Blog Journal 2: Microsoft Word

I personally have only ever used Microsoft Word to write papers for classes and to create a pamphlet for a project in high school. However, as that is the only task I have used it for, it is a very good tool for writing papers as it tells you the word count as you go and it is very accommodating for different types of papers. My teachers, on the other hand, have used it to create tests and quizzes. So while these are two very different uses, both are very beneficial in a classroom.

My teachers have always stressed the importance of properly citing any and all information you use while writing a paper, putting together a project, etc. No matter if you are directly quoting another person or simply paraphrasing their ideas, you must cite the work. As I want to be a literature professor, copyright and giving credit where credit is due is very important to me and something I will take very serious in the classroom. In order to ensure that all of my students properly cite all of their information, I will go over how to properly cite different kinds of works, show them websites that can help guide them, and let them know that they can always run their works cited pages by me if they are questioning its accuracy.

As a literature professor, one of the major issues I would want to address would be copyright. I can not stress enough the importance of properly citing your source. In order to help my students, I would stress the fact that paraphrasing deserves a citation just as much as direct quotes, as I feel that that is sometimes forgotten amongst students. Furthermore, I would teach and encourage my students to do more analyzation rather than paraphrasing. I want them to create their own ideas, not steal someone else's and merely rephrase their words to avoid thinking critically about the topic.  I would also require that all work be turned in through turnitin, which is a great way to check the authenticity of a work. Secondly, I would definitely work with my students about Academic Honesty. Living in the digital age that we live in, there are so many opportunities to be dishonest in the classroom. I would encourage my students to respect themselves, me as a teacher, and the University as a place to enhance their education and take the high-road when an opportunity to be dishonest presents itself. Lastly, I believe all educators should make it their responsibility to eliminate cyberbullying, and all bullying, to create a more open, free learning environment. However, eliminating bullying, especially cyberbullying, is hard as you cannot monitor what your students do and say online. In order to do my part in making my classroom a bully-free area, I would directly address the topic on the first day, and kindly ask my students to show their classmates the same respect they would show me or anyone of authority. In addition, perhaps I could require my students to do a short research paper on cyberbullying and the effects it has on students as a way of making sure they are aware of the harm it causes. Plus, that would give them practice with properly citing a work.