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Hey everyone,
Today in class, we had a special Halloween party! We were encouraged to come to class in costume, and we had food (a whole variety- bananas, candy, granola bars, cupcakes, apples, pumpkin bread, and apple cider). It was great to be able to hang out, talk with each other, and generally relax during an otherwise stressful time. This is definitely just one more reason why we love Stanford!
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
The topic I chose for my paper is urban literature. I have always been interested in urban literature because of the number of African American people that praise the genre. This is an interesting topic to talk about because it deals with a whole bunch of issues that is not written about in other books and if it is mentioned in other books, it is not done so explicitly as in urban fiction novels. I have no clue what I want my thesis to be. There are so many aspects and issues involved in this one subject and I have not the slightest idea of how I will narrow it down and come up with my own thesis. I am focusing towards how black women are represented in urban fiction novels. In this paper I want to explore both sides of the controversy that exist within this topic. I want to figure out the true nature of this genre and see how it has change the world of literature whether it being for the better or worst.
I have already started to do my research for this paper. I found many articles that either praised or bashed the topic. With the scholarly resources that I have found they went into details about the emergence of urban literature and all the elements and characteristics that it consist of. I will research books, encyclopedias and also internet resources to explore this topic to its fullest potential. I found a few great articles but now I need to find some other resources to get some more information and different points of view.
I believe that the most difficult part of this paper would be finding relatable sources and structuring the paper. I am not very good with outlining and since the paper is going to be pretty lengthy that is a fear of mine that I would lose track of my thesis and just go off my topic completely.
Having the AUC located in the heart of the Middle East, “Egypt”, means that its students will be following an Arab style of clothing since Egypt is a purely Arab country. Despite such fact, AUCians are well acknowledged with ongoing worldwide fashion trends and that what makes the AUC one of the most distinguishable universities in Egypt; its amazing mixture of Arab and non-Arab fashion styles. Below are some of the popular fashion trends followed by the differently cultured students and which are as follows:
Here, we have the eye-catching Gladiator sandals. Why are they on the top-of the AUCian fashion list? Well, they have their unique styles which as you can see can reach the ankle line and therefore be hidden under the trousers as well as be wrapped around them. Not only are they found in various colours that range from astonishing pinks, explosive purples, electric blues, calming whites to classical blacks, but also, they are surprisingly comfortable since they are usually made from comfortable materials such as leather. In addition to the sandals, we have the head bands which are seen an important accessory to the diverse AUCian outfits. What makes them that famous is the “hippy” look they provide as seen in the photo above (right figure).
Speaking of accessories that are related to one’s profile face, are the Ray-Ban sunglasses. Whether they are in their classical shapes or modern ones, they definitely suit both sexes as seen in the above left picture. Nevertheless, when it comes to skinny trousers either cotton or jeans, they are worn by males, yes, males and not just females unlike what is usually perceived by many.
Leggings”, a word that indeed can’t escape an AUCian female closet. Why? Because it goes well with all seasons; summer, winter, spring and fall. They are called leggings since they actually customize the leg’s shape. Despite the fact that they might be of a thin textile, they are astonishingly warming during cold days. Although in the above pictures the leggings’ colour is black, you can find them in cheerful colours like red, purple and even yellow. Oh! Here we find again the Gladiator sandals spicing up the leggings and the skinny jeans as well.
We just can’t forget about the books and that’s where the cross bags come to take an essential part in our clothing. It all started simply as laptop bags and with their enormous spread over the AUC campus, they became a desirable trendy look. They can be plain casual like Vans or with classical designs such as Louis Vuittons. Speaking of classical style of clothing, the classical shoes come along as seen in the above pictures with Kareem wearing the brown and Youssef wearing the black.
Those were just few of the AUCian trends that largely depend on the ongoing global changes in the fashion industry. However, being an AUCian, means you just have to be yourself whether you follow these looks or not. In both cases, you are still going be an AUCian...
Mirna Awad and Amr El Abd
The employment fair event has been taking place since the year 1986. The American university in Cairo was the first university that introduced the employment fair event in the Middle East. The caps office which is the Career Advising and Placement Services is responsible to organize this twice a year one day event. This Caps office spreads out information booklets that include the names of all the participating companies with their vacant job positions before the event’s initiation. The event’s aim is to acquaint graduate students with the possible career life they are tending to take. It also builds up relationships between those students and the corporate world. Furthermore, it’s about presenting our graduate students’ skills and qualifications to the participating companies which are recruiting for certain employees. Thus we can say it’s a mutual event where both parties are satisfied. From the companies’ side, they can find their employer’s needs in our students. While from the students’ side, they are offered unexpected great highly paid jobs, and this of course is also beneficial for the university as it reflects its image on its well qualified students.
Companies are encouraged to participate in the employment fair event to observe the highly qualified graduates and maybe they would find their needs in one of them. Companies represent themselves through conducting booths where one of their representatives is responsible to introduce the companies’ vision on campus. This booth opens a way towards marketing the company’s name and establishes a productive relationship among our AUC community. For instance, this direct contact with the students would allow them to represent their image more clearly than through advertisements. They also get to spread their presence through handing out flyers and descriptive brochures. Diversified companies from all career fields join our event to open wide opportunities for all our students of different majors, such as architects, economists, accountants, physicians…etc. Some examples of the companies who have shared in the last couple of years are: Credit Agricole Egypt S.A.E, Halliburton, HSBC bank of Egypt, Henkel, Amid East, Vodafone, Bavarian Auto Group (BAG), and Unilever Mashreq.
As companies are profited from this fair, students as well gain advantages. Students get to know and perceive the companies’ various offers and maybe they would relief some uncertainties and establish particular concepts about their type of work. In addition, since companies specify their unoccupied job positions, students would be able to plan ahead and choose the most suitable company they feel emotionally and logically inclined to. Usually undergraduate students are not very familiar with the future job they will be facing; hence through this fair students become acquainted with the kind of work awaited for them in the future. Eventually, interested students in the alumni would present themselves to the companies’ representatives and hopefully some of them get the chance to be hired.
Furthermore, benefits come along this event to the university as well as to students and participating companies. As students are hired in brand named companies, this markets for the university’s figure, and enhances its reputation as well. That’s why AUC is thoughtful for this event in particular as it’s proud to show and display its most qualified graduate students to the best international and local companies in Egypt. And remember that the main objectives for every university including ours are to raise highly qualified and distinctive graduates that would strongly compete in the actual working life. So what do you think of our event?!
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=employment+fair+event+in+AUC&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
Here you can see the high spirit and motivation the company’s representatives give.
http://www.caps.aucegypt.edu/employmentfair/photos/Fair.html
These pictures emphasize exactly what the event is trying to conduct by allowing students and companies to interact greatly with one another.
"Fall 09 Employment Fair." The American University in Cairo, Career Advising and
Placement Services. 19 Oct 2009
http://www.caps.aucegypt.edu/employmentfair/employmentfair_history.html.
Hey peeps, this is Osman and Hamza and we're talking about some different groups in AUC. AUC is one of the places in the region where you can find a collection of various groups having different beliefs. The existence of students from different cultures allows the campus life to be enjoyable. However, every student tries to find the group that supplements his beliefs. Therefore, students that share the same beliefs create their own group. That is how diversity shows up. Examples of these groups are the Gucci corner group, the theatre majors, the science majors, the “G-spot” and the Goth cave group. The variety of groups around the campus is extremely wide and they are all very different, yet share similar aims.
First of all, there is the infamous Gucci Corner. It is basically a passage between two buildings and probably the most well known hangout area in the whole university. This is the richer part of college, where everyone that hangs out there has to be wearing some kind of very expensive brand, from shoes to watches to shirts and jackets to hats and shades. Thus the name Gucci; they do not wear only Gucci but they definitely own some kind of Gucci wear and wear it at some point. It was a corner before at the old campus but after moving to the new campus the same group chose this as their hang out place and they’ve been there since last fall. While most of you would think that this group is populated with girls, they are composed of a near equal divide of both genders, with the numbers leaning in favor of the guys.
The move to the new campus also brought about new groups as well. The most famous would probably be the “G-Spot”. Obviously, from the name, the group is composed of free willed liberal thinkers who do not care what everyone around them thinks. They chose this name because they think its funny how corny it is. It is located outside of the library, where students hang out on the structure that was meant to be an aesthetic part of campus. These students are very loud and are often scolded by campus security for being too rambunctious. Music is something that this group finds common ground with. Students will blast music from their I-Pods, laptops, or from impromptu jam sessions with the many musical members of this group. This is a group that may not fit the social norms of popularity, however, it seems to be gaining ground with members joining daily. This group started with around four or five students, but has swelled to boast more than twenty members gracing the outside of the library throughout the day.
Some people from the "G-spot" chilling.
On the way to the language section of campus, there is a gathering that is locally known as “Goth Cave”. Hidden underneath a staircase and away from the Cairo sunlight is a hangout for students of the anti-social persuasion. These students are not well received on campus and have conflicts with other groups such as the Gucci Corner students. While these students may seem anti-social and angry with the rest of campus, within their social circle, they are quite outgoing. While it may seem unexpected, this group is like all other students on campus, going to parties on weekends, hanging out with friends at cafes, and doing normal young adult activities.
These groups may seem very distinct from an outsider’s view but once people communicate with them they all seem to have very similar interests. Talking to anyone from any group would show you how they are all very interested in music and of course their aim in AUC is to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. Even though their taste in music for example is not similar but their love of it is almost the same. This applies to all aspects of their everyday life and not only music; they are all differently similar.
(We've only been able to capture pictures of one group because the other groups refused to let us. The "G-spot" obviously not caring let us take pictures of them.)
KEEP THEM COMMENTS COMING! :)
One of the most interesting things about AUC is its clubs and organizations. It has a wide variety of clubs such as community service, entertainment and educating clubs. One of these clubs is called AYB, Alashanek Ya Balady. It is an Arabic word which means “for you my country”. It is a student-led community service club which mainly aims to achieve sustainable development at Ein Elsera which is a poor district in old Cairo where people have some problems like low income, computer illiteracy and language problems. This club has started at AUC since 2002, but now it has four chapters in other governmental Egyptian universities. AYB consists of two main bodies. The first one is OC, stands for organizing committees which mainly works on campus. They are divided into smaller committees which are responsible for AYB’s public relations in campus, raising fund and making documentaries about AYB. They also design flyers, posters, banners and booths. This picture shows AYB booth which was for “Be Positive” campaign which urges students to be positive and do their best to improve their country.
The second body of AYB is Programs. It consists of many programs which work on Ein Elsera. These programs are committed to computer learning, micro projects funding, youth development, English development, charity and eliminating illiteracy. All this is done by students who go to Ein Elsera to teach people computer so that they may enter ICDL exam for free, teach them English and Arabic for illiterate people and also developing youth by teaching them noble values. They also give loans to people at Ein Elsera so that they may embark on projects to raise their income. There are also donations which are organized by charity program. This photo is taken from Ein Elsera where some of AUC students are celebrating with people at Ein Elsera in the end of the year.
Another aim of AYB rather than developing people in Ein Elsera is to develop students at AUC like any other club or organization on campus. A lot of trainings are provided for members and also for other students to teach them computer programs that they shall use through the year like Photoshop and Sony Vegas. It also gives members the opportunity to gain experience through dealing with people outside campus. It also teaches them other skills like tutoring skills for people at Ein Elsera. All these activities which students practice are aiming to prepare students for the real. That’s why students are encouraged to be engaged in such activities. This photo shows a trainer giving AYB lecture about self awareness and leaving a legacy.
Last year, AYB won the third place for MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship and it was awarded 1000$. Although this prize provides AYB members with happiness and confidence that they are on the right track, I think that their real prize was the smile on people’s face at Ein Elsera. There are also other community service clubs at AUC rather than AYB like Help Club or Glow. You can benefit your country through working in such organization and that is your role as a good citizen who cares about others and about his country.
Ahmed Kenawy
Andrew Youssef
Aucians have been waiting for a long time for the opening of the sports center in the new campus in Katameya. They endured a lot in the old campus due to the limited facilities that were provided. For this reason they were waiting for the new sports center to fill up their expectations and cover their needs. In fact, the new sports center provides a lot of facilities to AUC society, both students and staff. There is an outdoor zone containing two basketball courts and two handball courts.
There are four tennis courts where our colleagues who are members of the AUC team practice at. Two soccer pitches are also built on a very high standard so that the university could host important matches and championships. 
Moreover, the new AUC sports center has a big gym containing 3 rooms of different equipments of the latest edition which persuade students to exercise regularly during their spare time. We usually go there to jog or lift some weights! An enormous indoor court is available for practicing sports such as basketball, handball & volleyball. It also has a track in its upper floor to be used by athletes.
The sports center should also include a swimming pool. However, it did not function till the moment due to some technical problems. In fact, this is causing some problems to the members of the swimming and water polo teams as they are not able to train within the entire campus. As a result, they are forced to exercise outside the campus which makes them fatigue and uncomfortable. Lockers are also available in the new sports center to be used by any exerciser. In addition, the AUC teams compete in different competitions either national or international ones. Trainers are very experienced and they schedule daily practices for the teams. Most of the AUC teams such as football, handball, basketball and volleyball had travelled to different countries such as Turkey and Malaysia in order to play against universities of these countries. Furthermore, the AUC sports center gives a lot of rewards for students who accomplish great sport achievments. In fact, the new sports center had met the Aucians expectations to a big extent. In addition, the sports center now has many new sports which weren't there such as boxing and rowing. To enhance the sports complex GoGo juice and Cilantro Café are also present for athletes to grab a drink after their exercising. AUCians do not use the sports complex as much; we're always busy eating at the food court or just chillin' anywhere..
Cheers
Aly El-Deeb
Ahmed Maged
![ncees1[1].jpg](http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/ncees1%5B1%5D.jpg)
AUC was first established in 1919 in downtown Cairo, this part of the busy city was known for its ancient artifacts and beautiful environment surrounding the campus but due to the rapidly growing population and the narrow streets and since most of the population concentration is located in central Cairo and Giza it was very difficult to maintain a smooth flow of traffic around the university campus, this caused many problems to the students, professors and even to the public, it was impossible to sustain proper class timing. Also the pollution became intense in this area due to the very large number of vehicles. Also the fact that many of the government's headquarters are located in this area caused even further complications. All these difficulties made the university board consider moving to a new campus in a place more suitable not only to make it easier for the students and the professors but also to help decrease the over crowded streets in this part of Cairo. After long discussions and debates the board reached the conclusion that they should move to a more suitable, newer area. The decision was reached to build a new, bigger more advanced campus in new Cairo which is a city newly formed and considered as an extension to the capital. It is located south east of Cairo, with the new city’s vast areas and facilities it was able to attract a very large number of business and schools to re-open there. With AUC leading by taking this huge step of moving out, not only did it serve the public in this crowded part of Cairo by decreasing the pressure on this area but it also leaded other universities to do the same and encouraged many businesses to open in this new area and also investors were stimulated and started building huge resorts, houses and living areas. This all was a great step in helping diverse the Egyptian population in new areas. The new AUC campus also was a great positive to the university's capabilities and facilities. The larger space of the new campus enabled a lot more, now AUC has enough space to build more labs and better classes and larger lecture halls and conference rooms; this opened a door of opportunities to the university to expand its teaching programs, and research programs now not only will it now be able to accept more student but AUC is now able to introduce medical school and pharmaceutical school, and in the very near future these schools will be established. AUC’s new campus is also environmentally friendly this is a great positive in helping our country decrease its greenhouse gas emissions. The over all view is that AUC's step towards moving into new Cairo created life in an area once people knew as the desert and transformed it into a new place full of life for the good of our country.
By:
Beshoy Tarek Malaty and Hussein Mohamed
Written by: Aya Salama and Silvana Philip
(http://egyptclub.whwebsolutions.com/wp-content/themes/Ancient%20Egypt/images/Header.jpg)
In the minds of many, Egypt has always been the land of the pyramids, Cleopatra, king Tut, "the mummy "and " the mummy returns". The mystical appeal of the ancient Egyptian civilization has lured many to try and know better about it and study it more closely. And where closer can one ever study it that in the land of the pharaohs itself! The American university in Egypt is one of a selected few (probably one of two) of American affiliated universities that offer an Egyptology major world wide. Among the different departments of AUC, Egyptology is considered one of the most unique and interesting departments. The department presents a wide variety of courses concerned with the dawn and development of the Egyptian civilization. Students study different topics such as construction, hieroglyphic language, medicine, religion and many other aspects of this great civilization. For its uniqueness, the department attracts Egyptian and foreign students alike who share the passion of studying ancient Egyptian culture and history.
Students at AUC are lucky because they have a privilege studying this course in Egypt. The department organizes weekly field trips to sites all over Egypt including Luxor, Aswan, Giza, Sakkara, middle Egypt and others (all great archeological sites). Field trips and work related to Egyptology courses are very interesting. With Students having access to museums and different cities in Egypt, they could readily see all sorts of artifacts and remains they are studying in their original environment. Giving them a richer and more enjoyable learning experience than any they could ever get merely by studying about them in books. The above image was taken in a field trip to Minya city in Egypt in 2008 where Students traveled to examine a site.
(Courtesy of AUC Egyptology department)
In another course offered by the department, students study a very interesting and mysterious part of Ancient Egyptian rituals which is mummification. In a recent field trip students practiced ancient Egyptian rituals for mummification… on animals; nevertheless, it was just as exciting as the real thing! In the process, some students even read sacred funerary text and burned incense as to mimic the original rituals as accurately and genuinely as possible.
(Courtesy of AUC Egyptology department)
This is a group photo of students and professors in the Minya city field trip. The photo expresses their interest and excitement about the field trip. The field trips help students discover how the Egyptian civilization was advanced in all sorts of disciplines and about the secrets and we are trying to discover up till today. In effort to strengthen the bond students have with their history and thus society, AUC offers Egyptology courses as part of the core requirement courses mandatory for all students. The AUC press publishes great books and spectacular photo albums about Ancient Egyptian civilization so as to support the great enthusiasm of all who like studying Egyptology. This way the AUC helps students build a sense of appreciation of to their country and their ancestors who passed on a great civilization that their descendants are proud of to this day. It also helps foreign students discover the magnificent civilization of Egypt.
Greetings from across the Atlantique! If any of you guys ever came to Cairo, you probably noticed that it’s a polluted city. Where else would you see a bus blowing more smoke than a big fire? In order to avoid polluting our city even more, the American University in Cairo developed an environmentally friendly campus. Other than classrooms, meeting halls and buildings our campus also has a lot of greenery. There are 1,216 date palms such as the ones shown in the photo and a lot of grass areas. Being surrounded by this kind of environment is a pleasant experience when you live in a crowded and polluted city such as Cairo.
Also, the AUC campus is a pedestrian area. This allows us to take a break from the very crowded streets all over the city even if we have to walk around all day in the sun. The only other way of getting around on campus is the golf carts which are not pollutant. But unfortunately they are reserved for faculty members.
The AUC also encourages recycling. More than 75 percent of the stone in the wall that circles the campus “was recycled from stone that would otherwise have been discarded as waste”. Other than that example, as you can see in the picture, our university also tries to sort garbage. This will later help recycle some of the things thrown away such as paper that will otherwise be a problem to the environment.
These are some aspects of our environmentally friendly campus. I hope I didn’t scare you away with the bus story. Cairo is still a great place to visit, after all it is the land of the great pharaohs. Talk to you soon!
YOUSSEF Youssef (This is actually my first and last name, I didn’t write my name twice)
Source: http://www.aucegypt.edu/newcairocampus/Pages/default.aspx
Greetings from across the Atlantic! If any of you guys ever came to Cairo, you probably noticed that it’s a polluted city. Where else would you see a bus blowing more smoke than a big fire? In order to avoid polluting our city even more, the American University in Cairo developed an environmentally friendly campus. Other than classrooms, meeting halls and buildings our campus also has a lot of greenery. There are 1,216 date palms such as the ones shown in the photo and a lot of grass areas. Being surrounded by this kind of environment is a pleasant experience when you live in a crowded and polluted city such as Cairo.
Also, the AUC campus is a pedestrian area. This allows us to take a break from the very crowded streets all over the city even if we have to walk around all day in the sun. The only other way of getting around on campus is the golf carts which are not pollutant. But unfortunately they are reserved for faculty members.
The AUC also encourages recycling. More than 75 percent of the stone in the wall that circles the campus “was recycled from stone that would otherwise have been discarded as waste”. Other than that example, as you can see in the picture, our university also tries to sort garbage. This will later help recycle some of the things thrown away such as paper that will otherwise be a problem to the environment.
These are some aspects of our environmentally friendly campus. I hope I didn’t scare you away with the bus story. Cairo is still a great place to visit, after all it is the land of the great pharaohs. Talk to you soon!
YOUSSEF Youssef (This is actually my first and last name, I didn’t write my name twice)
Source: http://www.aucegypt.edu/newcairocampus/Pages/default.aspx
One can witness from the upper pictures how the streets in Cairo most of the time look like. People keep complaining how much time they spend in their cars in order to get anywhere because the streets are always a mess. “Official statistics estimate that 8000 people are killed and 32,000 hurt on Egyptian road accidents each year” (Egypt Car Accidents) . This is due to Egypt’s share in bad roads and people not following the rules. For example on the highways here in Egypt such as the “Mehwar” and the “Ring Road” you can find people crossing the streets while the cars are driving with a very high speed. Moreover the trucks and the buses that are old and insecure to drive are a cause of these accidents too. “According to one study the accident rate in Egypt is about 34 times higher than in the European countries and roughly three times higher than countries in the Middle East”(Egypt Car Accidents.) Our first semester in AUC at the new campus in new Cairo was in fall 2008. Almost everyday there was at least one student who had an accident on his or her way to college. Most of the time, it was either on the “ring road” or “road 90”. Road 90 is a 10km long road that connects the ring road with college. Cars always drive with a very high speed on it while there are u-turns, people crossing the street and a lot of cars and buses that drive the wrong way. These factors caused a lot of accidents and harmed a lot of people.
And because The American University in Cairo is known for its numerous clubs that help students getting involved within the Egyptian society and being aware of its problems, AUCians initiated a new club which aim is raising people’s awareness of traffic problems, accidents, and other issues related to road safety. Yomna Safwat, the club founder and one of the 400 delegates of the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety conference in Switzerland, states ‘I believe car accidents are a preventable danger.” The club members had launched a campaign “Road Safety is No Accident.” Actually, the Right Road is an international organization that works jointly with the United Nation’s World Health Organization. It currently exists in AUC and in Cairo University too. The awareness campaign focuses more on spreading a model for safe driving in the ring road. The club hopes that this ideal leaves its marks on Cairo’s streets in the future. The campaign was also concerned with areas around New Cairo. They put speedy bumps, zebra lines for crossing, renewed roadside signs, added safe driving banners, and provided streets lights for the roads that didn’t have ones. Beside these actions, the club organized many lectures on campus to promote the organization’s ideas and concerns. Some of these lectures included first-aid workshops. AUC President David Arnold is strongly encouraging also the club’s initiations and the campaigns it does. He emphasized that “the issue of road safety is one of the biggest priorities we have in terms of concerns for students, faculty and staff.” Finally, we can conclude that traffic jam and accidents are dramatic problems in Egypt. So if each college, school, or company felt responsible for educating its students and employees of the road safety issues and did a similar initiation; the situation will certainly improve and accidents’ death rate will reduce.
Written by:
Miral Abou El Dahab
Inji El Hawari
Works Cited:
Ghawayesh. “Egypt has tons of cars.” No date. Online image. Politics and Soccer:
Egyptian traffic. 17th Mar. 2008.
< http://a517dogg.blogspot.com/2008/03/egyptian-traffic.html>
“Traffic jam in Cairo!” No date. Online image. Morgan Writes. 7th Feb. 2008.
< http://morganwrites.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/noise-pollution-in-cairo-
can-kill-you/>
“The slogan “Road Safety is No Accident.”” No date. Online image. UN Global Road
Safety Week.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
For my research project I am greatly interested in the fear of a teacher shortage that is currently looming over the educational system in the United States. This worry can be easily seen at the college level through all the federal incentives being offered to those who consider teaching - with everything from grants to volunteer educational work that leads to certification. This subject greatly interests me because I am thinking about becoming a teacher if my original goal for a major does not work out. A shortage would also limit competition, giving valuable advantages in the job market while also doing something to better serve our communities; however, if this concern does not bear fruit the surge of new teachers will put further stress on the system and many educators will be out of work.
In order to write the paper I will have to examine the issue from various angles: including political, social, governmental, and cultural viewpoints. Organizations such as Teach for America or the federal programs offering grants to potential teachers will also play a role. Among my big questions is whether or not this is just a scare - it happened in 1999 as well - or a genuine true shortage, and if it is what subjects are undermanned. What is the government doing beyond offering grants and funding social programs? I am also curious from my last article regarding the situation in California as to whether this is only in certain states or school districts, or is indeed national, and how such layoffs would affect the need in surrounding states and communities.
I will also be examining the effectiveness of the current legislation and looking for better ways for the government to respond to this situation that I feel could be made based on my research. I plan to interview with various educators as to their opinions on the subject with questions regarding class sizes, workloads, and time constraints, as well as the economy and the implications of the budget on these situations. I also hope to get a chance to speak with someone from financial aid who knows more about the teaching grants.
I feel one of my hardest problems will be finding proper evidence and presenting a good solid argument, especially with the current bear market. This not only discourages schools from hiring, but also has triggered layoffs due to budget concerns, as well as the differences between school systems in each individual state. To overcome this I will have to examine school systems on a state by state basis, and establish specific states to be used as comparisons in consideration of the various situations. However, this will require lots of work and will not guarantee a fair comparison because again it will not be any one factor that truly amounts to the shortage.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
A topic that I feel very passionate about currently is illegal immigration in the U.S.- specifically immigration policies and bias within them. I am researching immigration policies throughout history, to see what has changed and what has not, and possibly why. Exploring the idea of the U.S. targeting certain immigrant groups as opposed to others, to me seems extremely interesting.
Some issues surrounding this topic are border policies- the controversy of securing the borders. Laws that are keeping immigrants out of the U.S. rather than making it easier for people to enter the country legally, and apply for citizenship. The rights of illegal immigrants in the U.S. (access to education, employment (the use of E-Verify and whether it be enforced)). I think my point could be proven by comparing the treatment and the experience of Mexican immigrants entering the United States illegally and people of other countries. The wall built separating Mexico and the U.S. is huge evidence and in my opinion serves as a sign of discrimination, something I also plan on discussing.
As I read about much it is costing to keep illegal immigrants out, from wall construction, to new technology that verifies ones citizen status, I came across the alternative being that the U.S. invest in Mexico in order to prevent illegal immigration.
My position on some of these issues is that many of the U.S. immigration policies/laws specifically unfairly target illegal Mexicans. These laws are shaped in a way that show they are not welcome in the country, this group of illegal immigrants are made inferior to the rest of American society.
Illegal immigration directly connects to the overall theme of ‘Immigration in the U.S.,’ it is a major concern and an ongoing debate currently in not only the United States, but worldwide.
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
http://www.stanford.edu/about/speak.html
Greetings from the Farm! This is Asli, Jonathan, and Kelly, three “frosh” at Stanford University. Even though we’ve only been here a month, we’ve already been exposed to many of the wacky sides of Stanford. While it’s true that most freshmen here were admitted based on stellar SAT scores that reflect an ability to communicate well, formal English is a rare thing once you’re actually here. Whether you’re grabbing a coffee from the CoHo, hanging out with your RoHo or even hosting a ProFro, knowing your Stanford lingo is one of the first and most important skills to pick up.
The fact that Stanford students use so many abbreviations may make it sound like we’re always in a rush. However, the opposite is true: students here are typically pretty relaxed. Our lingo reflects Stanford’s laid-back and sometimes quirky mentality. Why say “Memorial Auditorium” when “MemAud” sounds so much cooler? We’re writing to you right now from our PWR class, which stands for “Program in Writing and Rhetoric.” We look forward to communicating with you and learning about your schools. Maybe you can come visit us at Stanford and try some EANAB’s (equally attractive non-alcoholic beverages)! But if you come during “Dead Week” (study week before finals), don’t be scared off by our primal scream (a midnight stress-relief tactic)! Talk to you soon!
P.S. For more Stanford slang, check out www.stanford.edu/about/speak.html
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
Hey! How’s it going across your respective pond? We’re Molly, Helena, and Ketaki and we’re from Washington State, Montana, and Northern California. We’re all freshman at Stanford, and we really like it here. One of the main things about Stanford that’s so great is the freedom we have to explore our interests and try new things; no one is expected to have a major until two years after they’ve started here. This philosophy extends beyond the academic portion of the campus to sports and other extracurricular activities.
Stanford culture is different from anything we’ve ever experienced. Even though everyone here has achieved something incredible, most people are extremely humble and relaxed. It’s easy to make friends because people are open to new possibilities. Even other parts of California aren’t necessarily as laid back and accepting as Stanford. It’s such a surreal feeling to ride your bike past palm trees and fountains every day on the way to class. All of us are still getting used to the idea of actually being students here!
I hope you like your school as much as we enjoy Stanford. We’re really looking forward to video conferencing with you!
And, as they say in California: PEACE out, yo! If you're ever in the Bay, don't hesitate to hit us up for some fro-yo!
- Molly, Helena, Ketaki
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
Greetings from Stanford! Our names are Aliya, Zanny, and Meredith and we are freshmen here at Stanford. Yesterday was a big day on campus. It rained for the first time this quarter, the first rain we experienced as freshmen. We did not know how to react. “I never thought it rained in California!” “Oh my god, my bike seat is soaked!” “Yay, puddles!” Students’ reactions were a mix of horror, disbelief, and excitement. Sure, most of us complained about the wet and cold weather, but—to be honest—we all enjoyed the change of pace. Most Stanford students ride their bikes to class, and you can imagine the effect of sleeting rain on the average bicyclist. Each of us responded differently to the weather. Zanny was feeling rebellious and decided to tough it out and bike to class. She was extremely disappointed with this decision; her hood wouldn’t stay up and she was drenched from head to toe. Meredith decided to go all out with the rain gear. She put on rain boots and a raincoat and carried an umbrella as she walked to class, to scared to bike. After witnessing a spectacular bike collision as she was unlocking her own bike, Aliya decided that the safest bet was the long trudge to classes, with or without an umbrella.
The rain affected more than just our travel plans. The gloomy weather required many cups of hot cocoa, cider, and tea; incessant rain forced all of us to change out of drenched clothes several time. We communed with our peers in dorm lounges, sharing our horror stories and complaints as well as our hopes for brighter days ahead.
Aliya - I'm from Pleasanton, California, about an hour east of Stanford...I was pretty surprised by the bad October weather too! I'm probably an engineering major (Material Science? Civil/Environmental? Mechanical? who knows?) who nevertheless enjoys the humanities as much as math and science.
Hey I'm Zanny and I'm from Edina, Minnesota which is right outside of Minneapolis. Although I didn't enjoy the rainy weather, I'm happy to be escaping the snowy winters that I have grown up with! I live in an all-freshman dorm called Rinconada which is by FAR the greatest dorm on campus!
Hi! I'm Meredith. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. I thought the rain was fun, but I'm glad we didn't have any flooding like my home town has been experiencing recently. I love Stanford, especially because I live in the dorm that is TRULY the greatest on campus, Serra!
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
int main()
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Here at Stanford, we are chill most of the time, or so it seems. We live under the warm Californian sun. It’s warm 90% of the time and clouds always look lonely. So it’s really hard not be relaxed when you’re not solving differential equations, and even sometimes when you are. But we somehow manage to find time to work and time to relax, which is essential to surviving as a student. We aren’t competitive but we are ambitious. We come to Stanford with high expectations of ourselves and don’t cut ourselves short by pushing each other down. It’s a collaborative environment because we know we need cooperation in order to be successful. But it’s not just about working and being successful in our own eyes. Our difficult workload is always balanced by the tendency to enjoy the sun and each other’s company.
Adrian: I’m Adrian and I’m from Virginia, the greatest state in the history of the world. I don’t know what I want to study but I’m leaning towards engineering and definitely away from anything fuzzy—fuzzy being anything that generally doesn’t involve numbers or some kind of lab. I like art.
Bri: Hi! I’m from Seattle, Washington where it rains all the time, so I’m especially happy to be in California. My favorite things are orange juice and doing homework in the sun. I plan to be a Human Biology major as a first step to becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon.
Joe: Hello, I am from Virginia, the greatest political region in the history of the world. Currently, I plan on studying Physics, specifically Astrophysics or Particle Physics. However, I am not fully committed to any major. I am equally interested in Geopolitics and Computer Science. return 1/0;
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
No, really, it is more than you'd imagine!
Hello! Our names are Lea, Raina, and Christopher, three freshmen at Stanford University. We’ve been having an amazing time here, getting to know our fellow classmates. We love the fact that everyone trumps the stereotype of simply being a good student.
While we’re all passionate about academics and intellectually curious, we also have whole other identities as artists, athletes, actors, activists, and aesthetes. It is always so exciting to learn about our classmates’ lives, loves, and accomplishments, both inside and outside of the classroom. Everyone is so impressive! For example, one student holds the Guinness World Record for juggling, while others own their own companies and non-profit organizations. Most impressively, everyone is very humble about their accomplishments, always willing to take a moment to share about their life experiences or to explain a homework concept to others.
We also know how to have a good time! Late night conversations, parties, fountain hopping (we run around at night and jump into various fountains on campus), art and comedy shows, and spirited sports games only begin to cover some of the quirky, fun-filled, fantastic experiences that we have had so far!
Hey! A little more about ourselves: Lea (right) is very involved with social justice activism and various political issues. Christopher (center) loves music, playing guitar, literature, and absolute debauchery. Raina (left) does photography and creative writing.
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
We come from a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities. For instance, of our group of three students, one is from a public school in Indiana, another grew up in Taiwan, and another has moved 14 times between four countries. Stanford is a very active campus and has many student-athletes. The sun is almost always shining and we are always outside. We consider ourselves more laid back than our east coast peers; less competitive and more friendly. Everyone here is treated with the same respect. Even between boys and girls, different races and ethnicities, and different levels in school. Everyone is so excited to be here and to meet other people here. We present ourselves as people rather than a list of accomplishments. We tend to become good friends with people before we find out the amazing things they have done. As a community, we are a little quirky. For instance, Stanford student love to go “fountain-hopping” where we all run around and jump into fountains. We also have an annual tradition of “full moon on the quad” where everyone gathers and kisses as many people as they can.
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
Hi this is Andrew and David: two average Stanford Freshman with a need to explore!!
Steam tunneling has been a long existing tradition at Stanford. Beneath the campus that so many have called home there is an intricate catacomb of tunnels that wind under the engineering building and center of campus. One can find themselves coming up in one of 250 connected buildings including a chapel at the far end of the quad. Recently almost every known entrance to the steam tunnels has been locked shut keeping eager Stanford students away from their beloved tradition due to the possibilities of lawsuits or injuries. It isn’t uncommon, however, to see one of
these locks cut or a manhole cover open. I believe this is a metaphor of the Stanford community. There is a strong sense of tradition that many value more than the risks present in pursuit of such tradition. Stanford students are curious, eager to explore even the darkest of places and navigate their way through a catacomb of life. They are assertive, keeping a watchful eye over everything in their community, and not afraid to protest something they find unreasonable or even unjust.
David is from Taipei, Taiwan and enjoys late, intellectual, moonlit walks on the beach, San Fran adventures, tennis, sailing, skiing, and just about anything that involves near death experiences. Andrew is from Denver, Colorado and enjoys outdoor "peace" hikes, runs cross country at stanford, finds anything that raises adrenalin (non-drug related), and enjoys late night base jumping off hoover tower!
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo in Egypt, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
Being bored at Stanford is impossible. Stanford has an intellectual community, but it is very friendly, welcoming, and open. Everybody at Stanford has a “baby” – they have something they are really passionate about and they put a lot of time and effort into pursuing it. Stanford prides itself on not taking itself too seriously. Instead of having a formal marching band, the band dresses up in crazy costumes for sports games and makes inappropriate formations and instead of marching, everyone runs crazily between formations. Stanford is not only an intellectual community but also emphasizes extracurricular activities and sports: the students are very well-rounded. Students take an interest in each other’s lives. The campus is often referred to as the “Stanford Bubble.” Almost everyone lives on campus and the campus itself is like a little city. Most people rarely venture into the nearby affluent suburb of Palo Alto. Having all the students on campus promotes a strong community feeling, also shown in the inclusion of the whole student body in events instead of having exclusive parties or meetings. There is a lot of emphasis put on exploration and fun in addition to academic achievement. Having a great experience is a huge part of Stanford life out of the classroom.
Rachel enjoys playing soccer, painting & singing in her free time. Cyana is from Boston and likes to play basketball, read, and be outside. Maria lives in Okinawa, Japan, loves reading, swimming laps, and anything having to do with the ocean.
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
Stanford has 8,000 acres of land and is the second biggest campus in the world…so it’s really BIG.
We think the dynamic between Stanford and its surrounding area is really interesting The town outside Stanford called Palo Alto is a fairly small town full of silicon valley techies. Although the biggest city, San Francisco, is an hour away, the campus is still incredibly active and friendly in its bubble.
Stanford students enjoy their tight knit campus community, but they also reach out often to neighboring communities with education or volunteering efforts. Student traditions include frolicking in the fountains as well as spelunking in the steam tunnels.
Hi guys! I'm Alisa. I'm from Wenham, Massachusetts, which is a small town full of horses, polo fields, hunt clubs, and golf courses. I'm thinking about double majoring in International Relations and Music. I like to dance to Michael Jackson music. I'm also afraid of butterflies.
Yo yo yo. I'm Ricky and I'm from San Antonio, Texas. You may have heard of Texas and cowboys, desperados, rattlesnakes etc. Guess what? It's all true (not really). I love Stanford and I'm thinking about studying Symbolic Systems and Creative Writing. I love playing guitar, singing, producing music and awkward dancing. I've got a radio show here you can listen to on kzsu.stanford.edu called FLASH BANG RADIO
This entry is part of a CCR blogging exchange between Stanford, the American University of Cairo, and Orebro University in Sweden. Students have been asked to post a "university culture" entry introducing something about their university culture (or national culture) to an audience of students across the world. Then, other students will comment and we will soon have a rich dialogue, as students develop ways of writing for international audiences and hopefully learn about ways of life across the globe.
Hey, we’re Paige and Atira, and we’re freshmen at Stanford University! Upon our arrivals at Stanford, the first taste of Stanford life we received was when we approached the doors to our dorm, carrying all our life belongings in two large suitcases. The initiation into the dorm consisted of a loud megaphone welcome from multiple people clad in coordinating t-shirts and mardi gras beads. After the loud wake-up call, they gave us t-shirts of our own, a room key, and a bag of information regarding New Student Orientation. This was our official joining into the Stanford community. A month later, dorm life continues to be the focal point of life on campus. The sense of belonging and collaboration translates into the dorm as well as academics. There’s a competitive atmosphere, but everyone is encouraged to work together towards a greater goal.
Atira: Hey guys, here's a little more info about me: I'm from Woodland Hills, CA, which is about 6.5 hours south of Stanford, outside of Los Angeles. I'm really into the sciences, and I want to major in neurobiology/ neuroscience and eventually go into medicine. I also love to draw and paint, so I'm planning on minoring in Studio Art as well. Besides school, the track team takes up a lot of my free time, but I love every moment of it (well, almost every moment when practice isn't kicking my butt). Other random facts about me: I randomly dance in place and I am obsessed with colors.
Paige: I'm from San Diego, California and am 18 years old. I am looking to major in the Interdisciplanary Program of Humanities and possibly attend graduate school for business. I love the beach, playing volleyball, riding horses, and visiting tropical places. My favorite time of the day is sunset, and my favorite foods are blueberries and watermelon.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
The topic above fits into public health because health coverage is key in the overall health of a country- since it will ensure the health of those who can afford, or are offered health insurance. Also, it contributes to the control of other health issues, because it will mean that more people will be able to prevent illnesses. There is a lot of debate today about whether they United States should move into a Universal Health Care System and I think it is important to understand what the two sides of the debate are. Health care affects everyone because it can dictate whether we, or our families will be able to stay healthy in the future. A cancerous growth in someone who is insured can be found at a check up and a life can be saved. A person who cannot go see a doctor as freely will probably not find out until they are in a late stage, and not much can be done to save their lives.
Statistically, there are large disparities throughout the United States in health coverage, where people found in disadvantageous circumstances including geographical factors, minimum wage incomes, and social status determines their health coverage, or lack thereof. As a super power in the world, the United States falls short in terms of the protection of it's citizens health when compared to other countries, that manage to offer coverage for almost all of it's citizens.
I plan to make my audience the people of the United States, specifically those in New York City, because it is important to make other's circumstances known to those of us who fail to think about people who are not in the same situation we are. For example, the health coverage in rural America is not often a topic tackled by the New York Times, and is not a constant concern of city dwellers. I want to make the issue relevant not only to me or my classmates, but to everyone.
I have to figure out what the statistics are among different minorities, not just place them all under the same label. Also, I want to find out if they are all connected. For example, are minorites the most uninsured because they hold most low income jobs and therefore, live in cities where the percentage of uninsure people is high? Or any other connections that may exist among the three. Most importantly though, I want to learn what would change in the United States if they followed other country's examples and if the pros outweigh the cons?
I want to approach this paper with an unbiased view, but it is going to be difficult because I want to make a good argument, not sound like I'm complaining about the system not being fair. I think that I can achieve this by backing up my own ideas with those of experts and numbers.
I think that the doctor I work for will be a useful source because he is in the field and has very different views from mine, so he will be able to open my eyes to other issues that I might not have considered. I would like to interview someone who is in a different state, like a farmer, and see what their experience is with the health care system. I'm not sure how I would do that though.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
This country was built on blood, sweat, and tears, but not by the hands of citizens. When we think of an immigrant we have nothing to say but the negative aspects that they bring when they come to America legally or illegally. We don’t come to think about all the things they do that help our economy and country grow. Immigrants are important to our country because of the work power they posses, and the determination that they have that citizens just may no posses. There are so many reasons why immigrants should stay in this country and yet instead of embracing them we just find more ways of trying to push them away.
I think that all of us as a society fail to realize the importance that immigrants have to our country, and I would like to explore that. I feel like when we think about an immigrant we have nothing good to say, and think of how bad they make our economy. Yet I want to know what people don’t see in immigrants. That they are hard working people and they have families. I want to find out what positive effects do they have on our lives, society, and country. How they help us be better. What would be some drastic consequences if we lost all the immigrants that we have today.
How many jobs do we really lose when an undocumented worker works in the US? If illegal immigrants are so wrong to work, than why do people still depend on them so much, and hire them for work? Just questions to wonder about when I am researching on my paper, may also be on what are the wages of people that live around immigrants? Would they be higher? Or lower? If an illegal immigrant was to pay their taxes would that effect the economy that much greater? A question that makes me really wonder about immigrant workers is. If America today seems to be in the worst shape in years? I wonder how terrible the conditions must be where immigrants are from for them to come all the way over here to find a job?
The way I plan on researching for my paper topic is by using information that I have already found from my blog postings along with the scholarly articles that I will be gathering within the next few weeks pf my posts. I will look around I=on the internet for statistics, and numbers stating hard facts by using numbers, I plan on using the CUNY database to further my search just in case I do not find enough information for my topic, or enough quotes, citations, and proof. I may also want to look at popular articles that may be on the internet, or in the paper, or read up on other immigration blogs to get different perspectives, and emotion towards the subject. Try to find out how other people may feel about immigrants, and what they think should happen to them. With all t his information gathered I plan on having a well organized, detailed essay with in the upcoming months.
What I might find the most difficult about this research paper may be looking for scholarly sources that support this issue. I feel like I might not find what I am looking for unless I truly look, which I plan on doing. My greatest fear may be not having all my thoughts together. I also think that my downfall would come if I don’t find enough information on why immigrants are helpful to this country. As of right now I have a good idea on what I’m set out to do. I think with a little bit more work and effert I can organize myself, and work off the information I find, I can produce a well written research paper.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
The proposal for my essay is the positive and negative effects of digital medical records. I believe that this is important because this new technology will greatly affect the performance of medical facilities everywhere. I think that both sides of the argument should be explored along with the opinions of doctors supporting both sides.
There are doctors that believe that digital medical records will make them better doctors and help them make fewer mistakes. Hospitals can even save time and money by utilizing this new technology.
There are also doctors that believe that this technology is harmful to the practice. There are some older doctors that think that today’s doctors are relying too heavily on technology and cannot perform decent physical examinations without the help of some sort of new technology.
I think that this is interesting because people are always thinking that new technology will always be an improvement for the ways things were done in the past. Even I believe that digital health records will be a new way to improve medical facilities. There will always be people that prefer the old way of doing things and there might be some truth to that but only the future will be able to tell whether this new technology will truly be a new useful tool.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
Rationale: The topic I am working on is how the loss of sleep affects the human body. This topic deserves my extended attention because it is a topic that I am very familiar with, and know a lot about some the effects of sleep loss. Another reason is that I want to see if there are long-term effects or short-term effects (or both) to the loss of sleep. I picked this topic because sleep loss is a health related issue.
Working Thesis Statement: Sleep is a necessity of human beings. It is recommended that everyone should get about eight hours a day. Sleep is important because it gives people the energy to do what they need to do throughout their day, whether it is going to work or cleaning the house. But what if some people can’t get their recommended eight hours of sleep every day? How will this affect them, and their way of life if they can’t find a balance to their sleeping habits? Sleep depravity is a serious issue that can result in some harmful effects like loss of memory and the weakening of the immune system.
Unanswered Questions:
• What are the long-term/short-term effects of sleep deprivation?
• Can it lead to diseases, or possibly death?
• How does it affect the brain?
• Are all the effects long-term, short-term, or both?
• Are there any possible benefits to being sleep deprived?
Research Goals and Methodology: In order to find evidence for my claims, I will search the internet for both popular and scholarly sources. Some scholarly sources may include books, data from medical experiments relating to sleep deprivation, medical journals, and information from an encyclopedia. Some popular sources may include magazine articles from science magazines, news paper articles on the topic of sleep deprivation, and information for some medical web sites such as webmd.com. I will try to the best of abilities to prove that sleep deprivation has harmful effects to humans.
Anticipated Challenges: The most difficult part about completing the research project will be balancing my explanations with information gathered from my research because I have the habit of putting too much information and not enough of explanation into my writing. Also another problem will be trying not to repeat certain points of the paper, and trying to avoid writing run-on sentences.
Hello, we are five students from Stanford University collaborating with the American University in Cairo as part of a Cross Cultural Rhetoric (CCR) project. We are writing about the international obesity and malnutrition crises for our class on food science and politics.
Professor Paul Zimmet of the International Diabetes Institute warns that “obesity is no longer a problem limited to America…but has reached the scale of a global epidemic.” In a world with 300 million obese people, how is it possible that over twice that number are malnourished globally? This indicates that it is the allocation of food, rather than the abundance, that is problematic.
According to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, it is estimated that by the year 2015, diseases caused by over-nutrition will surpass malnutrition as the leading cause of death in low-income communities. It is a common misconception that obesity and malnutrition are direct results of poverty or economic standing. Although these are factors, access and the ability to make informed choices play equally key parts. For example, the most agriculturally productive region of Mozambique has the highest rates of child malnutrition in the country. This proves that proximity to a product does not guarantee access. Motivated by monetary interests, corporations choose to export their products to other areas instead of feeding their own population.
On the other hand, when access is not a problem, information, choice, and discipline are determinants of the health of consumers. For example, there are 278 McDonald’s restaurants within fifty miles of Houston, Texas. There are almost 100 health food stores in the same area. By comparing numbers in one of the United States’ fattest cities, it is obvious that when both proximity and access exist, it is ultimately left to choice.
Two of the world’s largest epidemics are centered around food. In order to solve these crises, education and reallocation of food resources are imperative.
This blog was written by a group of five freshmen taking an introductory course with a focus on the rhetoric of food science and politics in the Program of Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University.
As the world population increases exponentially and the economy fluctuates wildly, the global food shortage is fast becoming one of the most terrifying and seemingly insurmountable crises that humanity has ever faced.
Responses and solutions have been proposed on all sides. The international scientific community has begun to focus a great deal of energy on biotechnology to promote greater crop and livestock productivity; governments are looking to cooperate in the development of legislation that will protect both the agriculture industry and the consumers who depend on its products; non-profit organizations are attempting to interact with those directly affected by the food shortage to develop localized solutions in self-sustainability and agricultural and economic independence.
Despite their efforts towards global solutions, none of these groups is entirely virtuous or altruistic, and each has come under scrutiny both by its counterparts and by the general public. Corruption is a popular accusation—biotechnologists blur the line between scientific innovation and humanitarian/environmentalist ethics, high-level government officials do each other political favors and support legislation that aids their primary campaign donors, and great amounts of money donated to non-profits have been known to mysteriously disappear before they reach their intended beneficiaries.
These flaws in the various systems have fostered quite a bit of cynicism in the public eye, but each of these approaches has its merits. No one is greater than the other two—in fact, the three are arguably codependent. Governments have far more power to officially influence the course of world events than do scientific laboratories or charitable organizations. However, they cannot do so without some degree of public support. This is a strength of non-governmental charity and aid groups, which have the ability to connect with voters in a way that politicians, often more concerned with staying in office than with truly representing the people, cannot. The biotechnology industry, on the other hand, does not have the resources to reach out and implement policy on the ground floor. Instead, it provides one of the tangible solutions put into use by organizations, both governmental and not.
We don’t yet have a specific, proven-effective solution to the global food crisis. Finding one, it seems, will depend on cooperation between these different groups and compromise concerning their various agendas. Such an enormous undertaking will not be solved by one faction alone.
By: Julianne Cirenza, Emily Cohodes, Bojan Milic, Elizabeth Rosen, and Tatum Sohlberg
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
This topic deserves my attention because there are a lot of controversies over it in our schools and from our educators. It fits into my designated theme of Education because the library and the internet are used by students to conduct research. Part of the curriculum in school is to teach students to research information on specific topics. My vested interest in this subject is I am student and would very much like to use the resources that would makes my research most credited and has substance.
The traditional library verses the internet in the classroom is my thesis statement. It demands that I prove which one is better for the students. Which one will they benefit the most from and gain the most knowledge. What benefits will they reap and how will it help them be better prepared for their future learning. What are the pros and cons for these two databases? I will address this topic mostly to students and educators.
Unanswered questions about my topic are: What are the differences and similarities between the two. What are the controversies? Which one is better beneficial to the students in furthering their education?
I will research my topic by using both the Internet and Library for information and studies done on this topic. I will use blog articles, newspaper articles, scholarly sources and a book. I will use statistics to back up my evidence. I already have a few articles on this subject. I will be able to interview a librarian and an educator.
Anticipated Challenges will be choosing one of them and agreeing why it is a better research tool. Finding information especially for schools with limited funding who cannot afford to have technology in their schools or even to update their library supplies.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
“We walked for days, for months, thousands of miles. We slept on the ground and often had to eat leaves to survive. People shot at us. Many boys were killed. What happened to my parents? I don’t know. But now we are here, to a new life.” (A refugee from Sudan)
“The experience of becoming a refugee is awful, truly wrenching. It is impossible to convey the misery of it. It was very difficult to stay in the refugee camps were you saw so many problems, but lacked the power to improve anything. Refugee camps are the biggest source of depression. So I came to London, out of depression.” (A refugee from Swaziland)
“As long as the safety of my family is not guaranteed, I don't wish to return to home." (A refugee in Chad)
I believe these three testimonies deserve some extended attention. I lived in Africa before coming here, and I’ve seen/heard a lot of people trying to leave the continent for Europe mostly but also the United States, Canada, and other developed countries. Therefore, I understand why countries such as France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, are trying to limit/reduce the flow of immigrants. But why is immigration becoming a major problem in today’s world? What is the impact of illegal immigration in developed countries?
I will compare the way countries around the world deal with immigration (mostly Europe and the U.S.) and immigrants’ human rights. And for thoroughly doing this, I will mostly read articles written by Amnesty International, Red Cross, the United Nations, Doctors without Boarders, … and some activists organization to conduct my research. I want my audience to be everyone across the world, since immigration does not only concern the United States.
I want to focus on the living conditions of these immigrants, some die crossing the strait of Gibraltar, some stay in refugee camps where human rights are not respected, some spend days and days without any food, and then when they reach their final destination, they live under bad conditions since they do not have enough means. Why are they running away from their home countries? Why aren’t they respected as any other human beings? What are their human rights? In what conditions are they working when they reach their final destination?
Human rights apply to everyone, whether they are immigrants or not. Human rights are the “rights that one has because one is human.” Immigrants leave their familiar surroundings, their culture, or their families to provide a safer, more prosperous future for their children, yet they face significant risks of human rights abuses. Human dignity should “not turn on the type of passport or visa a person holds”.
For instance, the number of unaccompanied children detained in the United States has more than doubled over the last five years, rising from 2,375 in 1997 to 5,385 in 2001.1 Escaping political persecution, fleeing war, abusive families, or other dangerous or difficult conditions in their home countries, these children arrive in the U.S. unaccompanied by their parents or other legal guardians. Children held in immigration detention are detained for administrative reasons, not as punishment for criminal behavior. In general, immigrants’ human rights are not respected in detention facilities.
Immigrants have specific rights and protections; they should have the same treatment as nationals in: the right of life and security, the right to work, adequate standard living, education, highest attainable of health, just and favorable working conditions.
Moreover, refugees are in the headlines today: there are en estimated twelve million refugees around the world today; almost all are victims of wars and conflicts. These people are being persecuted (or are afraid of being persecuted) in their own countries. One legal scholar wrote that “persecuted, generally homeless, and by definition unable to turn to their own governments for protection, refugees are utterly dependant on the good will of the people and the governments of foreign lands”. Some of these countries that welcome are developing countries, what is the impact of refugees in these countries?
However, I have to point out that the most difficult about completing the research project in general will be approaching the issues in an unbiased view, finding the specific sources that will be useful but mostly transferring information in my paper to an oral presentation.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
I would like to write my final research paper on the lowering of standards in our education system. I decided to choose this topic after doing one of my Ning posts on an article about Seattle public schools lowering their graduation requirements. This article raised my awareness on the subject not only at a local level (in Seattle) but how this may be affecting students nationwide. Before doing a post about this article, I haven’t put as much thought into the topic, but after writing about it I realized it is a very important one.
Although not an area I currently have an extensive knowledge on, I would like to find out more about through further research. And apart from more information and statistics, I would also like my research to provide me with new perspectives on the issue I may not have previously considered. Also, besides finding more sources on my view of lowering standards in education being a negative concern, I would like to find some on opposing viewpoints since it is important to acknowledge both sides of an argument.
I feel there is a countless amount of negative effects that would come from lowering standards. Through various sources and some opinions of my own I would like to elaborate on these in my paper. I would mention not only the possible negative consequences that would occur but also what causes schools to lower expectations in the first place (such as threats to funding, etc.) I would like to write about not only the short effects but also how this might overall hurt students in the long run.
I would also like to write about this topic because after reading the article and analyzing it, I realized lowered standards have played a part in my own life, for the worse. During high school, I have had my fair share of teachers who quite clearly lowered their expectations of students for a variety of reasons; whether it is to pass a test, pass the class, or even to have poorly performing students get the ability to graduate. They may have viewed it as helpful to the student, but I feel it was done mostly for the teachers’ self-interests. Many subjects were of no challenge for me, and I felt this left me under-prepared for college and I know I am not the only one. This is also something I might want to mention in my paper.
Students: Hanna B, Stewart D, Karen L, Stephanie N
This Cross Cultural Rhetoric blog is a project between Stanford University students in Palo Alto, California, and students at the American University in Cairo to explore varying cultures’ perspectives on world issues.
Specifically, our group is focusing on how awareness of the globalization of food commodities can shed light on the global food crisis. In this entry, we examine how the globalization of the corn industry has specifically affected food availability around the world.
Source: http://climateprogress.org/2008/04/03/corn-hits-a-new-record-6-a-bushel/
In recent years, the number of uses for corn, always a key human food source, has expanded. For example, factory farms have started feeding their livestock corn products rather than their natural grass-based diet. In addition, scientific breakthroughs have led to the use of corn as a biodiesel fuel in the form of ethanol.
As discussed in “Our Daily Bread” by Rosamond Naylor and Walter Falcon, published in Boston Review, demand for corn due to these new uses has increased so much that supply cannot keep up. As a result, there is a scarcity of corn, the global market for corn has expanded, and prices have skyrocketed. Due to the globalization of the corn market, the highest bidder can purchase the corn, leaving none for the hungry nations that rely on it for sustenance. According to the authors, “consumers of corn tortillas in poor countries will find themselves increasingly in competition with SUV owners in rich countries.”
These new uses of corn have their drawbacks. For example, when fed to animals, 90% of the corn’s original energy is expended in metabolic processes. In addition, ethanol is also an inefficient use of as a fuel because it takes up a great deal of volume and is expensive to store.
Thus, it may be favorable to return to the most traditional use of corn, primarily as a human food source. Future science should focus on deriving biofuel from inedible plant sources, to separate the food and fuel markets, thus negating the fuel industry’s impact on the global food crisis.
Source: http://www.chathamjournal.com/weekly/opinion/chatlist/ethanol-higher-grain-prices-80317.shtml
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
The topic that caught my attention when I came across it was the trafficking of drugs. I feel that this topic has so many aspects to it and so much information on it such as the history, the affects, and what are the police doing about it. Drug trafficking fits perfectly into urban life because the urban areas are basically the communities where the drugs are mostly located. I have no thesis statement just yet because I can’t decide whether I want to tackle two different areas of drugs. How are the drugs getting into these neighborhoods and why the police aren’t doing anything to stop it, or to speak about the crooked cops aiding in the drug distribution and the major effect it’s having on communities.
These two areas are the questions I have that are unanswered which I will solve through research. I think I’ll eventually find a way to collaborate all these ideas into one big solid thesis statement. My main research goal is to expose to the world that drugs are having a major negative effect on the world because instead of billions of dollars used on drugs, they could be used on something to actually benefit us. The sources that I will use and follow are any modern news stories on drug trafficking to show that it’s still alive today, and scholarly sources to show statistics on how the drugs have been used and distributed in the past years. One challenge I could already foresee is not having exact numbers for the amount of drugs in urban areas. I say this because we only know the amount that the police have gotten their hands on, not what is still being made and sold.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
My question for the research paper will be: Why not give illegal immigrants who already work in the United States temporary legal status when they already obtain a job in order to support taxation?
I think it’s ridiculous that the government is looking over the fact that many illegal immigrants are obtaining jobs and forming an underground workforce and not getting taxed. If an illegal can get here illegally which is a task in itself, of course they will find a job illegally as well because that is what immigrants initially come for. It ties to immigration because it a great proposal to help the bashing of illegal immigrants and take away the target of immigrants being an economical burden and economic downfall cause. Not only that, it will give immigrants a safer more humane environment to work in since illegal immigrants work off the books and work their butts off for little pay which will also increase their wages to a reasonable minimum wage(whoever works more, spends more).
I want my audience to be everyone which is why I would put five types of views in the paper which I would write in the view of a republican advocate, an immigrant, an American for it, an American against it, and a Homeland Security representative to sum up all the point of views In this very controversial matter. I know some will be all for it and others may have a very negative look on it but I want to bring up every little detail on what it Is really about with actual voices from people by having my 5 voices be interviewed discussions .
To deepen my understanding in the aspect of making illegal immigrants for taxation I still have to look more on if the proposition of a controlled legal immigration status is acceptable. I also haven’t look on how many in fact have steady jobs and are illegal which will probably be my next blog topic and also more on the cons of immigrants getting temporary legal status.
I want to approach the paper with pointing out the unethical ways America is treating the case of immigration, one might not know it at the moment or comprehend but this is a modern day slavery trade where people are being created unjust and are unequal to others in the United States because of an “illegal” status. What will our later generations say on the way we handled this? When America was rooted and constructed by immigration, we can’t deprive that.
A great source will be the Department of Homeland security because they have actual statistics on how immigration affects our economic building block and they contain measures on how taxation will support the undocumented with services and security. I will also interview common Americans on their views on illegal immigration and containing jobs and if they think they should get temporary legal status by random selection.
I plan to see if I can get an interview with some rep from Homeland security after I come up with concrete good questions to ask. I also will have to do about 5 more weeks of blogging in order to get solid in this research so to limit bias assumptions that a research paper could contain.
A challenge I will come across for certain is thinking through how to sum up all the aspects of these questions in order to narrow the research paper down a notch. I think halfway through I will narrow the question down more specifically because I still feel like it is too broad and a broad question can become overbearing.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
“Turning immigrants into Americans is a mission
tied intimately to this country’s self-interest and identity,
if not its very soul”. (The NY Times)
The need for Congress to reform the nation’s immigration laws is the golden opportunity to activate the frozen U.S. economy through awakening incentives on all parties (illegal immigrants, businesses and government).
Since the Congress requires the Immigration & Naturalization Services (INS) be self supported and that it does not operate on taxpayer dollars but at user fee, it can be run as a corporation where a budget has to be founded for every project. So let’s work from INS.
Let’s say the INS project is to:
- BIOMETRICIZE all illegal immigrants that could prove have lived for 10 consecutively years in the U.S. and all naturalized residents becoming this the official ID of a new U.S. era (let’s the government deal with the regular citizen).
- CONCED civilian first world class benefits _details below_ to those who can prove to be working under contract (temporary and non-temporary).
- BENEFIT the employer by relieving him of a tax payment percentage per biometrized legaly contracted worker.
- PROMOTE multicultural forms of art to create BOUNDS that could atone actual diversity discrepancies.
“We cannot care of what we don’t love and we cannot love what we don’t know”
The project would be self-financed by the will-be biometricied applicat (plus an adequate penalty fee for all illegal immigrant clearances).
The biometricized tax-payer citizen would acquire:
- FREE FRONTIER pass to all proved neighbor U.S. country born (Mexico, Canada, D.R. and Caribbean countries TBD)
- EQUAL OPORTINITIES for equal wages in work places.
- FREE public EDUCATION.
- FREE public HEALTH CARE.
- GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE attained EXCLUSIVELY for all who could prove having a definite physical disability (by not granting it to those capable to work/study the government would finance public schools and hospitals).
This proposal is projected to live in a more EQUALLY world, to make ourselves better, more humane people, be treated and treat people with dignity and honor.
The most difficult issue I’m afraid I’ll have is the persuasion in communicating the importance of the POWER of unity through co-operation between assorted and distant cultures. Without fraternal unity and the abandon of prejudices the U.S. won’t overcome a faulty economy.
In this research I’ll look on scholarly and non-scholarly works about politics, human history, philosophy, sociology as on actual opinions as well.
The most compelling challenge would be to COMPOSE this research in a vivid and rhythmic yet light way as opposed of heavy and monotone investigative study.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
In New York City, people from all over the world gather as one not only to share their culture, but to learn from other cultures as well. However, one culture that is not always welcomed by others is the gay culture. Life in the city can be difficult, and many can argue that the gay community has it the worst, especially in the more urban areas of New York.
This topic is important to me because I feel very strongly about it. As a witness and victim of homophobia on several occasions in and outside of school, I feel like I can write about the subject matter from all points of views. Although the main idea of my topic is to study and research city and urban life for homosexuals, I can also delve deeper and discuss discrimination of other cultures as well, and compare it to that of the gay community.
In psychology class, I have learned about how the environment of an individual can alter the way the person behaves. In an urban setting, homosexuals would most likely be more wary of their surroundings, and are capable of fending for themselves if danger arises. In a more gay friendly location, homosexuals would more likely be more easy going and less cautious because there is a very little chance of encountering homophobia, and the fact that they feel accepted in the community.
I have already found a couple of sources for my research paper, two that are already on the Ning blog. These two sources talk about discrimination against gays in the workplace and how employment can be complicated for homosexuals to acquire.
This topic can connect to the theme of my group (urban life) because it deals with the living conditions of homosexuals in urban locations. I hope to inform my audience about how much of an issue this is. Fortunately, in this day and age, people are becoming more and more open minded and more accepting of gay people. Unfortunately, there are still those that discriminate towards homosexuals throughout the city everywhere and everyday. Hopefully, my research paper will be able to change the minds of those who are homophobic and make an impact on the LGBT social movement.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
Deportation of illegal parents is something that is affecting the lives of illegal immigrants but also the future of their legal children. Many illegal parents fear deportation, but they don’t know the laws or how to prevent deportation from happening. What they don’t know is that there are laws and lawyers that could help them. As well as many legal citizens of the United States that believe deportation is the right measure to take. These people only see that the illegal immigration population will decrease, excluding the fact that many children’s life will be damaged.
Eight years ago I had a best friend named Mary. She was Mexican American, but her parents were illegal immigrants. My friend’s parents cross the border to the United States in 1990, in search of opportunities. A year later they had her. Mary’s parents were very hard workers and had never committed a crime. Unfortunately they were discovered. On a trip to Philadelphia her father was driving a pass the limit speed. He was stopped by the police and was asked for identification. But he had none. Therefore they were arrested and deported. Mary’s mom had a sister who is a legal immigrant. Her aunt was given custody of Mary. I never saw Mary again since she moved to Philadelphia with her aunt. Since then I have been very curious to know if her parents had a chance to stay. To see if there are other families going through this issue, and to know what others felt and thought was the right decision?
My goal as a researcher is to discover these laws and prove that deportation is not the right alternative. I will search online for families that are going through this and that went through this. That would help me discover the different cases and issues that are going on in society. Therefore the solution will benefit all. I would use books, journals, newspaper articles and the web as my resources. The city college website, the Google scholar website, and may other sources will be of a great use for my research. Something that I will also include in the paper will be what legal citizens’ thing and argue. This will be something in my favor, because I can use a counter argument and persuade them. They will realize that deportation is the wrong method in solving issues of illegal immigrants going through this problem.
My main challenge will be researching through scholarly websites to find out necessary information, because there are fewer articles to look at and many times the information given is not enough. But the world is full of challenges and this one will not prevent me from doing my research and completing my goals. Hopefully this research can be a guide to many illegal parents that live with fear and believe they have no hope. I want to give them that hope.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
I would like to research the learning differences between members of the current parent generation, and their children as it pertains to the education system. I will show that today’s children are not learning the skills that they need in order to succeed in society outside of school. I will then show why I think this is happening. In the last pages, I will acknowledge arguments to the contrary of my thesis. Some anticipated arguments are that today’s generation is simply less focused and hardworking than generations past due to a technological overload it has experienced throughout its young life. I will disprove this. I will also argue that the current generation has the untapped ability to succeed at levels never previously anticipated, and that they may be able to close the math and science gap between America, and some of its eastern rivals.
This topic deserves my vested interest because the fate of future generations depends on the outcome of this technological, educational, and neurological debate. Many ideas on education reform are being discussed, but none of them are drastic enough to enact the change I envision. The academic community needs solid research to show them how and why the very paradigm teaching is based on needs to change. I believe that I can not only collect that research, but form a cohesive argument that could be valuable in that debate.
My working thesis is as follows: Today’s children are no longer the people our education system was designed to teach.
Many questions about my topic remain unanswered. The most prominent one is as to whether research cited by articles I’ve read that contradict my argument holds any weight. My life experiences directly contradict such research, and I intend to disprove it. I also need to discover whether my ideas have been tested in isolated circumstances, and to what effect.
I will research mostly through personal interview, and through scholarly journals. This topic is a popular one among article writers, and there will be a wealth of information available.
It will be challenging to object to an argument that has gained a lot of weight in the scholarly world. I, however, firmly believe that hundreds of intelligent people can believe in something that is completely and utterly wrong.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
Illegal Immigration is one the biggest topics concerning America today but one of the main issues that many people do not consider is how important it is for Americans to treat immigrants as human beings rather than criminals. The topic of whether or no it is right to provide quality education for undocumented students is an important aspect of the illegal immigration debate in this country. In some states around the country, colleges are starting to allow undocumented students attend class but the struggle for the students will still continue as the requirement of affording out of state tuition without financial aid is very difficult.
My thesis will be an introduction to my main argument that undocumented students should be treated like any other student and the strict restrictions are not necessary. It is an argument of equality for students that are feeling discriminated because they are not being allowed to learn. My argument will be supported with evidence because the topic is in my interest, knowing that I might have a better opportunity to be educated than people that are not from here, it is not fair. The United States should make it easier for illegal immigrants to achieve the American Dream and education is the first step to making that happen.
The issues/ideas that may need to be discovered more thoroughly is exactly how many undocumented students are either permitted or restricted to going to school. How will illegal immigrants being educated affect US citizens in the workplace after school has ended? Why is it important for undocumented students to be educated? These are some of the issues I am going to go more in depth because the answers to these questions can support my arguments.
I would like to find both scholarly sources and regular sources because I believe both will be influential to my argument. The scholarly source (EBSCO Host, J Stor, etc.) will provide me with experts opinions and I can put their arguments into consideration as illegal immigration is a hot topic in the United States today. I can also use regular sources such as articles from newspapers, blogs, and the mainstream media. I can use the information from these sources to consider what the majority of the population believes about this issue, whether it is right or wrong.
The most difficult task will be supporting my argument as my argument is not supported by the majority of the population. My arguments seem to support undocumented students whereas the majority of the population are US citizens, who are mainly against them having the right to go to school. My challenge will mostly likely be with finding legitimate sources that can provide evidence that can support my argument.
This assignment was created by students at The City College of New York for the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar, Web Discourse. Students are researching a social issue in one of four large topics: Urban Life, Public Health, Immigration, and Education. This will result in a final research paper that explores both how the conversations surrounding the issue are enacted and how a CCNY student may enter that conversation in a meaningful way.
Topic-Murder
This topic is important to me and it fits into my designated theme of interest because murder is a serious issue in Brooklyn, the borough in which I live, and in New York City as a whole. Every time I turn on the news or read a newspaper there is always an article or section about someone being murdered, and I would like to look into murder more deeply. There is absolutely nothing positive about someone taking another person’s life. Regardless of reason, no one should be murdered.
I would still need to research murder rates in New York City, possibly the amount of attempted murder rates as well. How has murder impacted Brooklyn? How has it impacted the entire city? What groups of people commit the most murders? What groups of people are targeted most frequently by a murderer? What are people’s incentives for murder? How many cases of murder have gone unsolved?
I will conduct my research through various sources available online and in physical form. I will use scholarly sources for a majority of my research since those are specific to their respective topics.
What will probably be the most difficult about completing the research project in general are the actual research and the interviews. Those will be the most difficult because research can take a while to complete, and the interviews because I’ve never had to give an interview before and I’m not sure what questions I have to/should ask. I also am not sure who I should interview as well.
This blog post is by Stanford students in dialogue with students at American University of Cairo for a course in Stanford's Program in Writing and Rhetoric on the subject of food politics and science.
After reviewing various photographs published in the photo essay “What the World Eats” in Time Magazine , we have discovered several discrepancies between the depiction of the typical American diet and in the foods we Stanford students actually consume. We realize that while these photographs may accurately portray the diet of a “typical” American, as students of Stanford University we feel that the two photographs fail to accurately portray the contents of our diets.
The photograph of the North Carolinian household’s diet inaccurately depicts the diet of all Americans. While the precooked meals, potato chips, fast food, and soda are practical staples for some American families, this is not the case for all Americans. Here at Stanford University our diet consists of much healthier options. Each dining hall has different themes to match the many diverse diets of Stanford students. We have access to sustainable, local, and organic fruits and vegetables at all three meals a day. Tofu and soy are also present at most meals for vegan and vegetarian diners.
In contrast to the North Carolina image, the depiction of the California cuisine is a more accurate reflection of the types of foods we eat here at Stanford. The quality here at Stanford, however, is much better. Soda, fruits, cereal, oatmeal, breads, and vegetables can be found on our plates. Many of the processed foods and frozen meals, on the other hand, are not found in the university's kitchens. With households outside of Stanford, the Caven family's food choices are much more common. One must wonder, then, the accuracy of the other country's depictions.
Here are some things that we eat at Stanford.
Chickpeas in tomato sauce
Watermelon
Grilled tofu
Cereal and milk
The two photos featuring diets in the United States only represents a small fraction of the very diverse diet of our country, which leads us to wonder whether the photo of the Egyptian family is representative of the country's diet as a whole.
What was most surprising about the Egyptian family’s diet was the lack of processed foods, especially in comparison to the featured American families. There also seems to be a heavy reliance on fresh fruits and vegetables and less on meat. Is this diet more typical of a middle class Egyptian family? How do the diets of poorer and richer families differ from this diet? What do you eat?
In this blog, we will be examining the effects of climate change on agriculture and the role of GMOs in a societal, political, and scientific context as part of our Food Science and Politics class at Stanford University. We will be corresponding with students at the American University at Cairo through this Cross-Cultural Blog. 
Climate change is an issue of global concern in our generation. The specific climate changes that are affecting agricultural productivity are an increase in temperature, change in rainfall, increased atmospheric CO2, changes in pollution levels, and an increase in extreme climactic events. For Americans, this issue is a top priority of national concern and thus we have come up with ways to combat this problem. Some sources are saying that agriculture in the US is less vulnerable to climate change than developing nations because the US, like other industrialized countries, relies on a wide range of resources, whereas developing nations mainly rely on agricultural resources. For example, the American agricultural GDP is .9%, in France 2.7%, in China 11.3%; in Egypt, the agricultural GDP is 13.1% (CIA-The World Factbook). In the US where the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is legal, modified crops are being used to combat the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity. There are genetically modified crops that have been engineered to resist drought, flooding, extreme temperatures, and more.
In retrospect of the methods the US has employed to counter the detrimental effects of climate change, we would like to know how much of a priority fighting climate change is in Egypt? What domestic policies are in place to fight climate change? Is climate change affecting agricultural productivity? And finally, what are your views on the use of GMOs, and are there any political groups in Egypt pushing for the use of GMOs to fight climate change?
"CIA - The World Factbook." Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 19 Oct. 2009.
Monsanto. Drought-Tolerant Corn. 2009. Photograph. Monsanto 2009 Pipeline. Monsanto. Web. 19 Oct. 2009.
As a part of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, we are coming together to open up a conversation surrounding the current use of food for fuel. This is a complex issue that cannot be simplified by generalization. Therefore we hope to open up a discussion rather than an argument.
Contributing authors: Jackie Klimes, Caitlin Morgan, Hannah Rich and Meghan O'Hara.
Michael Ramirez, Creator's Syndicate
What’s more important to you, your trip out to dinner or a starving child in a third world country? This answer may seem obvious, but are your actions reflecting the morals you claim to cling to? One reading of this cartoon reflects the current debate on the use of corn to make biofuel and ethanol. The choice between supplying food and making clean energy brings up moral questions surrounding the priorities of the American consumer and government. Although it may seem harsh, it’s becoming apparent that delegating agricultural production to biofuel plays a role in the global food crisis. Due to the interconnectedness of out the world today, no individual or country can view his or her choices with only themselves in mind. We are not arguing that biofuel is either good or bad, but that it needs to be considered in the global food crisis debate. It undeniably contributes to the uneven distribution of food worldwide. As Americans, we do not feel the effects of this unequal food distribution, yet we must understand the implications of our votes and choices as consumers. Worldwide education is necessary; worldwide compassion is necessary. We cannot continue to turn our eyes, but must look world poverty and come up with solutions that equally value all human beings.
Today we are piloting our first cross-cultural rhetoric video-conference WITHIN the US. Students from Aurora, Colorado will be connecting with students at Stanford.
The task? Rhetorical analysis of image of the American Flag - from diverse perspectives! Not only are there diverse nationalities at each institution, but Colorado and California have very different cultures. In addition, Aurora is a small community college and Stanford is a research one graduate university - so what can we learn from each other? How might we better understand America and its diversity?
Students, please take a moment to post a comment to this blog entry with your response to your experiences connecting today. Be sure to include your name and institution.
• What did you learn about rhetoric and cross-cultural communication today?
• What was most memorable moment or element of the video-conference exchange? What surprised you the most?
• What new insights do you have that you can use for your rhetorical analysis work, your research project, or future intercultural communications?
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
For my research paper, generally I plan to engage in the overall debate about the negative effects of gaming. People have been stressing that gaming has corrupted our society: it has taken a lot of time off of other important activities (e.g the consumer games that allow you to create an identity to use to collaborate with people); the violence has influenced adolescents; people’s social skills have been impacted. Mainly, ever since gaming has become a part of our society, it has influenced the public in how they interact with one another and how they manage their time (Possible to stress the main argument on consumer games for general public and violent games for younger kids). The main focus will be on how gaming influences behavior.
Recently, during high school, I stopped playing games as much as I had used to. I found that I had to focus on my schoolwork and extra curricular activities in order to be accepted into a good college. My dad always said, “Jules, unless you are going to study or pursue a career in gaming, you should lay off of them a bit.” Who knew that I would be taking a course pertaining to games in college? I am really interested in games and want to learn a little more about them. Therefore, I plan to do a research paper on them.
As a child, during my heavy gaming years, I used to play immensely and was told many times by my parents that my behavior was changing due to the influence of gaming: I was becoming more snappy, less cooperative, angered more easily. I finally listened and realized that I was becoming a bit different. I noticed the same change in my friends and cousins who were also exposed to gaming. It made me wonder about the influence gaming has had on our society’s behavior, specifically kids and young adults.
For my research paper, generally I plan to engage in the overall debate about the negative effects of gaming. People have been stressing that gaming has corrupted our society: it has taken a lot of time off of other important activities (e.g the consumer games that allow you to create an identity to use to collaborate with people); the violence has influenced adolescents; people’s social skills have been impacted. Mainly, ever since gaming has become a part of our society, it has influenced the public in how they interact with one another and how they manage their time (Possible to stress the main argument on consumer games for general public and violent games for younger kids). The main focus will be on how gaming influences behavior.
Earlier in the year, my professor from my Writing and Rhetoric class gave us an article revealing the difference between a person’s picture in real life and his avatar’s picture in the gaming/ consumer world (the pictures were side by side). For our task we were supposed to compare the two and come up with ideas on how consumer games influence them. It really shows how gaming shapes a person’s identity in real life and, judging by the picture, possibly influences their behavior as well. I will use this as one of my central sources.
Aside from this, the typical “violent games make kids violent” stories would support my thesis. I will use specific violent games such as Grand theft Auto, FARCRY 2, Gears of War, and others to research their impact among adolecents. Also, one of my peers has suggested that I use some information from his Psych class on how gaming has impacted our society: information on the violence in video games.
I will go into Palo Alto and take surveys and interviews on how people think gaming has influenced the public (and if they are willing, maybe even how games have influenced themselves).
I am nervous and excited about this research argument. I’m not necessarily for this side of the overall debate at all (personally I think there are more positive effects than negative effects). I just think it would be a good learning experience to see what the other side thinks. It will be challenging though especially to find and use all the right sources, but it will be a good experience and beneficial for me in the future.
On October 13, 14, 15 and 16th, students from Stanford University and the University of Sydney participated in a video conferencing exchange to develop effective strategies for presenting ideas across cultures. The exchange involved over 125 students. Below, the globally-distributed student groups have posted their reflections about their experience and some best practices for effective intercultural communication.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Many people have formulated opinions on the effects of video games on the today's youth. People make claims that video games increase aggression and violence, and that they decrease a person's empathy for others and perception of reality versus fantasy. Many of these and more myths are discussed and debunked in an essay by Henry Jenkins, the director of comparative studies at MIT. Essentially, the youth crime rate is currently much lower than it has been for the past 30 years. People are still influenced by video games, yes, but does a virtual experience of violence influence people negatively? In a 2007 poll, parents of video game playing children age 12-17 mostly said the games had no effect, but 19% said they have a positive influence and only 13% said they have a negative influence. However, the 55% of the parents of children who don't play video games said that video games have a negative influence (probably the reason their kids don't play in the first place). Only 10% of children of that age do not play video games, so only 17% of parents with children of that age actually think that video games have a negative effect on children. 17% of that same group also thinks that they have a positive effect.
Clearly the opinion of parents has not led to any evidence either way that video games are a good or bad influence on their children. I plan to research this to find conclusive evidence either way, focusing mostly on the morals video games teach or do not teach, if video games cause a deadened sense of empathy, or lead to increased aggression. Video games often have the player committing crimes and killing people even innocent. However through the game mechanisms, these acts could teach the player the repercussions of such acts, making the player even less likely to commit crimes in real life. In the end, a video game through example, can teach not necessarily what is good, but what is bad. However both sides have valid points and while crimes can't be directly connected to video games, there could be some unrealized influence that these games hold. The essay is what originally sparked my interest in this topic, but the statistics prove that there is no clear answer which means that the results of my research will be more significant.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Although most kids (including me) never even so much as glance at the rating of a video game, it's a primary concern of many parents. My goal is to dig a little deeper and find out just how video games are rated. What's the process? Who's in charge of this sort of thing? I'm also going to explore the social effects that these ratings have. What percentage of kids/parents take the rating into account when they look to buy a game? Are there any parents that believe the rating system is too lenient? Furthermore, has any legal action been taken against video games?
The following information was found at: http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P1sublevel46.html
The above url contains an article that summarizes the results of a study conducted by the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston and the Kids Risk Project at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study took a random sample of 81 video games that were rated T for Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). The games were analyzed and it was found that " in 48 percent of games, the researchers observed content involving violence, sexual themes, profanity, substance use, or gambling that was not noted on the game box." The researchers go one step further and state that the ESRB should "...consider using additional age-based categories in its ratings" and should also "...make playing games an integral part of the rating process". Not only do the researchers attack the games, but they attack the rating system itself. These types of claims are central to my topic, as I am trying to find out if there are negative opinions about the rating system. With this type of hard evidence, it is difficult to imagine that some crazed (in my opinion) parents have not pushed for legal action against the rating system. This only leads to more questions: Does the ESRB have rationale for not being as strict as they could be? Would game sales go down if the rating system became stricter? Would alleged video game related problems (i.e. increased violence, attention deficit problems, etc.) go down if the rating system was stricter? Hopefully I'll soon know.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Pikachu. Thirteen years ago, that word had no meaning. Now, it is the mascot for the second-bestselling franchises of all time. My research project focuses on the rise in popularity of Pokémon, and how one person came up with an idea that took the entire world by force. What was so appealing about Pokémon? What were the early marketing strategies by Nintendo? And is the popularity decreasing now, as many say, or is there more in store for the franchise? These are all central questions to my topic.
In the Nintendo.com article, “Fans Can Actually Become a Pokémon with Two New Nintendo DS Games” (http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/9NH7dkYdedNEp7fwhDrI2NSqsKPVna6B) , Nintendo announces the release of the then-newest edition to the series. The article states that fans now have the chance to “experience life from a Pokemon’s point of view”. In addition to announcing the game, Nintendo also announces a new sweepstakes where fans can enter after playing an online game to win Nintendo prizes.
The news also announces some gameplay aspects of the new games. Players can wirelessly connect with other players to get help in-game. Players can also send notifications to other players through their PCs or cell phones. This social gameplay pushes owners to pressure their friends to buy the game, a common marketing tactic of Pokémon. Over 490 Pokémon make appearances in both games. The games are for the Nintendo DS, and the article pushes players to “upgrade” from Gameboy Advances to the Nintendo DS.
At the very end of the article, it states that over “175 million” Pokemon games have been sold. The only video game series to sell more games is Mario and that series had a fifteen year head start. Overall, the article strongly suggests the reader to go and buy the game, especially targeting readers that are Nintendo fans. The use of gimmicks and statistics to sell the game is also apparent. The new game highlights the franchise is still carrying on as these games were being released a full twelve years after the first Pokémon games.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
“Nothing good ever comes of violence.” This is a quote which is said by Martin Luther. It is ironic because even though the majority of the people view violence as something bad and evil, we still see it daily everywhere; we see it in our favorite TV series, newspaper, computer games etc. It seems as if violence is a part of our culture. Because of this, people are starting to question the effect of exposure to violence on us; many say that violence in media causes us to be violent. Although various kinds of media expose us to violence, video games is one of the most popular things that people believed to have the worst effects on the players. Therefore, many countries now ban video games that are violent.
The focus of my research paper will be to argue against video game policies, specifically Thailand’s. The first source I am going to use is a news article from The Scotsman, August 5, 2008. This article will complicate one of my hypotheses that violence in video game has no influence on the players, because according to the article the murderer claimed that he robbed the taxi because he needed money to play video games and used this method because he thought that it is very easy to do in the video game. He tried to recreate the scene in which the character in the game robs a taxi driver and flees the police by driving the taxi. He failed to flee the police because he doesn’t know how to drive a car, but he also said that he thought he would be able to drive a car by just learning how to by driving one in a video game. This would therefore be challenging for me to argue with, because it is a good counter-example that shows that the video game influenced the murderer so much that he began to mix it with reality.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Two of the constants in my life have been surgery and video games. From Ubisoft’s Chessmaster and Pangea Software’s Power Pete in the computer lab during Kindergarten Recess, to playing Rock Band and Mario Kart Wii to waste away hot summer days, video games have surrounded me no matter where I go. Surgery has always been around just in a different way. My mother has been an pediatric otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat) for close to 30 years and, as I have been interested in being a doctor since a young age, I have always been interested in hearing about her cases.
I also have seen my fair share of operating tables and have more surgery scars then I care to show.
So, for my research paper, it seemed fitting to combine these two great influences in my life and look at surgery and video gaming. After some insightful input from my peers and a bit of revision, I thought the best way to narrow my topic would to be look at how video gaming and simulated surgeries, a different type of video gaming, can help to make better surgeons. As the medical technology has evolved, training cannot be done so much with actual instruments. Instead, the more traditional training of the past has been supplanted with virtual training which is helping to train better surgeons with this new technology. What is very interesting though is that some of these simulations are having a correlation to video games, in that video games and experience playing them are helping medical school students do better in their simulations. With so much happening now, I really wanted to jump in and study this topic further and research it in many forms.
Although a lot of my research will be done in person with interviews of both my mom and faculty of the Stanford Medical School. I wanted to start with some articles. I came across one article recounting the results of a study done connecting video game playing with Laparoscopic surgery. Entitled The Impact Of Video Games on Training Surgeons in the 21st Century, this team of professors and doctors used Super Monkey Ball 2, Silent Scope, and Star Wars Racer Revenge to determine the level of video game play. Using thirty-three residents and physicians, they then gave each person surveys to determine past and present experiences with both gaming and with performing laparoscopic surgery. They then made each person go through a surgery skills and suturing program that they called “Top Gun.”
The findings to all the doctors were astounding. Subjects that indicated playing video games on any system for more than 3 hours a week were committed 37% fewer errors. Even if gaming was not that often played, anyone who had any experience gaming scored 33% on “Top Gun” then those who indicated they had never gamed. Gaming also produced increased efficiency as those who had gamed finished the “Top Gun” exercise 24% faster. The breakdown goes even further when you incorporate the level of game play. This is not as important though to the bottom line as even just a small amount of gaming affected results.
The authors of the article were very convinced by these findings concluding that , “video game skill correlates with laparoscopic surgical skill.” They even went on to add that, “video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.” This source was very helpful to me because I believe this is the stance I want to take on my argument as well. Although this article does not speak so greatly to the simulations used in training, it does talk to how video games can effect this training portion of my argument. it also has a list of other references that I can jump into to further my research. This source though is clearly for the aide of simulations and video games to train surgeons. It at one point describes the surgery that needs to be performed and how the devices used to control the equipment are joysticks and other controllers. But it also begs the question that is this one study with 33 people enough to conclude that video games help surgery? And if so, shouldn’t we be using more games and implementing more of this technology in medical schools? I’m sure the students here at Stanford would love an extra Wii or two.
Works Cited
Rosser, James C., Ronald Merrell, Jonathan Klonsky, Douglas A. Gentile, Laurie Cuddihy, and Paul J. Lynch. "The Impact of Video Games on Training Surgeons in the 21st Century." Archives of Surgery 142.2 (2007). Print.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
I'm thinking about writing a paper tracing the evolution of Mario, from his first appearance in 1981 in Donkey Kong to current games like Super Mario Galaxy, along with the reason why Mario games have risen to become so popular. Mario is one of the most famous and well known video games characters, and has a huge number of games focused on his story. There are also an enormous amount of Mario products other than games, like wrist bands, stuffed animals, action figures and more. Mario has become a major celebrity in video game culture, so much so that almost anyone that knows anything about video games is able to immediately recognize him.
I found a great source on www.Gamecubical.com that discusses how Mario was created. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, started working for Nintendo of America after graduating from Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts in 1977. At the time, Nintendo was having financial troubles while trying to enter then American video game market by designing a co-op arcade game. Miyamoto "conceived a story involving an angry gorilla that escapes from his master, kidnapping the master's girlfriend and taking her to the top of a construction site. Players control the master as he ascends the building, a factory, and a steel foundation, trying to save his girlfriend. " He decided to create a "silly character with whom gamers could connect." Thus Mario was born. This new game called Donkey Kong became "the fastest selling game that the arcade industry had ever seen, eventually selling 65,000 units." With the creation of Mario, Nintendo of America established its place as one of the most well known video-game companies in america.
actual source: http://www.gamecubicle.com/features-mario-nintendo_shining_star.htm
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Most people remember playing Oregon Trail in elementary school. You would name a party of five settlers, choose which supplies to buy, and head out into the endless wilderness. Inevitably, your charges would die, mostly of dysentery. Dysentery is pretty much synonymous with the name Oregon Trail. As the leader of this group, I would play through many times attempting the trek to Oregon. (Here's a good description of the game that illustrates some of my later points: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GH0-hr1u_k)
In our writing class, we have been asked to select a research topic in the gaming world. Looking back on Oregon Trail, I marvel at its ability to involve me in a virtual world representing a historical event that would be unremarkable on the page of a textbook. But there was certainly something missing as well. The real historical concepts fell second to questions like "If I buy 900 bullets, can I get away with one change of clothes?" And a question formed: What makes an educational game successful? Can the motivation inherent in games persevere when applied to educational contexts? If so, how can games teach us more effectively than traditional forms of study? The answer, of course, lies in what games can do that a textbook or a lecture or even real life experiments cannot.
Scientists and education specialists have published a paper about a slightly different type of educational gaming experience that holds more promise than Oregon Trail ever did. (The usability of a commercial game physics engine to develop physics educational materials: An investigation By Colin B. Price) Recognizing that modern action games offer incredibly detailed physics engines, a physics department created a series of rooms using Unreal Tournament 2004 that each contain physics concepts. Students explore the rooms with an avatar and are able to adjust parameters to explore physics concepts qualitatively. In this respect, the game takes a radically different approach from traditional instruction, as the developers are quick to point out: "Physics theory produces mathematical formulas and equations that become the objects of learning and the subjects of investigation and reflection. Recently, many science educators have suggested that this correspondence may actually hinder learning, that physics is best learned not through mathematical formulas but by experiments that are fundamentally visual." They suggest that the best way to understand concepts initially is through experimentation. But remember experiments in high school? How many of them actually worked? In a game, students can pull off a complex, costly experiment with consistency. Also, the Unreal physics engine allows students to directly access the data generated in experiments to easily make the jump from qualitative to quantitative understanding.
Most importantly, the physics program allows students to shape the game world. After success in the first few rooms, they can create their own rooms to test new variables with new objects and interactions. The chosen layout of these rooms reflects their progression in mastery of physics concepts and the connections between them. Finally, the researchers tested student and teacher experience, in terms of engagement and mastery of the material, quantitatively, with positive results.
Through my research, I will explore the relationship between the motivating factors of games and the successful integration of concepts and material with gameplay. With any luck, this will lead to a definition of the educationally useful game, and an idea of gaming's potential in all levels of education.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
For my research paper, I will be looking into video games (specifically the Wii) and how they are used in physiotherapy and rehab. Nintendo Wii was released in 2006 and completely changed the gaming world. It applied movement and activity into gaming, appealing not just to teens but older generations as well. The more popular Wii games, as well as the ones most commonly used in therapy and rehab, are Wii sports and Wii fitness. These games are used as rehab for patients ranging from injured athletes, to stroke survivors, to combat wounded soldiers.
I began my research before I even knew about this research paper.
Over the summer, I was in physical therapy and noticed a Wii being used for patients recovering from leg and ankle/foot injuries. Wii fitness was the game they were using utilizing an electronic board to sense shifts in balance. The minigames being played were puzzle games where the patient had to tilt a virtual board by tilting the electronic board in order to guide marbles through holes in the virtual board. I tried to get the therapist to let me play the Wii instead of other exersizes, but he did not go for that.
I e-mailed the head physical therapist to see if he would help me by explaining how the Wii is used in his office. He referred me to one of his employees who he referred to as the Wii specialist. Personally, I don't think that there is a specific position in the office dedicated to Wii-hab, but this one therapist will know a lot more about the Wii in therapy than anyone else in the office. I am still waiting to hear back form him.
In the mean time, I stumbled across a website call Wiihabilitation http://www.wiihabilitation.co.uk/. Wiihabilitation is a website dedicated to promoting the use of Wii systems in therapy offices around the world. It lists games for the Wii and even delves into which aspects of a certain game help to rehab different parts of the body. In short, Wiihabilitation servers as a database to find which game should be used in specific cases. Wiihabilitation also looks into research because currently there is no scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of Wii in rehab. However, there are undergoing studies that are testing Wii's effectiveness in rehab.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
This is a prewrite for my topic of interest in the use of video games for simulating complex economic markets, mainly the video game EVE Online. EVE is an incredible game in many ways. Its super realistic in its depiction of a future space empire, in that it takes forever to get anywhere, its tediously mathy, and it is full of space jerks and space pirates. But the main thing about the game is how it has a massive economy that is pretty much all controlled by the players that dedicate thousands of hours into developing the economy. The result is a functioning economy that surprisingly mirrors the real economies of the world. s'crazy!
There have been many many articles on the economies of video games, and I have come across a bunch so far in my research. The most notable one so far is a series of professionally published online journals that feature detailed analysis of the market of EVE Online from a renowned Icelandic economics professor, the dean of economics in the university of Reykjavik, Eyjolfur Gudmundsson. It shows specific info about the trends that have appeared from the gameplay of the players inside the world, with analysis of data that has been collected internally. These notes appear starting fiscal year Q4-2007
http://ccp.vo.llnwd.net/o2/pdf/QEN_Q4-2007.pdf
all the way to most currently Q2-2009
http://ccp.vo.llnwd.net/o2/pdf/QEN_Q2-2009.pdf
These notes are very comprehensive, and feature specific data and graphs about changing prices and economic news in the world. Its surprising how realistic the economy is depicted in these papers, as they show economies that work just like real ones. And, of course, an economics professor is the analyst of the data, and it seems to follow rules that govern other economies. Because of the strong focus in trading, it is not surprising that so much of the papers focus on raw material trading indexes.
I don't actually know too much about real-world trading processes, but I can say that the one that is set up in EVE online seems comprehensive.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Video games have been a huge part of my life, having played them ever since I was 3 years old. In the past 18 years, I have played many different games on various platforms that have advanced and diversified as computer technology improved. Regardless of the platform used, the fundamental component of game play has been the controller through which I, the player, interact with the world of the game. The evolution of gaming peripherals is therefore a key driving force in the production of new games, and this fascinating topic has become the topic for my research.
In the midst of my research on the history of gaming peripherals and recent developments in gaming technology, I read a research paper from the International Journal of Computer Games Technology which was titled “Using a Mobile Phone as a “Wii-like” Controller for Playing Games on a Large Public Display”.
Link to article: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcgt/2008/539078.html
The Nintendo Wii was the main inspiration for the paper, with the researchers commenting that the for the Wii it was “undoubtedly its innovative controller functionality that has proved its most attractive feature.” In the paper, the researchers test the feasibility of turning the mobile phone into a new game controller modeled after the Wii remote that would bring gaming out of the home and into public spaces, raising games to new levels of accessibility and social interaction. To prove their point, they ran tests on the Nokia 5500 model, which has motion-sensing devices just like the Wii remote, produce a game that runs on this system and conducted a trial run of the game with 30-35 participants.
This article got me really excited, just imagining the way mobile phone game controllers would change the way we play games, which the paper has described as being “a novel interaction mechanism coupled with a fun group activity can provide an enjoyable social experience, with high levels of user interaction.” Just imagine this: walking along the street in a busy city, the big screen to your right suddenly flashes, telling passer-bys to “join in the battle!” Strangers all around you start whipping out their smart phones and they suddenly become your allies as they use their phones to play on the big screen, which many times larger than the biggest screen that you could fit in your living room. This technology not only brings user-game interaction to new levels, but it would effectively incorporate gaming into the lives of everyone, so long as they own a mobile phone.
Besides the hypothetical situation that I described earlier based on my reading of the research paper, another point in the paper that is essentially the same as one of my arguments for gaming peripherals was in the quote from an interview by Kenji Hall for Business Week in November 2006 with Shigeru Miyamoto:
“The classic controller was something we had become fond of and gamers had become comfortable with. It had many important elements. But it also had come to dictate a lot of what went into games—the way graphics were made, the way battles were fought in role-playing games, the arc of in-game stories. They were all being made to fit one standard. Creativity was being stifled, and the range of games was narrowing.”
The final statement caught my attention, as it captured the same thoughts that I had about why the development of gaming peripherals was so important in the success of video games. Gaming peripherals had to evolve and radiate in order to provide game developers with new opportunities to design games tat could be played in novel ways that are more attractive than the pre-existing ones. Studying the evolution of gaming peripherals would therefore be an important step in analyzing and predicting the types of games that would become successful in the future.
The mobile phone controller is just one of the many possibilities in the future of gaming peripherals. It is in this excitement that I would be continuing my research to show the impact of developments in gaming peripherals on games in the past and present, and thus prove that it is the main driving force behind successful game development
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
We are all familiar with the rapid development in gaming technology in both areas of interactivity and performance. Modern games on the Xbox 360 or PS3 have such realistic graphics thati it's getting a bit scary, and the Nintendo Wii has introduced a new level of immersive interactivity with their acceleration-sensitive controllers. My intention is to look at how the implementation of music in video games is also changing and developing as technology allows more and more freedom.
Scoring for a game is a much different process than scoring for, say, a movie. In a move, the sequence of events is fixed, and thus each second of music is tailored to fit the visuals. Since a game's motion is determined by the player, writing one fixed score would not meld seamlessly with the gameplay. Most games in the past two decades have done a decent job of working around this by having different pieces, or musical elements that trigger during different scenes: the intro will be some epic orchestration, while the boss fight will have heart-stopping drum breaks with adrenaline-fueled synth lines. While this doesn't disrupt the flow of the game so much, it does draw attention to repetitive play, as each similar scene is accompanied by a very recognizable theme.
For my initial source, I looked at an interview by Create Digital Music (CDM), an online periodical, with professor, and game composer Troels Brun Folmann. Among other things, Folmann (referred to from here on as TBF, as in the interview) wrote the music for Tomb Raider Legend, which was highly praised for its innovation in game music. He is interested in advancing the concept of adaptive music in games. The idea, similar to the original strategy of having scene-triggered music sequences, is to break the music down even further so that every player action results in aural feedback. He briefly explains the historical obstacles facing developments in this field,
"I would not say that adaptive music is a new concept, but the problem is that it’s never really been working. One of the main limitations is the fact that current generation of consoles like the PS2 and Xbox have very little RAM allocated for audio. Typically, sound designers have a mighty 2MB to play around with. True adaptive music needs be generated in real-time, and even the next-generation consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3 will not have resources enough to do this on a larger scale.
However, there are ways to work around the limitations. This usually involves the creation of custom technologies. I invented a methodology known as “micro-scoring”. It’s basically the idea of chopping your score down to very small components and triggering them in a way that compliments the game experience."
Micro-scoring is really an extension on the original gameplay-triggered paradigm, but taken further so that in a way, the player is also a composer. By creating musical themes and ostenatos that can synergize no matter how they are combined (by composing them in similar keys and rhythmic schemes), each player action can add another layer of musical complexity, even if only for a second.
In theory, such tangible feedback to player actions should deepen the immersion and emotional impact of a game on its player. It also allows for more intricate musical systems to be implanted. Though these are like black box machines in that most people don't care how music is made so long as it sounds good, new technology combined with paradigm shifts has a way of producing ground-breaking new sounds that will eventually seep into the mainstream perception of "good music". For the most part, the interview deals more with overcoming the difficulties of adaptive composition, but I would like to extend these ideas with other research to look at the notion of the player as a composer.
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
My first post here is a free-write on my research topic to-be, an unsystematic flow of the mind, a preliminary text on what interests me at the moment. The focus of my now-broad topic may shift in the weeks to come; please feel free to leave comments on this original posting, and look forward to an infinitely more refined and polished final draft in early December!
Now to begin:
We all know of the long-standing, never-ending Mac-vs-PC debate. One is chic, simple, and user-friendly, while the other carries the image of a for-work-only machine. And then there’s the more recent Wii-vs-Playstation 3 rivalry (although Xbox is an unignorable third contender—I will talk more about Microsoft in a later post). Like the Mac, the Wii is also clean and simple, easy to learn, and made for everyone, while the new Playstation 3 is a high-definition high-performance game console (as well as Blu-Ray!) that crunches out ridiculously beautiful pictures with its 1080p Full HD.
So the archrivals Mac-PC and Nintendo-Sony are always compared to each other. But now consider comparing the Mac to Wii for a change (this is my research topic).
I casually noticed that Apple and Nintendo have much in common (especially in their marketing), even before conducting any research. This was readily apparent in their fun-filled commercials, choice of shape and color for their products, target audience, and more recently, Apple’s introduction of portable gaming with their iPhone. So I typed into Google: “wii mac nintendo apple”, and the ninth hit caught my eye. It was a blog post titled “12 unexpected parallels between Apple and Nintendo,” which more or less summarized the most obvious similarities between Apple and Nintendo.
Here is the link:
http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/08/19/12-unexpected-parallels-between-apple-and-nintendo/
Most of the points made are obvious, but it’s a good place to start. “1. Both love white… 2. Both sometimes go color-crazy… 5. Both have an ingrained love of simplicity”—these are all visually obvious—but also quite superficial once you begin thinking about WHY the two companies have these things in common.
Think about why both love white: is it because few people dislike that color? Because it's a lack of color? Because it looks clean and simple and the exact opposite of menacing? Now think about the color-craziness: Do they do that because kids want to have an iPod or DS of their favorite color? Because color-differentiated products make great Christmas presents that seem somewhat intended to be personalized or perhaps minimize arguments between siblings? Because it’s a great excuse to go out and buy another one? And then think about the simplicity: Why do the Wii Remote and iPod have so few buttons (and in the case of the iPhone—one)? So that it’s easy to learn and easy to use, from little kids to your grandmother? Because it’s just plain pretty?
Probably.
If you begin thinking about Apple and Nintendo’s products as large-scale (and largely successful) marketing schemes, (as opposed to… well, I guess they can only be thought of as profit-gushing products, unless you argue that they have positively impacted the current generation with their creative, state-of-the-art technology, though some parents may argue that Nintendo has corrupted their children’s minds—but sorry, I digress) the fact that their decisions surrounding design are so similar becomes fairly reasonable. They have similar targets and therefore, consequently, similar marketing techniques. In my opinion, both Nintendo and Apple target both extremes of the age spectrum—the young and old. Of course, there are many other categories besides age to be discussed in the realm of advertising—such as occupation, level or intensity of gaming, ethnicity, culture or location of the target audience—but I will narrow my focus as I complete more drafts. For the time being, I would like to concentrate and elaborate on Apple and Nintendo’s similar appearances, advertisements, and general “brand image.”
Look forward to more posts to come… :)
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
The college life is one of constant toil; a paper here, a p-set there, it never ends. However, once in awhile we naive frosh are given the onerous joy of a research project. This here post is my attempt to make sense of the ramblings of my mind. To that end, I'm gonna talk about what I want to talk about, and if you want to make fun of it well......you can.
In the course of a single night, after much deliberation and procrastination, I arrived at, what I believe to be an interesting topic for conversation, which could evolve into a research project. That project would be focused on the problems and questions being addressed through the use of videogames that model reality; however, that topic is a much winnowed version of the overall idea, that videogames are leaving the basement for the light of the research world. I have found several examples of genuine research involving videogames. The reasearch topics vary from the development/ regeneration of neural pathways by playing tetris, to the use of World of Warcraft as a grand simulation of the effects of a pandemic. The latter example is the one that sparked my interest in the first place, and thus will be the subject of this post.
That example, when the CDC tried to use Blizzard's MMORPG "World of Warcraft" as a virus sim, grew out of a simple glitch. The plague, which began on September 13, 2005, evolved into a pandemic when players discovered how to spread a Boss's spell (corrupted blood) outside of his dungeon. During the panic, some players acted as healers, volunteering to help, select others would maliciously spread the disease, akin to real disease spreaders, early AIDS patient Gaëtan Dugas and Typhoid patient Mary Mallon. Blizzard attempted to fix the problem with voluntary quarantines, but most did not take it seriously, forcing Blizzard to do a hard reset of all of its servers for the game.
The little incident caught international attention, and led to a pronounced scholarly interest in the game. The CDC even tried to get in, requesting the stats on the outbreak as a model of potential terrorism, but where told it was a simple glitch.
However, one dedicated professor, Ran D Balicer, an epidemiologist physician at the Ben-Gurion University in Israel, published an article in the Journal Epidemiology describing the similarities between this outbreak and the recent SARS and avian influenza outbreaks. Dr. Balicer's article is a wonderful source for information on the use of videogames as models. He writes,
"As mathematical modeling of infectious diseases becomes increasingly important for developing public health policies, a novel platform for such studies might be considered. Millions of people worldwide play interactive online role-playing games, forming complex and rich networks among their virtual characters. An unexpected outbreak of an infective communicable disease (unplanned by the game creators) recently occurred in this virtual world. This outbreak holds surprising similarities to real-world epidemics. It is possible that these virtual environments could serve as a platform for studying the dissemination of infectious diseases, and as a testing ground for novel interventions to control emerging communicable diseases."
Dr. Balicer advocates the use of videogames as simulators for the spread of disease, and to that end he is wonderfully quotable; indeed, his ideas in said article will form a significant portion of the paper. However, his ideas fomented talks on the subject, leading to the inclusion of Second Life as another modeling platform, as well as plans to use VG's as a platform for research into terrorism. Additionally, his perspective planted the seed of curiosity in Nina Fefferman, a Tufts University assistant research professor of public health and family medicine. She has since authored several papers on the subject, and in May 2008, she spoke at the Games for Health conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Professor Fefferman spoke about how massively multiplayer online populations could solve the problems inherent with more traditional models of epidemics.
I could wax on about the implications of these games specifically in the epidemiological fields, but my paper is to focus on the broader implications of VG's. I'll be researching a bevy of applications, each with questions to answer, and problems to solve. The Health interest is but one aspect my interest here.
Unfortunately, I could not access the full article, due in part to some issues with capitalistic websites with little regard for a poor college student's needs. However, once I overcome that little issue, life will be grand.
I'm once again teaching the Rhetoric of Gaming here at Stanford, and this quarter, we started off by working with the Cabrinety Collection, a large repository of vintage video games currently housed in Green Library's special collections.
After this opportunity to analyze primary sources, the students have been busy selecting and refining their own research topics for explore over the next six weeks. As one of the first stages in their projects, they were asked to post a blog entry on the CCR blog in which they identify their topic and then describe and analyze one source that they feel will be important for their research.
Their blog posts are listed below -- they would welcome feedback on their ideas as they continue to refine their topics, revise their research questions, and brainstorm productive ways to research this project!
This week is a big week for my fall Rhetoric of Gaming course here at Stanford. Not only are my students preparing to share their research topics on this international blog, but they are also eagerly anticipating their video conference Tuesday night with students from the University of Sydney, Australia. My class drew the late-night video conference, so we will be connecting at 10pm Stanford time for an hour-long activity with our global partners.
It's funny that just as we prepare to chat with Australia, Australia is in the news specifically for their gaming rating restrictions. As one blogger reports, it is looks as if Australia will be lifting its ban on the violent video game "Left 4 Dead 2" -- after the game has been revamped and censored specifically for Aussie audiences.
The controversy over violent video games has been brewing for years in Australia; one Australian news correspondent succinctly summed up the situation in summer 2008 when he pointed out,
[W]hen it comes to video games, we have one of the toughest regimes in the world in terms of dictating exactly what is available to our adult population. On one hand Australia is an oasis of game development, with a thriving, highly skilled industry generating hundreds of millions of dollars of valuable export revenue. On the other hand Australia's lack of an R18+ classification means that some of the world's most important video games are effectively banned from appearing down under at all.
Australia is not alone in their harsh critique of violence in gaming. Just last week, Venezuela announced plans to ban violent video games and toys.
Here in the U.S., we see controversy over violent content in gaming being played out on a small scale in Gamestops as parents fight with their kids over whether they should purchase M-rated video games (many of which boast the best graphics available) and on a larger scale in the media and the news. It's interesting to consider how this issue transcends American borders and in fact is part of a larger global conversation about if and how to regulate the violent content that is being programmed into gameplay everyday.
We would love to read more insights about this controversy both in the US and abroad.