Why we're fucked as a nation

I can name this tune in four keystrokes.

Really. Four keystrokes.

1. Control key.

2. A to select all

3. C to copy

4. V to paste

So I'm writing a paper for school on plagiarism. Well, we'll use "writing" loosely. I'm copying it. From the internet. Because it's easy. Copy. Paste. See, done.

No, seriously, anyone who is reading this knows I have NOT A BIT of trouble writing. Really. In fact, I've had several people tell me when my stuff gets too long they lose interest. And one of those people wanted to date me. Yeah. She lost points there. (Oh, he's keeping score. That's not nice).

Anyway ... as I'm looking up the proper way to format something in APA style (shut it. University requirement. No, not MLA. No, not WTFE (that's what the fuck ever format, my usual writing style) but APA. Because IT people are so psychological. Or psycho. I forget.) and I find this.

This is what's wrong with America. In four keystrokes.

This is totally stolen from an APA Crib Sheet posted on the College of Wooster's website, who took it from some guy from Georgia Southern University who based it on something written by someone at the College of Wooster. (And people tell me plagiarism is bad?)

Avoiding Biased and Pejorative Language
In general, avoid anything that causes offense. The style manual makes the following suggestions:

DO NOT USE	WHEN YOU CAN USE
ethnic labels (for example, Hispanic)	geographical labels (Mexican American)
"men" referring to all adults	"men and women"
"homosexuals"	"gay men and lesbians"
"depressives"	"people with depression"

Correct use of the terms "gender" and "sex"
The term "gender" refers to culture and should be used when referring to men and women as social groups, as in this example from the Publication Manual: "sexual orientation rather than gender accounted for most of the variance in the results; most gay men and lesbians were for it, most heterosexual men and women were against it" (APA, 2001, p. 63).

The term "sex" refers to biology and should be used when biological distinctions are emphasized, for example, "sex differences in hormone production."

Avoid gender stereotypes. For example, the manual suggests replacing "An American boy's infatuation with football" with "An American child's infatuation with football" (see APA, 2001, p. 66).

Sensitivity to labels
Be sensitive to labels. A person in a clinical study should be called a "patient," not a "case." Avoid equating people with their conditions, for example, do not say "schizophrenics," say "people diagnosed with schizophrenia." Use the term "sexual orientation," not "sexual preference." The phrase "gay men and lesbians" is currently preferred to the term "homosexuals." To refer to all people who are not heterosexual, the manual suggests "lesbians, gay men, and bisexual women and men" (APA, 2001, p. 67).

In racial references, the manual simply recommends that we respect current usage. Currently both the terms "Black" and "African American" are widely accepted, while "Negro" and "Afro-American" are not. These things change, so use common sense.

Capitalize Black and White when the words are used as proper nouns to refer to social groups. Do not use color words for other ethnic groups. The manual specifies that hyphens should not be used in multiword names such as Asian American or African American.

Labels can be tricky, and the manual has a lot to say about them. For example, "American Indian" and "Native American" are both acceptable usages, but the manual notes that there are nearly 450 Native American groups, including Hawaiians and Samoans, so specific group names are far more informative.

The terms Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano are preferred by different groups. The safest procedure is use geographical references. Just say "Cuban American" if referring to people from Cuba.

The term Asian American is preferable to Oriental, and again the manual recommends being specific about country of origin, when this is known (for example, Chinese or Vietnamese). People from northern Canada, Alaska, eastern Siberia, and Greenland often (but not always!) prefer Inuk (singular) and Inuit (plural) to "Eskimo." But some Alaska natives are non-Inuit people who prefer to be called Eskimo. This type of difficulty is avoided by using geographical references. For example, in place of "Eskimo" or "Inuit" one could use "people from northern Canada, Alaska, eastern Siberia, and Greenland."

In general, call people what they want to be called, and do not contrast one group of people with another group called "normal" people. Write "we compared people with autism to people without autism" not "we contrasted autistics to normals." Do not use pejorative terms like "stroke victim" or "stroke sufferers." Use a more neutral terminology such as "people who have had a stroke." Avoid the terms "challenged" and "special" unless the population referred to prefers this terminology (for example, Special Olympics). As a rule, use the phrase "people with _______" (for example, "people with AIDS," not "AIDS sufferers").

In referring to age, be specific about age ranges; avoid open-ended definitions like "under 16" or "over 65." Avoid the term elderly. Older person is preferred. Boy and Girl are acceptable referring to high school and and younger. For persons 18 and older use men and women.