Hartnell ENGLISH 1A - 4140 Class Reader Table of Contents

Class Syllabus and Assignment Schedule......3 Essay Guideline Handouts: Reflection...10 Cause and Effect.11 Critique/Evaluation.12 Synthesis.13 Argumentation Research14 Schedule of Due Dates for Argument Paper......................................16 Summary....17 Thesis Statement and Proposal..18 Annotated Bibliography.19 Outline Example.....20 Outline Sample...21 Literature Circle Reading Response Log....24 Literature Circle Roles....25

Articles and Essays: On Campus: Author Discusses the Cheating Culture with College Students28 Everybody Does It: Academic cheating is at an all-time high. Can anything be done to stop it?..33 Wanted: Better Employees .........37 Guys have body issues too..........38 Sex, Lies and Conversation ............40 Whats the Matter with Kids Today?......43 In Praise of the F Word.....45 Just Walk on By..46 Your Brain on Computers; Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction48

Assignments: Library Database Article Assignment....22 Topics for Argument Research Papers.......23 Book SourceLibrary Assignment...26 Learning Matters: YouTube Assignment Higher Ed, Higher Costs....54

Important Dates Academic Calendar for Spring 2012

Jan 23 Feb 4 SCHEDULE CHANGES (ADD & DROP PERIOD) - TWO WEEKS February 4 Last day to ADD a full-semester class (an Express Add Code must be used) February 4 Last day to DROP a full semester course to be eligible for a refund = 10% of course meetings See Refund PolicyNote: Students who add a full semester class after February 4th will NOT be entitled to a refund this includes open-entry courses February 10 Lincolns Day Holiday College Closed No Classes (No Saturday February 11th classes) February 15 Last Day to Petition for Spring 2012 graduation with $20.00 late fee February 17 Last Day to Petition for Enrollment Fee Refund (Course for intended refund must have been dropped by the 10% deadline) February 17 Last day to DROP a full semester course with No Grade of Record February 20 Washingtons Day Holiday College Closed No Classes February 24 Last day to Petition for Pass/No Pass grade option March 30 Cesar Chavez Holiday College Closed No Classes April 2 - 6 Spring Recess College Closed No Classes (No Saturday Classes on March 31st & April 7th) May 4 Last day to DROP a full semester course with a W grade May 21 Evening Final (Monday night classes only) May 24 May 31 Final Exams ( see exam schedule in this schedule for exact dates & times) May 28 Memorial Holiday College Closed No Classes

ENG 1A 4140 College Composition & Reading Daphne Young-Instructor Tuesday & Thursday 3:00 PM - 4:15 AM Room VAF 220A
Office Hours: TBA E-mail: daphn8r@yahoo.com REQUIRED BOOKS AND MATERIALS: Dialogues: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader 7th Edition (Gary Goshgarian & Kathleen Krueger) The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook, 2009 MLA Update Edition (Kirszner & Mandell) A folder to save all course material and graded work A flashdrive to save all work COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to composition with emphasis on writing of exposition, reading of selected works from a variety of academic and cultural contexts, and writing from research. Students will write a minimum of 6,500 words in graded assignments.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon satisfactory completion of the course, students will be able to: 1. critically read, synthesize, analyze, interpret, and evaluate texts from a variety of rhetorical styles and cultural contexts; 2. develop a focused thesis and select relevant evidence to present in an argumentative or persuasive paper; 3. gather, evaluate, and incorporate outside sources into a purposeful and coherent research paper; 4. demonstrate basic research skills utilizing diverse resources from a variety of media; 5. experience and develop an awareness of the importance of writing as a process; 6. demonstrate mature style in writing; 7. apply appropriate diction, style and tone in relation to the subject and audience of the students writing; 8. apply the MLA Stylesheet conventions to research writing. ENGLISH 1A STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of the semester students will be able to: 1. Write longer and more complex essays compared to English 101, built from a combination of several rhetorical patterns that pursue answers to challenging questions or advance substantial arguments that are supported with relevant, thoughtful, and sufficient evidence drawn (as appropriate) from written texts and the writers own experience and knowledge. Rubric Criteria: Employ the conventions of written English to produce intelligible essays close to error free in syntax, grammar, punctuation, diction, and spelling. Write essays with appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality. 2. Recognize that writing is a process requiring multiple drafts to create and complete an effective piece of writing. 3. Gather, evaluate, and incorporate diverse resources into purposeful and coherent research paper with sources documented in MLA format. COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Spring 2012

In this English 1A course, you will: Get a Hartnell Library Card by the end of Week 2. Participate in class discussions, exercises, and peer work. Write three essays ranging in length from three to four pages. Write a ten-page research paper. Write responses to material related to the readings/writing assignments. Take timed quizzes. Write a Midterm Self-Assessment; attend a one-on-one conference. Take a final exam.
Specific instructions for each of the assignments will be discussed in class; due dates for all assignments are shown in the Syllabus Course Schedule. Be sure to consult the syllabus daily in order to stay on task. Work that is incorrectly formatted, too long or short, or fails to meet assignment requirements will incur major point losses. ALL ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE COMPLETED ON TIME. Assignments not turned in by the due date deadline will receive a 0 and cannot be made up. DUE DATES ARE STRICTLY ENFORCED. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. To supplement lessons on reading and writing, consult the

Annex, Tutorial Services, and use the Library resources. There are also individualized Lab courses offered for credit. See the instuctors in the Annex for more information. Rememberyou are responsible! This is a college course, and you are an adult, responsible for managing your time. Expect the unexpectedthe inevitable time banditsbecause you will face one or more of them in your college career: procrastination, transportation and car problems, medical emergencies, your social life, your love life, the job, the kids, the pets, the household appliances, and yes, even your flash drive, hard drive, internet connection, computer, and printer. Preparation, anticipation and participation, serious attention to the assignments and adhering to deadlines guarantee success. We will discuss these issues further in class . Class Attendance/Decorum Find a study buddy in class; exchange phone and e-mail information. Through a buddy, you can find out what happened in class should you be absent. What we do as a class depends on your attendance and participation. A roll sheet is passed around at the beginning of every class. Make sure you sign the roll sheet if you are late, or you will be considered absent and ineligible for any points that day. Be awarethere are no make-ups for in-class work or quizzes, nor are there extra credit assignments to earn points. You must be in class and on time to earn the points for in-class work and quizzes. If you are late, enter quietly and have a seat. Do not ask me, or your classmates, what is going on; ask after class. As a matter of common courtesy, turn off all cell phones, iPods, or other electronic devices and put them away. Believe meI noticeand so do your classmates. Phone and music disruptions are rude and disrespectful; please avoid the embarrassment. Students displaying disruptive behavior, disinterested or disrespectful attitudes (verbal or otherwise) will be asked to leave the class. Maturity, respect and personal responsibility set the tone for my classes. Grading Grades are based on the points accrued for all work throughout the semester. There are a total of 1000 points for the class:

Essay Assignments: Introductory Revision Essay #1 Reflection Essay #2 University Life Essay #3 Our Lives Online Argument Research Paper: Thesis Statement/Proposal Annotated Bibliography Outline Rough Draft of Research Paper Final Research Paper In class assignments/responses/quizzes Midterm Conference/Self-assessment Research Paper Days Final Exam Grade and point breakdown: A Excellent 900-1000 B Above Average 800-899 C Satisfactory 700-799 D Unsatisfactory 621-699 F Fail 620 & lower Grades are earned by the student, not given by the instructor. You earn points through diligence, hard work and participation; the instructor simply records them. The total accumulated throughout the semester is entirely up to you .
Essays/Outside Assignments All outside assignments and papers must be typed using Microsoft Word, and follow proper MLA style and format. All papers and outside assignments must be stapled. Unstapled, handwritten, or sloppy papers will not be accepted. We will go over format in class. If you have more questions concerning MLA style, ask me, or consult the style manual. Remember--Late assignments or papers will not be accepted!

25 75 75 75

50 25 25 50 100 275 100 25 100

In-class Responses to Readings

You will be asked to read a variety of essays and articles for this class. Some are from the texts, some are handouts, and some you must look up online. Titles and URL links are provided in the syllabus. You are expected to do all the assigned reading for the week in order to respond in writing and discussion. Responses must be original; points will be based upon how well you adhere to the actual questions, and how thorough and thoughtful your response. Texts are a requirement for the course. Check with the library to see if they are on Reserve; check with Student Services to see if there are books for loan. Not having the books, for any reason, is not an excuse for unread assignments. Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism Directly quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing the ideas of others without specific identification of the sources and handing in work that is not the students own constitute plagiarism. Cheating is attempting to use, or copy, unauthorized sources or anothers work for a grade. This includes providing such materials so others can cheat and plagiarize. The individual student is responsible for the preparation and presentation of his/her own assignments. Suspected plagiarism or cheating will be reported, and any plagiarism or cheating on responses, exams or essays will result in a failing grade for the class. If you are unsure, or have any questions about what constitutes cheating or plagiarism, I will be glad to clarify. Be aware that I catch students cheating every semester and it is not a pleasant experience for the student or me. If you do your own work, you will never have to worry about this issue. The Library In addition to a physical presence on the Hartnell College campus, the library has online resources that are available to all students. It behooves you as a student to familiarize yourself with all library services because not every resource is available on line. There are magazines, books, maps, audiotapes, DVDs, CDs and videos in the library, which are not readily accessible (or free) through internet sources. Visit the library in personget to know the librarians. The Hartnell librarians are more than happy to assist you and answer any questions. A Hartnell library card is required by the end of Week 2. The library card is activated through your CAT card by filling out a simple application at the librarys main desk, or online. If you are a registered Hartnell student, there are no valid excuses for not having a Hartnell library card. Academic Learning Center and Tutorials: Tutorial services are free to all students. The Learning Center is available for English tutoring and help with writing papers. Computers for student work are located in the Annex lab. There is also tutoring available in many other subjects. These services are all located in the Annex. Avail yourself of these great student resources. Students who use the Learning Center tend to have better outcomes in their coursework. Academic Learning Center (831) 755-6815 Tutorial Center and Supplemental Instruction Annex (831) 755-6815 DSP&S (Department of Supportive Program and Services) DSP&S supports students with disabilities. DSP&S provides services, instruction and accommodations to facilitate student success in academics and personal development through several programs and services. Students with verified disabilities desiring any of these services or instructional programs should contact DSP&S and make an appointment with a counselor by calling the DSP&S office at (831) 755-6760 (voice) or (831)770-6199 (TDD). Students may also contact DSP&S through the Hartnell College website at: www.hartnell.edu/students/dsps The DSP&S office is located in the CALL building. The Syllabus and Course Schedule are subject to change. I will notify you of any changes in class. Lets Roll !

Key: Anything prefaced with this symbol () means pay attention to that particular assignment. The symbol is also used to mark inclass work for which attendance is mandatory. Pay attention these assignments cannot be made up. Responses: These will be timed in-class writings based on prompts I will give you for the assignments. Some responses will be from the text suggestions and some will be from outside sources. Reading: Required reading assignments are listed in the Syllabus. I expect students to have the weeks material read at the beginning of each week. Friendly heads up: Quizzes will be based on any/all handouts, reading material assigned in the texts, or outside reading assignments. In other words, READ! Writing: All essays and assignments are to be turned in at the beginning of class on the designated due date. Pay attention to due dateslate assignments will not be accepted!

WEEK 3February 7 to February 9 Week 3 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Chapter 2 Reading Arguments (26-58) Handbook: Understanding Audience & Purpose Ed. 4 (p.2-5); Ed. 5 (p. 2-5) Writing Effective Sentences Ed. 4 (p.61-82); Ed. 5 (p.63-82) Tuesday 2/7

Library Database homework assignment due today!

Lecture/Discussion: Critical Reading; Reflection In class Response: Timed: Topic will be given in class. Thursday 2/9

WEEK 1 January 24 & 26 Assignment: BuyRent/Find Your Books! Required reading is

due next week! Textbooks can also be found on Reserve in the library.

Introductory Writing Revision due today! Timed Quiz: Chapters 1 and 2/Handbook
Lecture/Discussion: Reading Assignments: Lit Circles; Reflection Essay #1 Guidelines In class Response: Timed: will be given in class. Homework: Compile a list of possible argument research paper topics from newspapers, magazines, TV programs, internet sources, blogs, library databases. Must be typed in MLA format (due on 2/14)

Lecture: Class Introduction/orientation Review Syllabus Mandatory In-class Introductory Writing

WEEK 2January 31 & February 2 Week 2 Reading Assignments

Dialogues: Chapter 1 Understanding Persuasion (p. 1-23); Handbook: 10 Habits of Successful Students Ed. 4 (300-307); Ed. 5 (302-308) Grammar Review/Usage Review Ed 4 (359-378); Ed. 5 (357-375)

WEEK 4February 14 & 16 Week 4 Reading Assignments

Dialogues: Chapter 3 Finding Arguments (p. 59-78) Chapter 9 Plagiarism (263) Handbook: Writing Grammatical Sentences Ed. 4 (31-60); Ed. 5 (35-62) Writing Introductory & Concluding Paragraphs Ed. 4 (22-24); Ed. 5 (25-26) Class Reader: On Campus: Author Discusses Cheating Culture (28-32) Everybody Does It (33-36)

Tuesday 1/31 Timed Quiz: What Is Your Syllabus Knowledge? In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Essay Structure/MLA Paper Format Paper Issues; Common Grammar Errors

Tuesday 2/14

Compiled List of Possible Argument Topics due today!

Thursday 2/2 In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Persuasion/Argument Make sure you have your Library Card Homework: Library Database Assignment handout (due on 2/7) Introductory WritingRevision (due on 2/9) In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Cheating and Plagiarism

Thursday 2/16 In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Argumentation Paper

WEEK 5February 21 & 23 Week 5 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Chapter 4 Addressing Audiences (80-111) Chapter 13 University Life (430) Diversity: The Value of Discomfort (430-436) Who Should Get into College? (437-444) Whats Wrong with Vocational School? (444-447) Parental Notification: Fact or Fiction (452-456) As for Everyone! (457-462) Handbook Writing Essays Ed. 4 (6-19); Ed. 5 (6-20); Writing Paragraphs Ed. 4 (p.20-23) Ed. 5 (p. 22-25) Class Reader: In Praise of the F Word (45) Tuesday 2/21 Reflection Essay #1 due today! Lecture/Discussion: Literature Circles on Chapter 13: University Life Who Should Get into College? As for Everyone!
Group Literature Circles assigned to these essays will present to the class on Tuesday 2/21.

WEEK 7March 6 & 8 Week 7 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Chapter 6 Using Evidence (155-178) Chapter 11 Gender Matters (347) Saplings in the Storm (347-354) The Bully in the Mirror (354-359) What I Think About the Fashion World (363-366) Child-Man in the Promised Land (367-375) The Men We Carry in our Minds (392-394) Handbook: Using & Evaluating Library/Internet Sources Ed. 4 (155-172); Ed. 5 (p.155-170) Class Reader: Guys Have Body Issues, Too (33-34) Sex, Lies, and Conversation (40-42) Tuesday 3/6 Lecture/Discussion: Literature Circles on Chapter 11: Gender Issues What I Think About the Fashion World Sex, Lies, and Conversation
Group Literature Circles assigned to these essays will present to the class on Tuesday 3/6

Thursday 2/23 Film: Discounted Dreams In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. WEEK 6February 28 & March 1 Week 6 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Chapter 5 Shaping Arguments (113-153) Handbook: Understanding Spelling & Mechanics Ed. 4 (113-130); Ed. 5 (113-128) Tuesday 2/28

Thursday 3/8 Timed Quiz: Chapters 5 & 6/Handbook In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Argumentation Research Paper; Paraphrasing, Summarizing, Quoting, Synthesizing Thesis/Proposal WEEK 8March 13 & 15 Week 8 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Chapter 7 Establishing Claims (p.180-201) Handbook: Writing an Argumentative Essay Ed. 4 (24-30); Ed. 5 (26-30) Handbook: Writing Research Papers Ed. 4; (132-155); Ed. 5 (130-154) Tuesday 3/13 Essay #1 Critique University Life due today! Lecture/Discussion: Thesis Statement/Proposal: Argument Research Paper In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Homework: Write a one-sentence working claim/thesis statement typed in MLA format for your argument paper. (Due on Thursday, 3/15) Thursday 3/15 Lecture/Discussion: Research Paper Topics *Tentative--Library Orientation for Research* Class meets on the Librarys 2nd floor classroom

Timed Quiz: Chapters 3 & 4/Handbook

In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Discuss Critique (Essay #2) on University Life topics; Brainstorm possible paper topics Homework: Craft a thesis/claim for Essay #1 (Critique) Find an outside source to support your thesis/claim and bring it to class on Thursday 3/1 Thesis/claim must be typed in MLA format. No handwritten or emailed work will be accepted. Thursday 3/1 Thesis/claim for Essay #2 (Critique) due Lecture/Discussion: Claims/Thesis Statements for Essay #2. (Critique)
Using the essays in the text and outside sources in your paper.

Brainstorm ideas for organization.

WEEK 9March 20 & 22 Week 9 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Chapter 9 Researching Arguments (241-265) Chapter 14 Race and Ethnicity (475) The Myth of the Latina Woman (476-480) Who Is a Whiz-Kid? (490-492) Why Racial Profiling Makes for Dumb Security (493-495) You Cant Judge a Crook by His Color (500-504) Our Biracial President (510-513) Handbook: Avoiding Plagiarism Ed. 4 (p.177-182); Ed. 5 (p.175-179) Class Reader: Just Walk on By (46-47) Tuesday 3/20

WEEK 12April 10 & 12 Week 12 Reading Assignments Dialogues: Documentation Guide (266-282) Chapter 16 Our Lives Online Is Google Making Us Stoopid? (558-566) In the Beginning Was the Word (566-571) My Facebook, My Self (571-574) Scientific Truth in the Age of Wikipedia (575-577) Three Tweets for the Web (578-583) Treading Water in a Sea of Data (585-588) Class Reader: Whats the Matter with Kids Today? (43-44) Tuesday 4/10 Lecture/Discussion: Literature Circles on Chapter 16: Our Lives Online Three Tweets for the Web
The Group Literature Circle assigned to this essay will present to the class on Tuesday 4/10

Working Claim/Thesis Statement due

Homework: Proposal with Thesis is due on Tuesday Literature Circles on Chapter 14: Race and Ethnicity The Myth of the Latina Woman The Group Literature Circle assigned to this essay will present
to the class on Tuesday 3/20

Homework: Find a library database source on the topic of online culture. A printed, marked up copy of the source is due in class on Thursday 4/19

Thursday 3/22 Timed Quiz: Chapters 7 &9/Handbook In class Response: Work with thesis statements Sign up for Midterm Conference Take-home Midterm guidelines: Self-Assessment answers to questions must be typed in MLA format (due at Conference)

Thursday 4/12 Thesis/Proposal is due today! Discussion: Synthesizing Sources Brainstorm topics for Synthesis Paper Essay #3 due on Tuesday 4/24 Lecture/Discussion: Annotated Bibliographies; Works Cited page; MLA citation.

WEEK 10March 27 & 29

X MIDTERM CONFERENCES W Take-home Midterm (Self Assessment) is due at

your conference.

WEEK 13April 17 & 19 Week 13 Reading Assignments Handbook: Integrating Source Material into Your Writing Ed. 4 (p.173-176); Ed. 5: (p.171-174) MLA Documentation Style Ed. 4 (185-233); Ed. 5 (181-231) Class Reader: Your Brain on Computers; Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction (48-53) Tuesday 4/17 Film: Digital Nation In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Last day to turn in Personal LitCircle assignment

WEEK 11April 3 & 5

X SPRING BREAK W

Thursday 4/19 Annotated Bibliography is due today Film: Digital Nation In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Lecture/Discussion: Synthesis

WEEK 14April 24 & 26 Tuesday 4/24 Lecture/Discussion: More Brainstorm Synthesis Topics Essay #3 Digital Nation Outlines/Works Cited page Homework: Start the outline. Be prepared to have a finished outline to turn in on Thursday, 4/26 Thursday 4/26 Library Research Day Class meets on the Librarys 2nd floor classroom Class time to work on outlines, papers, Works Cited pages with on-site help from librarians and me. Outline due today!

WEEK 16May 8 & 10

X RESEARCH PAPER LIBRARY DAYS W

Stop by the Library Study Room during our regular class time or between these hours if you get a chance. You will need to sign the roll sheet for the day. Tuesday 5/8 12:45 - 2 p.m. Thursday 5/10 1 2:45 2 p.m. You will send your Rough Draft (7 pages), a Works Cited page, and list of 3 questions (all typed in MLA format) to me by midnight Monday, May 7th. The sooner, the better. During class hour on these two days, you will continue to work on the Argumentation Research Paper. You must see me and sign the roll sheet for credit! Research! Write! Revise! WEEK 16May 15 & 17 Tuesday 5/15 Argumentation Paper Checklist Film for Final Exam: TBA

WEEK 15May 1 & 3 Dialogues Review: Documentation Guide (266-282) Handbook Review: MLA Documentation Style Ed. 4 (185-233); Ed. 5 (181-231) Tuesday 5/1 Synthesis Essay #3 Due today! In class Response: Timed. Topic will be given in class. Thursday 5/3

Sign up for Research Paper Conferences next week!

Thursday 5/17 Homework: Make sure you have 7 pages and the Works Film for Final Exam: TBA Cited page to go over at the conference. You also need a typed list of questions (minimum 3) about your research paper. You will send the rough draft, works cited page, and list of questions to me before the conferences begin on Tuesday. You may bring a hardcopy with you if you like. WEEK 17May 24 FINAL EXAM Tuesday, May 243:00-6:00 p.m.

Argumentation Research Paper due today!

Whew! You made it!

English 1A -- Writing Assignment: Reflection Overview/Assignment: A Reflection is writing to explore a specific subject in great detail. Your writing assignment is a three-page (roughly 750 words) paper. In this paper, you will write a detailed reflection about an everyday object that might otherwise be overlooked. Connection to Course Goals: Primarily, this assignment emphasizes: reading and writing skills; organizing ideas logically in paragraphs; engaging and understanding the writing process; connecting to, and with, the audience and purpose, using computer word programs to generate an essay in MLA format. Secondarily, this assignment is to get you into the reading and writing mindset for the class, especially if you have been out of a writing class for a while, or are returning to college after a break. You will apply reading and writing strategies and employ English conventions of grammar, language, structure, and format. Planning the Reflection Essay: Essentially, this assignment asks you to write about an everyday object that intrigues, or fascinates, or might cause you to ponder, or something surprises, puzzles, or annoys you. Initial Activities for Generating Content: Use any prewriting technique to brainstorm the topic; use whatever method works best for you. Keep the topic in your head as you prewrite: An everyday object that might otherwise be overlooked. Consider some of the possible experiences people have had with the object. How did the object evolve? What makes the object important? In what ways might the object be missed if it was not around? What features make it indispensable? Useful? Enjoyable? How does it compare/relate to objects of a similar nature? Thoughtful, focused reflection works best to generate ideas for a solid, engaging paper. Writing the Reflection: Make sure your topic fits the assignment. Avoid the obvious objects: cars, TVs, telephones, and computers, for example. Although these are everyday objects, they are hardly overlooked on a day-to-day basis. To find an object, look around thoughtfully at the things you use every day, but would not much acknowledge unless asked to take a serious look at its function. Use 3rd POV, not 1st or 2nd. This is not a personal narrative (1st), nor an explanation or instruction (2nd POV). It is a reflection upon an everyday object that might otherwise be overlooked. In writing and selecting the details about your object, consider the significance or importance of the object. Make sure you use descriptions and examples to make your points. Take your time to focus and reflect. This will yield the ideas and details you will need to develop your paper. Be sure to include a Works Cited page for any and all outside source material on your object. You will more than likely have some outside sources, especially if you do background and history research. If you use information from another source, you must cite the source in text, and credit the source in a Works Cited page. Not doing so is plagiarism. Above all: Have fun! Choose an object that interests you, and the research and writing will be enjoyable work.

CAUSE AND EFFECT 10

Cause and Effect: is analysis of WHY something happens (as opposed to process, which is HOW something happens) Links situations and events together In Cause and Effect you are looking for links. You can begin with a cause, and speculate on the effects, or describe effects. (A certain course of action yields these effects...) You can begin with an effect and describe or speculate on the causes (A situation exists, and these are the causes...) Cause and Effect is thinking critically and clearly about how things fit together. Cause and Effect is making connections between events and consequences. It is the root of argumentative reasoning. It is looking at something from many angles and points of view (not just your own) by considering those views of experts, non-experts, opinions, observations, discoveries; drawing logical lines and conclusion between these views, and backing them up with evidence/examples. 1 cause can yield many effects 1 effect can be the result of many causes Main cause--the most important cause Contributory Cause--less important, but adds to the effect in some way Immediate Cause--close to the effect, so that it is easy to identify Remote Cause--less obvious, hidden, in the past or not as close to the effect as the Immediate Cause. Causal Chain--effect as a cause, linking them together in a sequence.

Be careful in your reasoning--just because A precedes B doesnt mean it is the cause of B. They can merely be coincidences that appear to be related. (I slept through my alarm and almost missed my midterm. Because I was so rushed, I got an F on my history midterm. [That may be true, but the real reason for the F could be that the student didnt study for the exam] ).

ENG 1A: Critique/Evaluation Your assignment is writing a 4-5 page critical analysis. This assignment asks you to demonstrate your ability to summarize, analyze, and evaluate a film/essay. To do this, you will produce a critique on _________________________. A successful assignment will clearly demonstrate your ability to summarize a work, to understand its purpose, and through analysis, to evaluate the works success in reaching its goals.

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Overview/Assignment This assignment is based on __________________________________________. Write a 4-5 -page critical analysis of _____________________________________. The critique should evaluate both the information offered and the persuasiveness, and discuss these issues relative to its success in achieving its purpose. Your essay should state the film/essay thesis, briefly summarize the film/essay, analyze the effectiveness of information presented in the work, and analyze how persuasive the work is. Remember: be objective! While these critiques ask you to evaluate the information and persuasive techniques in the films, they should not include first POV ideas and opinions on the content of the film. As in summarizing, you are engaged in a partnership with the filmmaker/author. You need to understand the work and the filmmaker/authors ideas in order to critique it effectively. Initial Activities for Generating Content Discern the central idea for each paragraph. Determine the filmmaker/authors informational purpose Determine the filmmaker/authors persuasive purpose Evaluate the success/effectiveness/usefulness of each purpose Organize your paper (evaluate information; evaluate persuasiveness) Consider the following questions to guide your thinking about critiquing the information: What is the central idea of the film/essay? What are the main points of the film/essay? Is the information accurate? What is the significance of the information? What are the sources of the information? Does the information make a difference? To whom? In what way? Why or why not? Does the information advance knowledge? Does the piece only present data or does it attempt to say something about or evaluate that information? (Does the filmmaker/author make assertions about the data? List them.) Are the connections that the filmmaker/author makes between the data and her conclusions logical? Is the logic explicit? Implicit? Can you see holes in the connections that the writer makes between the information and the conclusions she makes? Can the data presented be made to draw different conclusions? Is there too little information? Why? Consider the following questions to guide your thinking about critiquing persuasive practices: Who is the film/essays intended audience? Does the film/essay attempt to ingratiate itself to its audience? How? Is the filmmaker/authors argument valid? Are key terms defined adequately? Is the information accurate and representative? Is the argument logically sound? Does the film/essay present opposing views? Are there views that should be considered to strike a note of fairness? What tone(s) does the film/essay employ? Does the film/essay appeal to emotions? How? ENG 1A: Synthesis This assignment asks you to write a 4-5 page synthesis paper. This will be an investigative paper, and you will draw on and synthesize at least two outside sources, (articles/film), not including the film viewed in class. This assignment asks you to use source material in fulfilling the purpose of your essay. To do this, you will produce a 4-5 page paper that synthesizes sources you have found. Overview/Assignment This assignment is based on issues around the documentary, Digital Nation:Life on the Virual Frontier. Your job is to select outside material and create an intersect. Pose a question concerning your topic to explore and answer. The synthesis will be 4-5 pages long and will present a well-reasoned and persuasive synthesis on the

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topic. In this essay, you will offer reasoned response to the content of the articles/sources. You will make a claim in response to the material you read/viewed and provide support (evidence) for that claim. In a synthesis essay, you are carrying on a conversation with the authors of the pieces you use. As in the previous assignmentsor in any activity that asks you to engage with the ideas of othersyou need to clearly understand the works you read and the authors ideas completely in order to respond effectively. Decide where you stand in relation to the ideas in the material you use. Youll employ all your sources (by summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting) to support your response to the material you are synthesizing. Connection to Course Goals This assignment primarily emphasizes synthesizing texts and documenting source materials in the creation of an essay. It asks you to identify your purpose and audience, while demonstrating critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Further, it asks you to organize ideas in a logical manner, apply argument strategies and control the conventions of language, structure, and document format. Planning the Synthesis This assignment asks you to engage with the ideas of at least two other writers, and in doing so, you will synthesize these articles in service of your own claim about the content of the articles. Begin with the following questions as you prepare for this assignment: Initial Activities for Generating Content Critically examine your sources, marking the central idea of each, the central idea for each stage of thought, and the topic sentence for each paragraph Apply summarizing strategies Think about, talk about, and take notes on whether or not you agree or disagree with the author Free write on your responses to the content of the sources Formulate a tentative claim (thesis) about the content of the works Outline your ideas and think about how you will incorporate sources Consider the following questions to guide your thinking about argument synthesis: What are the main ideas in the sources? What are the main points of the sources? Analyze and evaluate the information and persuasiveness of the articles What is your objective (purpose)? How might you organize your ideas? How much of the original text of the sources should appear in your 4-5 page essay? The finished paper should include a Works Cited page for all sources you use. Be sure everything is in proper MLA format. Below is a freebie--the citation for the film, Digital Nation. Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier. Dir. Rachel Dretzin. Perf. Rachel Dretzin. Frontline PBS, 2010. Netflix. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. ENG 1A: Final Paper: Argumentation Research Essay Your last major writing assignment is the Final Research Essay. Successful completion of all six components (thesis and proposal, annotated bibliography, formal outline, peer review, and final paper) will demonstrate that you have met all of the course goals in a satisfactory manner. Overview/Assignment During the last week of classes, you will turn in your major written assignment for this course: the argumentation research essay. Research essays, for the most part, work the way other essays do. First, they should make a rhetorical argument; all good writing is persuasive, no matter what it is explaininghistorical events, market research, or biological experiments. Readers should understand the purpose behind the essay, the perspective that the essay is offering on the material, and why you are writing it. Research essays should have a focus or thesis that can be clearly seen in the first one or two paragraphs; should be organized in a logical manner, and should use evidencein this case, information you have gathered from your sourcesto support your argument, and should reach a conclusion that wraps up your work in a satisfactory manner.

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Connection to the Course Goals This assignment emphasizes the use and analysis of various academic texts. It requires that you develop research and documentation skills using MLA format and citations and incorporate computer technology into the writing process. Planning the Research Essay The assignment asks you to select a topic which can be reasonably argued; it must make a claim. The claim must be reasonable, supportable, and worthy of consideration. A successful argument must: Create interest/curiosity about the issue Present a background of the issue Take a clear stand (claim; thesis) Appeal to reason Use facts and evidence to support the claim (research) Cite outside sources (bibliography) Consider the oppositions argument (antithesis) To do this successfully, you must engage the ideas of several other sources that support or contradict your claim and use the sources in the service of your argument. In addition to creating a first draft of the essay itself, you will be responsible for writing a research essay proposal, an annotated bibliography, a formal outline and participate in a peer review. Begin with the following as you prepare for this assignment: Initial Activities for Generating Content Select and critically examine outside sources you intend to use, making notes about them to use in drafting the annotated bibliography Highlight the central idea of each article, the central idea for each stage of thought, and the topic sentence for each paragraph Write summaries of the works Think about, talk about, and take notes on whether or not you agree or disagree with the author Formulate a tentative claim (thesis) Outline your ideas and think about how you will incorporate sources Consider the following questions to guide your thinking about your research essay: What are the main ideas in the articles? What are the main points of the articles? What is your objective? What parts of the articles are relevant to your purpose? How might you organize your ideas? How much of the original text of the articles should appear in your 10-page research paper?

The 6 Components for the Argumentation Research Paper:

1) A typed Working Claim (Thesis) 2) Research Essay Proposal with working thesis statement 3) Annotated Bibliography 4) Outline 5) Rough Draft 6) Final Paper

1) Typed Thesis (Working Claim) Must be typed in MLA format! A working statement of your argument and research A concise and focused statement about the specific controversy and argument you plan to make Must be a clear controversy, not merely a statement of fact Should not be too broad, leaving the topic too general to focus on one main controversy Should not be so narrow that the controversy is an issue too small to cover at length 2) Research Essay Proposal What I expect for this part of the research paper assignment is a summary of your research project. The proposal should be 2-3 pages. In your proposal, keep in mind the following:
The topic of your research essay The thesis of your research essay A clear statement of the intended focus

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A concise discussion of the topic points Your rationale for choosing the topic The sources you plan to use for support Why the topic matters

Address some of the possible antithesis points

3) Annotated Bibliography For this part of the research essay assignment, you will list a minimum of four sources you are considering for use in the research essay. At least two of them must be academic in nature, accessed through MPC, UCSC, CSUMB, or public library reference/academic sources), books, essays from a collection, or articles from a peerreviewed journal. The assignment is simple, but there are certain instructions you must follow to the letter. First, list the sources in alphabetical order according to the authors name; List the publication data according to the MLA style Finally, add a 3-4 sentence summary of the piece and a brief description explaining how you hope to use that source. Do this for each of the three sources. Follow the guidelines below, and do not be afraid to ask me, the Writing Center, a tutor, or use the text or manual if you have questions. Sample Annotation Doe, Jane. Cult Behavior. New York: Random House, 2001. Print. Cult Behavior is a book on cults written by Jane Doe, a Harvard professor who is an expert on cults. I expect to use some information from Chapter 3, where she addresses practices of the Southwestern Sun Cult, which is the focus of my essay. 4) Formal Outline Using a classic outline format, map out the essay in outline form. Use Roman numerals and alphabetical sublisting, organizing points that will be discussed in the paper. This is a powerful visual tool for organization of the paper. 5) Rough Draft For this part of the Argumentation Research Essay, you will email me your 7-page rough draft, along with a Works Cited page, and 3 questions about your paper in a Word attachment. I will meet with you in conference to discuss the paper; you can ask and answer questions to help strengthen the essays. 6) Final Argument/Research Essay Turn in the finished product (10 pages, a Works Cited page, and any additional highlighted source material used for the Paper since the Rough Draft) the last week of class. Keep in mind the following criteria: Is the purpose (thesis, claim) clear? Is there an engaging introduction? A successful introduction contains these features: Thesis: Early in the paper, within the first few paragraphs, state your position in order to establish the direction of the study and to point toward your eventual conclusions. Topic: You must identify or define your specific topic, especially the manner in which you have limited and narrowed it to one issue. Significance: Convince the reader that he or she needs to read what you have to say on the topic. For example, stress the validity of an issue to make the reader care. Quoting an authority or two, or citing other evidence in the opening, establishes a critical focus for the papers reader. Background: Develop a brief discussion of relevant information on the topic, but avoid a long history or review in the opening. For example, discuss only a few key authors who touch on your specific issue. If writing about a major figure, give only relevant biographical facts, not an encyclopedia-style survey. Appeal: Attract the attention of the reader with an effective opening. In general, a reader has an intellectual interest in the topic, but he or she often needs motivation beyond a dull, dry opening. Are outside sources accurately and clearly utilized, avoiding plagiarism? Is the source material used effectively to support the argument? Is the thesis and the main idea in each paragraph supported with evidence? Is the opposing argument considered? (antithesis)

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Is there refutation of the antithesis? Is there logical organization and smooth transitions of ideas paragraph to paragraph? Is there an effective conclusion? Is proper MLA format used for in-text citation and the Works Cited page? Has the essay been proofread for grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation?

Be certain that you have a clear understanding of these elements and how they function in your Final Essay.

Argumentation Research Paper Schedule of Assignment Due Dates:

POINTS Topic/Thesis Statement Thesis/Proposal Annotated Bibliography Outline 25 10 25 25 May 3 May 15 March 3 April 12 April 19

Rough Draft Research Paper 75 (include highlighted copies of all sources used) Final Research Paper 100

May 24

SUMMARY Steps to Writing a Summary Your writing will be scored on how well you: state the main ideas; identify the most important details that support the main ideas; write your summary in your own words, except for quotations; and express the underlying purpose of the article, not just the superficial details. 1. Read and understand the prompt or writing directions. What are you being asked to write about? 2. Read, think about, and understand the text. Review the material to make sure you know it well. Use a dictionary or context clues to figure out the meaning of any important words that you dont know. 3. Take notes. Write down the main ideas and important details. 4. Write a thesis statement. In a single sentence, state the main idea. The thesis statement should mention the underlying purpose, not just the superficial details. 5. Organize and outline ideas. Write down the important details you need to include in the summary. Put them in a chronological order. 6. Focus on the main point and only the most important details. 7. Use your own words.

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8. Revise. Have you indented all paragraphs? Have you captured the main point of the film? Have you included the most important details? Is there sentence variety? Have you avoided writing short, choppy sentences? Are there transitional words and phrases to connect ideas? 9. Proofread and edit. Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Is the verb tense consistent? Are all names spelled correctly and capitalized? Have you avoided writing run-on sentences and sentence fragments? 10. Write your draft. Use standard MLA format. Make sure your margins, header, and heading are all correct. Make sure you have the right font and spacing.

English 1A: THESIS STATEMENT & PROPOSAL In MLA format, type the following on separate pages. Research Essay Thesis Statement (10 points) Keeping your argument topic and pro/con focus in mind, craft a one sentence thesis statement. Remember the tenets of a good thesis: Usually one sentence in the introduction Narrow in scope; specific Focused on the central point of the paper Is not merely a statement of fact Lets the reader know whats coming without announcing Research Essay Proposal (25 points) What I expect for this part of the research paper assignment is a summary of your research project. The proposal should be 1-2 pages. In your proposal, keep in mind the following: The topic of your research essay The thesis of your research essay A clear statement of the intended focus A concise discussion of the topic points 17

 Address some of the possible antithesis points Your rationale for choosing the topic The sources you plan to use for support Why the topic matters

English 1A Annotated Bibliography

For this part of the research essay assignment, you will list a minimum of five sources of the minimum ten sources you are considering for use in the research essay. At least four of them must be academic in nature (accessed through MPC, CSUMB, UCSC, or public library reference/academic sources)books, essays from a collection, or articles from a peer-reviewed journal. The assignment is simple, but there are certain instructions you must follow to the letter. First, list the sources in alphabetical order according to the authors name; Next, list the publication data according to the current MLA style that source. Do this for each of the three sources. Follow the guidelines below. Ask the Writing Center, a tutor, consult a style manual (also available online), or me, if you have questions about bibliography format or content. Sample Annotation:

Finally, add a 2-3 sentence summary of the piece and a brief description explaining how you hope to use

Student 1 Joe Student Daphne Young English 2/64439 4 May 2011 Annotated Bibliography 18

Doe, Jane. Cult Behavior. Todays Anthropology. April 2009: 64-65. Proquest. Web. 14 Apr 2011. Cult Behavior is an article written by a Harvard anthropology professor. Dr. Doe has written numerous books and articles on the tactics used by cults to recruit new members. I expect to use some information where Dr. Doe addresses initiation practices of the so-called Sun Cult, which is the focus of my essay.

OUTLINE EXAMPLE Your claim/thesis statement goes here. I. INTRODUCTION/THESIS

A. Discuss the general issue 1. Points around the issuemove from general to more specific 2. Points around the issuemove from general to more specific a. Some general details/evidence b. Some general details/evidence B. C. D. And so on, if neededend with a solid thesis/claim on the topic II. BACKGROUND/HISTORY/CURRENT CONTROVERSY A. Main Supporting Point for background/history/current controversy 1. Details/Evidence 2. Details/Evidence a. Specifics about the details/evidence b. Specifics about the details/evidence B. C. D. and so onMain Supporting Point for background/history/current controversy 1. Details/Evidence 2. Details/Evidence a. Specifics about the details/evidence III. MAIN POINT/ANTITHESIS/REBUTTAL FOR ARGUMENT 19

A., B., C., and so on Supporting Evidence for the Point 1. More specific detail on the supporting evidence 2. More specific detail on the supporting evidence a. Other supporting detail about the specific evidence b. Specifics about the details/evidence

Sample Outline (From the OWL at Purdue website)

Topic: The College Application Process I. Choose Desired Colleges A. Visit and evaluate college campuses B. Visit and evaluate college websites 1. look for interesting classes 2. note important statistics a. student/faculty ratio b. retention rate II. Prepare Application A. Write Personal Statement 1. Choose interesting topic a. describe an influential person in your life (1) favorite high school teacher (2) grandparent 2. Include important personal details a. volunteer work b. participation in varsity sports B. Revise personal statement III. Compile resume A. List relevant coursework 20

B. List work experience C. List volunteer experience 1. tutor at foreign language summer camp 2. counselor for suicide prevention hotline

Library Database Article Assignment

This assignment is an exercise in using an academic database, and practice in negotiating a legitimate source for research information. It is also practice for how to write with researched information. For the Database Article part of the assignment: 1. Go to the Hartnell Homepage. Underneath the column Academics/Faculty, click on the Library page. 2. Once in the Library Homepage, locate the Article Databases section. Listed underneath the Article and Databases list is the Gale Opposing Viewpoints Resource in Context [One-stop source for current social issues]. Click on to open. 3. You will then see the homepage for Opposing Viewpoints in Context. 4. In the search bar on the top right hand side, type in community colleges. 5. When the page loads, from the left hand column under Everything, select Academic Journals (58) 6. Select the article entitled Community College is an Affordable Option. 7. When the article opens, on the right hand side you will see a column of choices under Tools. Click on email. You will be directed to a template to fill in the senders email address, (the article title is already filled in), and the recipients email address. Under Message, write these words: Library Database Article Assignment. Include your name, and then send. I will send you confirmation when I receive your assignment. For the written part of the assignment: 1. Using proper MLA format (Online Article Retrieved from a Database p. 273 in Dialogues), show how the source should appear in a Works Cited page. Hint: Opposing Viewpoints often shows the Source Citation at the end of the article. Caution: Make sure the citation is in MLA format, and not APA, or another format. If you arent sure, check the MLA guidelines in the text. You will lose points if you cite sources in the wrong format! 2. Summarize a paragraph passage in the article you might use for an argument or antithesis point if community colleges was your research topic. 3. Paraphrase the same passage you just summarized. 21

4. In a direct quote use the same paragraph passage you summarized and paraphrased. The assignment must be typed in standard MLA format.

Topics for Argumentation Research Papers

For your Research Paper, you will choose one of the nine (9) main topic categories in the Opposing Viewpoints in Context database. These categories are: Business and Economics Energy and Environmentalism Family Issues Health and Medicine Law and Politics National Debate Topic Science, Technology and Ethics Society and Culture War and Diplomacy

By clicking on a category, you will see many of the subcategories within each main topic. You will need to type in your library card (CAT card) number to activate the database. The assignment is to explore the main categories, and the subcategories, to find a topic of interest for the research paper. Keep in mind that the paper is based on a controversyan argumentone which requires you to take a position. Examine how some of the general topic information gives the various sides of an issue. These are examples of how you can structure your own argument. You have one other option: choose a category and topic of your own if I think it is a workable argument. The trick is to make sure your topic is an argument. Rememberthis is not a reportit is an analysis of a controversy in which you take a side, advocating for one position or another. You will need to turn in your topic, along with a working thesis statement, at your first conference with me during WEEK 10 (March 27 & 29). The conference is your opportunity to go over your topic with me and discuss possible avenues to explore.

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ENGLISH 1A: Literature Circle Reading Response Log

Throughout the semester, you will respond to 5 of the essays we will read for this class. In doing so, you will fulfill each of the five (5) Literature Circle roles (Director, Illuminator, Connector, Researcher, Vocabulary). You will be responsible to your group for covering your assigned roles, and to put together the information required of the particular role. For one of the chapter reading assignments, your Literature Circle group will present to the class. Additionally, you will be responsible for one role on your own as a homework assignment. You may do the assignment on any of the essay groups, but you cannot use an essay that has been discussed in class, or one that your group presented. Use the graph below to keep track of your finished assignments. Any completed essay responses (typed in MLA format) are due in class on Tuesdays. Handwritten, late or e-mailed responses will not be accepted. Do not procrastinate! We are covering only four essay chapters: University Life, Gender Matters, Race and Ethnicity, and Our Lives Online. The last day to turn in your personal essay choice is Tuesday, April 17. Rememberyou must choose an essay that has not been discussed in class, or covered with your groups. No exceptionsno kidding.

Example:

Joe Student Essay Title

As for Everyone! Sex, Lies and Conversation Our Biracial President My Facebook, Myself In Praise of the F Word

Director
X

Illuminator
X

Connector
X

Researcher

Vocabulary

X X

In the example above, the yellow highlighted title represents the Literature Circle group assignment presented to the class. The titles not highlighted represent the assignments that the students Literature Circle group did only as a group, but did not have to present to the entire class, The green highlighted title is the students personal selection to fulfill the last role. YOUR OFFICIAL LOG:

Chapter Title

Director

Illuminator

Connector

Researcher

Vocabulary

LITERATURE CIRCLE ROLES: The Director has the responsibility of getting the group to remember specific details about the text: who, what, where, when, why, and how. The director poses questions that help the rest of the team remember these details. If you are the

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Director, compose questions about details in the chapter and then answer them by showing why it's important to remember this particular detail. You should ask 5 questions about specific details. Questions should be answerable by referring to a particular page or set of pages in the text. The questions should not be hypothetical (that's the connector's job). After you pose each question, write at least a 3-sentence paragraph explaining WHY that question is important. Following all the written questions and answers, write a paragraph summary of why knowing these particular details helps you to understand one of the themes of the book.

The Illuminator has the responsibility of getting the group to look at specific passages in the work that either 1) foreshadow something, 2) reveal something about the characters or situations, 3) are beautifully written or difficult to understand. If you are the Illuminator, you should identify passages by page number and paragraph (in the margins of your text) and explain what is significant about them. You should identify a minimum of 5 passages for discussion. Make sure to include the page numbers of the passages you identify for discussion. Your written explanation of why these passages are significant should be at least 4 sentences long for each passage. After writing about all of the passages, summarize in a paragraph why studying these particular passages helps to understand any of the themes of the book. The Connector makes connections between the reading and either other readings, a movie or TV show, or something in the current news. If you are the Connector, you should make at least 4 thematic connections between the chapter and other things, such as (and not limited to) other readings, a movie or TV show, or something in the current news. You should explain each connection with a paragraph of at least 4 sentences. After your connections, in a paragraph summarize why making these particular connections helps to understand any of the themes of the book. The Researcher looks up author information, and contextual (historical or cultural) information that help people understand the chapter better. You will select 3 pieces of information and you must use at least one text or online resource from the Library. I recommend that you use the online resources in the MPC library. If you are the Researcher, look up references to songs, history, and allusions to works of literature whenever possible. When possible, you should locate material about this particular author or historical context. Most importantly, you are responsible for processing that informationa 3-4 sentence explanation of how each piece of research supports understanding of the book. Along with any research printouts, in a separate 6-7 sentence paragraph summarize why having researched background helps readers to understand themes in the book. Include a "Works Cited" page in MLA format.

For the Vocabulary, you must look up and compile a list of unfamiliar and unusual vocabulary. You should be able to define every word used in the particular chapter being discussed. You will need to define a minimum of 20 words. It is also important to note a word's possible multiple meanings (denotation and connotation). Consider the implications of the names the author has chosen to give to characters, also. In stories, character names are part of the language and vocabulary. Type up a list of all the unfamiliar and unusual vocabulary words. List the page(s) each word is found, and the definitions. English Spring 2012 Name________________________________________________

Book Source--Library Assignment

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Find a book in the physical library stacks or in e-books to use as a source for your argumentation research paper. Once you have located the book, check it out at the main desk. For this exercise, find one passage that will support a point of your argument. You may also find source information for the antithesis. Using MLA citation for Works Cited pages, format your source correctly following the examples in the text (the section entitled MLA), or the librarys MLA guide sheet. There are four parts to this assignment: Source in Works Cited format, Summary, Paraphrase, and Direct Quote. Examples of Works Cited (MLA Format for Books) One Author: Schmoe, Joe. How to Cite and Use Information from a Book for a Research Paper. Las Vegas: LadyLaurel Press, 2010. Print. Two (or three) Authors: Schmoe, Joe and John Doe. How to Cite and Use Information from a Book for a Research Paper. Las Vegas: LadyLaurel Press, 2010. Print. From an Anthology or Collection of works: Schmoe, Joe. Your Grade at Stake: Proper Citation. How to Cite and Use Information from a Book for a Research Paper. Ed. Sylvia Goodlove. Las Vegas: LadyLaurel Press, 2010. (100-110). Print. From an E-book: Use the same format for authors and titles above, but make the changes listed below in the example. Schmoe, Joe. How to Cite and Use Information from an E-Book. Las Vegas: LadyLaurel Press, 2010. NetLibrary. Web. 31 Nov. 2011. Write the Works Cited sample of your selected source on the lines below. Note that you indent subsequent lines of the citation. See above samples. Verify accuracy by checking it against the samples in your text. You can also use one of the citation websites (Easybib.com or Bibme.com) to help format your source correctly. Double check the format. If correct, this is how the citation should appear in the Works Cited page. Start a Works Cited page and save it in order to add more sources as you find them. Underneath the source citation, make sure to write a brief summary (annotation) of the information you plan to use and how you plan to use it. This will be your Annotated Bibliography.

__________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Write a summary of the information you plan to use for your argument. An easy way to write a summary is to imagine yourself explaining briefly what the piece of information is about to someone else, using your own words. A summary condenses information in a general way without using all the details a paraphrase includes. Brevity is key to a good summary. Refer to the handbook for more explanations on summarizing. __________________________________________________________________________________ 25

__________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ Now, write a paraphrase of the sources information you plan to use for your argument. To paraphrase, follow the general order of the original; emphasize the importance of the sources information by using the authors key terms and information in your own words. If key terms are technical or complex, explain what they mean in your own words. Refer to the text for more explanations on how to paraphrase. __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ Finally, write a direct quote of the same information as used above for the summary and paraphrase. Direct quotes involve using the source information word for word, enclosed in quotation marks. Direct quotes should be used sparingly, and only when emphasis on the authors exact content is necessary. __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________

Callahan, D. (2006). On Campus: Author Discusses the Cheating Culture With College Students. Plagiary: Cross Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 1 (4): 18 [temporary pagination for advance online copies of articles]. http://www.plagiary.org Perspectives Volume 1 - Number 4 - Page 1

Abstract

In a recent discussion with college students,1 David Callahan probed the dark side of American life, the cheating culture which has taken root in business, sports, academe and other areas of American society. He explains the three great forces driving the cheating culture, and he questions whether people really want to live in a society characterized by a panoply of cheating behaviors. His message to students is that change is on the way. He is optimistic about the potential for a more fair, more honest society based on equal opportunity and rewards for those who work hard,

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dream big, and push forward. His concrete suggestions for leveling the playing field and resisting the cheating culture are a challenge to college students to Be the change you want to see in the world.

Introduction

You know, Ive written a number of books, but Ill confess: Most of the other ones sank without a trace and nobody paid any attention as seems to happen to so many authors. But this book about The Cheating Culture has been different. Its really struck a nerve! I suppose thats because theres quite a bit of cheating these days. One of the best results of this book has been getting invited to speak to students. While the Cheating Culture spotlights many disturbing facts about greed and deceit and cynicism, and about good people doing things they really shouldnt be doing, Im optimistic that this culture is not here to stay and that we will again see a society that is more honest and more fair than now. But I very much doubt that such change will come from the older generations that hold power now. Thats not the way things work. It is usually the next generation coming up that has the idealism and energy to overturn the status quo. And often these efforts start at universities, with students working for change and also trying to build, on our campuses, a microcosm of the kind of society they would like to see.

A Crisis of Ethics and Fairness

Now, I can say with some certainty that issues such as cheating and academic integrity have rarely been a great student cause. In fact, they are rarely even a great faculty cause . . . But they should be. They should be. As I see it, widespread student cheating is connected to a much bigger crisis around ethics and fairness in America. For anyone interested in making this country a better place, these issues of integrity are actually a pretty good place to start. If we can make Americas campuses operate more fairly and more honestly, weve taken a big step in the right direction. Before saying more about this, though, let me say a bit about The Cheating Culture. I started writing this book a few years ago when the corporate scandals involving Enron and WorldCom exploded onto the headlines. And, in fact, Ken Lay is on trial right now for his evident complicity in the Enron meltdown. And since these scandals, Ive been researching, writing, and speaking about the ethics of Americans. Its been interesting, if disturbing. Ive learned a lot of things that I would have preferred not to know. I learned that the greed and dishonesty in corporate America of recent years has been worse than anything weve seen since the Robber Barons of 100 years ago, and that the scandals involved not just a few bad apples in a few rogue companies, but dozens of respected companies, investment banks, and law firms. I also learned out that there was much more cheating by ordinary Americans than you might expect. I found out that tax evasion has more than doubled in the past decade soaring to over $345 billion a year! I learned that employee theft was the single biggest form of crime in the United States $600 billion a year in employee theft. Thats 6% of our GDP! I learned that ethics of many doctors the professionals we trust more than any others are not what they should be, and that pharmaceutical companies often use money and gifts to tempt doctors to prescribe this or that drug, neglecting the interests of their patients. I learned that many people lie about their credentials and, indeed, that half of all rsums contain lies. I learned that the problem of steroids in major league baseball and other sports is worse now than ever before. And I learned that cutting corners was starting earlier. According to surveys, between twothirds and three quarters of high school and university students admit to some cheating within the past year. It is commonly assumed that technology is whats behind more cheating going on these days. The Internet makes it infinitely easier to plagiarize, and plagiarism is now the biggest form of cheating. Its so easy, and its so tempting in a crunch to jump on the Internet to grab somebody elses work. Some students may even be confused about what plagiarism is, exactly, and it seems confusion results from teachers not clearly explaining how to properly cite sources after scholarly convention. Schools havent done a good enough job in this area. Meanwhile, other technology can also help with cheating. Cell phones can be used for text messaging. Calculators can be programmed with formulas. All this is true. In fact, though, research shows that new technology is not what is driving more cheating in our schools. Yes, Internet plagiarism is way up. But many forms of cheating that are not facilitated by new technology are also widespread. Like cheating on tests.

Separate Moral Compasses

As I probed into the dark side of American life, one thing that surprised me most along the way is that so many of those who are cutting corners to get ahead academically, financially, or professionally are otherwise honest, ordinary people people who see themselves as upstanding members of society people who could never even imagine shoplifting. This is not a them problem, but an us problem in the US. Another thing that surprised me is that all this cheating is occurring at the same time that Americans are exercising more personal responsibility in many areas. After all, consider all the good news from recent times: Crime declined sharply through the 1990s, reaching some of the lowest levels ever recorded in 2004. Drunk driving deaths dropped by 40 percent during the 1980s and 1990s. Teenage pregnancy rates fell by 30 percent during the 1990s, and now are at the lowest levels since 1946. The same surveys that find that young people are more willing to cheat in school or lie to get a job, also show that they are more cautious and prudent in other areas of their life (sex, drugs, drunk driving). Many people, young and old alike, seem to go through life with two separate moral compasses: one shapes their decisions when it comes to sex, drunk driving or violence. A second, and utterly different compass governs peoples lives when it comes to academic advancement, money, and career success. Getting ahead these days means doing well in school, keeping up that GPA to land a good job.

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Honesty vs. Compromise

Now, if you look at polls, youll find that most people value honesty. Nearly all of us want to live a life of integrity. One recent survey of high school students found that over 90 percent said that they considered themselves honest and said being honest was important. In fact, high school students said on average that it was more important to them to be honest than it was to be attractive or popular. Integrity matters to us. But when the heat is on, or the price is right, many of us will make compromises. And the reason for such compromises, I believe, is that its gotten harder not to compromise these days. Things have changed in America over the past few decades. Weve become more of a cutthroat society where its every man for himself. At the same time, weve seen less worship of God and more worship of the Almighty Dollar, less focus on others and more focus on self. I dont think these changes are permanent. I know we can do better, and Ill explain how. But let me begin first by discussing in more depth why we are doing so poorly and what all this cheating tells us about changes in American life.

Three Great Forces Driving the Cheating Culture

A Focus On Money and Winning There are three great forces in our society driving the cheating culture. The first is a growing focus in America on money and winning. Surveys of high school students find that they are more likely to dream about being rich than to dream about being a great athlete or about being smart. Back in 1969, a poll of college freshman found that their top goal was develop a meaningful philosophy of life. Now the top goal is to make a lot of money. In fact, the money chase permeates every corner of our society, and in the quest to do well financially everyone has become more competitive. Maybe that is why Survivor is such a popular show on television. Its a mirror of an America where winning is not just everything, its become the only thing. And, boy, consider what the winners at the top get these days in terms of financial rewards. Top athletes make more money in a year than Mickey Mantle or Joe Namath made in a lifetime. Successful CEOs make fortunes that executives of a generation ago could never have dreamed of. In 1980, the average CEO made 40 times more than the average worker. Now its 300 times more! Top lawyers, doctors, journalists you name it the stars in every profession get paid more than ever, even as wages for most Americans have stagnated or declined since 1973. Today, in what economists call a winnertake-all society, the top 1 percent of households earns more money than the bottom 100 million Americans combined. And its not just financial rewards that we lavish on winners. We also give winners much more attention and praise. Were obsessed with celebrities. Look at somebody like Paris Hilton. As far as I can see, shes never done anything useful in her entire life and that includes her video but there she is, in our face wherever we turn. I mean, give me a break already! But there she is, this ubiquitous icon. It doesnt seem to matter if theyve done anything usefulthey are still held up as role models by the media. Given the huge rewards for being a winner, its not so surprising that more people will cut corners to be a winner. Take Barry Bonds as an example, who makes up to $18 million a year! If thats not an incentive, I dont know what is. And its not surprising that Barry Bonds along with so many other ball players would break the rules of baseball and use steroids. Its not surprising that the executives at Enron would lie about company earnings to keep the stock high. Its not surprising that young journalists would make up stories to help their careers. Its also not surprising that winnertakeall competition would breed cheating in another area in the classrooms of elite high schools and colleges. These days, even the smart kids who already have everything going for them often cheat to guarantee their success. When I was writing my book, I spent some time looking into the cheating problem at Horace Mann, which is one of the top prep schools in New York City. Students there are from extremely well off families. In the grand scheme of things, if youre a student at Horace Mann, youve already won the game of life. Paying $20,000 per year for their children to attend, parents of these kids are loaded. And yet cheating is common at the school. Why are the most privileged kids cheating? Various reasons, to sure. There is no single reason why students cheat. But in this case, certainly one reason is the intense desire to be a winner, to get the rewards at the top. The Horace Mann kids are remarkably worldly. They know what partners at big name investment firms make. They understand just how just big the rewards are if youre a winner and make it to the very top of American society. Many feel entitled to those rewards. And these students come to believe from early on that a key to being a winner perhaps the key is a degree from a prestigious university, the ivy leagues. And some of them will cut whatever corners are necessary to attain that goal. George Washington once said: Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. All too true. Many people say, Oh it doesnt matter if the winners get so much more money than everyone else or if we live in a society that worships celebrities. I beg to differ. I think these inequities bring out the worst in us, morally speaking. Now, of course, the obsession with winning is not the only reason people cheat. A lot of people arent out to strike it rich or become a big shot. They just want to lead a comfortable and secure life. But increasingly, that is not something one can take for granted, and more people are afraid of falling behind, and not being able to lead that comfortable, secure life. This brings me to a second reason people cheat, which is fear. Fear and Insecurity Things are tough out there. Jobs are less secure, and even the best white collar jobs are now getting outsourced to China or India, disappearing just like that. 45 million Americans lack health insurance, which makes us unique among advanced nations. We just dont look out for our fellow citizens like we once did. And a lot of middle class Americans who should be feeling secure are instead feeling anxious. And their kids are growing up around this anxiety. I think there are a lot of young people who go through life, thinking, I better not screw things up. One lost scholarship, one flunked exam, if I take one wrong step, get one blot on my permanent record, Ill end

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up living at home for the rest of my life. And in fact a record number of young people do live at home today. Starting early on, in high school, lots of students are feeling extreme anxiety about getting into a good college and being able to pay for it. Given the increased competition, its not enough just to have good grades to get into a good college. Now you have to have great grades to get into a good school. And once you get into college, you often have to worry about keeping your grades up to hold on to scholarships and to get into a good graduate schoolthis in addition to working one or two jobs, keeping involved in extracurricular activities. I dont need to tell you guys this. And theres no question about it, these pressures are rationales for cheating. As one college student said in explaining her cheating, good grades make the difference between going to medical school and being a janitor. Thats how a lot of people see the stakes. People see a choice, starting early on in life. It is a choice, on the one hand, between holding onto the hope of a secure future or, on the other, of holding onto their integrity. And when faced with this choice, many people will go for security. I understand this choice. But I dont think its the right one. I believe its crucial to hold onto your honor even when the heat is on. I believe we should fight the corruption around us, not succumb to it. Ill say more about this in a moment. I think we should fight it. The dynamic is there. Sleeping Watchdogs A third great force driving the cheating culture is the decline of watchdogs who enforce a level playing field in society. In nearly every area where you find increased cheating today, youll also find sleeping watchdogs and in some cases watchdogs that have been put to sleep. In our universities, surveys have found that 44 percent of faculty did not take formal disciplinary action against students they knew were cheating. Did nothing! Thats almost half of our faculty! The IRS, which enforces the tax laws, fails to go after legions of tax cheats because it just doesnt have enough investigatorsthey lost half of them in the 1990s. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees Wall Street, had neither the authority nor resources during the 90s to stop the worst corporate abuses since the Robber Era. Steroid use is rampant in Major League Baseball because it is virtually impossible to be caught using steroids. When cheaters go unpunished, it sends a terrible message to those who are honest. At high schools and universities that turn a blind eye to cheating, the students who play by the rules can actually find themselves at a disadvantage. And some cheaters explain their actions by saying, Hey, I didnt want to cheat, but the students Im competing against are cheating, the facultys not doing anything to stop them, and I have to keep up. Again, I dont think that this is a permissible excuse. Sleeping watchdogs reinforce the message that life is unfair in another way, too. These days it is often the cheaters at the top of the food chain who get the least punishment. A lot of young people explain their cheating in school by pointing to corporate leaders or to pro athletes or Martha Stewart. If the most successful people in America are getting ahead by cheating and getting away with cheating students wonder, Hey, why should I be the saint? Why should I be the chump who dots every I and crosses every T in life? A lot of young people believe that cutting corners is the only way to get ahead. In that survey of high school students I mentioned earlier, 43 percent agreed with the statement that a person has to lie and cheat sometimes in order to succeed. This is pretty scary stuff. So those are the three great forces driving the cheating culture. The carrots for winners are getting bigger, the sticks of economic life are hitting harder for everyone else, and the watchdogs are asleep. Meanwhile, there have been other changes, too. Religious faith is down, and whether they are religious or not, too many parents dont teach their children to value integrity over money, status or instant gratification. More people go out into life without the moral backbone they need to do the right thing. This me first philosophy is, unfortunately, something people learn at home. Thats the bad news of my book.

Building a More Fair and More Honest Society

The good news is that the cheating culture does not have to be a permanent feature of our lives. Im optimistic that we can build a fairer and more honest society. We can change the dynamic were in. There are several ways to do this. One is to change the way our schools and our professions operate. A second is to try to change how society writ large operates. And the third is to change how we operate and make personal choices. All three are important, and they are connected to each other. So, I propose the following concrete recommendations for reducing cheating in different professions. To keep lawyers and doctors honest, we need to enforce the code of ethics in law and medicine. To keep athletes from using steroids, we need tougher drug testing in sports. To keep business leaders honest, we need tougher government watchdogs and more ethics rules, particularly a focus on corporate ethics. And to keep students honest, we need a much bigger push on academic integrity, as well as strong rules around college sports to create an ethos around learning as an end in itself. Ive been heartened to hear that this school and others are making a major push for academic integrity today. Let me say a bit about this. I know a lot of students think of cheating as no big deal. I know a lot of faculty do not bother to go after cheaters because its not worth the hassle. I know a lot of administrators choose not to make this issue a priority. At some schools, the collective attitude is whatever.

Equal Opportunity and Meritocracy

I see things differently. The big idea of America is that of equal opportunity. Meritocracy. The notion that we all should have a fair shot at success, no matter where we came from or what color we are, or who are parents are. And that the people who get rewarded in America are the people who deserve those rewards because they worked hard, and dreamed big, and pushed forward. America hasnt always lived up this ideal. We probably never will. But we all believe in it. And cheating well, cheating is the opposite of this idea. When some students cheat, and when schools let them cheat, fairness goes out the window. Success becomes less about hard work and selfdiscipline and

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more about how well you can lie and deceive, and whether you can pull the right strings should you get caught. And the outcomes of cheating are real. This is not a victimless crime. Cheaters get rewards they dont deserve. Scholarships, admissions to college or grad school, internships, jobs. I have stories in my book of kids caught cheating on the SAT and yet still getting into Harvard, taking somebody elses place who deserved it more, all because their parents gave a lot of money to the school. Thats not right. So cheating is not whatever. In fact, it strikes at the very foundation of a fair and just society.

Fighting for Academic Integrity

This is why academic integrity is a good cause to fight for on campus. And there is a lot that can be done by any student or any faculty member. There is a whole movement out there of people who are working to reduce cheating. And in many cases, students are spearheading these efforts. They are taking ownership of the problem, and taking leadership. And guess what? When students take the lead on this problem, other students will follow. A lot of people may cheat these days, but even more people believe in a level playing field for everyone. As for changing how society operates, writ large, this too is crucial if we want to take down the cheating culture. Ultimately, we cant police everybody all the time. We cant have a watchdog looking over everyones shoulder. There will never be enough watchdogs. People must want to follow the rules because they think the rules are fair and just. They need to subscribe to the social contract that governs society. And right now, a lot of people dont think that. A big reason there is so much dishonesty, is that our social contract is broken. People dont think the rules are fair, so they make up their own rules. So we need to create a new social contract. In broad terms, this means ensuring that: (A) First, anyone who works hard and plays by the rules should be able to feel secure. What does this mean in practice? It means that we need to invest more in higher education so four years of college doesnt leave students with four decades of debt. We need a system of universal health insurance so that millions of people arent one illness away from personal bankruptcy. We need to make sure that people who work full time make enough money to provide for their family and put a roof over their head. Simple stuff, really. (B) Second, anyone who breaks the rules, rich or poor, should be held to the same standard of justice. There are too many cheaters at the top the people who are our role models often get away with a slap on the wrist. And that makes everyone else cynical. We need to change this by waking up the watchdogs that police corporate America and giving them some real teeth. Agencies like the SEC and IRS and Justice Department still need more resources to do their job of policing white collar crime. (C) Third, everyone must have a say in how the rules are made. Right now, a lot of ordinary people dont feel they have any power over the rules that govern their lives. And such cynicism, an incredible cynicism about our democracy, is particularly intense among young people. So we need major reforms to open up the democratic system. Simply put, to get big money out of the system all those special interests and to get ordinary voters in. These three principles are pretty much common sense. And if we really want to see a more honest society, they need to have more meaning. If the rules were fairer, and seen as fair, people would cheat less. I deeply believe that. But, of course, changing direction and creating a new social contract isnt going to happen overnight. And in the meantime, even as we work for positive change, all of us will still face choices about how we live our lives. Im sorry, but just because the system is screwed up, doesnt mean that we have a blank ethical check to do as we please.

Taking Responsibility and Avoiding Shortcuts

We need to police ourselves and take responsibility. At every step in life there are always short cutswhen you write a term paper or do your resume or file your taxes. And there will often be people around us who take those short cuts. And here is something I can guarantee you: some of those people will get rewards that they dont deserve, which is infuriating. That is unfortunate, but true. Why should we resist these shortcuts? There are a few good reasons. First, I think that being true to ourselves and our values is a key to happiness. You know, everyone wonders about the formula for happiness, and recent research by researchers in the field of happiness studies sheds some light on this question. These happiness researchers find that money doesnt make people happy beyond a point, which is around $50,000 or $60,000 a year. One psychologist interviewed a handful of the richest people in America, many of whom said that they werent happy. Rather, people are most happy when we use what one psychologist has called our signature strengths. That is, when we do what we are best at, and what we are meant to do. If this is true, if money doesnt make us that happy, then it doesnt make sense to be so obsessed with getting ahead and being rich and coming out on top that youll compromise your values and your integrity to achieve goals. Instead, happiness will come by developing the best and strongest parts of yourself. A second reason to forget the short cuts is that we all have to live with ourselves. Abraham Lincoln once said that When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. Thats my religion. Sounds simple enough, but of course we may not feel bad at the moment we do bad. Regret has a way of sneaking up on us, and it may only be later that we feel bad because maybe we took a short cut we didnt really need to take, and got something that we didnt deserve. Its something to watch out for. A life of integrity equals a life with fewer regrets. A third powerful reason for why integrity should be important in our lives is that each of us plays a role in shaping the society we live in, and that our children will live in. It may not feel that way at the time, of course. We may feel that were just a pinball getting knocked around by the powers that be.

Conclusion: Be the Change . . .

But actually, I do think we all have a say in how our society ought to be, even if just in our own little corner. And I believe we all have a responsibility to make personal choices that line up with our views of how things ought to be. Mahatma

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Gandhi said Be the Change you want to see in the world. A very powerful piece of advice. And I think everybody would agree that its better to live in a fair, less corrupt society than a corrupt one, for all the reasons Ive mentioned. And so we all have a responsibility to make choices that line up with this view, even when those choices are difficult ones to make. We should live an honest life. Even if means occasionally losing out to dishonest competitors. Even if means taking hits in a dishonest system. Even if means that we dont get everything we want. Remember, Be the change you want to see in the world. The choices about how to honor your values as you go through life arent easy, and you dont just figure this out when youre twenty-one. Its an ongoing thing. The Roman philosopher Seneca once said that Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art. How true this is. REFERENCES Callahan, D. (2004). The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt. NOTES 1. On February 22, 2006, the author of The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong To Get Ahead visited Saginaw Valley State University to meet with students and discuss the cheating culture (by invitation of the SVSU Student Association). This paper is an edited version of David Callahans 4 P.M. lecture in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall. This lecture was based on The Cheating Culture, and full citations of the information used by Callahan are available in his book. David Callahan is a popular speaker and author. He is also a co-founder of Demos, a think tank and public policy center dedicated to strengthening democracy and expanding economic opportunity within the United States. Visit his website at

<http://www.cheatingculture.com>

For reading and discussion of Caught Cheating

Everybody Does It: Academic cheating is at an all-time high. Can anything be done to stop it? SFGate.com | September 09, 2007 By Regan McMahon If there were a test on the current state of cheating in school, I would have gotten an F. My knowledge was as outdated as the stolen answers to last weeks quiz. Ask a high school or college student about cheating, and before you can finish the sentence, the person will blurt out two things: Everybody does it, and Its no big deal. Survey statistics back up the first statement, and the lack of serious consequences and lax enforcement of academic integrity policies in schools support the second. Not only is cheating on the rise nationally - a 2005 Duke University study found that 75 percent of high school students admit to cheating, and if you include copying another persons homework, that number climbs to 90 percent - but there has also been a cultural shift in who cheats and why. Pope understands how Sarah feels, considering the college admissions climate, where one B can put your application on the reject pile. For kids with a very high GPA and very high SAT scores, who have taken a ton of AP classes, what distinguishes them is how perfect they are. So theres no room for any kind of error. And if theres no room for error, you tend to cheat, even though these students would have done just fine on the test. They say they cheat because this is my safety net. Cheating to win The other group of students recently revealed to be most like likely to cheat is athletes. In a landmark survey of nearly 5,300 high school athletes conducted in 2005 and 2006 by the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles, 65 percent admitted to cheating in the classroom more than once in the previous year, as opposed to 60 percent of nonathletes, a percentage that institute founder Michael Josephson says is statistically significant. And varsity athletes were more likely to cheat than nonvarsity. Athletes in the high-profile male sports such as football, baseball and basketball are more willing to cheat than other athletes. The one womens sport that yields similar results is softball. For generations, sports have been perceived as an endeavor that builds character and instills positive values in youth. These study results, released in February, prompted many to ask: Just what are the coaches teaching these kids? The fact that athletes must maintain a minimum GPA to stay on the team is one factor, but Josephson thinks theres something deeper going on. The major male sports seem to be spawning a win-at-any-cost mentality that carries over into the classroom. Thirty-seven percent of boys and 20 percent of girls said it was proper for a coach to instruct a player to fake an injury. Forty-three percent of boys and 22 percent of girls surveyed said it was proper for a coach to teach basketball players how to illegally hold and push, for example. Now that is clearly illegal, says Josephson. Whether you call it cheating or just breaking the rules, its illegal. It changes the game. Youre not supposed to hold. In the survey, a substantial number of the young people

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thought that was permissible. So you have to ask yourself, what is that telling us about the values that sports are generating? He understands the minimum-GPA factor and the time-management issue - fitting studying in amid the practices and games. I think what allows them to succumb to it is also the fact that theres a sort of mental attitude that its not that big a deal. I dont think they lose a lot of sleep over it. So as an ethicist, thats the piece of it I worry about. Is there no conscience operating? Because without a conscience, you have Enron. Madeline Levine, Marin author of The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids, says its worrisome that the highest-performing kids in high school have few qualms about cheating. They will be our doctors, our lawyers, our policymakers. And if the issue of integrity is on the back burner, that doesnt bode well for all of us. Endemic in college The pressure to succeed at all costs has boosted cheating levels in college to record levels also. A graduate of San Franciscos independent Urban School, whom well call Ellen, now a junior at the University of Southern California, says, Everyone cheats. There is no cushion, so you have to do well; there isnt a choice. In college, there is no room for error. You cannot fail. You refuse to fail. People become desperate, so theyll do anything to do well. Thats why people resort to paying others to do their papers. Because you feel: Mess up once and you are screwed. The end. Tests are a big part of the grade in college, she says, and those are largely multiple-choice, which were a rude shock to someone coming from a progressive high school. Its just memorization, says Ellen. I came from Urban, where I was taught to bask in the glory of learning something, not to just sit down the night before with a bunch of kids on Adderall and go through the 30-page study guide and memorize as much as I can. And you can say that taking a drug to stay up so you can study is another form of cheating. From her research, Pope is well aware of the widespread use by high school and college student of the drugs Adderall and Ritalin, normally prescribed to kids diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Students without the disorder find them easy to obtain legally (college students often use the phrase Im having a little trouble focusing at the campus health center to get a prescription) or illegally from students sharing their prescription or selling pills for profit. Ellen says some college students will trade marijuana for Adderall. Pope says use of stimulants is on the rise in high school, and more and more kids are using them to take the SAT. As in the debate over the use of steroids in sports, some students dont feel its morally wrong - because its still your brain at work - and are ignoring the health risks of taking a drug not meant for them, with no monitoring of dosage or side effects by a doctor. Pope says when she wrote Doing School (published in 2001), it was No-Doz and caffeine. Now, especially in the past five years, it has switched to Adderall, Ritalin and illegal stimulants. Pope says a lot of students philosophy is Cheat or be cheated. So many of their friends are cheating, they figure theyd be a chump not to. If youre the one honest kid, youre actually going to get the lower grades or the lower test scores. And Josephson points out that according to one study, less than 2 percent of all academic cheaters get caught, and only half of them get punished. So theres almost a 99 percent chance of getting away with it. Pirouz Mehmandoost graduated from Washington High School in Fremont in June and is about to enter California State University, Stanislaus. He says cheating is so common in middle school and high school that after a while you just get used to it. Its not even a moral issue for high schoolers. Kids have become immune to it. He says a popular method of cheating is networking, which he defines as the easygoing smart kid gives the answers to some other kid. There was one time in a science class in freshman year, he recalls, when I was networking with some other girl and we didnt get caught. We both got As. It was a great feeling, actually, Id have to say with no regret, mainly because I knew I would never have to use that information ever again. Technology has made cheating easier and more sophisticated. But Pirouz says its not causing the rise in cheating. Cheaters are causing the rise. Technology is a catalyst, but text-message cheating is big because the cheaters are sending out the message. Some people keep their integrity, but some fall into the trap when its suggested. The Internet has provided all sorts of shortcuts for cheaters. They have Wikipedia at their fingertips, and thousands of ready-made term papers available for downloading from sites like Cheaters. com, Schoolsucks.com and Schoolpapers.com.

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Some schools have tried to combat plagiarism by using a scanning service such as TurnItIn. com. The students are instructed to turn each paper in to the service, which uses a computer program to scan it for instances of plagiarism by comparing it against all published materials and previously submitted papers in the companys database. Any phrases in common are then highlighted for the teacher to see. According to the company, significant levels of plagiarism appear in 30 percent of papers submitted. Kids use survival-mode thinking and exercise risk management when they decide to cheat, says Pope. Suppose someone gets to the end of several hours of homework and its 10 p.m. and she still has an English paper to write. If she turns in nothing, she knows its a guaranteed zero. If she downloads a paper from the Internet, she might get caught and get a zero. But if she doesnt get caught, she might get an A. So it seems worth it to many to turn in the plagiarized paper. Thats not cheating, its helping One of the most disturbing trends is that behavior once considered cheating is no longer thought to be so. Copying homework, for example. An eighth-grader in private school says, Thats not cheating, its helping. We call it the morning scramble, says Pope. In the morning at a high school, you see a ton of kids sitting around copying each others homework. Because a percentage of their grade is based on their turning in their homework. And a lot of these kids are doing so many classes and after-school activities that theres no way they could possibly do all the work required of them. So kids dont even count that as cheating. Thats just sort of survival for them: divvying up the work. Thats why theyre IM-ing (instant messaging) all the time while theyre doing homework. Its another way of divvying up the work. Its a way of ensuring that you get it done. It doesnt matter how you do it, just get it done and get it in. Pope has done a survey of cheating in 10 Bay Area middle school and high schools, both public and private. The results have not been published yet, but she shared some of them with The Chronicle. Students are given examples of cheating and then asked to indicate if they have done it more than once, and if they consider it not cheating, trivial cheating, regular cheating or serious cheating. At a local private high school, when presented with the phrase Working on an assignment with others when teacher has asked for individual work, 60 percent said they had done that more than once, and 36 percent see it as not cheating. Of students at a large public high school responding to the same phrase, almost the same number: 61 percent, said they had done it more than once, but an even higher number, 42 percent, see it as not cheating. The adults are doing it With examples of cheating ever-present in the news the BALCO scandal, point shaving by an NBA ref, grade changing at Diablo Valley College; and frequent examples of cheaters in at the highest levels of the corporate world, Washington and Hollywood escaping harsh penalties - many suggest kids learn to cheat from the larger culture. Ethicist Josephson says, The rule of thumb we use is: Whatever you allow you encourage. So whether theyre seeing it with Enron or Barry Bonds or Paris Hilton, somewhere here or there, they are seeing people get away with stuff. The truth is they dont have to look further than their own high school. There is so much cheating going on in their own school by their own colleagues, with their teachers looking the other way, in a way that almost looks like passive approval. Theres a culture that begins to develop, when you see people do this, and it provides the moral cover they need to insulate themselves from a conscience. Its like saying, Come on, Im not the only one, its happening all the time. One of the marker questions we use is, People have to lie and cheat occasionally to succeed. People who answer that affirmatively and just under 50 percent of the whole sample of high school students answers that affirmatively, and half of the males - are more likely, the correlation shows, to cheat. You could infer that if you think you have to cheat in order to succeed, then your choice is between not cheating and not succeeding. If, on the other hand, you believe you can succeed without cheating, though it may be harder, theres a much greater chance you will resist the temptation. David Callahan, author of the 2004 book The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead, says there are two economic explanations for the rise of cheating. One is that theres more to gain. We live in a time when the winners are getting ever more lavish rewards and the incentives to get to the top are greater than theyve ever been before. In the late 1960s, if you were a CEO and you inflated the value of your companys stock by cooking the books, maybe youd make a couple of extra million dollars when your stock holdings went up. But if you do that now, theres the potential to make hundreds of millions of dollars. If a top baseball player took performance-enhancing drugs 20 years ago and hit more home runs, maybe hed make $1

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million a year, which is how much the top players got paid in the mid- to late 1980s. Now, if you can join the ranks of the super top players, you can sign a $150 million, five-year contact. The other economic reason is theres more to lose. The penalties for failure, or for simply being ordinary, have grown. The middle class has been squeezed, so its harder and harder to maintain a decent standard of living. Callahan says the two other things that account for the rise in cheating are lack of oversight and enforcement (as in deregulation in business and lack of serious consequences for violations in business, politics and the academic world) and a change in American culture, ushered in the 1980s with greed is good individualism and a shredding of the social contract. In that cultural context, its not surprising that people are willing to cut corners to advance their own self-interest. But even if kids are not aware of cheating scandals like Enron, says Pope, they are absolutely influenced by the role models they see close to them. So when they see their parent go diagnosis shopping to get a doctor to say they have ADD so they can have extra time to complete their SAT test, or they hear a coach tell them to fake an injury in football when their team is out of time-outs to gain an unofficial one, kids get the message that its OK, even necessary, to do take whatever steps to gain an advantage. And to an adolescent that may translate as lie, cheat and steal. The interesting thing about cheating is that its a window into a kids soul, and into the familys soul, too, says Joe Di Prisco, the Berkeley author who co-wrote Field Guide to the American Teenager, and Right From Wrong: Instilling a Sense of Integrity in Your Child with Mike Riera, head of Oaklands Redwood Day School. Because so many of these kids are cheating to please their parents to get a grade, to get into college, whatever. The 100 or so academic integrity cases I dealt with in 20 years as a high school English teacher and in two years as a vice principal in charge of disciplinary matters showed how desperate kids are to please their parents and help their friends. The key for him was capitalizing on teenagers desire to be authentic, to stay true to themselves, and so you point up the irony that when you cheat youre not representing yourself, and youre helping your friend not to represent himself or herself, and it doesnt feel right, does it? There are just transcendent moments there in that room when kids see themselves, and they hear you saying, Its hard to be honest. We all make mistakes. You made a mistake, but were going to move forward. There are consequences, but I still love you. Dont do it again. If you do that, the kid will probably not cheat again. Probably. But, he says, there have to be serious consequences and schools have to enforce them. If schools dont, cheating will increase. You start expelling some kids for cheating, and cheating will stop. What will stop it? Josephson says there are a few steps schools could take that dont cost any money, that would cut the incidence of cheating in school testing by two-thirds in one year: Dont give the same test over and over again, separate kids so they dont see each others papers, make it clear to students that it is unacceptable, have them sign a document that says they havent cheated and punish cheaters. Also, dont let them come into tests with PDAs and cell phones. Ronald Pang, principal of Lincoln High School in San Franciscos Sunset District, has an academic integrity policy at his school. He says it makes both the definition and consequences of cheating very clear. English teachers go over the policy with their students every year, and students and their parents must sign the policy and return it. Some say schools have been lax on enforcement because todays parents often threaten litigation if a school pursues a cheating charge against their child. Pang says one of the benefits of having the integrity policy is that he can remind parents, You signed this. The reason parents arent outraged about cheating, suggests Levine, is that we have come to value achievement over character. You dont find any parent movement saying, Oh my God, why is this happening? says Josephson. Its a silent conspiracy creating the disease of low expectations: Well, we cant really expect people to be honest anymore. Josephsons institute has worked with thousands of schools across the country to implement his Character Counts! framework for character education, which has reduced cheating in those schools. And Pope has worked with Bay Area schools to establish honor codes, which nationally have been shown in both high schools and

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colleges to reduce cheating substantially. It takes a lot more than just saying were going to slap your hands. You have to infuse it in the culture. Top 5 Ways to Cheat -- Copying from another student -- Plagiarizing by downloading information or whole papers from the Internet -- Cell phone cheating - text-messaging answers to another student, taking a picture of the test and emailing it to another student, or downloading information from the Internet -- Getting test questions, answers or a paper from a student in a previous period or from a previous year -- Bringing a permitted graphing calculator into the test loaded with answer material previously input into the computer portion of the calculator Top 5 Ways to Curb Cheating -- Create an honor code with student input so theyre invested in it -- Seriously punish cheaters according the academic integrity policy -- Create multiple versions of tests to make purloined answer keys useless -- Ban electronic devices in testing rooms -- Develop multiple modes of assessment so the grade is not determined primarily on tests

Wanted: Better Employees

Chronicle of Higher Education December 22, 2011 By Jeff Selingo The debate over whether the purpose of college is to train students for jobs or to provide them with a broad education erupted again in the comments section of a Chronicle article last week. Rather than rehash that argument in this blog, I want to touch on the main thrust of last weeks piece: what employers think of todays college graduates. In the past few months, at conferences, at dinners, and on airplanes, Ive had the chance to sit next to a handful of recruiters who work for companies large and small, from Zappos to United Technologies. Employer unhappiness with college graduates is nothing new, of course. As the president of the University of Washington, Michael K. Young, told me recently, employers have never been happy with the graduates colleges are producing. Still, with three million unfilled jobs in a bad economy, it stands to reason that some employers are having difficulty finding the right workers. So I asked these recruiters if colleges were indeed graduating unprepared students. Their answers were a lot more nuanced than a simple yes or no. They had plenty of blame to spread around, including at their own corporations, which have largely pared back training and mentoring programs in the name of saving money in recent years. Still, a few common themes emerged from the conversations: Some students are not college material even with a college degree. Few employers seem to be worried about the top graduates of almost any college or any of the graduates of the top colleges in the United States. But all of the recruiters told me they were surprised by the number of applicants they encounter who clearly were not ready to go to college in the first place, yet possess a degree. The focus on access and completion has come at a real cost, one recruiter told me (he didnt want his company identified because hes not allowed to speak on its behalf). Were encouraging students to go to college who should be considering other options, and then were pushing them through once there. Writing, writing, writing. We keep throwing around the word skills, but it seems the one skill that almost every job requires is the ability to write well, and too many graduates are lacking in that area. Thats where many of the recruiters were quick to let colleges off the hook, for the most part. Students are supposed to learn to write in elementary and secondary school. Theyre not forgetting how to write in college. Its clear theyre not learning basic grammar, usage, and style in K-12. Work ethic. Again, many of the recruiters refused to paint todays college student with the broad brush of laziness. Many students, they said, come armed with impressive credentials and are hard workers. But many others were allowed to skate by in college. The recruiters complained about professors who clearly gave grades that were not deserved, allowed assignments to be skipped, and simply didnt demand much from their students. The lack of academic rigor might please students and their parents while in college, but its doing a disservice to students when they graduate and have similar expectations in the workplace. Expectations. Speaking of expectations, many of todays younger workers want everything now and have a sense of entitlement. Theyre often unprepared for the first test on the job, the interview. They expect to just get the job, one

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recruiter told me. Several recruiters blamed that attitude on a generation of parents obsessed with their kids happiness, which has made them unhappy and impatient in adulthood. As you can see, literally everyone is to blame for this supposed lack of prepared graduates in the workplace. So if we think this is a problem, everyone, it seems, must play a part in fixing it, including colleges. Perhaps we should be encouraging more students to hold off on going directly to college from high school, or have them consider alternatives to a college degree. Colleges and professors need to uphold their standards and encourage more rigor in the classroom, knowing the short-term consequences might be unhappy students but the long-term benefits will be better-prepared graduates. The fixes for K-12 and parents are more difficult, but the bottom line is that the debate over what employers want in todays college graduates is about more than just job training vs. a broad education.

Guys have body issues, too: Hunky media images have negative effects on men, spark reckless behavior
Mens Health on MSNBC.com updated 10/6/2006 6:58:38 PM ET NEW YORK That guy in the Abercrombie & Fitch ad doesnt have a head, but does it really matter? His upper body is as sculpted as Michelangelos David all chiseled muscle, washboard abs and not a follicle of chest hair. You dont just see him in the provocative ads for Abercrombie, the youth-oriented clothing chain: On billboards and in magazines everywhere, it seems, theres a male Adonis buff, sleek, hairless. Like that famous 500year-old statue, its nice to look at. But how does it make the average guy feel? Maybe not so great. With all the attention these days on the effect paper-thin models and actresses can have on girls and women, its worth noting that men can suffer from body image problems, too. Body image is not just a concern for women, says researcher Deborah Schooler, whos looked into the adverse effects such media images can have on male self-esteem. It affects men, too, and it demands attention. In the past, research has understandably focused mostly on women, and the dangerous eating disorders that can stem from body-related emotional issues. And when looking at men, researchers asked the wrong questions, Schooler argues. Stinky, hairy worries ADigital Nationg men about just weight or size misses the boat, Schooler, a research associate at Brown University, said in a telephone interview. What men are more concerned about, she says, are other real-body factors, like sweat, body hair and body odor. In a study published last spring and recently featured in Seed magazine, Schooler, then at San Francisco State University, and a colleague looked at 184 male college students. The more media these young men consumed especially music videos and prime-time TV the worse they felt about those real aspects of their bodies, the researchers found. Further, they found that such negative feelings impacted their sexual well-being, in some cases leading to more aggressive and risky sexual behavior. (The study appeared in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity.) Does all this mean its unhealthy for Average Joes, as the researchers titled their study, to aspire to the lean, muscular body idealized by Michelangelo and Abercrombie alike? One prominent promoter of mens fitness argues no unless, of course, its an obsession.

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Whats good about that image is that its the picture of health, says David Zinczenko, editor of Mens Health magazine and a best-selling diet author. With diabetes rates skyrocketing over the past 70 years, a little more lean wouldnt hurt us. Zinczenko points to all the role models with healthy and realistic bodies that have graced magazine covers: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman. Rugged vs. smooth Indeed, the very concept of the male ideal appears to change with the seasons. We seem to go from rugged to smooth, rugged to smooth, says the longtime fitness personality Richard Simmons, of Sweatin to the Oldies fame. Youre either the Marlboro Man or youre the Surfer Boy. Youre a cowboy, or youre a lean, mean swimming machine. Body image, says Simmons, who now has a show on satellite radio, is a very personal, private thing for guys something they dont want to talk about. But make no mistake, he says: Getting into a pair of jeans is just as important for a man as a woman. He wants to look good. Years ago, Simmons says, when he was overweight, he would turn off the TV when he saw the ultrafit exercise guru Jack LaLanne, because it depressed him. Now, he says, at age 58, 148 pounds and cute as a button, he spends his time trying to convince people to appreciate the bodies they have. However complicated body-image issues are for men, it seems they will always be more fraught for women. For boys and men, engaging with these media images is more of a choice, says Deborah Tolman of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality in San Francisco. Theres just not the same requirement for a man in our society to look a particular way. As a man, you can look terrible and still be very well respected. As a girl, you can be the best debater at school, Tolman says. But if youre fat, you dont get peoples admiration, despite your skill. Thats not true with boys. And what of LaLanne, now 92, who so depressed the young Simmons decades ago that he turned off the TV? Of the incessant media images, the still-avid exerciser says, Maybe at least thatll get em out doing something! Aspiring to todays ideal body is fine, he says, as long as its what you want. He deplores, though, the overly muscular type that looks like they use steroids. Once you start fooling with Mother Nature, youre in trouble. As for his own image issues, LaLanne, who still works out two hours every morning, says theyre solely focused on sticking around a while longer. I cant afford to die,* LaLanne explains. It would wreck my image. (*Jack LaLanne died on January 23, 2011 at the age of 96)

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Sex, Lies and Conversation; Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other? by Deborah Tannen The Washington Post, June 24, 1990 I WAS ADDRESSING a small gathering in a suburban Virginia living room -- a women's group that had invited men to join them. Throughout the evening, one man had been particularly talkative, frequently offering ideas and anecdotes, while his wife sat silently beside him on the couch. Toward the end of the evening, I commented that women frequently complain that their husbands don't talk to them. This man quickly concurred. He gestured toward his wife and said, She's the talker in our family. The room burst into laughter; the man looked puzzled and hurt. It's true, he explained. When I come home from work I have nothing to say. If she didn't keep the conversation going, we'd spend the whole evening in silence. This episode crystallizes the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public situations, they often talk less at home. And this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage. The pattern was observed by political scientist Andrew Hacker in the late '70s. Sociologist Catherine Kohler Riessman reports in her new book Divorce Talk that most of the women she interviewed -- but only a few of the men -- gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces. Given the current divorce rate of nearly 50 percent, that amounts to millions of cases in the United States every year -- a virtual epidemic of failed conversation. In my own research, complaints from women about their husbands most often focused not on tangible inequities such as having given up the chance for a career to accompany a husband to his, or doing far more than their share of daily life-support work like cleaning, cooking, social arrangements and errands. Instead, they focused on communication: He doesn't listen to me, He doesn't talk to me. I found, as Hacker observed years before, that most wives want their husbands to be, first and foremost, conversational partners, but few husbands share this expectation of their wives. In short, the image that best represents the current crisis is the stereotypical cartoon scene of a man sitting at the breakfast table with a newspaper held up in front of his face, while a woman glares at the back of it, wanting to talk. Linguistic Battle of the Sexes How can women and men have such different impressions of communication in marriage? Why the widespread imbalance in their interests and expectations? In the April issue of American Psychologist, Stanford University's Eleanor Maccoby reports the results of her own and others' research showing that children's development is most influenced by the social structure of peer interactions. Boys and girls tend to play with children of their own gender, and their sex-separate groups have different organizational structures and interactive norms. I believe these systematic differences in childhood socialization make talk between women and men like cross-cultural communication, heir to all the attraction and pitfalls of that enticing but difficult enterprise. My research on men's and women's conversations uncovered patterns similar to those described for children's groups. For women, as for girls, intimacy is the fabric of relationships, and talk is the thread from which it is woven. Little girls create and maintain friendships by exchanging secrets; similarly, women regard conversation as the cornerstone of friendship. So a woman expects her husband to be a new and improved version of a best friend. What is important is not the individual subjects that are discussed but the sense of closeness, of a life shared, that emerges when people tell their thoughts, feelings, and impressions. Bonds between boys can be as intense as girls', but they are based less on talking, more on doing things together. Since they don't assume talk is the cement that binds a relationship, men don't know what kind of talk women want, and they don't miss it when it isn't there. Boys' groups are larger, more inclusive, and more hierarchical, so boys must struggle to avoid the subordinate position in the group. This may play a role in women's complaints that men don't listen to them.

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Some men really don't like to listen, because being the listener makes them feel one-down, like a child listening to adults or an employee to a boss. But often when women tell men, You aren't listening, and the men protest, I am, the men are right. The impression of not listening results from misalignments in the mechanics of conversation. The misalignment begins as soon as a man and a woman take physical positions. This became clear when I studied videotapes made by psychologist Bruce Dorval of children and adults talking to their same-sex best friends. I found that at every age, the girls and women faced each other directly, their eyes anchored on each other's faces. At every age, the boys and men sat at angles to each other and looked elsewhere in the room, periodically glancing at each other. They were obviously attuned to each other, often mirroring each other's movements. But the tendency of men to face away can give women the impression they aren't listening even when they are. A young woman in college was frustrated: Whenever she told her boyfriend she wanted to talk to him, he would lie down on the floor, close his eyes, and put his arm over his face. This signaled to her, He's taking a nap. But he insisted he was listening extra hard. Normally, he looks around the room, so he is easily distracted. Lying down and covering his eyes helped him concentrate on what she was saying. Analogous to the physical alignment that women and men take in conversation is their topical alignment. The girls in my study tended to talk at length about one topic, but the boys tended to jump from topic to topic. The second-grade girls exchanged stories about people they knew. The second-grade boys teased, told jokes, noticed things in the room and talked about finding games to play. The sixth-grade girls talked about problems with a mutual friend. The sixth grade boys talked about 55 different topics, none of which extended over more than a few turns. Listening to Body Language Switching topics is another habit that gives women the impression men aren't listening, especially if they switch to a topic about themselves. But the evidence of the 10th-grade boys in my study indicates otherwise. The 10th-grade boys sprawled across their chairs with bodies parallel and eyes straight ahead, rarely looking at each other. They looked as if they were riding in a car, staring out the windshield. But they were talking about their feelings. One boy was upset because a girl had told him he had a drinking problem, and the other was feeling alienated from all his friends. Now, when a girl told a friend about a problem, the friend responded by aDigital Nationg probing questions and expressing agreement and understanding. But the boys dismissed each other's problems. Todd assured Richard that his drinking was no big problem because sometimes you're funny when you're off your butt. And when Todd said he felt left out, Richard responded, Why should you? You know more people than me. Women perceive such responses as belittling and unsupportive. But the boys seemed satisfied with them. Whereas women reassure each other by implying, You shouldn't feel bad because I've had similar experiences, men do so by implying, You shouldn't feel bad because your problems aren't so bad. There are even simpler reasons for women's impression that men don't listen. Linguist Lynette Hirschman found that women make more listener-noise, such as mhm, uhuh, and yeah, to show I'm with you. Men, she found, more often give silent attention. Women who expect a stream of listener noise interpret silent attention as no attention at all. Women's conversational habits are as frustrating to men as men's are to women. Men who expect silent attention interpret a stream of listener noise as overreaction or impatience. Also, when women talk to each other in a close, comfortable setting, they often overlap, finish each other's sentences and anticipate what the other is about to say. This practice, which I call participatory listenership, is often perceived by men as interruption, intrusion and lack of attention. A parallel difference caused a man to complain about his wife, She just wants to talk about her own point of view. If I show her another view, she gets mad at me. When most women talk to each other, they assume a conversationalist's job is to express agreement and support. But many men see their conversational duty as pointing out the other side of an argument. This is heard as disloyalty by women, and refusal to offer the requisite support. It is not that women don't want to see other points of view, but that they prefer them phrased as suggestions and inquiries rather than as direct challenges. In his book Fighting for Life, Walter Ong points out that men use agonistic or warlike, oppositional formats to do almost anything; thus discussion becomes debate, and conversation a competitive sport. In contrast, women see conversation as a ritual means of establishing rapport. If Jane tells a problem and June says she has a similar one, they walk away feeling closer to each other. But this attempt at establishing rapport can backfire when used with men. Men take too literally women's ritual troubles talk, just as women mistake men's ritual challenges for real attack.

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The Sounds of Silence These differences begin to clarify why women and men have such different expectations about communication in marriage. For women, talk creates intimacy. Marriage is an orgy of closeness: you can tell your feelings and thoughts, and still be loved. Their greatest fear is being pushed away. But men live in a hierarchical world, where talk maintains independence and status. They are on guard to protect themselves from being put down and pushed around. This explains the paradox of the talkative man who said of his silent wife, She's the talker. In the public setting of a guest lecture, he felt challenged to show his intelligence and display his understanding of the lecture. But at home, where he has nothing to prove and no one to defend against, he is free to remain silent. For his wife, being home means she is free from the worry that something she says might offend someone, or spark disagreement, or appear to be showing off; at home she is free to talk. The communication problems that endanger marriage can't be fixed by mechanical engineering. They require a new conceptual framework about the role of talk in human relationships. Many of the psychological explanations that have become second nature may not be helpful, because they tend to blame either women (for not being assertive enough) or men (for not being in touch with their feelings). A sociolinguistic approach by which male-female conversation is seen as cross-cultural communication allows us to understand the problem and forge solutions without blaming either party. Once the problem is understood, improvement comes naturally, as it did to the young woman and her boyfriend who seemed to go to sleep when she wanted to talk. Previously, she had accused him of not listening, and he had refused to change his behavior, since that would be admitting fault. But then she learned about and explained to him the differences in women's and men's habitual ways of aligning themselves in conversation. The next time she told him she wanted to talk, he began, as usual, by lying down and covering his eyes. When the familiar negative reaction bubbled up, she reassured herself that he really was listening. But then he sat up and looked at her. Thrilled, she asked why. He said, You like me to look at you when we talk, so I'll try to do it. Once he saw their differences as cross-cultural rather than right and wrong, he independently altered his behavior. Women who feel abandoned and deprived when their husbands won't listen to or report daily news may be happy to discover their husbands trying to adapt once they understand the place of small talk in women's relationships. But if their husbands don't adapt, the women may still be comforted that for men, this is not a failure of intimacy. Accepting the difference, the wives may look to their friends or family for that kind of talk. And husbands who can't provide it shouldn't feel their wives have made unreasonable demands. Some couples will still decide to divorce, but at least their decisions will be based on realistic expectations. In these times of resurgent ethnic conflicts, the world desperately needs cross-cultural understanding. Like charity, successful cross-cultural communication should begin at home.

Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, is the author of You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, published in 1990 by William Morrow.

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http://www.salon.com/2008/03/14/kids_and_internet/singleton FRIDAY, MAR 14, 2008 11:40 AM

Whats the matter with kids today?

Nothing, actually. Aside from our panic that the Internet is melting their brains.
BY AMY GOLDWASSER

Kids today were telling you! dont read, dont write, dont care about anything farther in front of them than their iPods. The Internet, according to 88-year-old Lessing (whose specialty is sturdy typewriters, or perhaps pens), has seduced a whole generation into its inanities. Or is it the older generation that the Internet has seduced into the inanities of leveling charges based on fear, ignorance and old-media, multiple-choice testing? So much so that we cant see that the Internet is only a means of communication, and one that has created a generation, perhaps the first, of writers, activists, storytellers? When the world worked in hard copy, no parent or teacher ever begrudged teenagers who disappeared into their rooms to write letters to friends or a movie review, or an editorial for the school paper on the first president theyll vote for. Even 15-year-old boys are sharing some part of their feelings with someone out there. Were talking about 33 million Americans who are fluent in texting, e-mailing, blogging, IMing and constantly amending their profiles on social network sites which, on average, 30 of their friends will visit every day, hanging out and writing for 20 minutes or so each. Theyre connected, theyre collaborative, theyre used to writing about themselves. In fact, they choose to write about themselves, on their own time, rather than its being a forced labor when a papers due in school. Regularly, often late at night, theyre generating a body of intimate written work. They appreciate the value of a good story and the power of a speech that moves: Ninety-seven percent of the teenagers in the Common Core survey connected I have a dream with its speaker they can watch Dr. King deliver it on demand and eight in 10 knew what To Kill a Mockingbird is about. This is, of course, the kind of knowledge we should be encouraging. The Internet has turned teenagers into honest documentarians of their own lives reporters embedded in their homes, their schools, their own heads. But this is also why its dangerous, why we cant seem to recognize that its just a medium. Were afraid. Our kids know things we dont. They drove the presidential debates onto YouTube and very well may determine the outcome of this election. Theyre texting at the dinner table and responsible for pretty much every enduring consumer cultural phenomenon: iPod, iTunes, iPhone; Harry Potter, High School Musical; large hot drinks with gingerbread flavoring. They can sell ads on their social network pages, and they essentially made MySpace worth $580 million and Juno an Oscar winner. Besides, were tired of having to ask them every time we need to find Season 2 of Heroes, calculate a carbon footprint or upload photos to Facebook (now that were allowed on). The other week was only the latest takedown of what has become a fashionable segment of the population to bash: the American teenager. A phone (land line!) survey of 1,200 17-year-olds, conducted by the research organization Common Core and released Feb. 26, found our young people to be living in stunning ignorance of history and literature. This furthered the report that the National Endowment for the Arts came out with at the end of 2007, lamenting the diminished role of voluntary reading in American life, particularly among 13-to-17-year-olds, and Doris Lessings condemnation, in her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in literature, of a fragmenting culture in which young men and women ... have read nothing, knowing only some specialty or other, for instance, computers. Plus, theyre blogging about us. So weve made the Internet one more thing unknowable about the American teenager, when, really, its one of the few revelations. We conduct these surveys and overgeneralize labeling like the mean girls, driven by the same jealousy and insecurity. Common Core drew its multiple-choice questions for teens from a test administered by the federal government in 1986. Twenty-plus years ago, high school students didnt have the Internet to store their trivia. Now they know that the specific dates and what-was- that-princes-name will always be there; they can free their brains to

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go a little deeper into the concepts instead of the copyrights, step back and consider what Scout and Atticus were really fighting for. To criticize teenagers author-to-book title matching on the spot, over the phone, is similar to cold-calling over-40s and claiming their long-division skills or date of Jaws recall is rusty. This is what we all rely on the Internet for. Thats not to say some of the survey findings arent disturbing. Its crushing to hear that one in four teens could not identify Adolf Hitlers role in world history, for instance. But its not because teenagers were online that they missed this. Had a parent introduced 20 minutes of researching the Holocaust to one month of their teens Internet life, or a teacher assigned The Diary of Anne Frank (arguably a 13-year-old girls blog) if we worked with, rather than against, the way this generation voluntarily takes in information we might not be able to pick up the phone and expose tragic pockets of ignorance. The average teen chooses to spend an average of 16.7 hours a week reading and writing online. Yet the NEA report did not consider this to be voluntary reading and writing. Its findings also concluded that literary reading declined significantly in a period of rising Internet use. The corollary is weak this has as well been a period of rising franchises of frozen yogurt that doesnt taste like frozen yogurt, of global warming, of declining rates of pregnancy and illicit drug use among teenagers, and of girls sweeping the countrys most prestigious high school science competition for the first time. Teenagers today read and write for fun; its part of their social lives. We need to start celebrating this unprecedented surge, incorporating it as an educational tool instead of meeting it with punishing pop quizzes and suspicion. We need to start trusting our kids to communicate as they will online even when that comes with the risk that theyll spill the family secrets or campaign for a candidate whos not ours. Once we stop regarding the Internet as a villain, stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become the next great voices of America. One of them, 70 years from now, might even get up there to accept the very award Lessing did and thank the Internet for making him or her a writer and a thinker. Amy Goldwasser is the editor of the recently published "RED: The next generation of American writers -teenage girls -- on what fires up their lives today' (Hudson Street Press) and the website-social network redthebook.com. Copyright 2011 Salon.com. All rights reserved.

In Praise Of The F Word

May 5, 1991 8:00 PM EDT Tens of thousands of 18-year-olds will graduate this year and be handed meaningless diplomas. These diplomas won't look any different from those awarded their luckier classmates. Their validity will be questioned only when their employers discover that these graduates are semiliterate.

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Eventually a fortunate few will find their way into educational-repair shops--adult-literacy programs, such as the one where I teach basic grammar and writing. There, high-school graduates and high-school dropouts pursuing graduate-equivalency certificates will learn the skills they should have learned in school. They will also discover they have been cheated by our educational system. As I teach, I learn a lot about our schools. Early in each session I ask my students to write about an unpleasant experience they had in school. No writers' block here! "I wish someone would have had made me stop doing drugs and made me study." "I liked to party and no one seemed to care." "I was a good kid and didn't cause any trouble, so they just passed me along even though I didn't read and couldn't write." And so on. I am your basic do-gooder, and prior to teaching this class I blamed the poor academic skills our kids have today on drugs, divorce and other impediments to concentration necessary for doing well in school. But, as I rediscover each time I walk into the classroom, before a teacher can expect students to concentrate, he has to get their attention, no matter what distractions may be at hand. There are many ways to do this, and they have much to do with teaching style. However, if style alone won't do it, there is another way to show who holds the winning hand in the classroom. That is to reveal the trump card of failure. I will never forget a teacher who played that card to get the attention of one of my children. Our youngest, a world-class charmer, did little to develop his intellectual talents but always got by. Until Mrs. Stifter. Our son was a high-school senior when he had her for English. "He sits in the back of the room talking to his friends," she told me. "Why don't you move him to the front row?" I urged, believing the embarrassment would get him to settle down. Mrs. Stifter looked at me steely-eyed over her glasses. I don't move seniors," she said. "I flunk them." I was flustered. Our son's academic life flashed before my eyes. No teacher had ever threatened him with that before. I regained my composure and managed to say that I thought she was right. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty good about this. It was a radical approach for these times, but, well, why not? "She's going to flunk you," I told my son. I did not discuss it any further. Suddenly English became a priority in his life. He finished out the semester with an A. I know one example doesn't make a case, but at night I see a parade of students who are angry and resentful for having been passed along until they could no longer even pretend to keep up. Of average intelligence or better, they eventually quit school, concluding they were too dumb to finish. "I should have been held back," is a comment I hear frequently. Even sadder are those students who are high-school graduates who say to me after a few weeks of class, "I don't know how I ever got a high-school diploma." Passing students who have not mastered the work cheats them and the employers who expect graduates to have basic skills. We excuse this dishonest behavior by saying kids can't learn if they come from terrible environments. No one seems to stop to think that--no matter what environments they come from--most kids don't put school first on their list unless they perceive something is at stake. They'd rather be sailing. Many students I see at night could give expert testimony on unemployment, chemical dependency, abusive relationships. In spite of these difficulties, they have decided to make education a priority. They are motivated by the desire for a better job or the need to hang on to the one they've got. They have a healthy fear of failure. People of all ages can rise above their problems, but they need to have a reason to do so. Young people generally don't have the maturity to value education in the same way my adult students value it. But fear of failure, whether economic or academic, can motivate both. Flunking as a regular policy has just as much merit today as it did two generations ago. We must review the threat of flunking and see it as it really is--a positive teaching tool. It is an expression of confidence by both teachers and parents that the students have the ability to learn the material presented to them. However, making it work again would take a dedicated, caring conspiracy between teachers and parents. It would mean facing the tough reality that passing kids who haven't learned the material--while it might save them grief for the short term--dooms them to longterm illiteracy. It would mean that teachers would have to follow through on their threats, and parents would have to stand behind them, knowing their children's best interests are indeed at stake. This means no more doing Scott's assignments for him because he might fail. No more passing Jodi because she's such a nice kid. This is a policy that worked in the past and can work today. A wise teacher, with the support of his parents, gave our son the opportunity to succeed--or fail. It's time we return this choice to all students. 2011 The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC

Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Spaces

Brent Staples Harpers Magazine, 1987

My first victim was a woman--white, well-dressed, probably in her late twenties. I came upon her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. 43

To her, the youngish black man--a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket--seemed menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest. Within seconds, she disappeared into a cross street. That was more than a decade ago. I was twenty-two years old, a graduate student newly arrived at the University of Chicago. It was in the echo of that terrified woman's footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I'd come into--the ability to alter public space in ugly ways. It was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse. Suffering a bout of insomnia, however, I was stalking sleep, not defenseless wayfarers. As a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken--let alone hold one to a person's throat--I was surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once. Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny. It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto. That first encounter, and those that followed, signified that a vast, unnerving gulf lay between nighttime pedestriansparticularly women--and me. And I soon gathered that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself. I only needed to turn a corner into a dicey situation, or crowd some frightened, armed person in a foyer somewhere, or make an errant move after being pulled over by a policeman. Where fear and weapons meet--and they often do in urban America--there is always the possibility of death. In that first year, my first away from my hometown, I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear. At dark, shadowy intersections, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver-- black, white, male, or female--hammering down the door locks. On less traveled streets after dark, I grew accustomed to but never comfortable with people crossing to the other side of the street rather than pass me. Then there were the standard unpleasantries with policemen, doormen, bouncers, cabdrivers, and others whose business it is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness. I moved to New York nearly two years ago and I have remained an avid nightwalker. In central Manhattan, the near-constant crowd cover minimizes tense one-on-one street encounters. Elsewhere-in Soho, for example, where sidewalks are narrow and tightly spaced buildings shut out the sky--things can get very taut indeed. After dark, on the warrenlike streets of Brooklyn where I live, I often see women who fear the worst from me. They seem to have set their faces on neutral, and with their purse straps strung across their chests bandolier-style, they forge ahead as though bracing themselves against being tackled. I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence. Yet these truths are no solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact. It is not altogether clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of twenty-two without being conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians attributed to me. Perhaps it was because in Chester, Pennsylvania, the small, angry industrial town where I came of age in the 1960s, I was scarcely noticeable against a backdrop of gang warfare, street knifings, and murders. I grew up one of the good boys, had perhaps a half-dozen fist-fights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat has clear sources. As a boy, I saw countless tough guys locked away; I have since buried several, too. They were babies, really--a teenage cousin, a brother of twenty-two, a childhood friend in his mid-twentiesall gone down in episodes of bravado played out in the streets. I came to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on. I chose, perhaps unconsciously, to remain a shadow--timid, but a survivor. The fearsomeness mistakenly attributed to me in public places often has a perilous flavor. The most frightening one of these confusions occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I worked as a journalist in Chicago. One day, rushing into the office of a magazine I was writing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a burglar. The office manager called security and, with an ad hoc posse, pursued me through the labyrinthine halls, nearly to my editor's door. I had no way of proving who I was. I could only move briskly toward the company of someone who knew me. Another time I was on assignment for a local newspaper and killing time before an interview. I entered a jewelry store on the city's affluent Near North Side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash. She stood, the dog extended toward me, silent to my questions, her eyes bulging nearly out of her head. I took a cursory look around, nodded, and bade her good night. 44

Relatively speaking, however, I never fared as badly as another black male journalist. He went to nearby Waukegan, Illinois a couple of summers ago to work on a story about a murderer who was born there. Mistaking the reporter for the killer, police officers hauled him from his car at gunpoint and but for his press credentials would probably have tried to book him. Black men trade tales like this all the time. Over the years, I learned to smother the rage I felt at so often being taken for a criminal. Not to do so would surely have led to madness. I now take precautions to make myself less threatening. I move about with care, particularly late in the evening. I give a wide berth to nervous people on subway platforms during the wee hours, particularly when I have exchanged business clothes for jeans. If I happen to be entering a building behind some people who appear skittish, I may walk by, letting them clear the lobby before I return, so as not to seem to be following them. I have been calm and extremely congenial on those rare occasions when I've been pulled over by the police. And on late evening constitutionals I employ what has proved to be an excellent tensionreducing measure: I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers. Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime destinations seem to relax, and occasionally they even join in the tune. Virtually everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldn't be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It is my equivalent to the cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country.

YOUR BRAIN ON COMPUTERS; Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

The New York Times , November 21, 2010
Top of Form Bottom of Form

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- On the eve of a pivotal academic year in Vishal Singh's life, he faces a stark choice on his bedroom desk: book or computer? By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, his summer reading assignment. But he has managed 43 pages in two months. He typically favors Facebook, YouTube and making digital videos. That is the case this August afternoon. Bypassing Vonnegut, he clicks over to YouTube, meaning that tomorrow he will enter his senior year of high school hoping to see an improvement in his grades, but without having completed his only summer homework.

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On YouTube, you can get a whole story in six minutes, he explains. A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification. Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning. Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks -and less able to sustain attention. Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing, said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: The worry is we're raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently. But even as some parents and educators express unease about students' digital diets, they are intensifying efforts to use technology in the classroom, seeing it as a way to connect with students and give them essential skills. Across the country, schools are equipping themselves with computers, Internet access and mobile devices so they can teach on the students' technological territory. It is a tension on vivid display at Vishal's school, Woodside High School, on a sprawling campus set against the forested hills of Silicon Valley. Here, as elsewhere, it is not uncommon for students to send hundreds of text messages a day or spend hours playing video games, and virtually everyone is on Facebook. The principal, David Reilly, 37, a former musician who says he sympathizes when young people feel disenfranchised, is determined to engage these 21st-century students. He has asked teachers to build Web sites to communicate with students, introduced popular classes on using digital tools to record music, secured funding for iPads to teach Mandarin and obtained $3 million in grants for a multimedia center. He pushed first period back an hour, to 9 a.m., because students were showing up bleary-eyed, at least in part because they were up late on their computers. Unchecked use of digital devices, he says, can create a culture in which students are addicted to the virtual world and lost in it. I am trying to take back their attention from their BlackBerrys and video games,' he says. To a degree, I'm using technology to do it. The same tension surfaces in Vishal, whose ability to be distracted by computers is rivaled by his proficiency with them. At the beginning of his junior year, he discovered a passion for filmmaking and made a name for himself among friends and teachers with his storytelling in videos made with digital cameras and editing software. He acts as his family's tech-support expert, helping his father, Satendra, a lab manager, retrieve lost documents on the computer, and his mother, Indra, a security manager at the San Francisco airport, build her own Web site. But he also plays video games 10 hours a week. He regularly sends Facebook status updates at 2 a.m., even on school nights, and has such a reputation for distributing links to videos that his best friend calls him a YouTube bully. Several teachers call Vishal one of their brightest students, and they wonder why things are not adding up. Last semester, his grade point average was 2.3 after a D-plus in English and an F in Algebra II. He got an A in film critique. 'He's a kid caught between two worlds, said Mr. Reilly -- one that is virtual and one with real-life demands. Vishal, like his mother, says he lacks the self-control to favor schoolwork over the computer. She sat him down a few weeks before school started and told him that, while she respected his passion for film and his technical skills, he had to use them productively. This is the year, she says she told him. This is your senior year and you can't afford not to focus. It was not always this way. As a child, Vishal had a tendency to procrastinate, but nothing like this. Something changed him. Growing Up With Gadgets When he was 3, Vishal moved with his parents and older brother to their current home, a three-bedroom house in the working-class section of Redwood City, a suburb in Silicon Valley that is more diverse than some of its elite neighbors.

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Thin and quiet with a shy smile, Vishal passed the admissions test for a prestigious public elementary and middle school. Until sixth grade, he focused on homework, regularly going to the house of a good friend to study with him. But Vishal and his family say two things changed around the seventh grade: his mother went back to work, and he got a computer. He became increasingly engrossed in games and surfing the Internet, finding an easy outlet for what he describes as an inclination to procrastinate. I realized there were choices, Vishal recalls. Homework wasn't the only option. Several recent studies show that young people tend to use home computers for entertainment, not learning, and that this can hurt school performance, particularly in low-income families. Jacob L. Vigdor, an economics professor at Duke University who led some of the research, said that when adults were not supervising computer use, children are left to their own devices, and the impetus isn't to do homework but play around. Research also shows that students often juggle homework and entertainment. The Kaiser Family Foundation found earlier this year that half of students from 8 to 18 are using the Internet, watching TV or using some other form of media either most (31 percent) or some (25 percent) of the time that they are doing homework. At Woodside, as elsewhere, students' use of technology is not uniform. Mr. Reilly, the principal, says their choices tend to reflect their personalities. Social butterflies tend to be heavy texters and Facebook users. Students who are less social might escape into games, while drifters or those prone to procrastination, like Vishal, might surf the Web or watch videos. The technology has created on campuses a new set of social types -- not the thespian and the jock but the texter and gamer, Facebook addict and YouTube potato. The technology amplifies whoever you are, Mr. Reilly says. For some, the amplification is intense. Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school and, often, while studying. Most of the exchanges are little more than quick greetings, but they can get more in-depth, like if someone tells you about a drama going on with someone, Allison said. I can text one person while talking on the phone to someone else. But this proficiency comes at a cost: she blames multitaDigital Nationg for the three B's on her recent progress report. I'll be reading a book for homework and I'll get a text message and pause my reading and put down the book, pick up the phone to reply to the text message, and then 20 minutes later realize, 'Oh, I forgot to do my homework.' Some shyer students do not socialize through technology -- they recede into it. Ramon Ochoa-Lopez, 14, an introvert, plays six hours of video games on weekdays and more on weekends, leaving homework to be done in the bathroom before school. Escaping into games can also salve teenagers' age-old desire for some control in their chaotic lives. It's a way for me to separate myself, Ramon says. If there's an argument between my mom and one of my brothers, I'll just go to my room and start playing video games and escape. With powerful new cellphones, the interactive experience can go everywhere. Between classes at Woodside or at lunch, when use of personal devices is permitted, students gather in clusters, sometimes chatting face to face, sometimes halfinvolved in a conversation while texting someone across the teeming quad. Others sit alone, watching a video, listening to music or updating Facebook. Students say that their parents, worried about the distractions, try to police computer time, but that monitoring the use of cellphones is difficult. Parents may also want to be able to call their children at any time, so taking the phone away is not always an option. Other parents wholly embrace computer use, even when it has no obvious educational benefit. If you're not on top of technology, you're not going to be on top of the world, said John McMullen, 56, a retired criminal investigator whose son, Sean, is one of five friends in the group Vishal joins for lunch each day.

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Sean's favorite medium is video games; he plays for four hours after school and twice that on weekends. He was playing more but found his habit pulling his grade point average below 3.2, the point at which he felt comfortable. He says he sometimes wishes that his parents would force him to quit playing and study, because he finds it hard to quit when given the choice. Still, he says, video games are not responsible for his lack of focus, asserting that in another era he would have been distracted by TV or something else. Video games don't make the hole; they fill it, says Sean, sitting at a picnic table in the quad, where he is surrounded by a multimillion-dollar view: on the nearby hills are the evergreens that tower above the affluent neighborhoods populated by Internet tycoons. Sean, a senior, concedes that video games take a physical toll: I haven't done exercise since my sophomore year. But that doesn't seem like a big deal. I still look the same. Sam Crocker, Vishal's closest friend, who has straight A's but lower SAT scores than he would like, blames the Internet's distractions for his inability to finish either of his two summer reading books. I know I can read a book, but then I'm up and checking Facebook, he says, adding: Facebook is amazing because it feels like you're doing something and you're not doing anything. It's the absence of doing something, but you feel gratified anyway. He concludes: My attention span is getting worse. The Lure of Distraction Some neuroscientists have been studying people like Sam and Vishal. They have begun to understand what happens to the brains of young people who are constantly online and in touch. In an experiment at the German Sport University in Cologne in 2007, boys from 12 to 14 spent an hour each night playing video games after they finished homework. On alternate nights, the boys spent an hour watching an exciting movie, like Harry Potter or Star Trek, rather than playing video games. That allowed the researchers to compare the effect of video games and TV. The researchers looked at how the use of these media affected the boys' brainwave patterns while sleeping and their ability to remember their homework in the subsequent days. They found that playing video games led to markedly lower sleep quality than watching TV, and also led to a significant decline in the boys' ability to remember vocabulary words. The findings were published in the journal Pediatrics. Markus Dworak, a researcher who led the study and is now a neuroscientist at Harvard, said it was not clear whether the boys' learning suffered because sleep was disrupted or, as he speculates, also because the intensity of the game experience overrode the brain's recording of the vocabulary. When you look at vocabulary and look at huge stimulus after that, your brain has to decide which information to store, he said. Your brain might favor the emotionally stimulating information over the vocabulary. At the University of California, San Francisco, scientists have found that when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rats take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory. In that vein, recent imaging studies of people have found that major cross sections of the brain become surprisingly active during downtime. These brain studies suggest to researchers that periods of rest are critical in allowing the brain to synthesize information, make connections between ideas and even develop the sense of self. Researchers say these studies have particular implications for young people, whose brains have more trouble focusing and setting priorities. Downtime is to the brain what sleep is to the body, said Dr. Rich of Harvard Medical School. But kids are in a constant mode of stimulation. The headline is: bring back boredom, added Dr. Rich, who last month gave a speech to the American Academy of Pediatrics entitled, Finding Huck Finn: Reclaiming Childhood from the River of Electronic Screens. Dr. Rich said in an interview that he was not suggesting young people should toss out their devices, but rather that they embrace a more balanced approach to what he said were powerful tools necessary to compete and succeed in modern life.

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The heavy use of devices also worries Daniel Anderson, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who is known for research showing that children are not as harmed by TV viewing as some researchers have suggested. MultitaDigital Nationg using ubiquitous, interactive and highly stimulating computers and phones, Professor Anderson says, appears to have a more powerful effect than TV. Like Dr. Rich, he says he believes that young, developing brains are becoming habituated to distraction and to switching tasks, not to focus. If you've grown up processing multiple media, that's exactly the mode you're going to fall into when put in that environment -- you develop a need for that stimulation, he said. Vishal can attest to that. I'm doing Facebook, YouTube, having a conversation or two with a friend, listening to music at the same time. I'm doing a million things at once, like a lot of people my age, he says. Sometimes I'll say: I need to stop this and do my schoolwork, but I can't. If it weren't for the Internet, I'd focus more on school and be doing better academically, he says. But thanks to the Internet, he says, he has discovered and pursued his passion: filmmaking. Without the Internet, I also wouldn't know what I want to do with my life. Clicking Toward a Future The woman sits in a cemetery at dusk, sobbing. Behind her, silhouetted and translucent, a man kneels, then fades away, a ghost. This captivating image appears on Vishal's computer screen. On this Thursday afternoon in late September, he is engrossed in scenes he shot the previous weekend for a music video he is making with his cousin. The video is based on a song performed by the band Guns N' Roses about a woman whose boyfriend dies. He wants it to be part of the package of work he submits to colleges that emphasize film study, along with a documentary he is making about home-schooled students. Now comes the editing. Vishal taught himself to use sophisticated editing software in part by watching tutorials on YouTube. He does not leave his chair for more than two hours, sipping Pepsi, his face often inches from the screen, as he perfects the clip from the cemetery. The image of the crying woman was shot separately from the image of the kneeling man, and he is trying to fuse them. I'm spending two hours to get a few seconds just right, he says. He occasionally sends a text message or checks Facebook, but he is focused in a way he rarely is when doing homework. He says the chief difference is that filmmaking feels applicable to his chosen future, and he hopes colleges, like the University of Southern California or the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, will be so impressed by his portfolio that they will overlook his school performance. This is going to compensate for the grades, he says. On this day, his homework includes a worksheet for Latin, some reading for English class and an economics essay, but they can wait. For Vishal, there's another clear difference between filmmaking and homework: interactivity. As he edits, the windows on the screen come alive; every few seconds, he clicks the mouse to make tiny changes to the lighting and flow of the images, and the software gives him constant feedback. I click and something happens, he says, explaining that, by comparison, reading a book or doing homework is less exciting. I guess it goes back to the immediate gratification thing. The $2,000 computer Vishal is using is state of the art and only a week old. It represents a concession by his parents. They allowed him to buy it, despite their continuing concerns about his technology habits, because they wanted to support his filmmaking dream. If we put roadblocks in his way, he's just going to get depressed, his mother says. Besides, she adds, he's been making an effort to do his homework.

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At this point in the semester, it seems she is right. The first schoolwide progress reports come out in late September, and Vishal has mostly A's and B's. He says he has been able to make headway by applying himself, but also by cutting back his workload. Unlike last year, he is not taking advanced placement classes, and he has chosen to retake Algebra II not in the classroom but in an online class that lets him work at his own pace. His shift to easier classes might not please college admissions officers, according to Woodside's college adviser, Zorina Matavulj. She says they want seniors to intensify their efforts. As it is, she says, even if Vishal improves his performance significantly, someone with his grades faces long odds in applying to the kinds of colleges he aspires to. Still, Vishal's passion for film reinforces for Mr. Reilly, the principal, that the way to reach these students is on their own terms. Hands-On Technology Big Macintosh monitors sit on every desk, and a man with hip glasses and an easygoing style stands at the front of the class. He is Geoff Diesel, 40, a favorite teacher here at Woodside who has taught English and film. Now he teaches one of Mr. Reilly's new classes, audio production. He has a rapt audience of more than 20 students as he shows a video of the band Nirvana mixing their music, then holds up a music keyboard. Who knows how to use Pro Tools? We've got it. It's the program used by the best music studios in the world, he says. In the back of the room, Mr. Reilly watches, thrilled. He introduced the audio course last year and enough students signed up to fill four classes. (He could barely pull together one class when he introduced Mandarin, even though he had secured iPads to help teach the language.) Some of these students are our most at-risk kids, he says. He means that they are more likely to tune out school, skip class or not do their homework, and that they may not get healthful meals at home. They may also do their most enthusiastic writing not for class but in text messages and on Facebook. They're here, they're in class, they're listening. Despite Woodside High's affluent setting, about 40 percent of its 1,800 students come from low-income families and receive a reduced-cost or free lunch. The school is 56 percent Latino, 38 percent white and 5 percent African-American, and it sends 93 percent of its students to four-year or community colleges. Mr. Reilly says that the audio class provides solid vocational training and can get students interested in other subjects. Today mixing music, tomorrow sound waves and physics, he says. And he thinks the key is that they love not just the music but getting their hands on the technology. We're meeting them on their turf. It does not mean he sees technology as a panacea. I'll always take one great teacher in a cave over a dozen Smart Boards, he says, referring to the high-tech teaching displays used in many schools. Teachers at Woodside commonly blame technology for students' struggles to concentrate, but they are divided over whether embracing computers is the right solution. It's a catastrophe, said Alan Eaton, a charismatic Latin teacher. He says that technology has led to a balkanization of their focus and duration of stamina, and that schools make the problem worse when they adopt the technology. When rock 'n' roll came about, we didn't start using it in classrooms like we're doing with technology, he says. He personally feels the sting, since his advanced classes have one-third as many students as they had a decade ago. Vishal remains a Latin student, one whom Mr. Eaton describes as particularly bright. But the teacher wonders if technology might be the reason Vishal seems to lose interest in academics the minute he leaves class. Mr. Diesel, by contrast, does not think technology is behind the problems of Vishal and his schoolmates -- in fact, he thinks it is the key to connecting with them, and an essential tool. It's in their DNA to look at screens, he asserts. And he offers another analogy to explain his approach: Frankenstein is in the room and I don't want him to tear me apart. If I'm not using technology, I lose them completely. Mr. Diesel had Vishal as a student in cinema class and describes him as a breath of fresh air with a gift for filmmaking. Mr. Diesel says he wonders if Vishal is a bit like Woody Allen, talented but not interested in being part of the system. But Mr. Diesel adds: If Vishal's going to be an independent filmmaker, he's got to read Vonnegut. If you're going to write scripts, you've got to read. Back to Reading Aloud Vishal sits near the back of English IV. Marcia Blondel, a veteran teacher, asks the students to open the book they are studying, The Things They Carried, which is about the Vietnam War.

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Who wants to read starting in the middle of Page 137? she asks. One student begins to read aloud, and the rest follow along. To Ms. Blondel, the exercise in group reading represents a regression in American education and an indictment of technology. The reason she has to do it, she says, is that students now lack the attention span to read the assignments on their own. How can you have a discussion in class? she complains, arguing that she has seen a considerable change in recent years. In some classes she can count on little more than one-third of the students to read a 30-page homework assignment. She adds: You can't become a good writer by watching YouTube, texting and e-mailing a bunch of abbreviations. As the group-reading effort winds down, she says gently: I hope this will motivate you to read on your own. It is a reminder of the choices that have followed the students through the semester: computer or homework? Immediate gratification or investing in the future? Mr. Reilly hopes that the two can meet -- that computers can be combined with education to better engage students and can give them technical skills without compromising deep analytical thought. But in Vishal's case, computers and schoolwork seem more and more to be mutually exclusive. Ms. Blondel says that Vishal, after a decent start to the school year, has fallen into bad habits. In October, he turned in weeks late, for example, a short essay based on the first few chapters of The Things They Carried. His grade at that point, she says, tracks around a D. For his part, Vishal says he is investing himself more in his filmmaking, accelerating work with his cousin on their music video project. But he is also using Facebook late at night and surfing for videos on YouTube. The evidence of the shift comes in a string of Facebook updates. Saturday, 11:55 p.m.: Editing, editing, editing Sunday, 3:55 p.m.: 8+ hours of shooting, 8+ hours of editing. All for just a three-minute scene. Mind = Dead. Sunday, 11:00 p.m.: Fun day, finally got to spend a day relaxing... now about that homework... By MATT RICHTEL; Malia Wollan contributed reporting.

Source Citation:
Richtel, Matt. "YOUR BRAIN ON COMPUTERS; Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction." New York Times 21 Nov. 2010: A1(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 13 Jan. 2012.

Learning Matters YouTube AssignmentDue on Tuesday, March 6

This assignment is a written response to the two video clips, Higher Ed, Higher Costs, Pt. 1 and 2. posted on YouTube. To find the videos on YouTube, type in Higher Ed, Higher Costs. You will see Parts 1 and 2 listed. Make sure to view both Pt. 1 and Pt. 2. For the viewing requirement, you will watch both of these links: Higher Ed, Higher Costs Pt. 1 Higher Ed, Higher Costs Pt. 2 For the Written Assignment (three parts): 51

1. Summarize the videos (Treat the two videos as one). 2. Write a response: What part of the video(s) stood out to you? Why? Explain the details that caused you to sit up and pay close attention? 3. Include a source citation at the end of your written response as it would appear in a Works Cited page.

The assignment must be typed in standard MLA format. Include a source citation as it would appear in a Works Cited page.

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