The Reflection of The Originality Report

The originality report is not valid and not intellectual enough. It shows that I have 5% plagiarism. However, the two parts it highlight are a quotation, which is put in quotation marks, and a portion of my works cited. The reason of the highlighting is the exact phrases has appeared in other’s paper; however, since it is a quotation and a standard MLA format works cited, the phenomenon is impossible to avoid. Nevertheless, I learned that the same source could be used by different individuals for different purposes; thus, not twisting the ideas of the sources were ethical. Since I did my best to revise the citations before I turned in the homework, I can not identify any other plagiarisms.

Writing : The Self-portrait

I take my writing as drawing my self-portrait. Although the writing prompts are not always come up by me, and most of them are homework assignments, I can always find thesis that I feel the urge of writing them down and arguing for. As an artist, the process of accomplishing a self-portrait is just like writing. I begin with a clear prompt — drawing myself. But after deliberating of the plan for accomplishing the artwork, I am inspired, and start figuring out what properties of myself that cannot wait to express through my self-portrait.

Not only the thesis, but also the process of researching for the thesis is just like drawing my self-portrait. In research, I start with meticulously reading original sources, analyzing their data, and figuring out the relationships. In drawing, I start with closely observing my face, recognizing the details, and reconstructing the structures.

However, the process doesn’t stop as the general sketch of the writing or the portrait is done on the paper, I start thinking about additional insights and ideas. I begin asking my self “what else do I want to convey?” “what else do I want to reflect?” “how am I going to finish it?” In drawing the portrait, it is the time to adding depth into eyes, blush onto checks, and shadows reflecting curves. In writing the paper, it is the time to challenging audience and sharing additional ideas.

Self-portrait of Yige Liu (Painted by Yige Liu, 2015)