"Shattered Glass"

1. What writing/research practices are involved in the movie?
There were a few different practices used for research and writing. The main type of writing was journalism, because the characters in the movie worked for the magazine "The New Republic." The practices that were used included recording, discussion, peer editing, and fact-checking.

2. How do characters collect data and write about their data?
The characters do a lot of observing and note taking about what people say and do. There is also interviewing used. Steve Glass was detail oriented and very specific which was needed in his writing.

3. What ethical issues do you see emerging in this movie?
The first ethical issue was that Steve lied about his sources. Another issue was that he invented/created his articles in his head and then passed what was fictional off as factual. Twenty-seven of the forty-one articles Steve wrote were either fully or partially made up. Throughout the movie he always sounded suspicious. Anytime anyone asked him questions about his articles, he always stalled by saying that the answer was in his notes but yet he never had the notes with him.

First drafts blog

Anne Lamott starts out by telling about her life and just talks about writing in general. She talks about what people may think about successful writers and what actual goes on. Many people think that great writers just sit down and can just write pages of text and form it into a great piece of work. Lamott brings up the point that, "very few writers really know what they are doing until they've done it" (Lamott, Section 2). Lamott uses the word shitty first drafts. I think it is a very good way to describe writing when you first sit down to put down your thoughts. She describes is as a "child's draft," in that you can write down whatever you want and say whatever you want because you can revise it later (Lamott, Section 4).
When I am starting to write, I just write down as many notes about the topic as I can. I do not want to forget anything so I just write it all down even if I may not use it later in the final draft. I sometimes find that I write down important information and do not even realize it. Then later in the paper, in the second and third drafts, I find that piece of information and it contributes to the paper in a big way.

Covering

I find myself covering a lot when I work in groups. This is especially true when working with fellow business majors in the Honors Business Program. I have a very shy and quiet personality. I am also a caring and nurturing person; however, I can find myself being aggressive and fighting for what I want. Sometimes, in groups when my shy/quiet personality shows, I get stuck doing the work nobody else wants to do. I have been seen to have people "walk over" me when I do not stand up for myself in groups. More and more, I find myself "covering" that side of my personality and taking on the stereotypical male leader and aggressive personality. One example, just recently happened where I was the only female in a group with four males. I covered my shyness and spoke up about what parts of the presentation I wanted to do. By having a more aggressive attitude and adopting the "male role," I got the part I wanted. Sometimes, you have to cover up your own personality in order to get what you want or to get to where you want to be.

APA workshop activity

1.) Write a sentence containing a signal phrase.
Dr. Olden (2000) argued the following about the sweetener saccharin, "However, our understanding of the science has advanced and allows us to make finer distinctions today. Studies now indicate that the rat bladder tumors arise from mechanisms that are not relevant to the human situation" (p. #).

2.) Adams, M. J. (2000, May 16). US report adds to list of carcinogens. The New York Times. p F4.

3.) "Both [saccharin and ethyl acrylate] were removed at the request of industry groups" (Adams 2000, p. F4)

Activity 34

Passage 1
This passage told a personal story about the author when she was nine years old. The information came from a past experience in the writer's childhood. The whole story is kind of an opinion since it is a personal story. The information was just based off the writer's memory and experience.

Passage 2
In this passage, there is nothing mentioned about the author. The writing presents very "subject-specific vocabulary" and is impersonal. (p. 134) The information is cited as being from Gonzalez de la Rocha 1994: 211. My guess is that someone used research articles to put together this writing. There was no use of 'I' within the passage, so I did not see any opinions given from the writer.

Passage 3
Passage 3 is one person(the writer) telling a story about another person (Elizabeth Barrett). This story does not really reveal anything about the author, just the person the story is about. The information came from the diary that belongs to Elizabeth Barrett. There are direct quotes, from the diary, given within the passage. The last paragraph is still telling the story, but it seems like the author was putting their voice into the passage. By using the word, "figuratively" it made me think of the writer expressing their view on the passage.

Activity 33

When I was five years old, my Aunt Sue took me to visit my Cousin Clayton and Aunt Kathy. I was being an attention hog and wanted everyone to watch and pay attention to me. Since Clayton was just a toddler, he was getting more of my aunts' attention than what I was receiving. I threw a temper tantrum and was then forced to lie down and take a nap. I was really angry with my aunts and did not want to take a nap. I ended up finding baby powder and poured it all over my Aunt Kathy's porcelain dolls. Afterwards, I went out to the living room and acted as if nothing happened; even though I felt bad about what I did.
I can remember this story very well because, it was the first time I got into a lot of trouble. As a child, this was a big moment for me because I think I grew up a little more that day. After I finished pouring the baby powder all over the place, I knew I did something wrong. It was something I knew I would have to be punished and make up for. I also think that the reason I remember this story so well is because, I remember being looked at as a disappointment. I hated that feeling and I will remember that story and the lesson I learned that day for a very long time.
Throughout this short story, there are about twenty 'I's. The 'I' in my story is me telling and showing what happened that day and also how I felt. I am using 'I' to retell the story, so in my perspective, I am seeing myself as a child, but telling it as an adult. As I start talking about why I remember this story and why it is important , it seems to be more of an adult viewpoint on what and how I felt. This whole story is personal, since I expressed exactly who I was with, what I did and what happened, and also how I felt.

Research process

My research is about strides women have made in business and also what their struggles and challenges are when trying to advance in the business world. I am an accounting major, so in my future career, I could be affected by this problem of how few women there are in top positions. I wanted to do this research so I could learn more about what I will face in the future and also how to overcome the challenges women before me have overcame.
When doing my research, I started out looking for journals and articles that would provide the basis for my research. As I continued looking, I found that there are more books written about the topic of women in business. The books provided more information about the challenges women face when trying to advance to higher business positions. I first started out wanting to find out information about why there are so few women in top executive positions. After reading the sources I found, my research question transitioned into learning more about the challenges women face when trying to reach those top positions and how to overcome the barriers many of the women are faced with.
I am currently using a survey to gather information about my research topic. I am getting business students to complete the survey and give me their views on the subject of women in business. Throughout this whole process, I have learned a lot more about the topic. I thought I knew and had learned about the topic before in classes, but by doing my own research I have learned so much more. I also have a professor who knows a lot about the topic of women in business, and have learned and heard some stories from her that also contributed to my knowledge.

Exercise for paraphrasing

When taking notes and preparing a paper, many students are found using too many direct quotations. "Only about 10%" of the final paper should include the direct quotes used from the sources.(p. 46-47) When taking notes, students should reduce the number of direct quotes in order to keep the percentage of quotes lower in the final paper. (Lester, 1976)

In-class Blogging

1.) One type of social change that would be helpful to my home community would be expressing better work ethics and work attitudes. In my home town, unemployment is high and people are not motivated to work. With my research project, I am researching why there are so few women hired for top executive positions. In some of the research I have found it is because of the views people have towards women in those positions. I think that by raising awareness of the women who have become successful, it will help to change the attitude of workers. This could bring around a social change relating to workers ethics and attitudes about going to work.
2.) The chapter that was most influential to me was the chapter on the Stickiness Factor. I felt that without the Stickiness Factor, the epidemics would not have or would have had a hard time tipping. The Stickiness Factor is what makes the information memorable. If people are not moved, inspired, or drawn in by the information, I don't think it has a chance to tip. I found the experiments with Blue's Clues and Sesame Street interesting in that they were trying so hard for the Stickiness Factor. That was what was going to make their TV show reach its Tipping Point.
3.) I think that I will take the idea that it is the little things that can make the biggest difference. I felt that this idea can be applied anywhere in your life. One example would be doing community service. It may seem like something so small, but in fact is something that can make a big difference. This goes along with the idea of the Broken Windows theory. They fixed the little problems and it make a great difference in the community. I feel that by applying this idea to my life both personally and academically, it will make me see things in a different way. I can look at and change the small details to create a bigger picture.

Power of Context Questions

Question 1. What is the story of Bernie Goetz? Is Bernie Goetz a cold-blooded murderer or a heroic vigilante?
Bernie Goetz left his home and went to the station to board the subway. Goetz went to the back of the car and was sitting next to four "rowdy" teenage boys. One of the teenagers approached Goetz and asked for five dollars. Another one of the boys motioned to something he had in his pocket, which could have been a gun for all Bernie knew. Bernie stated that one of the teenager's "eyes were shiny, and he was enjoying himself...He had a big smile on his face." (p 134) This was the moment that Goetz snapped, pulled out his gun and shot the four teenagers. After the shooting happened, New York City saw Goetz as a hero, even giving him the names, "Subway Vigilante" and "Death Wish Shooter." (p 135) I found this story disturbing, especially because of the fact that Goetz did not think he did anything wrong. I think Goetz should be seen as a cold-blooded murderer not a hero. He had planned out that morning to take a gun with him to the subway station. Also, when he saw the four teenagers, he didn't try to stay away from them; instead Goetz sat right near the boys. This suggests that they were just the victims Goetz was looking for when he decided to take his gun with him that morning.

Question 4. Most conservative theories say that the criminal is a personality type whereas the Broken Windows theory and Power of Context suggest the opposite--the criminal is actually someone acutely sensitive to his environment and who is prompted to commit crimes based on his perceptions of the world around him. Which theory do you believe?
I believe the Broken Windows theory to a certain extent. I believe that this works for stopping such crimes as burglary, vandalism, mugging/robbery, graffiti, etc. In my opinion, the Broken Windows theory works on less serious crimes. In the case of Bernie Goetz, I don't think the Broken Windows theory would have worked. I think Goetz would have shot the teenagers whether the graffiti and subway car were cleaned up or not. However, the Broken Windows theory may have had an impact on the teenagers, which might have helped stop Goetz from shooting the boys.

English Undergraduate Conference

The first session I attended was Session 4 from 1:25-2:15. In this session the panelists were presenting there research they had done. The first panelist was Sara Kirkpatrick. Her research was on "Temptation and Martyrdom: Religious Symbolism in Christina Rossetti's 'The Goblin Market'." The presenter explained what the poem was about and how she found religious symbolism within the poem. Her PowerPoint presentation showed pictures that came from the poem, which helped me to see what the poem was about. The symbolism she found was with the temptation of fruit in the poem. Sara also read from Genesis about the temptation of the fruit from the tree of knowledge and evil.
The second presenter was Theo Reddinger who did research on "Sherlock Holmes and the Media's Negative Influence." The presenter was connecting how a book could influence behavior. There was the example of work by Thomas De Quincey and his fascination with opium. Theo's main question was asking, "Was Whitney abusing drugs because De Quincey made them seem appealing?"
The third presenter, Natalie Corkos, researched and wrote a paper on "The Portrayal of Women in Horror Films." She gave examples from past to present movies showing how horror films are still negative towards women. She used both sexist and feminist theories to back up her research. One example Natalie used was the Phantom of the Opera. The character Christine is empowered and overtaken by the phantom. She is the one who needs to be rescued. Another example was Dracula. In this young women are shown as being sexual and being dependent. The presenter also gave the point that if women are the heroines or seen as being strong, they are described as being emotionally unstable or are presented as being extremely sexual.
All three of the presenters stated that they had a personal interest for the topic that they were presenting. I saw that each one of them enjoyed what they had research and wanted to continue to research about their topics. They also stated that by doing this research they are more aware of situations going on today related to their topic. I am hoping I get the same reaction when I am working on my social action research project.

The second session I went to listen to was Session 5 from 2:30-3:20. Laken Tassos was the first presenter and wrote an identity paper about Bill Strickland's speech at IUP. She expressed numerous times that Strickland's words inspired her in so many ways. Laken said one empowering statement Strickland said was, "do not give up on the poor kids." I thought this also was an important point. I read his book Make the Impossible Possible, and found what he did with the students at Manchester Bidwell inspiring. Laken read her paper aloud to us and you could tell this meant a lot to her. She is planning on taking what she has learned from Strickland and applying it to her future teaching career.
The second presenter, Heidi Zibura, wrote a paper on Islamophobia. She researched and showed how the government and media portrays them in a bad way. Many people have predetermined concepts of who they are as people. Heidi made the point that the government works to closely with the media and controls what is shown and presented. The main point of her paper was that we need to shed the bias and try to break down the barriers for others.
Amanda Petrunak was the last presenter and she did research on "The Influence of Family." She wrote about how Spain is very family oriented. They are more family oriented than what people are here in the United States. In Spain, businesses shut down in the middle of the day in order to have lunch with their families. People in Spain are also given a month leave from work to have vacations with their families; which is paid by the way.
Each one of the presenters showed that there are so many cultures in the world. They want to take what they have learned and researched with them in their lives and use it in their careers. There is always going to be culture diversity and people need to learn more and be more accepting. One point Laken made was that she wanted to be able to have her students share different experiences from their culture and lives. This would give the student's peers an exposure to other cultures. They could learn at an earlier age about other cultures and grow to be more understanding of diversified cultures.

Chapter 3: The Stickiness Factor

1. On advertisements, there are a lot of models who portray how girls/women are supposed to look. Especially younger girls will take extreme measures to change their bodies to look like the people on TV. There are always advertisements about weight loss pills and plastic surgery. Another would be the tobacco problem.

4. For the younger age group, we said television shows are stickier than books. The TV is more interactive for children. When reading books they can lose interest and get bored, but with the TV, they are able to participate. The repetition factor also helps teach children. For older children, books may be more educational. As they get older, they can retain more information and won't be as bored with reading a book.

Comparing/Contrasting Reading Habits

For my everyday types of reading in college, I read a lot of emails, textbook assignments, and posts on facebook. While reading the two chapters in Gladwell's book, the genre is reading someone elses research. While reading facebook posts, they are usually about what a person is doing or how they are feeling at that point in time. You don't really have to think a whole lot when reading on facebook. The Tipping Point makes you think about different topics that you normally wouldn't hear or think about. It's a different type of reading because there is a lot of research, but Gladwell also includes a lot of examples to back up what he has to say. A big research technique that he uses is doing interviews. Throughout the first two chapters of the book you are reading about the interviews he went on and also what he gained and learned from the interviews. This is different reading than sitting down and reading a textbook for a certain subject. The entire text is about that main point and makes you think about that point while reading. Gladwell's research gives you different topics and points to think about.

Reflective Writing: Chapter 2

The first of the three rules of epidemics is The Law of the Few. In Chapter Two, author Malcolm Gladwell talks about Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. These are the three types of people who can start a word-of-mouth epidemic. The Law of the Few enables certain people to cause the "tip" of an epidemic. The first example is about Paul Revere's ride of warning people that the British were coming. This shows how a word-of-mouth epidemic can start.

Malcolm goes on to discuss what a Connector is. "Connectors know lots of people. They are the kinds of people who know everyone." (Gladwell 38) One person he describes as being a Connector is Roger Horchow, a businessman from Dallas. Gladwell described Horchow as a collector of people, since he has so many acquaintances with so many people. Gladwell stated that, "the point about Connectors is that by having a foot in so many different worlds, they have the effect of bringing them all together." (Gladwell 51) Connectors bring people together, just as Paul Revere did on his midnight ride. I related the Connector to be similar to my grandmother while I was reading the chapter. She knows a lot of people and a lot of people know her.

Paul Revere was also a Maven. The definition Gladwell gives is, "the word Maven comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge." (Gladwell 60) One thing Gladwell describes about Mavens is that they remember prices and information most people wouldn't acknowledge or think twice about. Another ability of Mavens is that they can recommend information, hotels, restaurants, etc. to you and most people will take their word on it and try it. Mark Alpert is a Maven Gladwell talks about in this chapter. Alpert wants to share the information he had with the people he meets. He is also one who wants more information, to find out what others know, in order to pass the information along. I thought this was an interesting part of Chapter 2. I thought it was interesting how Mark Alpert retained so much information, but was also open to learning new information so he could share that with others that he meets.

The third group of people are the Salesmen, "with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing." (Gladwell 70) According to Gladwell, Tom Gau is an example of a Salesman. Gau is a financial planner, who loves and is enthusiastic about his job. He is also an optimistic person. Gau is a natural at persuasion. Gladwell states, "He seems to have some kind of indefinable trait, something powerful and contagious and irresistible that goes beyond what comes out of his mouth, that makes people who meet him want to agree with him." (Gladwell 73) Gladwell also talks about how people's movements and facial expressions can influences others around them.

"In a social epidemic, Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. Salesmen, with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing." (Gladwell 70) Each of these types of people contribute to word-of-mouth epidemics. I like hearing about how just a few people can cause a social epidemic, just as Paul Revere did on his midnight ride. In each section of talking about the three types of people, Gladwell conducts interviews with people of each group. He gathered statistics and new information from each person he spoke to. Each person was enthusiastic about what they knew and the information that they shared with Gladwell. Gladwell concludes the chapter by reminding us how the word-of-mouth epidemic of Paul Revere's ride all began.

Summary Writing

The author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, discusses the issues of epidemics and the tipping point. In the introduction, Gladwell starts by giving us an example of how quickly a fashion trend can "tip." He talks about the Hush Puppies Tipping Point in New York. The Hush Puppies were going out of style and the sales were down. A few people in New York were wearing the shoes and more and more people started to wear the shoes. Within a period of one year, Hush Puppies were being sold in malls and stores all over. Another point Gladwell raises is about the crime rates in New York City. He speaks of the specific towns of Brownsville and East New York. The crime rates were "tipping." The crimes had fallen "by about half" within five years.
Gladwell given the definition of the Tipping Point as, "The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once is the Tipping Point." (Gladwell 9) In chapter one, Gladwell discusses the epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. He goes on to talk about how there were three contributors of how the epidemic got started. Also, in this chapter, Gladwell talks about "the three rules of epidemics." The three rules are the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context.
Gladwell concludes the introduction and chapter one by asking questions to keep us wondering what will come next and to make us think about what we just read. One question he ended chapter one with was, "How do these three rules help us understand teenage smoking, for example, or the phenomenon of word of mouth, or crime, or the rise of a bestseller?" (Gladwell 29)

In Class Activity

One topic that interested me in researching was how few women and minorities there are in top executive positions. In the past, men have been the dominating group within the business field. Now, more women and minorities are going into business and accounting. I am motivated by this topic because I am a woman and I am majoring in accounting. I have many goals I want to reach in my career and this issue could be one challenge that keeps me from reaching that goal.

This is an important to me because this can affect me now and also challenge me in my future career. I feel strongly about how much this affects women in the field that I am studying now. I can be a stubborn person and do not like when something stops me from achieving my goals. I like having a challenge and by doing this it could be the first step in overcoming that challenge. An important point to this would be to raise awareness of this situation. Some people think that we have gotten past discrimination against women in the workplace. Businesses have come a long way to have more women and minorities in the workplace, but there are still some discrimination. There is still the salary differences and also the problem I want to research of so few minorities and women in top executive positions. If there are more people who are aware that this issue is still around, I feel that more people will take action to make a difference and change how things are.

I'm not sure how I'm going to go about conducting my research. I would like to find articles of people's experiences and how they overcame their challenges. Another way would be to try to find a documentary about someone talking about their experiences. As of right now, my main way of conducting my research is going to be doing extensive research of articles.

Diversity

When I hear or think about diversity, the words differences and variety come to mind. Diversity is the differences among people, cultures, religions, etc. I fee social change is when a community or group changes and makes steps towards diversity. A community where everyone is the same would be uneventful and boring. With no variety, it would be the same thing day in and day out. The town where I grew up and went to school had very little diversity. Caucasians make up the majority of the people in my town. I was not exposed to a lot of diversity until I came to IUP. I think it is great how diverse the campus is because, you get exposed to different cultures, languages, people, and organizations. In my business classes there is a lot of talk about businesses and organizations becoming more diverse. With a diverse work environment, employees can contribute a variety of skills, ideas, and other attributes to build a strong business/organization.
I think that by promoting diversity, through social action, will make more people aware of different social issues. Social action can bring out social problems/issues that need to be changed or dealt with. By promoting diversity, you can show issues through different culture's, race's, gender, and religion's points of view.
I have come up with a few topics that I would be interested in exploring. Since I am an accounting major, I want to focus on something business related. One topic is to research diversity in the workplace. I want to focus on why there are so few women and minorities hired for top executive positions. Another topic would be researching employees' ethics in business/accounting and how their decisions affect the community. I could focus on the downfalls of companies such as; Enron and WorldCom, and see how people's decisions affect other businesses and the community. My third idea was to take more of an economics approach and study and research the unemployment rate among different minorities.

Activity Five

When I think about the word family, I can't help but think about my own family. I am a very family-oriented person, so my family means everything to me. My family consists of my dad, mom, and I have a younger sister. I think of my family as more of a traditional family, since it's the two parents and children. When I think of family, I think about trust, love, eternal bonds, support, laughter, crying, and complaining. These are just some good words to describe my family.
For the assignment of thinking about "The Family in the U.S.A," I thought about how much times have changed. In the past, people were getting married and starting their families at young ages. Today, more people are waiting longer to get married and have children. Also, in the past, people had more children and had larger families than what we have today. For example, my grandmother had seven children and each of those children had either two, one, or no kids of their own. That just shows how much of a difference one generation can make.
In the past, the mother was the one to stay at home and take care of the children, while the father went to work. I have seen many changes in that way of family life. Even though it is still around, there are more women and mothers who have full-time careers today. In many families today, both parents work and the children get taken to daycare or to a babysitter. There are also families that have a stay at home father, while the mother goes and works a full-time job. In today's world, more people take advantage of these different family-life options and aren't sticking to how thing use to be or are "supposed to be." A family does not always have to be made up of a dad, mom and children. There are a lot of families where there is only a mom or only a dad; or there are families where there are two dads or two moms. Just by writing and thinking about family in the U.S had opened my eyes to how much things have changed over time.

Activity One

One thing I remember about writing as a child, is just trying to think of how and what to write for a sentence or paragraph. A lot of times in grade school, the teachers had you write short stories from your imagination or write about yourself. When I was younger, I loved writing short stories just for fun. As I got older, teachers had me write about certain topics that they chose for me. I found it difficult to write about something I didn't find interesting or something I knew nothing about. My teachers also started to strictly criticize my writing, which was discouraging to me.
I never really liked reading until I got into college. My high school teachers always picked old novels which were good for the literature aspect, but not for keeping students interested. College professors, that I have had so far, pick up-to-date and interesting books to read. I am more likely to keep reading a book if it keeps me interested. I enjoy reading novels that are suspenseful and keeping you wondering what comes next.
In my Humanities Literature class, I wrote over thirty poems. I started to enjoy writing poems. I find it a great way to express how I am feeling. It is also a good way to get different thoughts written down on paper. If I am stressing over homework or exams, I find writing poetry a stress reliever. I find it a good way to focus my stressful thoughts on something else. I send a lot of text messages, which is a completely different way of writing. I use abbreviations, misspelled words, and the writing is very informal. I send most of my text messages to my fiance' or to my friends, so I don't have to worry about writing formally. Since I am in college, preparing to find a career after graduation, I've started practicing writing cover letters and also formal emails. With both of those forms of writing, my grammar, punctuation, and sentences have to be formal standard English. Also, in my last English class, my professor had us write reflective letters. We had to write a formal letter to him telling him our thoughts about the class.
Growing up, teachers and my parents spoke proper towards me and corrected my English. By hearing how others use words and sentences, it helps learn to speak more proper. When I am with my friends, we often use slang when talking to one another.
When I think of an essay or assignment writing, I picture a question or topic being given to me to write about. This would include essay exams. I personally think it is more difficult to write an essay or assignment writing than a poem. I like to be able to pick my own topics to write about and express my thoughts.

About Me

Hello, my name is Tabitha Barrick. I am currently a sophomore here at IUP. My major is Accounting. I know, boring right? I really enjoy math and working with money and numbers, so I know this is the perfect major for me. I grew up in the small town of Newton Hamilton. I am a family oriented person. I love spending time with my family and my fiance' Jordan. My family and Jordan are my biggest supporters in everything I do. I work part-time for Appleby's Drug Store as a pharmacy tech and really enjoy my job.

I am sometimes a shy and quiet person. I am a very curious individual and love when new challenges present themselves. I strive for success in everything I do and work hard to reach the goals I set.