Conversation Is Original to Each.

¶ … conversation is original to each. In David Edelstein's (2006) article, "Where have I read this before?," the author focuses on literary writers who have been found to have plagiarized in their works. In Vincent Moore's "Playing Dirty in the War on Plagiarism," Moore offers a sort of aggressive way of combating plagiarism in suggesting that academics writer false and ridiculous papers on common subjects and post them online so unassuming students can replicate them and be caught.

In the final article, "The Shadow Scholar," "Ed Dante," a hired gun who writes academic papers for students and is paid a pretty hefty sum discusses how he is not to blame for students' cheating. Each author has a vital argument about plagiarism and the effects of plagiarism and while there is some blaming going on in each article, mainly blaming the plagiarist, Dante blames professors for being clueless about their students' lack of intelligence.

Part Two: Dante has quite a good argument in saying that it is the educator's responsibility for not finding more original ways to teach (which Moore also discusses). There are definite ways to combat cheating. The idea of playing dirty, according to Moore, is an interesting idea. If students are going to cheat, then they must be punished if they are so stupid as to buy papers online without reformatting and without knowing that the content is not what is wanted for the assignment.

Dante, a wanna-be creative writer, has found a way to make a living writing; though it is not what he would prefer to write, obviously, he is writing nonetheless. He is paid a good salary -- no, not great -- but probably more than the average teacher, as he points out. Why should he be blamed for what he does? He is not single-handedly responsible for student's cheating. Students are going to cheat either way; it all comes down to how they are going to cheat.

It would be the same thing to blame every single stripper for pornography. It is something that exists. The only thing that people can do is hope that others' values will stop them from taking part in cheating. Another thing, most academic "services" have clauses in their contracts that states that their essays are supposed to be used as a model and that plagiarism is not supported -- however, everyone knows that students are paying to cheat.

Assignment Two Black Swan is a sort of horror film, but one that we don't expect as it takes place in the world of ballet. Nina (Natalie Portman) is a ballerina who wants her chance at playing the swan in "Swan Lake," which means she will have to portray both the 'good' swan and the 'bad' swan. The problem is that she is such a good girl that nobody believes she has the chops to play the black swan.

And in enters Lily (Mila Kunis), the bad girl who befriends Nina…and who tries to take over her role in "Swan Lake?" The Black Swan is like a dream. It is about ambition, dreams, and self-doubt. It is about betrayal and desire. It is a film that is hard to put into a few neat words. Like Aronofsky's other films -- most notably Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky is the king of making one feel like they have lost their minds.

While Aronofsky seems to have grown as a filmmaker since his earlier films, he has not lost the passion of story telling in its most captivating and gruesome form. Black Swan is a movie that will have you guessing and hoping for Nina. We want her to succeed.