Donovan-Wright Associates

I had a harrowing experience last night. I was perusing the web for an article I’d written recently on search engine optimization to see how many pick-ups it had gotten. Unlike previous article checks, this time I used the article title, “The Rhetoric of SEO” instead of my name as author for the Google search. Well, guess what? As I happily examined the pickups, most of which gave me proper credit as author as well as links to our site, I came upon one forum entry that used the exact title of my article, and verbatim text of a portion of it. And, here’s the clincher: it was posted by a forum administrator who presented it as his or her own work.

This is theft. Plain and simple. And unfortunately, the Internet is rife with it. The cyber-thieves gamble on the numbers game: with the sheer massive volumes of material on the Internet, what are the chances that the author will find her plagiarized work? So now the question becomes, what can be done about it?

First, if you are a website owner or webmaster, populate your site with good, quality content that you either create yourself, pay someone to create for you, or use material from public access sites such as Ezine Articles.com. If you do use such material, make sure you follow the terms of service guidelines or you can find yourself in a heap of trouble.

Or suppose you find other information or articles that you would like to publish, and it is not in a free access zone, so to speak. You must contact the author of the article and ask for permission to publish the article. And when you do publish it, you must give the author the proper credit. It’s just this simple: if you have any doubt about whether you need the author’s permission, just go ahead and request it. Always ask FIRST, and publish later!

If you include information on your web site such as statistics or someone else’s ideas, then cite the material. Always give credit to the source of those things that are not your own. In addition, instead of copying and pasting material in verbatim from another source, even if you are planning to give the author credit, paraphrase it instead. And, even though paraphrased, still include the proper citation. As for what citation format to use, your best bet is to select the one most frequently used for your discipline or business area, and then do a Google search on it. Some of the more commonly used ones are APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and the Chicago Manual of Style. Most colleges and universities have ample material to guide you through the creation of proper citations.

Second, if you are a contributor to forums, listservs, newsgroups, etc., never, never, never present anyone else’s words as your own. It is downright unethical, and just remember: what goes around comes around.

Third, if you are an author, make it a habit to peruse the web at least once a week to see where your work has been picked up. Perform three searches: one on your name; one on the title of the article; and one on a unique string of words from the article that you put in quotes in the search box. If you find that your work has been used without permission or proper credit, take immediate action by first contacting the plagiarizer, and then the administrators of the site. But a caveat here, as angry as you may be, and believe me, I know what that anger feels like, try to be courteous and professional in your dealings, but at the same time, firm about your request to either have your material removed or the proper credit noted.

When I discovered my plagiarized work, I immediately wrote to the person who posted it, and made a post on the forum announcing the plagiarism. The forum was attached to a website, but it had no contact information, and was not US-based. In addition, the “thief” was from India. Though I wanted to raise Cain with the web site owners/administrators, I had to be satisfied with having my work removed from the site within an hour of my email and posting. Hopefully, at least, this thief won’t strike again, but something tells me not to be so optimistic.

We call it context. In my classes, I see paper after paper after paper that begins by setting me in the middle of a jungle with no clue as to how I got there or where I’m supposed to go next. The missing link is called context. The concept is quite simple: assume your reader knows nothing about what you’re writing about and why you’re writing it.

A recent assignment for my college students required them to respond to a claim letter written by another student. The claims were written to seek compensation for some transgression or another: each student came up with one based on their personal experience.

Here’s an example of one claim response letter:

Dear John Doe,
I am pleased to inform you that we will offer you one free night here at Seneca Falls View Hotel. After reading your letter we will be very careful and informative to future customers who are renting rooms while construction is taking place. Thank you for writing us about the situation that occurred while you stayed at our hotel. We like to meet and go beyond our customers’ standards. To learn that this situation occurred is truly disappointing. I understand your frustration with the noise and we will work accordingly with construction. In the future I hope you will decide to choose our hotel again.

Sincerely,
Mary Smith

The issue with this letter is that you read that first sentence and you have no clue why the writer is writing. John Doe may not remember writing his claim letter, which complained about drilling and hammering in the upstairs room while he was trying to sleep. He then requested some sort of compensation for his hardship, and the letter above was his response.

Now, what that first sentence should have done is set the context, orient the reader as to the situation. Try this:

Dear John Doe,
As you pointed out in your letter of September 11, the Seneca Falls View Hotel has indeed been under renovation. And as you also pointed out, you unfortunately experienced this first hand as you tried to sleep under a room where active construction was occurring. We are so sorry for your inconvenience and disappointment in our hospitality and we hope you’ll give us another chance. Therefore, we invite you to a weekend on us: enjoy breakfast, dinner, and a deluxe, renovated room at our expense and a time convenient for you. Please call me and I will personally take care of all the arrangements.
Sincerely,
Mary Smith

After reading the first sentence, you know where you are, right? If he didn’t remember the incident and/or writing the letter, he’s reminded and knows what the letter is about. If, like us, you’re coming in cold, you also know what the deal is after reading that first sentence.

So, my friends, the moral of this story is to always ask yourself, will my reader unequivocally, absolutely know what I’m writing about or do I need to set the stage including all the backdrops and costumes. Err for the latter and your writing will be more effective and efficient.

Did you know that we have left the Age of the Information Economy behind and are now well into the Age of the Attention Economy? What does this mean? It means that if you rely upon the Internet to conduct your business, do your research, network with business acquaintances, and attract new fans, the rhetorical skills and savvy you need are not what they were even 5 years, let alone thousands of years, ago. And not only is today’s rhetoric a matter of exercising skills of persuasion for your direct audiences, it’s a matter of getting their attention to begin with. That’s why it’s called The Attention Age, and that’s why successful techno-rhetoric implies 2 things – the rhetoric of attracting attention, and the rhetoric necessary to accomplish your goal.

Defined, rhetoric is persuasive communication. It is sending a message to convince an audience to think, do, or believe something. Traditional rhetoric was oral: the great orators of old, including Socrates (my favorite because of his ethical approach), either delivered speeches, which tended to be more manipulative, or used discussion to discover truth. In the Middle Ages, the printing press and its printed materials replaced the oral delivery of persuasive messages. Fast forward to today, enter a techno-whirling dervish of video, audio, Flash, image, interaction, simulation, and so on – a virtual bottomless pit of rhetorical media.

My friends, in my humble opinion, the task of becoming a successful techno-rhetorician is twofold.

1. You have to get attention, get people to come to your site, read and respond to your Twitters, friend you on FaceBook, visit your blog and your website, and so on. This, I believe, requires mechanical rhetoric. Thus, you have to think about content – the more valuable, the better. And in that content, you need to incorporate your tags, or keywords in a seamless and effective way. For websites and blogs, you need to think about design and layout. Remember – it’s 7 seconds to grab them, or kiss them goodbye.

2. You have to keep their attention, and this is where your true argument and persuasion comes in. Focus yourself: what’s your goal and purpose? Who’s your target audience? How can I get them to do, think, believe? If you’re successful, they’ll:

• Call
• Check order status
• Download free software
• Find information
• Give feedback
• Join
• Purchase a product or service
• Request something

So, whether you’re coming up with a Twitter entry or designing your website, think of Socrates and the effort he expended in crafting skilled sessions of communication and truth seeking. You can do the same.

Now hold back on the delete key, please, because I have a most important message to impart. People can’t write. I have taught writing and communication courses in higher education for 12 years, and each year the situation becomes more dire indeed. The worst part of it is is that students don’t care, well most of them anyway. Some days I want to stand in front of the classroom and scrape my fingernails down the blackboard out of sheer frustration!

The real challenge in teaching students how to deal with the language correctly is teaching grammar sans terminology. Students look at me with eyes crossed, or they don’t look at me at all, eyes paralyzed by their cell and frantic text messaging if I start tossing around around terms like participle phrases and dangling modifiers.

You’d think the texting would help, after all, it is a form of writing. Form is the operative word, my friends. R u 4-getting r w1nderful, gr8t time?

We all know what the translation here is: Are you forgetting our wonderful, great time? Admittedly, when I’m texting, I use the shortcuts just as frequently as the next guy. But, another operative word, I know the difference between the casual, fast-track-texting language and the English language as it is meant to be written.

I admit it. I am a grammar maven. I cringe when I see a list that is not parallel in construction. My stomach lurches when I read sentences containing comma splices or sentences presented as such that aren’t! So when I’ve read enough papers loaded with these and myriad other errors, up to the black(white) board I march, chalk/marker in hand, and away we go with sentence diagramming.

It amazes me that out of a class of 25 students, maybe 2 or 3 have ever even heard of sentence diagramming, so evidently it has become a lost art. But thanks to Sister Felicitus and her sentence diagramming lessons where we all shook in terror lest we be called up to the blackboard to diagram, I learned how to put a sentence together. I actually loved it. I found it to be like a puzzle!

And now I have the puzzle of figuring out how to teach college students to write the language correctly in an era where you are what you write!

And from now on, I’m leaving the twittering to them! I’ve been experimenting with this Twitter phenomenon for the last two weeks, and maybe that’s not enough time, but holy smokeroo — what a waste! Actually, in fairness to the thing, there is probably a very nice, middle ground of folks who are not obsessed with inhaling thousands of followers and “twittering” every minute on the minute. Really! I am so SICK of seeing the same faces splattered all over my computer screen. Plus, you can feel the intensity of the thing spraying out at you – these folks are rabid! Anyway, back to some Zen sanity. After the slaughter, of course, that is if the twitterers can find me here in my cozy hideout!