead without working for it or without the student or person learning anything. Some think that many people plagiarize due to the fact of inexperience. Brian Martin commented that, "In many cases, plagiarism is carried out by undoubtedly talented and experienced people, as in the case of D.H. Lawrence  plagiarizing from various women." Brian Martin believes that plagiarism has been given more attention that what it truly deserves and has caused more distress and turmoil. "Most cases should be dealt with as matters of etiquette rather than "theft"" (Martin, 456).

"Winsor"

        This study is about novice engineer students on whether or not the students have learned how to write by model or mentoring. During her studies, she found that 53% of the students use models. Models are a standard, imitiation or comparison. Some of the students received advice/editing, or mentoring. Mentoring means to advise or train someone. 38% of the novice engineers were given advice/editing from a supervisor. 24% got advice from their co-workers, 14% were placed into a writing technical class that was required, high school training was 7%, classes at work were 5%, and work evaluations were 5%. Some of the descriptions written by the students were more like a sink-or-swim experience. Most students would agree that these methods used are not helpful compared to the other citing methods. In contrast, the students like the experience of models and mentoring because most learn from the interactions that come along with experts as most productive when they are receiving responses and practice.

        In Winsor's article, she receives comments from students that go into detail about the statistics. They have a specific learning pattern that is typical between most of the students; this is to use models by going to a co-worker and seeking advice on their drafts, submitting them to some type of supervisor and then reading and listening to the responses, from the supervisor, so that they can revise their work correctly. This model gives them the ability to choose a format and style for their work. They see formatting as a matter of local convention. There is always a better way to do something but they do not want to hear about it because that specific company has a set of guidelines that they go by. 

        Some students read models over and over again until they get to a better understanding, they take earlier reports and use that as a basis for their analysis, or they use models to know what is expected to be presented on the report format. Many students use the model in different ways, but they know one thing for sure. Communication skills and a students style of writing are learned by experience in the workplace. Overall, most students made the comment that they need to drive instead of watching someone drive. One student commented, "School can show us the reins but we won't really learn to control the horse until we ride it." 

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