Wikipedia

Stacy Schiff, the author of the article "Know it All" from The New Yorker, critiques the website Wikipedia and talks about its consequences in the realm of information. Part of her article deals with the notion of internet versus authority and knowledge versus authority. For both cases, authority is supposedly "those who know what they are talking about." Internet versus authority, I believe, is essentially the fact that people with the actual credentials to post things on wikipedia as fact are given no advantage what so ever against any and every crackpot "who has ever written an amazon.com review." Knowledge versus authority is the notion that a generally well read person can state facts just as well as a person with proper academic credentials. Wikipedia allows anyone and everyone to add to its content whether they know anything or not. All edits and additions to the content are screened for accuracy and legitimacy by thousands of admins and sometimes good citizens.

"Her Point Is" and "As He Himself Puts It"

The Chapter, Her Point Is, describes proper methods of summarizing. The importance to maintaining the author's point of view when creating a summary and that it is often necessary to also contrast it with your opinion if you disagree is obsverved. It is also implored to use an appropriate transition into ones summary aside from the lowest common denominators of "they say" or "they discuss." If satire is used then these guidelines are generally not applied. An interesting thing I saw in this chapter was the "closest cliche syndrome." I've encountered this breed of conclusion jumping many times before and had not known its name, so it's nice to know.

One thing I notice about both chapters is that they both name extremisms then follow into a set of helpful tips, I can only guess that the rest of the book follows the same guidelines.

The Chapter, As He Himself Puts It, describes proper methods of quoting a scource. It is stressed that one should always make sure to scope out a quote which is relevant to what you are attempting to convey with it. It is even more important to frame the quotation to give it an explanation because the quotes meaning in relation to your topic may not be obvious to a reader. The lack of such framing is hilariously described as hit-and-run quotation. While framing you can add your own spin after thw quote to help explain the relevance to the reader if it is not yet clear.

Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

Chapter 31 contains lots of helpful tips on using sources and avoiding plagarism. The most useful bits of information is the tips on quotations and paraphrasing. I knew how to use ellipses, but not brackets and that can really come in handy for forming a coherent quote. Another quoting tip is how not to position a quote so as to not break the flow with contrary logic, style, and grammar. The most helpful bit of information in this chapter is the difference between an exceptable paraphrase and an unacceptable one. It shows how an acceptable paraphrase requires a change in sentence structure while keeping its "original language" rather than just a trip through the thesaurus.

Researching the Web Wisely

This chapter doesn't have much information that most people don't already know. "Judging the reliability of a Web site" is one of the pieces of this chapter with some information that I already don't aready know. Identifying reliable sites through the address is a no brainer. Whether or not there are sited sources is basic sense. The part about knowing reliable authors is new to me, I've never really investigated an author though I have never used an anonymous source. Even I think that is suspicious. When it comes to some topics I beleive it is almost impossible to find an unbiased source on the web. So many crackpots are spoutiong nonsense nowadays, really irritating.

Developing A Search Strategy

Chapter 28, Developing A Search Strategy, of Quick Access provides provides some really valuable information on research papers. Among the most helpful are the sections with details on documentation style and bibliographies. It is good to know the difference between MLA and APA format, especially considering that until now I didn't know what an annotated bibliography was. This is all the more important because I have a paper due in my History class next week that specifically requires an annotated bibliography. Another helpful bit of info was the section on field research. I prefer field research to reference books thoug most of the time I don't get the option based on the topic.

Portfolio Comments

After reading the Portfolio Guide I have mixed feelings. On one hand I look forward to have my writing analyzed by other people. This is probably due to the fact that I wish to become a screenwriter and I react jubiantly to feedback. On the other hand I am not looking forward to the cover letter on the Assessment Portfolio. This is mostly because I really hate talking about myself and my thought processes. The guide itself is very helpful in describing all requirements and some helpful tips.

Simplicity & General Apache

In the essays "Writing about General Apache" and "Simplicity" the authors wrote in a reflective manner. The main way they accomplish this is by using a present tense to establish a univeral value or experience and then uses past tense to reflect on it. William Zinnsser, the author of "Simplicity" merely states one of his experiences with unnecessarily complicated diction and then provides a noted historical point in time in which a well known person had commented on the same subject his essay touches upon; possibly in an attempt to say "I'm not alone in my thinking." Aside from these two parts, Zinnsser's essay is mostly in the present tense. Dick Harrinton's "Writing about General Apache", however, takes place mostly in the past tense. Where "Simplicity" only had two points of past tensive writing, "Writing about General Apache" is entirly in the past tense save for the first quarter of the essay. One of the important things to note about reflective essays is to find what changed in the author. In "Simplicity" what impacted the author is easy to identify as he states it in the beginning. "Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, cicular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon." For the author of "Writing about General Apache" the affect of meeting the man known as General Apache has on the author is a bit ambiguous to me. From what I can tell is that the author simply became awed and inspired by a man he thought so special that he wanted to write a poem about him. The universal appeals of each of these, I suppose, are experiecing a complication one would deem unnecessary and being in awe at how insignificate ones hardships are compared to another and how well they deal with it. In the end, the appealing factor to the reader is the most important part of a reflective essay.