Blog 3

Le Beau-Pere written by Phyllis Rose was one of the essays read this week in our NextText book that interested me the most. In the story Phyllis Rose tells about her second marriage to a man named Laurent and just how he came into her life and her thirteen year old son Ted's life and fit in perfectly. She goes on to say about the types of activities that the three of them would always do together and how Laurent arrived at a good time just as Ted was about to enter adolescence. She explains throughout the story how Laurent never punishes Ted or never tells him what to do. She then concludes the story with the meaning of Le Beau-Pere which is beautiful father. I'm sure that Ted and Phyllis feel that Laurent is a "beautiful stepfather" in a way because Laurent just came into their lives and didn't change anything from the way they were living their life for the previous thirteen years before him. Laurent was not controlling one bit and left them have their space but was always there when he was needed. How would have it been different if Laurent would have came into their lives being a harsh and controlling stepfather? Or how is it going to be in a couple years when Ted is at the age where he is going to need to be disciplined and Laurent is not going to punish or stand up to him? So in conclusion I feel that I wouldn't act the way I do now if it were not for my parents raising me the way they have and discipling me when I needed it and I think if Laurent does not discipline Ted when he needs it Ted's going to end up disobeying Laurent.

Blog 2

After recently just reading this weeks readings in the "Next Text" book I came to the conclusion that the majority of the stories were all about students cheating and plagiarism. In the first story by Jason M. Stephens he talks about research of high school/college students views about cheating, why they do it, and whether or not they consider it to be cheating. He states that most students do cheat or have cheated at least one time before. He also claims that the majority of students know cheating is wrong but still continue to do it anyways. Students cheat because they feel they need to in order to keep their good grades and they may not have had time to do their work so they decide to cheat to keep up. This is a reoccurring thing that is happening more and more in students especially those that work , they have a busy night at work and just don't have the time to do their homework but would hate to get a bad grade so they decide to copy someone else's. That of which I know I have done a time or two but who honestly hasn't? Also a lot of the time when people are considered to be cheating I do not think they really know they are doing it or doing anything wrong. This is where plagiarism happens. People say or do things and think they are inventing something when really it has already been made up. So in conclusion, people have many different reasons why they cheat, its just that some are good believable reasons to cheat and some are not.

Blog 1

This week after reading four stories in our "Next Text" book it made me think about all of the stories being talked about and just how true each of the stories are and just how much I can relate to each story in some way from past experiences I have seen/heard about happening. In the very introduction it shows a woman holding a Louis Vuitton bag which is fake which is something that is more and more common today. I have heard about quite a few court cases in which someone has taken someone else to court because they were trying to cheat them out by telling them the purse is real when it is really fake. Each of the four stories is based on some form of cheating whether it would be a huge deal if you get caught or if it would be just a minor offense if caught. why do people feel the need to steal things? Some people are just that poor or selfish and feel that if they don't steal things they won't be able to survive or fit in . For example some people have to steal food because they are just that poor they can not buy their own food or some people are just that selfish and they feel they need to steal that piece of jewelry just to fit in because so many other "cool" people have it. Also another big reason why I feel that people cheat is because our society is becoming a big competition. And if you don't do things a certain way or have certain things then you are just looked down upon in society so therefore people steal their way to the top so they can still compete society. So there are lots of reasons why people steal and cheat it is your job to decide whether it is really worth it or not.