Nick's Interview

In Nick Mamatas's interview, The Paper Market, his voice was very calm and confident. He did not seem nervous or flustered by any questions he was being asked. Nick stuck to his opinions regardless of the pressure that was put on him. As for diction, I felt that he talked too fast and should speak at a slower pace to get his point across more clearly. He didn't stutter too often so the flow of his speaking wasn't much of an issue.

Hearing Mamatas definitely had a greater impact than just reading what he had to say. His confidence persuades me that he honestly doesn't believe that he did anything wrong when he wrote these papers. His arguement is that he made the students sign a contract saying they would only use his papers as models. This means that if they broke the contract, then they were only cheating themselves. I felt that because these students signed this contract, they put their integrity on the line. Regardless of whether or not Nick knew the students were going to plagiarize his essays, the students definitely knew that handing in something that was not their own work was wrong.

Nick's medium has a greater affect on people because he chuckled during the interview. Some people felt this was disrespectful and basically meant that he felt cheating on term papers was humorous. The sarcasm used in Nick's writing was different than the sarcasm coming from his mouth in the recording. It is sometimes difficult to detect sarcasm through text, but it is relatively easy to detect it in person due to a person's tone. Nick had a very dry sense of humor that seemed to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

I believe that chosing a medium for your opinion is a very crucial factor when trying to prove a point. In my opinion, being vocal about something creates the greatest affect among people. When you are speaking, people can clearly identify your voice, tone, and diction. They can also tell whether you are confident or hesitant in your arguement. Being vocal also shows the passion and emotion you have towards the topic of conversation. Text doesn't create as big of a stir in some people because it is more impersonal than actually hearing someone's voice.