Stedman Reading

Summary:
In Kyle D. Stedmen's article "Annoying Ways Poeple Use Sources" he discusses 6 different writing habits that bother him. Things ranging from odd usages of quotations to agitating citation mistakes. He convienently provides examples of these improper usages of sourses so that the cause and effect of the mistake is highly visable. After providing examples of each of these annoyances, Stedman gives "fixes" to each of the problems.

My Own Thoughts
I definitely agreed with the annoyances he listed involving quotations. To me, you have to know how and when to use a quote or it completely works against you. They can either be helpful or incredibly distracting. However, the interesting thing about quotations it that if you simply relocate them, or change their lead in- they can go from being completely random to a huge stepping stone for you to a point, or opinion or literally anything you could want to do in a paper. You just need to know how to do it to the paper's full potential. Anyways. I digress. I however believed that his annoyance involving the alphabitized citation/being able to look into the source more easily/quicker was a bit ridiculious. Maybe because I have never graded a paper and actually needed to look into the works cited...I'm just used to being pestered by having to make them. So, this example isn't exactly something that would annoy me, personally when reading a paper- however, I can understand if a professor had a stack of 20+ papers and needed to breeze through the citations-- it would come in handy.

Syllabus Questions
1) I believe that the Stedman reading and the previously assigned readings allign because they all involve fixing "distractions" or something that could occupy a reader before being able to fully understand the point of your paper. Also, they touch base on writer's flaws (not paper's flaws) that can be aknowledged before the paper is written/turned in that would help the writer better communicate, and the reader better understand.

2) In High School I was basically taught "you need X amount of sources...one need to be an article, one needs to be an interview, one needs to be out of a book.......ready.....go." and teachers never really cared that the sources had "meat" they just cared that on the due date they could run through the works cited page and see X amount of books, articles, interviews etc. I would be lying if I said that at some point in high school I didn't make up a source, or use my aunt & uncles names as authors of a book I made up simply because it was after midnight and I was tired of Googling sources. It happens. But more frequently, it goes unnoticed. I was taught the mind set of "I don't care what the sources contain...or if they're reliable...or if they're REAL...I just care that on the day you turn in your paper you have X, Y & Z and I'll give you full credit on your works cited. It's THAT easy." As a future language arts teacher I don't believe it should be THAT easy. It should be a hunt. For the most reliable, and the most educated source.

3) I have for sure changed my views on sources since the beginning of fall quarter. Through my speech class, and my EDTE class, I learned how to evaluate sources, and look deeper than "hmm it came off Google- it HAS to be true." I learned how to do APA style citation- and that literally changed the way I think of doing citations and research. Citing things is no longer "do it right and you'll get full credit." it is now "do it right and your paper will be full of useful information that will add substance and passion to your paper."

Questions For Discussion
1) In terms of "bending the rules for publication space/audience" I believe that the younger the audience, the bendier the rules. Depending on the topic of course, it is hard to put a general opinion on this because it depends so heavily on the topic. Say I was publishing an opinion column in The Post. I would most definitely use language and sentence structure that an OU student wouldn't just be able to read but would WANT to read while hiking Morton Hill, or waiting for a friend for lunch. However, if I were to be writing an opinion article in Times magazine, it would be more geared towards an educated, older audience. Thus requiring me to use different language/quotes/lead ins.

2) "Dating Spider Man"
    
      In the January 9th edition of The Post, an article about MAC basketball did not start with a quote- 
      which I liked. It read: "Coming off a tough loss to Robert Morros, Coach John Groce said he was proud of his team's intensity despite its diffuculty executing."


3) Rank the annoyances from least annoying to most annoying:

1- I Can't Find the Stupid Link
2- I Swear I Did Some Research
3- Uncle Barry and his Encyclopedia of Useless Information
4- Armadillo Roadkill
5- Dating Superman
6- Am I In the Right Movie?