Writing Improvement

At the beginning of this semester I wrote a paper detailing my relationship with writing. In that paper, I contrasted my relationship with writing to my relationship with my dentist. Dr. Li, my dentist, is a very fine man whose office I enjoy visiting a couple times a year or as often as needed. My relationship with him is a good relationship that is respectful, professional, and pleasant. My relationship with writing is exactly the opposite. Although I recognized that writing is a very important part of communication and of culture in general, at the beginning of the semester I would rather have teeth pulled by Dr. Li than have to write a paper.

But now that the semester has progressed and I have learned much about writing, researching, and formatting, my relationship with writing remains just as spiteful as the day we began! Although my relationship with and enjoyment of writing has not improved, I believe my writing abilities have improved in at least a couple ways.

The first, and probably foremost, way in which it has improved is my ability to write about topics in which I have no interest. The never ceasing torrent of assignments coming at us this semester has caused me to write many a time about something that I didn’t care one bit about. It is easy for my to write about things that I like or feel passionate about, but find it very difficult to muster up the discipline or desire to write about something that I believe doesn’t matter. This semester has helped me to see that writing about these things isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can be seen as an exercise in writing ability. I have begun to see that just because I don’t want to write about something or don’t feel any interest in the subject, it doesn’t mean that there is no value in writing about such things.

A practical way in which I believe my writing has improved is in the ability to accurately summarize research in a paper. This may not seem like the most rewarding thing to have gained, but I believe it will be very useful in my life in the future. To be able to understand and accurately repeat what someone else has said in fewer words is a skill that will serve me well in the future. I am not the most proficient person in the world by any means, but my understanding of summarizing and quoting has drastically improved.

Research Paper 'BLAHHHH's

For my research paper, I have chosen to write about the band Marilyn Manson and how they have been rightfully censured and excoriated in conservative circles for the violent, satanic, wicked, and sexually explicit included in their lyrics. So far I have several good sources including a biography of Marilyn Manson (the person, not the band), and interview with the band, and various articles from their attackers denouncing the band and their destructive content. There is plenty of material from both sides to create an interesting paper with plenty of tension.

However, there are two major problems I am facing while writing this paper. The first is burnout. I am so ready to be done with this semester that I am having an extremely hard time keeping up with this class and staying on top of assignments from which I cannot foresee anything valuable being learned. As someone who is nearing the end of my 8th semester in college, there is absolutely no motivation for me to finish this seemingly utterly useless paper than the fact that I have to finish this class to graduate with my Bachelors!

The second problem I am facing is the extremely dark subject matter of Marilyn Manson’s music. Reading about the band, the lives they live, and what they sing about is absolutely oppressive. I realize that writing about this band was my choice, but had I the chance to choose again, I would not choose this band. At the outset, I knew there was good reason for them to be shunned by conservatives (which I am), but had no idea how utterly dark, hopeless, wicked, and sickening their music actually is! It has become not just a battle to keep up with the assignment, but a battle in the soul.

Having experienced this type of darkness by just casually researching the band, I cannot imagine what kind of oppression must exist in those who listen to them on a regular basis. I have commented many times in my blogs this semester that I believe unwholesome music is corrupting the minds of the youth in our culture and will eventually contribute to a moral bankruptcy that will bring America and the rest of the postmodern world to its knees. I persist in this believe, but now see how much more acute the struggle is that just the battle for morality. It is a battle for the heart of our nation. I fear that, due to the influence of bands like Marilyn Manson, the youth of our culture and our world will be rendered incapable of distinguishing truth from falsehood – a tragedy that forebodes the failure of a culture.

Over the past few weeks, writing this paper has been a factor contributing in a growing awareness that I have of the spiritual warfare perpetually raging around the minds and hearts of American culture. I make no apology when I say that I pray everyday for those young hearts and minds to be protected against the pollution and toxicity being hurled at them everyday through their televisions, computer screens, and headphones. Writing this paper has helped me see how venomous this pollution really is. In a sense, then, I am thankful for being forced to write this ‘useless’ paper. It has given me a greater understanding of the challenged being faced by the youth in our culture – perhaps a far more profitable lesson than ever intended for the assignment to teach.

Piracy... Arghh

Jason Clark
Blog - Week 12

Internet Piracy

Internet Piracy is the downloading of music, movies, books, or other copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder to make another digital copy. Many people have disputed the definition of internet piracy and many argue that downloading music from a peer to peer network is not illegal. This dispute will carry on for a long time to come, but for the present, the unsanctioned download of copyrighted material has been outlawed.

Internet piracy is a problem that affects the movie industry, publishing industry, but especially the music industry. The problem is growing for these other industries, though, due to more of our lives becoming digitized and as high speed internet becomes more common. Piracy pertaining to the music industry especially is not a problem that will ever be solved, in my opinion. There are many ways to regulate which type of files can be shared though which sites and services, but these can be easily beaten. If 100 percent fool proof way to prevent internet piracy were to exist, it would have to monitor every byte of data that is transmitted over every internet connection in every country in the world. This system would have to be able to evaluate whether or not each exchange of data between computers is a legitimate exchange or whether it is illegal. A highly advanced artificial intelligence program would have to be used on every connection in the entire world. Simply, this does not exist and never will exist because there simply is no technology that could sustain this.

I believe the industry will never stop internet piracy. It will however, curb it. With the launch of the Apple iTunes store, the way people downloaded music changed. They were now able to get any single song off an album instead of having to purchase an entire CD. This deterred many people from illegally downloading music because they were willing to spend $.99 on a song that they would have had to spend $12 to buy as part of an album before.

The biggest losers associated with internet piracy will be the record labels. The majority of all album sales go directly to the label. The artist very rarely sees anything from album sales. I don’t believe a huge majority of artists care that their songs are being downloaded for free because they would never see any of the profits from them anyway. It serves as free exposure for the artist.