D14, HW1, WP#4 Draft

Jared Zucker

Eng 102-7891

29 Nov. 2007

WP4 Draft

Reflective Cover Letter

Taking all the past deadlines into consideration, I can definitely show that my strength has a writer has done nothing but improve. I have learned a lot in this class, including organizational skills and being effective in research.

The first course outcome included writing “for specific rhetorical contexts”, which also included things like purpose and audience. In Deadline 3, Homework Assignment 3, I had to create a search plan for my ultimate research question. By doing this it helped me narrow down my audience and my topic.

The second course outcome included organizing my writing to support my main research question. Writing Project #2, the Annotated Bibliography helped with this tremendously. It helped me organize all of my sources, especially for both sides of the argument. I was able to brainstorm with ideas even while organizing all of these because I had such a plentiful amount of resources.

Having to use a proper tone, diction and grammar consistently was the third course outcome. Almost all of the writing assignments had key elements relating to each of those. Every grammar assignment helped work towards that, showing the growth of writing. For instance, I had a hard time with transitioning one paragraph to the next to keep a constant flow. Using The Owl at Purdue as one of my resources, I was able to learn how to make my paragraphs connect and link together better by writing better transitions.

The forth, evaluating both online and print sources. I prefer online research much more than print sources, just because the ease of access and effectiveness of it. However, you can usually trust a book that is in a library and give it credibility. This is not the same for the Internet. You really have to examine the websites and online journals you are puling research from, because it is not always valuable or truthful information. Writing Project #2, the Annotated Bibliography, is evidence of research I have conducted using the Internet, such as online databases and directories, and also actual book research.

The fifth outcome was to integrate different sources to develop my own ideas. I was to do this by taking someone else’s writing and turning it into my own, like summarizing or paraphrasing. Throughout all of the reading reflections and different writing projects one can see my citations in MLA format. This can sometimes be difficult to do, especially when pulling a lot of statistics from one source, but I have definitely learned a lot about MLA format and plagiarism by Writing Project #3 alone.

Number six refers to using proper MLA-style formatting, which was the required format for this class. It was a little tricky for me at first, with citing my sources. However, by the time Writing Project 2, the Annotated Bibliography came around, I was able to cite all of my sources properly as proven by the instructor’s critique.

Peer reviewing was the seventh course outcome. I love peer reviewing, mostly because I love opinions and suggestions on my writing. I am no where near a perfect writer, and when I can get any input on my writing I really enjoy it, because I can only grow more as a writer from it. Comparing my drafts of my writing projects to the finals you can see the changes I made because of helpful peer reviewing.

We then had to assess our own strengths in writing, which was the eight outcome. Having the instructor critique my different writing projects, I was able to learn from my mistakes, especially with MLA formatting. Most of the corrections and/or suggestions always made to me were to fix my MLA. I think I definitely was able to grasp MLA a lot better thanks to all the feedback which helped me grow as a writer. In my different deadline and writing project reflections, I also show this and other areas of where I was improving.

Number nine was use technology to assist us with the entire class. Being in the technology field already, I was not too worried about this. However, after having to use some technology I never really touched on, like Google Docs, I was able to learn a lot. Google Docs is an amazing tool because of how you can distribute and share it to anyone, and its ability to handle live editing from each shared user. This is a great piece of technology and I plan to use it in the future, for both work and school as I progress.

D13, HW7, Deadline Reflection

This week was a little easier, just having the main focus on the final touches on the paper. No one peer reviewed my essay which is one thing I wish would have happened..I like peer editing and enjoy criticism on my writing, because fresh ideas are always a great touch. I look forward to completing WP4 as well.

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com - Kathy, D13, HW7, Deadline Reflection | D13, HW3, Writing Reflection

http://ktmdude88.blogspot.com - Mike, D13, HW3, Writing Reflection | D13, HW7, Deadline Reflection

http://sparizek-armywife.blogspot.com - Stephann - D13, HW3, Writing Reflection

D13, HW3, Writing Reflection

The steps I took to complete this project was mainly research! I did a lot of research to come up with a lot of good sources to write a well-rounded paper, avoiding the bias opinions. I found out a lot of interesting statistics as well. Large-scale revisions was also another step taken to complete this project. I would like to have more peer reviews however. I think they are very helpful and maybe having some peer editing on the intro and conclusion separately would be helpful. I am definitely proud of the amount of time and effort put into the entire project. I have never really worked on one project so long, with all of the research and such. I really learned a lot with research in general and look forward to implying these later on. I really worked on trying to link the different paragraphs together better, using more transitions.

D13, HW2, Turnitin

Submitted.

D13, HW4, Writing Project Reflections

The writing reflections help with summarizing the entire process in completing that specific writing project. By looking at the different reflections I can see not only how I advanced in my projects, but also my growth in different areas, like research and actual writing. Using these reflections, I can create a strategy to continue my advancement in research and writing, which can all be placed into my final reflection.

D13, HW6, Deadline Reflections

The deadline reflections are helpful because it really gives an entire capture on that week's deadline. Using these from day 1 to now, it will show my progression and room for improvement in overall projects. For instance, I usually talk about how much I procrastinated, so I know that that is an issue when looking at all of them in whole. That can be used in a strategy to help my current growth and improvement.

D13, HW5, Reading Reflections

Since the final reflection letter needs to be about progress and growth, taking a look at past writings and to the most present will help me develop a strategy to improve further. I will be able to see how well I have progressed, if any at all, and to make sure I continue progressing.

D13, HW1, Grammar Assignment

I chose to learn more about hyphens from The Owl at Purdue. I learned a few things I did not know about them, for instance, you "use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun." Using this, I revised 2 paragraphs adding hyphens when possible. Some places that could have used one though, I still did not because I did not want to have an overkill.

According to the IC3, 4447 of those complaints were in Arizona alone in 2006. Two-percent were identity-theft alone. However, 71.1% of those reported a monetary-loss, with a medium-loss of $1374.19. Other crimes such as credit card fraud and check fraud had higher numbers, but usually have some sort of correlation with identity-theft after excessive use.

Some agree the government needs to step-up and help fight the battle of identity-theft over the Internet. However, there are also a group of people who think the government should be left out of the Internet all together because it is an invasion of their privacy. If the government steps in to protect the internet, they will have to protect more than just identity-theft. For instance, if the government were to lock-down websites so they had to have a special key issued out by the government to be able to sell products online, this would pose a threat as to who is the one responsible for whether one business is truly more legit than another.

D12, HW9, Deadline Reflection

There was a lot work this week so I was kept busy. The larger revisions helped a lot and I think I definitely am making my paper stronger, much stronger than it was. Reviewing other's papers made me realize how important proofing was and I do not do it as often or as thorough as I should.

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com - Kathy - D12, HW6, Page Layout
http://camlunamcc.blogspot.com - Cam - D12, HW7 / D12, HW8, Peer Reflection
http://harding302.blogspot.com - Coralee - D12, HW8, Peer Review Reflection
http://sparizek-armywife.blogspot.com - Stephann - D12, HW6, Page Layout

D12, HW8, Peer Review Reflection

Peer reviewed: Kathy & Paulette

I learned that it is highly important to proof read my work before I finish. In some of the papers I found many mistakes, not only in spelling and grammar, but sentences that did not even look like sentences and had weird citations mixed in with the paragraphs. It is easy to tell on others who put more effort into a paper, and with your own you always think you put a lot of effort into and someone else may disagree. No one has proofed my paper yet but I hope it is noticeable that I did put effort and work into mine.

D12, HW4, Style in Argument

Section1

I think word choice was very critical in in my 3rd paragraph, which talks about IC3 and all of the statistics they had on identity theft. It is very crucial because I often find that when quoting numbers like that, it feels hard to not commit some sort of plagiarism by accident. So, I find this one of the most creative times because you really have to be careful.

Section 2

This will have to relate back to Section 1. Plagiarism can happen very easily even when trying to give credit to the original source. With statistics, it always seems like there is not many ways to approach it, so you have to make sure word choice and sentence structure are both properly in place.

Section 3

In the paragraph that talks about LifeLock, I have a list going on and I used a colon right before the list. I did this to make it more noticeable it is a list and also to be hopefully be more effective because it is almost like a check list.

D12, HW5, Figurative Language

If I was to use a more figurative approach, I would probably focus on similes. I find them very useful because it can help the audience relate to something if they are not sure what it is. For instance, "Having your identity stole and your bank account frozen because of it, is like seeing your friend get your favorite bike and you can't afford it." It is not that great of an analogy but it helps get the point across, and maybe even adds in a little humor...maybe..

D12, HW6, Page Layout

In Chapter 16 or The Bedford Researcher, it talked about the important of layout design and the role it can partake in with your audience. One change would better facilitate the reading would be graphs. I used a lot of statistics and numbers in my report and I think a graphic would definitely make it easier to read and actually maybe make it hit home more about how high these numbers really are.

D12, HW3, More Revisions

Posted 3rd draft and analysis to go with it:

http://jmzucker.blogspot.com/2007/11/d10-hw3-wp3-draft.html

D12, HW2, Revisions

Posted 2nd draft and analysis to go with it:

http://jmzucker.blogspot.com/2007/11/d10-hw3-wp3-draft.html

D12, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Chapter 15 on page 189 of The Bedford Researcher, it gives you a basic list with a description of how to revise your paper. It is much similar to some of the steps needed in this week's deadline. On page 203 it tells you what are the important parts of your paper and what you should focus on when revising, like spellings of every name and checking facts. In Chapter 16 on page 210-211 it explains how important design is. Your audience when reading through multiple pages expect to see some kind of navigation, like page numbers, etc. However, a lot of this text about design in this chapter would seem more appropriate when doing something with pictures, like a newspaper article. In Chapter 12 of Everything's an Argument, it goes over the power of punctuation on page 375. They say even a semicolon is powerful, as noted by Mary Gordon. On page 389 they are showing many quotes from both fictional and nonfictional characters. This is interesting because you are able to see many different types of style in this section.

D11, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Chapter 12 i goes over different ways to construct an introduction and a paragraph. These are on pages 163-165 and 170-172. I found these very helpful and was really able to apply it well to my research paper. In Chapter 14 on page 189 it explains what plagiarism is, including some examples. The whole chapter is based on plagiarism, and explains how you can avoid it. It has some resourceful information, such as what is considered common knowledge and fair. Chapter 18, page 244 it gives examples on how to cite sources within the text of your writings.

D11, HW3, Deadline Reflection

This week was a little less strenuous so that was a plus. Reading chapter 12 and doing the exercise about writing 2 new introductions/conclusions helped out and I think I revised them to be much better than the original.

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com - Kathy - D11, HW2, Intros/Conclusions

http://winterjustin88.blogspot.com - Justin - D11, HW3, Deadline Reflection

http://sparizek-armywife.blogspot.com - Stephann - D11, HW3, Deadline Reflection

D11, HW2, Constructing introductions & conclusions

Introductions

James, my brother-in-law was walking down the streets of Orange County on a nice cool night. As he is walking he is suddenly grabbed by the neck, shoved to the nearest wall face first, with a gun to the back of his head. The robber demanded James’ wallet in exchange for his life. James eagerly gave up the wallet and was left alone. After calling the police and having his credit cards canceled, he thought he was okay. Nonetheless, ten years later he gets denied credit approval through a bank, and found out he had been a victim of identity theft. He had a mysterious maxed out credit card of $25,000 and even a P.O. Box and cell phone registered in his name. Have you or have you known someone who has been a victim of identity theft? We need some kind of better system to help protect one from being a victim in the escalating crime of identity theft. What can the United States Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of identity theft?

“The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.” (Federal Trade Commission). Identity theft is a crime on the uprising and is growing larger by the year. Perhaps you yourself are apart of this statistic, or know someone who has been a victim. It can be an extremely rigorous process mentally and physically to go through. Your funds can be frozen and the agony of trying to prove you are the real John Doe seems to never be as easy as it should be. Many of these crimes are being committed over the Internet. The United States Government can definitely give out a helping hand to start decreasing this number. However, what can the United States Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of identity theft?

Conclusions

James eventually was able to get the situation cleared up with police after several months and the person was apprehended. However, the agony he had to go through to get his name cleared was not a fun nor simple task. If a better system were to have been in place to either identity James as the real person, or stop the crime from being so easily committed in the first place, he might have been able to be spared from the evils of identity theft. Hopefully with some of the new third party companies rising up to help in identity theft, and the government stepping in we will start to see a decrease in the numbers of yearly identity thefts.

With identity theft continuing on it’s path up, the government it seems the government and third party companies are stepping in to help fight. With the combination of what everyone can do to protect themselves, along with what the government and these other companies can do, I believe there will be a shift sometime soon to where we start to see the numbers be much lower, pertaining to identity theft. However, how much can the government really do without compromising some of our rights, like freedom?

D10, HW5, Paragraph Revision

I was sort of confused by this assignment, because I felt most of my paragraphs incorporated this already..however, I'll give it a shot!

According to the IC3, 4447 of those complaints were in Arizona alone in 2006. Two percent were identity theft alone, as stated by IC3. However, 71.1% of those reported a monetary loss, with a medium loss of $1374.19. Other crimes such as credit card fraud and check fraud had higher numbers, but usually have some sort of correlation with identity theft after excessive use. (IC3).

All of the bibliography information is in WP3.

D10, HW2, Annotated Bibliography

Gage, Debbie. "Should the Government Regulate Internet Security?" FINDARTICLES (2004). 1 Nov. 2007 .

This site goes into detail about internet security and government's role in all of it. It goes into say how people do not code programs to be as secure as they should be, and the government is part to blame. This source will be great for an opposing view for my research paper.

Hands Off the Internet. 09 Oct. 2007. 1 Nov. 2007 .

This site is dedicated to saving the internet, not letting the government becoming involved. It has many facts and affiliations with other websites dealing with the same idea. This is going to help out a lot with the final version of my research paper because this offers another view at keeping the government out of our internet.

D10, HW3, WP3 Draft

Jared Zucker
Mr. Devon Adams
English 102 – 7891
WP#3 Draft
11/01/2007

Identity Theft

Identity theft is a continuously escalating crime, perhaps some of you have been victims of it. In the early 90’s it was not too uncommon to get mugged walking down the street, having your driver’s license stolen, a couple of credit cards, or maybe even your Social Security Card if you were gutsy enough to carry that on you. In today’s society, this has gone even a step further. Identity theft over the Internet is vastly becoming one of our most common crimes. Family members of mine have been victims of identity theft, much like most of yours probably have been as well. What can the United States Federal Government put in place to aid in the fight of identity theft?

The only way to truly fight crime, is by putting in place some sort of restriction here and there to prevent the crime. This is where the true controversy comes into place. Some people would rather things such as the internet be practically on lockdown than have to really worry about crimes like identity theft over the internet. Others would rather the U.S. Government leave the internet alone because it is all a form of freedom of speech and should not be regulated. So, what should the U.S. Government do? This is where the controversy gets twisted and complicated.

“In December 2003, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) was renamed the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to better reflect the broad character of such criminal matters having a cyber (Internet) nexus. The 2006 Internet Crime Report is the sixth annual compilation of information on complaints received and referred by the IC3 to law enforcement or regulatory agencies for appropriate action. From January 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006, the IC3 website received 207,492 complaint submissions. This is a 10.4% decrease when compared to 2005 when 231,493 complaints were received. These filings were composed of fraudulent and non-fraudulent complaints primarily related to the Internet.” (IC3). According to the IC3, 4447 of those complaints were in Arizona alone in 2006. Two percent were identity theft alone. However, 71.1% of those reported a monetary loss, with a medium loss of $1374.19. Other crimes such as credit card fraud and check fraud had higher numbers, but usually have some sort of correlation with identity theft after excessive use.

Some agree the government needs to step up and help fight the battle of identity theft over the Internet. However, there are also a group of people who think the government should be left out of the Internet all together because it is an invasion of their privacy. If the government steps in to protect the internet, they will have to protect more than just identity theft. For instance, if the government were to lockdown websites so they had to have a special key issued out by the government to be able to sell products online, this would pose a threat as to who is the one responsible for whether one business is truly more legit than another. According to YouDebate.com, “The First Amendment prevents the government from imposing, or from coercing industry into imposing, a mandatory Internet ratings scheme. Libraries are free speech zones. The First Amendment prevents the government, including public libraries, from mandating the use of user-based blocking software.” This means that websites and such should not be philtered out which is one way the government could potentially help prevent identity theft over the Internet. There should be a higher standard to authorize merchants to sell products online. It should be tougher to retain an SSL (Secure-Socket-Layer) and have to be approved by some kind of government agency before you are allowed to sell your products over the Internet. Anyone can purchase an online store and be running within six hours, which is mainly the time it takes to setup the actual store, not the authorization side of it. This is unacceptable and just makes it that much easier to commit a crime of identity theft over the Internet.

One way to also help prevent identity theft in general, would be first for all credit cards to be required to be protected by a 4-8 digit pin number. This would help cut down the number of credit cards stolen and used just simply using a signature. People are always on the go and always want a quicker way to purchase something, proven by Visa’s new Express Pay where you just hover your card over the credit card processing machine and it automatically authorizes you. No signature or pin number needed for entry. With new technology like this, it only makes it that much easier to continue on with identity theft. The government has the power to help regulate things like this if they really wanted to.

A school I was doing a work study program through ended up getting burglarized in the middle of the night. They smashed the windows and stole the computers in the room. The computers that were stolen had all the personal information of many students involved in this program, I was one of them. My Social Security number was stolen, and now I have to have an ongoing fraud alert on my credit report. My brother-in-law was mugged in Los Angeles once, where his whole wallet was stolen. Ten years later, he has a maxed out credit card of $25,000 spent in a state he has never even been to, where the person even had a cell phone in his name. It took him over a year to get everything cleared out and to prove he had been a victim of identity theft. When my parents first moved out here, they also became victims. The investigation took almost three months, and during this time their checking account had to become frozen since that is where the theft was from. My father had direct deposit from his work, and with all his money in his checking account, he was left with nothing until his next pay day which could not be direct deposited because the account was frozen. You can see how this can create an instant hard ship and is never fun to go through. After the investigation the account was finally unfrozen and had to be moved over to a new account. Because of issues like these, the government needs a quicker way to authorize who is the true person. This gets complicated and cloudy because of the authenticity forged documents can attain. Maybe they do have the resources to quickly obtain who the true John Doe is but just not enough people to work through the long queue provided.

LifeLock, a company that specializes in protecting identity theft, guarantees your identity and will reimbursement you up to one million dollars if you are a victim of identity theft while a client of theirs. They are so sure of themselves, the CEO puts his Social Security number all over moving vehicles and all over his website. Most of the ways they protect clients are steps everyone can take to prevent identity theft. They even list these methods and steps on their website, just comparing themselves to an oil change specialist. Why do it yourself when you can have someone do it for you? Todd Davis, the CEO, says you need to: set fraud alerts on your credit, be removed from those pre-approved credit cards and another junk mail, and order your annual credit report. These are all steps to follow to help protect you from identity theft. According to Davis, the pre-approved credit cards and other junk mail is the most common way identities are hijacked. Of course, the government could put these in place for everyone in America knowing that if you do not yourself you are very susceptible to identity theft. However, it seems doubtful they will do that.

Even though the controversy, I feel the government has to take action and step in. If we were to let the Internet not be regulated, we would have even more crimes than we do now, ones not even linked to identity theft. There is always a new story out about child molesters trying to meet new young girls online or something of that sort. If not for the government stepping in on situations like that, the number would be even greater. We need to have a happy median of the government getting involved but also staying back, however we are far from that point as of right now. Higher standards must be required by the government when allowing merchants to do ecommerce. In the end, like with everything, you are your most reliable source. You must follow the steps in preventing your own crime, becoming a victim of identity theft.

Works Cited:

“Annual Reports.” Internet Crime Complaint Center. 2007. IC3. 20 Sept. 2007

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Davis, Todd, Jim Greener, and Chini Krishnan. "Identity Theft Protection." Lifelock. 2006. National Crime Prevention Council. 20 Sept. 2007 .

Desai, Jenny. "Tricksters Populate Our Internet Landscape." Science & Spirit 18.1 (2007): 65. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Mesa Community College, Mesa. 20 Sept. 2007.

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FBI – Cybercrime. FBI. 2007. U.S. Federal Government. 3 Sept. 2007 .

"Internet Censorship Debate and Poll." YouDebate.com. 20 Oct 2007

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Katel, Peter. "Identity Theft." CQ Researcher 15.22 (2005): 517-540. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Mesa Community College Library, Mesa, AZ. 13 Sept. 2007 .

NCL’s National Fraud Information Center/Internet Fraud Watch. National Consumers League. 2007. National Consumers League. 3 Sept. 2007 .

D10, HW4, Turnitin

Not required.

D10, HW7, Deadline Reflection

I could only post on one person's essay analysis because only one had person had done it so far. This week seemed like sort of a lot of work with the fact of having to do the research paper this week as well. HW5 was a little confusing to me so I wasn't really sure how to redo 2 of my paragraphs.

I posted on these blogs:
http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com - Alex - D9HW4 Outline

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com - Kathy - D#10,HW#5 Paragraphs

D10, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Everything’s an Argument, in Chapter 10 on page 297-299 they give you examples of how to really develop a casual argument. They go into detail on how cause and effect works, for example on page 288 it shows how you can switch them all around. On page 308 it gives examples of different casual arguments so you can compare. With Chapter 11, it is all about proposals. On page 335 it explains to even have a proposal in the first place, you will to ‘make a proposal to solve a problem or prevent one.’ This is crucial to making the proposal work properly.