Reflection
This semester in ENG-1103, we have worked on many avenues of writing, each one different than the next. We have written a creative project from scratch, about a time in our lives where we used something we learned from English class. We have written summaries of articles concerning important topics such as corporate entities ignoring meaningful research that harms young girls mentally. We have written summaries on small journal entries based on writing and how it affects the world. All of our writing projects and assignments are written in a certain way. Overall, this semester I have bettered my handwriting ability and cemented the new style of writing I learned. This style of writing bases with beginning to write longhand, or with your hands, handwriting to about half of the paper or project. Then, you read through it, and prepare to type it out. You type it out on the computer, and once you finish, you post your project on a blog made at the beginning of the semester. The blog turned out to be a lot more useful for me than I once imagined.
Writing longhand is one of the most effective tools that I have come across in english class. Normally, the instructor does not make you write the assignment out by hand first, however, in this case, we are forced to. Writing longhand forces us to drop student-like habits and keep the writer habits. When we use the computer too often, we rely on spellcheck and other failsafes for us because they are comfortable to us. When we are reverted back to the pen and paper, we need to use our minds, think about what we want to write down now, to type later. We cannot drag and drop words across the page on paper like we can on the computer, so every word has to be precise. One of the biggest parts of the writing process where what you write and the density matters is when you are linking evidence back to the thesis and claim. This is important because “the relationship between evidence and claims is rarely self-evident” (Rosenwasser 148). When tying these two together, you must be precise and make sense. For example, in my analysis of Matt Richtel’s Blogs vs. Term Papers earlier in the semester, I touched on the methods he used to present evidence and points of view. I explained how he offered a point of view supporting blogs and the new method, one supporting a mix of both, and one supporting the old way with term papers in classrooms. I argued for the way he assembled his evidence mainly during the longhand part of the writing process. The inability to make mistakes made me think deeper about what I needed to write..
In conclusion, The writing process of longhand to typed out is more effective than what I had been exposed to in my writing past, and it provokes deeper thought and more precise writing in the end.
Work Cited
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper- tradition.html.
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Five Kinds of Weak Thesis Statements.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. pp. 208-12.
A Changing of the Literary Guard
Matt Richtel’s Blogs vs. Term Papers is a brief overview of the everchanging argument of writing and the constant battle within its teaching of classical ideas and nuanced ideas. Richtel offers the viewpoints of experts from both sides of the aisle. The viewpoints and quotes of Duke University Professor Cathy N. Davidson are used to display the argument for a more nuanced style of teaching writing. Cathy favors the use of incremental blog posts online to replace long and lengthy term papers, alleging that the student gets more joy and engagement out of the blog posts rather than the term papers. The ideas of William H. Fitzhugh are used to display the view that term papers used in the classroom to clump ideas of the semester together is the classic approach. Fitzhugh argues that although the term papers may not be a perfect way for students to write down their ideas learned and track them, the solution is not blog posts, but more reading. Richtel displays the opinions and ideas of each of these experts in an unbiased and direct way for each idea. Richtel’s approach here opens up the opportunity for the reader to pin down their own opinion and decision based on the evidence provided on traditional term papers and new blog posts students can express their own ideas with.
Richtel applies multiple perspectives and opinions about which method of writing is better for students and their knowledge retention. He quotes Professor Cathy N. Davidson in her opinion of term papers and their effectiveness, stating that the “mechanistic writing is a real disincentive to creative but untrained writers”(1). Davidson evidently believes that making students write 1-5 page term papers as a recalling of what they learned is not useful to them, and that it is only useful to those who have been writing for a long time and are not new to it. Richtel writes on her direct opinion, and what she does in her classroom for her students, replacing the term paper with the occasional or weekly blog post for each student to reflect on their thoughts and what they have learned. Richtel then brings up that many other writers and teachers align with her views on term papers and blog posts, and that blog posts have become a requirement for some MBA programs. Richtel finishes this pro-blog post segment asking rhetorical questions about who would disagree, who could disagree with a changing for the better of students in a now technologically run world.
Richtel adds the input of William H. Fitzhugh, who agrees with Professor Davidson in the regard that term papers should be phased out, however holds a different opinion on what should replace it. Fitzhugh believes students should simply read more instead of writing an excessive amount of papers and learning and retaining nothing from it (2). Fitzhugh argues that students should complete one page of a paper corresponding to the grade they are in. Richtel highlights the difference between old literacy, essentially being term papers and academic papers, and new literacy, blog posts and more technological and creative methods. Fitzhugh holds the traditional value, of pen to paper clarity and multiple page term papers.
Richtel includes a final stance, one of Professor Andrea A. Lundsford, who holds a stance in the middle of Davidson and Fitzhugh’s. Professor Lundsford believes that the solution may be a combination of new literacy and old. Lundsford concluded herself that students felt more enthusiastic and successful when they used the new literacy methods(3). Lundsford believes that teachers can and should utilize both term papers and blogs for their students, a healthy mix of the old methods and the new methods, to react to the changing of the world and not get stuck in the past.
In conclusion, the way that Matt Richtel sorted this essay and its ideas, it allowed the reader to wholly understand and form their own opinion about the new literary world and its methods and the old literary world and its methods. Richtel formatted this to where he applied and explained three separate viewpoints, never including his own, and providing either quotations or direct evidence for each opinion as to what it means or how it would work. Richtel also slides facts between, such as how boring writing seems to young writers if their only experience with it is term papers and forced writings. Matt Richtel’s approach while arranging Blogs vs. Term Papers was to set up just enough information for the readers so that they can arrange their own opinions, while not giving his own opinion or anything supporting a certain side in the argument of new literacy vs old.
Work Cited
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper- tradition.html.
Midterm Review
This semester in English 1103 has been considerably busy. The most consistent activity we complete each day is pulling out our journals at the beginning of each class. After the journals have been pulled out, everybody prepares for a prompt from Dr. Lucas. Every Monday, that prompt is a Scrabble reflection from last week’s Scrabble game. These reflections include the complexity of the game overall, the difficulty of the words played, and the strategies utilized by each team to block scores and maximize their own scores. Sometimes, we write reflections based on a work of writing handed out in the beginning of class, such as Blogs vs. Term Papers, by Matt Richtel. These reflections greatly benefit our writing abilities, as it provides an opportunity for us to refine our writing strategies and abilities
One particular day, we were handed Blogs vs. Term Papers, an essay on the effectiveness of mandated blogs in the classroom vs. creative term papers and how each one benefitted the student and their interest and ability in as the class progressed. When I was given my copy of Richtel’s essay, I noticed his choice as a writer to offer third party insight into the uses of term papers in an English classroom as compared to blogs in the same regard. Richtel quotes 3 different scholars, one of which, Andrea A. Lundsford, concluded that in her classroom, students were more enthusiastic to show up and learn when they had a blog post assignment than when they had a term paper assigned (Richtel 3). I decided to base my reflection for that week on this choice of Richtel’s in his essay, and how his choice of providing quotes for each side of the argument allowed readers like myself the opportunity to make our own judgements and decisions on what side of the argument to believe or endorse in our minds. This reflection was the first real reflection I had done since the AP English Literature at my high school, so it was a necessary refresher for me to refine my writing abilities. I used strategies that I hadn’t in quite a while, and I feel stronger in these styles and strategies than I did coming into this class. I think this goes hand in hand with the benefits of the longhand writing we do in class every week, and how much it fortifies our writing abilities in the class.
Richtel used three pieces of evidence to provide the basis for each of the two sides of his argument. Richtel had to prove the importance of the argument for term papers, and the argument for blog posts. David Rosenwasser writes, in Writing Analytically, that evidence is what proves that a point or argument is right, and that is a misconception, because evidence does much more than that (Rosenwasser 149). Evidence also means testing, testing your argument to ensure it is airtight and makes any holes in it evident. Richtel’s 2 provided possible arguments are defended with 3 pieces of evidence, 2 clear cut supporting each side, and one more in the middle but leaning to the side of blog posts and nuanced ideas. Each of these pieces of evidence is defended on its own, but it is not only defended, but tested.
The Scrabble games helped me progress in the class and in my writing ability as well. Each Scrabble game I was able to dig deep into a rarely used part of my brain where I search for obscure words to make with a selection of 7 random letters. Playing this game, sometimes you need to play a word that you think is a playable word, but may not be, so in a way it is a gamble, but each time you are unsure about a word and its playability, you call for a challenge, and Dr. Lucas will come over to look the word up in the dictionary and ensure it is playable. Some of the words I had not seen before playing the game, I learned as a result of the game. I get a sudden realization that the word I play may actually be a word I can use in my writing, or just to know for life. This game strengthened my vocabulary, which helps me in the words I am able to use in some of my writing.
As a recap, in English 1103, we analyze different texts through longhand writing, and one particular analysis paper, the analysis of Matt Richtel’s Blogs vs. Term allowed me to strengthen my writing skills and offered me a place to do so. The weekly Scrabble games also help me strengthen my vocabulary for the writing we do in class.
Works Cited
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper- tradition.html.
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Five Kinds of Weak Thesis Statements.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. pp. 208-12.
How Cinderella Changed Writing For Me
Writing has always been a driving factor in my life and that did not change in fifth grade. In fifth grade, as a class we were asked to write a story book with pictures as a parody of a famous written work and children’s story. We were to write it, type it to make it organized, print onto the pages of a hardback storybook, and present it to the class. Prior to this assignment, in earlier elementary school, I had experience writing research papers and creative writings, however I had never assembled a real story with pictures that had to track all the way through the story. This experience was meaningful for my writing skills, but there was one gaff I made that made it a fun memory to look back on.
The story I created was called Cinderella and the Dumpling Man, and it had to be hand drawn but typewritten. It was my first experience writing a fictional storybook before, and my last, as I haven’t done so since. The story was alright, a piggyback and sequel, if you will, to the Cinderella story about a Princess who lost her shoe and met her true love, except swap every other character with dumplings, because I was 11. The biggest struggle for me then was meeting the page count. We needed at least 15 pages in our story, and one paragraph on each page, of about 3 – 5 sentences apiece. In addition, we needed to draw a picture on each page, with color.
Cinderella and the Dumpling Man was a rough story that was hard to follow. I know and remember that because the original unedited copy is sitting on the bookshelf in my room, for me to look at and poke fun at. In a way, it resembles a period in my life. I write similarly today, with many shortcuts and different ways of speech not normal for a writer. The story was much more rough around the edges before my teacher at the time, Mrs. Smith, reviewed my story and helped me highlight some things I needed working on. She mentioned errors like spelling and grammar, of course, but also ideas in the story that did not track throughout the story to complete it and make full ideas. For example, at one point in my story, Cinderella went to a dumpling cooking competition, and there was a disconnect in my story that my teacher pointed out to me, where Cinderella appeared somewhere on the next page and I never really explained how she got there. Mrs. Smith adjusted my story to include a part where she got into a carriage and arrived at the competition to find her true dumpling love. This was a small detail, however its significance has stuck with me to this day, simply due to her support and the fact that I had not realized my story was incomplete. In the end, my Cinderella Spin Off story to her finding a true dumpling love from 5th grade ended up completed, printed, returned to me, and I presented it to the class and it’s sat on my shelf in my room to this day. I never moved because it represents a time for me when I was just learning the basics of writing and I was tasked with assembling an entire story from scratch.
Looking back on this experience, I am thankful for the support I received and the opportunity I was given to write the story. This did not make my story writing skills any sharper for the future, however, and now I still struggle writing stories from scratch, because I have so many ideas to put in and I can never pinpoint one to stick and run with. My stories end up thrown together and very forced. Overall, the story was fun for a fifth grader, and the lessons I learned were valuable, regardless of whether or not I am better at writing stories today.
Works Cited
Berry, James. “Cinderella and the Dumpling Man,” 20, Jan. 2014.
Cybercrime– A Threat to Our Digital Safety
Cybercrime is a serious issue that law enforcement finds harder and harder to crack down on. In the past four years alone, cybercrime has been on the rise, and cybercriminals have been on a tear, stealing information and blackmailing innocent internet users online using trojan viruses. The FBI and CIA have built a portfolio and executed large busts on cyber criminals all over the world with assistance from international police forces. Even still, the progress they make in stopping cybercrime is minimal due to the ease of use and the sheer amount of people committing these crimes online. Some of the programs used to implant trojan viruses and take over computers are as cheap as $40 or less, making Cybercrime a very accessible crime to anybody who wants to victimize someone else online. Cybercrime is more difficult to track and much easier to commit than any other type of crime, making it abundantly more dangerous than any other crime from a legal perspective and for the online safety and security of everybody from the regular internet user to an entire town or organization.
The FBI and CIA have organized several raids and busts on cybercrime cells and separate cybercriminals all over the world. One of the biggest busts of this nature involved 17 countries, and was organized on the websites that cybercriminals exchange and sell programs and help each other solve problems (Perez ). One such site that is well used with cybercriminals is a program called Blackshades. Blackshades users were the main targets of the raid, and thousands of internet users hosting and using Blackshades for nefarious purposes were hunted down and investigated for cybercrimes in their home countries. Two dozen FBI cybercrime investigators in the special operations center in New York orchestrated these raids and missions. The FBI takes cybercrime and its punishments seriously, because if not checked, it can quickly cost thousands of people thousands of dollars, in petty thefts and bank frauds completed online. For the FBI to designate a dozen investigators on a specific crime, and more field agents on the ground, directly spearheading cybercrime from its source, it must be a big deal. The easy solution to taking down cybercrime is to save physical resources and launch an online investigation and lock down the people using Blackshades and stealing money online so they cannot continue. This is not viable, due to the existence of VPNs and false IPs, protecting cybercriminals from an online investigation.
Those who fall victim to cybercrime find themselves in a long and lasting predicament, as generally a cybercriminal will steal money or information from somebody online, and hold what they have over the victim. In some situations, sensitive information or photos are used as ammunition for a blackmail scam. This is seen in situations like the one that happened to Cassidy Wolf, a Miss Teen USA star, a blackmailer gets into Wolf’s cloud and steals nude photos of her, threatening to release them to the public if she does not do what he asks. Wolf was kept in his grasp online for 3 months, and she said after the fact that it made her feel completely violated and scared for her safety, not knowing if the person that blackmails her online could have become a physical threat to her directly, and that it could become more serious (Perez ). Victims of cybercrime often fear real world consequences and that failure to comply can result in harm to them or their world. This fear stems from the uncertainty of who the person actually is behind the screen, and it is what makes cybercrime so dangerous and hard for law enforcement to protect people from. Internet users comply out of desperation, and the cybercriminals get away with the crime and the ransom in some cases, thanks to the veil of the internet.
The everyday internet user is not the only entity at risk to cybercrime. In some rare cases, organized sects of cybercriminals can take control or take advantage of larger groups and organizations. In Plainfield, New Jersey, city servers were compromised and files and documents were held ransom for 650 euros, only to be accepted by the hackers in Bitcoin (Zapotosky ). Cybercrime does not just involve small, cheap programs that help steal a single persons information. Large organized groups are able to use more sophisticated programs and affect large corporations or governments if they are able to bypass certain firewalls and protocols. The computers in Plainfield were hacked into when someone was on the internet researching grants, and by just one computer on the network being taken over, the network was jeopardized and computers at the Mayor’s Office were locked out until the hackers were paid what they requested. Instead, law enforcement was notified and the hack was ceased. Law enforcement and researchers say that “most of the attackers appear to be from Eastern Europe, [and] some analysts say they are seeing evidence of ransomware being launched by Chinese hackers” either state-sponsored or civilian (Zapotosky ). These hacks tend to be more vast, with one hacker applying multiple sets of ransomware on multiple computers at a time to obtain a larger steal. These hacks affect less the individual internet user, and more the corporate and government side of things. A good example of a corporate cybercrime attack was the Sony and Microsoft hack of 2014. A hacker organization, or “squad” known as Lizard Squad, took down the Sony and Microsoft gaming networks in the summer of 2014, and threatened to do it again for Christmas. Their reasoning for doing this is “because we can” (Eordogh). Lizard Squad took down 2 of the biggest gaming entities in the world to make a point, that they should be taken seriously and not to be underestimated. Lizard Squad’s flex of power shows us the dangers of cybercrime if kept unchecked.
Cybercrime is more difficult for law enforcement to crack down on and fully put a stop to than physical crimes like robbery and assault, because physical and in person crimes tend to have a shorter trail, a direct line from when the crime was reported to when the crime was acted upon by law enforcement. Cybercrime tends to have a longer track from the time of the theft or crime to the time of action by law enforcement, and one that can be more difficult to follow due to IP blockers and VPNs, and oftentimes revolve around virtual currencies that change hands multiple times and the tracing process can sometimes be near impossible due to the individual measures taken by each holder to mask their identity. When it comes to the legal aspect of prosecuting cybercriminals, officials have to be certain they can tie the suspect to the IP or other identifying feature of the crime, which can be difficult because of those same failsafes that criminals generally have on their computers. Cybercriminals aren’t the only people who use VPNs and IP blockers. A good amount of regular people use them to protect themselves from hackers and cybercriminals stealing their money or identity online.
It is very important for civilians, major corporations and governments alike to implement proper cybersecurity measures to ensure everybody’s online safety. For governments, a cybersecurity agency like the United States has the CIA, NSA, or sectors of the FBI may be in use to protect citizens of the country from security threats. As mentioned above, the FBI and CIA work in unison to assemble and execute raids in the US and its allied countries, These raids in other countries still benefit citizens of the US because anybody from any country with access to the internet can download scripts of Blackshades and steal the information or commit cybercrime against anybody in any other country who is also using the internet and has the misfortune of clicking a mysterious and trapped link or falls victim to cybercrime. The FBI stated after their massive bust that “the most common way criminals have used Blackshades to target victims is by sending emails that seem legitimate, perhaps with a marketing offer, and with a link to click [That contains some sort of ransomware] (Perez ).” These links look innocent, but even an experienced internet user may fall for one of them, because they are so well masked. A fraudulent email containing a trapped link may look completely the same as an email from a website like Amazon, but it is missing a letter somewhere in the website name. So an email from “Amzon.com” would be a clear telltale sign if you looked close enough that the email is a scam. Many may believe that since the FBI is targeting and cracking down on cybercrime and cybercriminals that they are safer on the internet and do not need to worry about precautions. While the FBI is doing the best they can, they have made hundreds of arrests in the cybercrime realm, as compared to the billions of potential cybercriminals that can download programs like Blackshades for “an average of $40” (Swan). The ease of obtainment and the sheer amount of potential malactors on the internet spell out to us that we are not only at risk at all times, but we should be encouraged to utilize some sort of malware protection to protect ourselves and those who are close to us from data breaches and internet frauds.
In conclusion, Cybercrime is the hardest crime for law enforcement to build a case on, and it is much easier to commit, making it more dangerous than many other crimes because of its instantaneousness and its lack of a trail, and making it a threat to civilians and major parties alike. Cybercrime is dangerous because of how quickly you can commit it and get away with it unscathed by cleaning your virtual footprint of any evidence, in comparison to a real world physical crime that has identifiers like fingerprints and real world connections to people. Overall, cybercrime is something for everyone to keep an eye on, but as long as people practice safe internet use and are careful about where their links are coming from, most people have little to worry about.
Works Cited
Eordogh, Fruzsina. “This is Lizard Squad, the nebulous hacker group now tied to the Sony hack.” Christian Science Monitor, 24 Dec. 2014. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A394789957/OVIC?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=812d1184. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.
Perez, Evan. “Inside FBI’s massive cybercrime bust.” CNN Wire, 19 May 2014. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A368562257/OVIC?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=d09aa07c. Accessed 22 Apr. 2022.
Swan, Noelle. “International bust targets BlackShades malware. Is your computer safe now?” Christian Science Monitor, 19 May 2014. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A368626032/OVIC?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=f993dbff. Accessed 24 Apr. 2022.
Zapotosky, Matt, and Ellen Nakashima. “These hackers can hold a town hostage. And they want ransom — paid in bitcoin.” Washingtonpost.com, 19 Mar. 2016. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A447013430/OVIC?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=08fa0901. Accessed 24 Apr. 2022.
James Berry 