Ashley Rea

Dr. Coxwell-Teague
ENGL 5730
July 14, 2015

Why is this? As a new grad student

without much experience in the field, I
cant wait to put the theories into
practice once I have a class of my own.
But something tells me that sheer
enthusiasm alone wont enable an easy
transition to the alternatives to
conventional assumptions.

But
how?

A Remixed Reading Response for:

Beyond Gotcha!: Situating Plagiarism in Policy and Pedagogy, Margaret Price
Plagiarism, Originality, Assemblage, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Stuart A. Selber
Remix: Marking Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, Lawrence Lessig
The Fair Use Doctrine, Margaret Rife ^^^A word on form: I decided to
channel The Anarchist in the Library
<<<Rife addresses
and try for my own moment of praxis.
these concerns well.
Ive definitely struggled But is this true remix? My voice is still
distinct from the voices Ive borrowed
with these questions at
from, and Im loath to give that up
different points in my
completely for an assignment that will
undergrad career, and
be evaluated. A concern for evaluation
this is the first time
Ive found many of the students in my
where I have a solid
internship class share. But risk is what
understanding of fair
makes composing exciting! Im far
use application. The
more engaged when I can address the
section about common
parameters of an assignment in my
knowledge was new to
own quirky wayId like to find ways
me as well!
to encourage that as an instructor.
(Most of the strand assignments seem
to do that admirably.)

<<<Lessig makes a strong rhetorical move here.

Well done, sir. After equating the big, bad copyright
infringer with the loving mother, its hard to take the
concerns of the music industry and its lawyers seriously.
I found this section about layering particularly interesting. Our
current copyright laws are certainly based on an individualistic
cultural mentality. I think we could benefit from a legal framework
that addresses this collective and collaborative. I love the idea of
layering new details and twists, and Id be curious to know if or how
we could encourage that in a small class assignment. >>>>>>>>
As a student (with strong interests in multimodality and digital
composition), I use Creative Commons work quite frequently. But I
had always taken Lessigs view of the collaboration, and so Rifes
perspective on the limits of CC licenses was eye-opening. But when
analyzing the economic impact, Im still likely to side with Lessig.
CC celebrates amateurs, those who do what they do for the love of
it, and these individuals would most likely not be receiving economic
benefits from their creations. As Yochai Benkler would say, they act
from intrinsic, not extrinsic, motivations.

<<<I think it might.

Certainly from a legal
standpoint at least. But its
hard to see how Breitzs
project was detrimental to
Lennons original work.

^^^I completely agreed with this! (And pretty much all of DeVoss work that Ive read so far.)
To me, this is why teaching new media is so engaging. It allows for students to have to think
beyond the standard academic essay to elements of design and distribution, and all the
complex social and legal ramifications that follow. Im not naturally tech-savvy (my little
brother just built his own computer and scoffs at my IT questions), but I find that this
pressure challenges me to think more about the rhetorical situation and exigence prompting
my work, and the way such work can be received.
<<<This to me seems spot
on. We want straightforward
guidelines that our students
can understand easily. But
nothing is that simple, and I
think we do our students a
disservice by not at least
alluding to these
^^^ Im glad that good citizens was included in this
complications. Im interested conclusion. We teach writing, but with that (especially in
to see how our class
digital spaces) comes the need to discuss good citizenship in
responds to this reading
discourse communities and what that entails. And I think this
though. I certainly have no
need for rhetorical discourse on the trajectory of use is
idea how to best put these
fascinating. Im making a note for further reading (and
discussions into practice.
possibly further research one day!
<<<PREACH. While
Vaidyanathans argument is
intriguing (and appealing to
my inner English rebel,) I
wonder about its use in
practice. Just who are the
anarchists? Students?
Graduate students? Faculty?
>>>This made me think. Ive never really
considered the theoretical and ideological basis
of plagiarism before, and the discord between
the unified notion of self and poststructuralist
reconsideration of traditional hierarchies is
troubling. How do we overcome this protective
nature to our own texts? Should we? In theory,
Im all for remix and collaborative workbut I
also want to teach at the university level
someday. Im torn between pragmatism about
higher ed politics and idealistic dreams about
enacting theory. Lets hope theres a middle
ground somewhere.