Category: A12: Causal Rewrite

Causal Rewrite – picklerick

Reading more nonfiction literature is a fantastic way to sharpen your brain. This sounds obvious, but so many people have the wrong idea when it comes to fiction vs. nonfiction. When one reads informational text, it requires careful attention and effort to be fully comprehended. Whereas when fiction or science fiction is being read, it’s likely being read purely for pleasure.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Plenty of people may read fiction with excellent focus and attention to detail. The thing is, these people are missing out on the immense amount of knowledge and understanding of the world that nonfiction junkies get to experience. Those who just read books for fun can stick to whatever they want to read, but those who are trying to get real, practical benefits from their reading should always lean toward nonfiction.

Public schooling often fails to teach the proper way to close read text. According to Ness (2011), students are struggling with close reading at an increasing rate. A few factors play into this. Kids in elementary school through high school are often given assignments where they’re asked to independently read and log a brief description of what they read in a reading journal. This sounds like a simple and reliable way to get kids into reading. In reality, though, this form of reading assignment gives adolescents major apprehension towards reading and is often the reason why they are so turned off to reading by the time they get to highschool. When kids feel forced to read, they won’t want to. This is why many schools need to rethink the way they’re teaching kids to read by focusing heavily the basics of close reading.

Caitlin Dakin states, in her thesis paper, “It is essential in today’s educational world that teachers begin to transform their classroom instruction of fiction literature into short informational complex texts to give the students the opportunity to meet the demands of the common core learning standards.” Read what you will, but be aware of how much benefit you are really getting from your reading.

 

References

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten. (2012, December 13). Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core’s Emphasis on Informational Text. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/fiction-or-nonfiction-considering-the-common-cores-emphasis-on-informational-text/

Bartlett, B. (2014, June 20). 4 Bad Side Effects of Reading Fiction According to the 19th Century. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-bartlett/4-bad-side-effects-of-rea_b_5513451.html

Causal Argument Rewrite- Dancers

Looking at Bullies Differently

Bullying is one of the most common traumatizing phenomena among children and adolescents and is recently being recognized as a growing problem.

In grades 6 through 12 one in every five students reports being bullied according to the National Center for Educational Statistics taken in 2016. Out of the students who reported being bullied 33% said they were bullied at least once or twice a month during the year. Statistic of the students that have been subjected to bullying reported that 13% were made fun of, 12% were subjected to rumors, 5% were physically abused, and the last 5% were deliberately left out of activities. The percentage of students who admitted to being bullied is much higher than the percentage of students who report being bullied to someone within the school. Due to this huge gap in the percentages the bullying problem within schools is worse than we thought.

It is difficult to fully determine why children have bully like tendencies when interacting with others. But arguments can be made that children tend to pick up these tendencies at home. When parents treat their children poorly from a young age the child is going to grow up thinking that’s the way to treat others around them. If a child knows nothing about care and affection of course they will treat their peers poorly.

Bullies tend to have aggressive behaviors designed to obtain goals and these goals often begin first in their home environment. Children are most vulnerable to learning the appropriate behaviors at a very young age. Most of the behaviors that bullies tend to pick up on are due to the way their family acts. The home situation of most bullies is quite harsh, punishment is often within the home either verbal or physical. If the child makes a minor infraction it could lead the parent to over react in a verbal, emotional or physical way. Children being raised in an environment like this often don’t gain approval or praise at any time.

If the primary caretaker has a negative attitude toward the child at a young age with lack of warmth and involvement in this child, it increases the risk that this child will grow up with hostile or aggressive behaviors towards others. Not just people in their family but towards people in general. If the child does become aggressive and the parent becomes permissive of these behaviors, without setting clear limits to the behavior towards peers, siblings, and adults the child’s aggression will most likely increase. If the parent of a child uses physical punishment and violent emotional outburst when trying to get their point across, this child is more likely to become more aggressive than the average child.

It has been concluded that bullies often stem from families where the parents are authoritarian, hostile, and rejecting, have poor problem solving skills and advocate fighting back at least at the least provocation. Children being raised in a hostile home environment could often feel neglected and unwanted. This could lead to the child becoming aggressive and act out in order to try and gain attention from their parents.

The parents of these children probably don’t realize that their behaviors toward their child leads them to act the same way they do towards others. Some of these children who bully may not know any better because they were raised in a home with negativity and where they were constantly put down. So they may see it as normal behavior when they are treating others this way not realizing that they are actually bullying.

Out of a home environment of negativity emerges a personality steeped in the belief and justification that intimidation and brute forces are ways to interact with obstacles that are encountered in life. It has been said that violence begets violence. If a child is treated with violent behaviors they most often turn and treat others with violent behaviors.

The aggression and anger of these children often builds up because they are not able to speak out at home in which it grows. So when they arrive at school and have to deal with some sort of situation they may just explode and go off on others within this environment. It is hard for teachers and peers to deal with children who do not know how to act properly, fearing they will always act out when something bad happens.

Justifying bullies is not what is happening but these children that bullies often can’t take all the blame they are raised in a sense where negativity towards others is normal. Furthermore, if these children are bullying others their parents often stick up for their child’s behavior and sees it as them sticking up for them self.

References

Bullying Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp

Roberts, W. B., Jr., & Morotti, A. A. (n.d.). The Bully as Victim. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42732181.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:691cee82878e2580b4ba2f967406d63a

Olweus, D. (n.d.). Bully/Victim problems in school. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/pdf/23420286.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A81a118046b9f273c73808da868e8d722

Ma, X. (n.d.). Bullying and Being Bullied. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/pdf/3202462.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A60abb9588a61d9951c2434b757060c62

Causal Rewrite – summergirl1999

Student Debt: Success or Scam?

In American society, having a college degree holds weight. Working towards a college degree shows employers that students are motivated to succeed. A college degree can determine many things such as, raises, well-paying careers, and most importantly success. Attending college is highly encouraged by teachers, parents, friends and other mentors that students come across on a daily basis. ‘Successful’ is a word that everyone wants to describe themselves as, and American society says that a college education is one of the steps that can help students move in the right direction towards success. Every person is different, which means different personal and finical issues. Depending on the person, college can either be worth the time and money or not.

Person A, is an example of positive effects of attending college. Person C, is an example of the negative effects of attending college. College tuition is very expensive, public university tuition is averaged at $25, 290, and private university tuition is averaged at $50,900. Person A has a finically stable background and money saved, so the price of tuition is not a problem. Person B does not have a stable background and no money saved due to personal issues, so the price of tuition is a challenge so they have to take out student loans so they can attend college. Students choose to go to college so they have more opportunity to choose their career. Person A, chooses the career of their choice because they enjoy it and salary. Person B wants to choose a certain career but it raises the tuition so they choose another career that they do not enjoy as much but it has a good salary. “Students in the sciences, engineering, computing, premed programs, and the fine arts often pay more. For example, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, students enrolled in the College of Engineering pay up to $5,000 more in tuition than students pursuing other majors” (College Data.) Student loans are a factor of attending college. Students take out student loans if they do not have the money to pay for their college tuition. Students take out money from loaners who lend them the money to attend college, in return after the student has graduated college they must pay back the loans plus interest. Interest rates vary by the loaner, undergraduate degrees interest rates vary around 4.45% and graduate degrees interest rates vary around 6.00%. Person A either has to borrow a little amount of money in loans or none at all. Person C is not financially  stable, they have to borrow student loans to pay off their college tuition. Student debt is a huge issue in America, it is one of the largest debts America encounters. Money Watch is an article featured on CBS News that speaks about college and the financial issues that come with it they stated, “For the 2013-14 school year, the government sank $126 billion into undergraduate student aid” (MoneyWatch.)

Graduates attend college so they can establish a steady career. When college graduates apply for careers, most careers look at what college the graduate attended, college recognition. Person A graduated from Harvard University as a chemistry and physics major. Harvard University is one of the most prestigious colleges in America, and has recognition. Harvard Universities tuition is $63,025. Person C graduated from South Texas College also as a chemistry and physics major. The tuition at South Texas College is $11,892. Although South Texas College has good reviews and is a college it does not have the same recognition as Harvard University. If Person A and Person C both applied for a job for chemistry and physics, Person A would most likely get the job. “The rankings, it turned out, mattered a great deal. The more elite a school, the better its alums’ paychecks. The effect also increased over time. Among students who had graduated high school in 1980, those who had gone on to a top private university eventually made 20 percent more than their counterparts from bottom tier public school. The Atlantic Magazine covered an article about careers and wages they stated, “For the class of 1972, the wage boost was just 9 percent.”

A career is not always guaranteed with a college degree. Graduates that come out of college with a degree are still not guaranteed a job in the field that they studied and not guaranteed a high paying career right away. Graduates that go out in the real world need a job to pay for all of their expenses, beyond what they owe on their student loans. Although students attend college so they can have a higher chance – or even a chance at all at pursuing a career, the career is not always guaranteed. “Millions of college graduates who saw a degree as their ticket to a good-paying career and a secure life are working in jobs that do not require their education or even a high school diploma, sometimes leaving them with small wages to pay thousands in student debt, according to a new study” (The Denver Post.) Person A went to a prestigious college, got a career in their trained field, paid off their little amount in student debt and just bought a house. Person C went to an average college and could not find a job right after gradation so they had to get a job at a Target so they can pay off their necessities (rent, food, utilities, and personal purchases.)  Six months after Person C graduated college, they needed to start paying off their student loans, which can be a huge inconvenience and challenge because Person C is making an average of $9.33 an hour.

It is hard enough for graduates to deal with the amount of debt they are in themselves, but people have personal problems that can make it more challenging. For Person A, college was worth it because, they had enough financial stability to choose a prestigious college that cost $63,025. Also, because Person A got a career in their field with a steady salary right after college which helped pay off their student loans. For Person C, college was not worth it because although they have a college degree they could not find a stable job. Since Student C took out student loans they are still obligated to pay back their student loans.

Reference Page

NACAC, College Data, College Education, https://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=10064

Nykiel Teddy, March 19, 2018, Student Loan Interest, https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/student-loan-interest-rates/

Harvard at a Glance, Harvard University, https://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance

O’Shaughnessy Lynn, March 13, 2015, Money Watch, CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-biggest-problems-with-americas-colleges/

Target Salaries, Glassdoor, https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Target-Salaries-E194.htm

Weissmann Jordan, May 17, 2012, does it Matter Where you go to College, The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/does-it-matter-where-you-go-to-college/257227/

Causal Argument – thebeard

Fighting is one of the biggest parts of the NHL and if it wasn’t there the game would be completely different. Some players wouldn’t have jobs anymore because they are on teams to be enforcers. If fighting was not in the NHL there would not be much to pump up the crowd aside from scoring goals. Players would not motivate their own team if they get in a fight and win it. You can’t protect your teams star player when he gets hit really bad if there is no fighting. Fighting is a crucial part to the game and should never be removed.

One of the biggest modern game’s true enforcers, John Scott would be praised by his teammates for protecting them on the ice. But he also got so much hate for fighting because that was basically all he was on many teams for. In the article by Chris Kuc called “Why is fighting vanishing from the NHL?” he talks about how hard it has been for Scott to find someone willing to drop the gloves with him. Opponents would often turn down his requests to fight during his time playing for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010-12. Fighting is already starting to decrease, in 2016 fighting was down 16 percent from the year before and 40 percent from the 2012-13 season.

The NHL stated that through February 4th, 2016 there was a total of 212 fights in a combined 767 games for an average of .28 per contest. Through the same number of games in the 2013-14 season there were 332 fights which was .43 per game. Over the years fighting has definitely decreased and is slowly decreasing more and more. Years ago team would usually use their fourth line to be enforcers and just go out on the ice to rough some people up. Nowadays, with the game becoming so competitive, many teams are focusing more on skill and having four line that can help with a game.

In the same article by Chris Kuc, NHLPA Executive Director Tonal Fehr said “This is a very physical game where guys are expending a lot of energy and a lot of adrenaline, It can get really heated because at the elite level of this sport, if you’re not emotionally involved in the game and want to win as much as you can breathe, you’re not staying in this league.” Many players these days don’t have enough energy to push themselves as much as they do playing to also be bale to get into a fight. Majority of the time when a fight does occur these days its because of a big hit or as a way for players to police the game. When I was growing up and going to hockey games and watching them on TV many players would just skate up to each other and say “You want to go?” This happened pretty often and it was really meant to pump up their team or get the crowd going. It was always one of the best things to see two players behind the play just talking and then start throwing punches. It really got everyone going but in the last couple years I haven’t seen that and if so its very rare.

Nowadays an enforcer is a rare sight on the ice. Tie Domi, who spent 16 years establishing a reputation for being one of the NHL’s fiercest enforcers, talks about his worry about his son Max Domi who plays now in the NHL in the article written by John Wawrow. Domi talks about how he is concerned about his son since the league has basically eliminated the role of on-ice police. Back when he played they used to make people accountable for what they did to other players but now its such a different taste. It has really only taken one generation to change the era of the game, ending the tough guy era and becoming a faster, leaner and far less gap-toothed era.

One of the greatest known goons was Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, he played for the Flyers in the 1970s and stood out as an enforcer on a team that was already physical and aggressive. According to the article by Ben Alberstadt, during one playoff campaign, Schultz spent 139 minutes in the penalty box in 17 games. During the Flyers cup-winning 1974-75 season he spent a ludicrous 472 minutes in the box. Another great enforcer was Dave “Tiger” Williams, who spent more than 4,400 minutes in the penalty box during his 14- year career. Williams averaged 4.12 penalty minutes per game in the box. He crossed 300 penalty minutes in a season six times during his career. He also crossed 250 penalty mark 10 times, which is very impressive. In 1987 Williams also did something very unique for being an enforcer: release a cookbook entitled Done like Dinner: Tiger in the Kitchen. If fighting was never a part of the game these guys like many others would have never played and never have the achievements they had in their careers.

If fighting was never put into the NHL theses players that are meant to be enforcers may have never played the game. Many of these players did not have the skill to be a normally skilled player that would go out on the ice and score goals, they instead would go out on the ice to lay a big hit on someone or get into a fight. Some of them were on a team to protect the star players and police the ice and make people accountable for what they did to other players and got away with it.

Works Cited

Alberstadt, Ben. “The 10 Greatest Enforcers in NHL History.” TheRichest, 1 Jan. 1970

Kuc, Chris. “Why Is Fighting Vanishing from the NHL?” Chicagotribune.com, 8 Feb. 2016,

Wawrow, John. “Tie Domi Concerned about Lack of NHL Enforcers.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 7 Jan. 2017

Causal Rewrite – collegegirl

Police brutality has caused many males of color to be afraid of law enforcers. The murders of innocent black males such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Phillip White and many others, caused movements such as Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper movement and many other movements and groups such as these. Studies and recent actions by police officers have caused young black males to feel under engaged and more likely to be victims of police brutality over other races. Young black males to feel terrified, traumatized and nervous that they may be the next victim of police brutality during any given day.

Four years ago, the very popular movement of Black Lives Matter began their organization whose intentions are to build local power within communities and spread the world that Black Lives Matter. Their ultimate goal is to have a world where black lives are no longer the target for police officers. The Black Lives Matter movement promotes voice, they want to be heard. The organizations go around and march for their rights, fighting to get equalization and justice for those who they have lost from the acts of police brutality. On the other side of the Black Lives Matter movement, there is an All Lives Matter Movement. The All Lives Matter activists believe that we shouldn’t highlight that only black lives matter in our world because technically all lives matter. Here’s a controversial topic. In fact, all lives do matter, but the black community has been targeted from the beginning of time going back to slavery and now, being targeted again by the justice system who is supposed to protect its people not harm innocent black males. The list goes on of how many protest and movements there are regarding the police brutality issues we face today. We always see movements on social media and on the news about protest for police brutality, but the real questions is, what are we doing for our youth to ensure them that they are the ones who ca make a change in our justice system today.

Unlike the Black Lives Matter movement which only promotes their organization by marches and protest, Barack Obama created a movement to help the young men of color in the black communities. The My Brother’s Keeper movement was created after the life of an innocent young black male Trayvon Martin was taken and who’s murderer was found not guilty after trial. Obama’s goal for this movement is to help young black men and boys stay on track and providing them with the support and guidance that is necessary to help them build a better future for themselves.

Like every movement, Obama has set six different milestones that he wants all of the participants to accomplish while in the program. Getting a healthy start and and entering school is his very first milestone. Every child should enter school at the appropriate age and not only be physically ready but also emotionally ready to take on the ability to learn in a classroom setting. At the age of 8, reading to comprehend and to understand is extremely important, so Obama’s wants participants to read at grade level by third grade. Graduating from High School and beginning college is the start and foundation of building a career for yourself. Obama believes that all youth should receive quality education in high school that will advance and move them to post secondary education. Of course, entering into college is the easy part, finishing is the hard part. Another one of Obama’s milestone is for Americans to be able to go to post secondary education and graduate which leads them into their careers. Successfully entering the workforce is another milestone. Having a job allows people to provide support for their families. The sixth and final milestone that Obama has in tact for his movement is that kids should be kept on track and given second chances.

With these milestones set in stone for the My Brother’s Keeper movement, it has statistically improved neighborhoods around the country. Since the movement began in 2014, the MBK movement has decreased Compton’s homicide rate by 64%, ignite employment for 10,000 young men in Philadelphia, and empowered 12,000 incarcerated men to educate themselves on the collegiate level and enlist in workforce training. In an article about a community by Yohannes Abraham, the author discusses how a financial service firm in Long Beach California partnered with a mentoring program which students go to their office, fill out applications and do mock interviews with managers. To keep the students motivated, the firm rewards them prizes such as laptops when they reach their GPA goals.

If Obama took this initiative before the death of Trayvon Martin, Martin could still be living today. Obama should have created the movement before police brutality began. Young black males of small communities have been struggling before police brutality even begun. Between gangs, violence between one another, and poverty, young black males have been struggling for many years. Consistent programs that provided young men of color with the correct supervision to point the young men in a positive direction, could have gave the troubled youth the experience and guidance they needed to have before the police brutality rate increased and got to a point that is is today.

When communities come together to help young men and their futures, future’s of young black males will become more positive rather than negative. Providing young black men with guidance and support for their futures through the My Brother’s Keeper program and other programs like it, young males focus will be more on their own future rather than the negatives that are happening around them in their future.

 

Works Cited

Davis, Nicholas Quah Laura E. “Here’s A Timeline Of Unarmed Black People Killed By Police Over Past Year.” BuzzFeed, http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicholasquah/heres-a-timeline-of-unarmed-black-men-killed-by-police-over?utm_term=.kyypRAbJJ#.bbZlp4N33.

“My Brother’s Keeper.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/279811.

“Building on What Works With My Brother’s Keeper.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/04/17/building-what-works-my-brother-s-keeper.

Parham, Jason. “My Brother’s Keeper Pushes On As Reality For Black Men Remains In Peril.” The FADER, The FADER, 8 Nov. 2017, http://www.thefader.com/2016/07/08/my-brothers-keeper-celebrates-benchmarks.

 

Causal Rewrite – theintern

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility for the win

People don’t realize but their so called “ethics” change once they get exposure to the business world. Morals ethics are different from business ethics. Moral ethics are the principles or habits taught by our parents/guardians to understand and state what is the right and wrong choice to make or do. While business ethics falls under different standards; it is mostly the rules of conduct that a company gives to their employees which usually affect their morals because sometimes we are unwilling to do the tasks of what the company we work for ask us to do. We ask ourselves why do we follow these unethical rules the reason is why we want to keep our jobs and keep supporting our families. The effects of telling the company we work for that we will not follow these unethical rules will end in either getting fired or told that there will be changes but most likely lose the job.

In the business world we won’t hear too much about business ethics, though another term we do hear is corporate social responsibility which is somewhat like ethics just a more narrowly concern about the company’s obligations. CSR plays an important role in every firm or company in the United States. CSR and business ethics go hand in hand if either of them are tampered with or in another terms, people change the rules and make it their own so their business would prosper. Word gets out when businesses do not perform well and lack in any of the four axes such as being a committed employer, build relationships with our customers, serve civil society, being an environmentally friendly player. I believe that the CSR is like an insurance for business ethics, CSR is there to provide people with guidance on how to act within the firm with everybody. However if CSR starts to lack no customer will seek guidance from that firm/company again because of how their service lacked. This effects the business tremendously for example if customers stop recommending others to come to our firm we can not make profit and worse run of out business. That is why having the right kind of ethics is important and should always be looked upon and checked every now and then.

According to a study made my Peter Arlow a journalist who wants to find out which group of people would be more likely to cheat and be negative orientated towards social responsibility. He made tests with the following information: first off he included the major whether they were business majors or non business majors, second he included the sex male or female, third their age either under the age of 24 or equal/over the age of 24. Arlow decided to conduct this test with surveys and then using t tests and correlations to figure out which group was more reliant to follow the rules. Overall the nonbusiness majors scored higher on all five ethical dimensions. Each ethical dimension were based on (Aldag and Jackson, 1977): (1) Traditional Orientation – sees efficient production as the key social responsibility and profit maximization as the corporate goal. (2) Negative Orientation Toward Alleged Social Responsibility – sees social responsibility as a gimmick and a cover for mismanagement. (3) Demander Orientation – calls for diversion of shareholder resources to society in general. (4) Constrainer Orientation – favors tightened control of government over business. (5) Negative Orientation Toward Adequacy of Corporate Social Efforts – sees current corporate social effort in a negative light and sees negative consequences of a lack of social effort. This data was determined under all five of these dimensions of social responsibility and then followed through to which was one would be the most adequate to choose from depending on the score. These were the measurements to access business ethics based on the work of Miesing and Preble (1985): (1) Machiavellianism – moral actions are justified to serve some purpose, (2) Objectivism – the focus is on rational self-interest and avoiding ethical judgements based on feelings, (3) Social Darwinism – accepts percepts of “survival of the fittest, and the strong are morally superior, (4) Ethical relativism – ethical judgements are based on social convention and that which is sanctioned by group norms at a given time and place, (5) Universalism – rules of behavior are absolutes, and apply equally to all places and times. Within the process there were two measurements to be measured it was the business ethics and social responsibility.

As for the results Arlow figured out that business students may not be as self centered, selfish and opportunistic as the stereotypical view of individuals. Within the business ethics of Meising and Preble the two were Machiavellianism and Darwinsim. Which meant that these business students are willing to do business but with a purpose however they would do anything to get to the top, survival of the fittest. When the business and nonbusiness students were compared using the social responsibility measure of Aldag and Jackson there was a significant difference found on the dimensions of Negative Orientation Toward Social Responsibility and the Demander Orientation. These results suggest that nonbusiness students are more negative toward current efforts at social responsibility, seeing it as a cover for mismanagement, and the lack of upholding and keeping any company they work well connected.

Sex wise the data showed that females were less likely to do commit fraud or do anything that would be considered as unethical. The results say that females would want to keep the company from falling and keep it balanced but the males seemed like they didn’t care if the company would collapse as long as they would make profit and have something to live from. That’s why females are considered more passionate and considerate other than males.

While the age group of higher than the age 24 were considered to show a greater negative orientation because of their lives being more ahead of the other people. Older people are considered the most target audience to commit any type of business crime because of them considered to have a family to take care of without a great income it would totally be impossible to maintain a family.

The people who were surveyed mostly students are determined to be influenced by peers from the exposure of the larger socio-cultural norms than by education in specific disciplines.

Work Cited

“Ethics vs Morals.” Ethics vs Morals – Difference and Comparison

“How Corporate Social Responsibility Pays Off.” Long Range Planning, Pergamon, 26 Feb. 1999.

Arlow, Peter. “Personal Characteristics in College Students’ Evaluations of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility.” Journal of Business Ethics 10.1 (1991): 63. ProQuest.

 

Causal Rewrite – ChandlerBing

Frequent testing impedes on students’ ability to learn new information and apply it correctly in their lives. Furthermore, subjects mainly focused on high-stakes tests are math, reading and writing; leaving school districts to stray away from other important subjects such as social studies, the arts and foreign language. The education system stamps on the concept of seeing the world in anything, other than black and white. When dealing with the possibilities of areas in interests, our learning system blurs out artistic or social intelligences, and focuses on socializing through subjects heavily based of mathematics, literature and the sciences. Teachers and administrators are not to blame. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, mandates that schools measure and account for the performance of their students. Moreover, harsh sanctions are put in place for those school districts that do not meet the “adequate yearly progress,” or AYP; a numerical value that defines student performance. The law also mandates schools to administer standardized tests and report the results to the state. Students are deprived of humanity; in aspect, everyone is seen as a number. The system doesn’t care about how the students got the score, and the effort it took to get there. All that they look at is the number they stand for. The standardized test movement has corrupted the very nature of education and learning by forcing educators to focus on test-taking skills, such as strict memorization, rather than important concepts, the overall desire to want to learn and understand the subject. These assessments thwart educational growth because their questions are generalized; they instill fear of failure in students; and they hinder efforts by teachers to improve their pedagogical methods.

The original intent for high-stakes testing was to sort the massive inflow of students at the turn of the century. Slowly, they became a way to evaluate schools and their efficiency. States determine whether a school is fulfilling the responsibility of effective teaching or not by the results of generalized pen-and-paper tests in which all students are expected to complete, regardless of their learning capabilities. Standardized assessments are created from an outside source other than the school that is administering them. Many educators and experts work tirelessly to develop these assessments, but what they do not understand is that each student has their own method of learning. Test developers do not witness the learning process of an individual in a classroom. So how can they truly be aware of how each student learns? They cannot. Teachers interact with students every single day, and they know and understand what works best for their students.

Standardized means all students in the state must take the same assessment. The questions do not evaluate the skills of the students simply because the questions are vague. To effectively learn, the mind must be challenged. Basic skills questions do not appropriately measure a student’s learning. When developing these tests, an important factor is not considered; each student learns at a different pace. Every brain is different from the next, it absorbs information differently for everyone. Different students implement their own learning method that individually caters to them. All students in a classroom learn the same thing at the same pace. If one student falls behind, they must catch up because the rest of the class is moving on with the curriculum. This overwhelming environment and panic negatively impacts the learning community.

Another critique on standardized testing, emphasizes the belief that tests are by procedure for the sole purpose of holding schools and teachers accountable for their student’s performance. Teachers abandon their original curriculum to prepare for the high-stake test. The school environment is shifting their main focus on their employees, not the learning rate of their students. Spending more time on test related subjects, affects the time spent on other creative concentrations like social studies and the arts.

School districts must pay the company that manufactures the assessments. In a utopian reality, such money driven evaluations would not be considered. The primary goal should be to expose the minds of the youth to new ideas and provide deep explanations of the world around them.

Testing becomes the focus in a classroom. Teachers spend countless hours obsessing over the content of the tests; further distracting from other subject areas. Any student will admit, their teacher has told them for multiple choice questions, “there are four choices that all may seem to be the right answer, but only one is the true answer.” “Don’t be too creative. Don’t think too hard. Only give them what they want. Pace yourself.” These phrases are becoming too frequent and they hinder the creativity and critical thinking necessary for effective learning. Creative children are stumped when they see the generalized questions on the assessments. It teaches them that there is only one viable answer and there is no room for creativity. Standardized tests look at the final step rather than the learning journey itself.

A more effective way to measure student learning would be to measure their improvement through classroom assignments. The instructor can create projects to highlight creativity and free thinking. The stress of standardized testing falls upon the student as they fear they will not pass. Furthermore, no student should take a high-stakes test in an anxious state. The results of a test, where a student “blanks” because of test anxiety, do not reflect the student’s true performance; thus, creating a blurred snapshot of that students’ academic achievements.

These tests are administered to thousands of students. It is unlikely that every single student can be present on test day. Under these circumstances, it is counterintuitive to believe that a child can demonstrate their full capabilities of what they have learned. A student in South Carolina responded to standardized tests by saying, “All they care about is the test; they don’t care if we learn anything.” Learning success should be valued more than success on tests.

A handful of students do not show much concern for the tests and do not fully understand the consequences. Students fill out the bubbles on the exam sheet so that they form a picture, thus getting the answers marked incorrect. These students are then placed in a low-level class for the following years of their educational career. Apparently, results from a single exam are enough evidence to show the full capabilities of students, even when they lack care for the assessments.

Politics and money are much too involved in education today. By using high-stakes testing to hold teachers accountable for their students, and to reward and punish them based on test results, the politically-motivated system distracts educators from teaching creative subjects that students may be interested in. Students who excel, use past experiences to critically view the world surrounding them. Standardized testing interrupts that creativity. This current system must be abandoned before another student gets left behind by the “test-prep” teaching model mandated by No Child Left Behind.

Works Cited

10 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Testing. Conncectusfund.org. Connect US Fund. Accessed 28 Nov. 2017.

Brooks, Martin. Brooks, Jacqueline. “The Courage to Be Constructivist.” The Constructivist Classroom. vol. 57, no. 3, 1999, pp. 18-24. Accessed 28 Nov. 2017.

Herman, Joan L., and Shari Golan. “Effects of Standardized Testing on Teachers and Learning–Another Look.” (1990)

Simmons, Nicola. “(De)grading the Standardized Test: Can Standardized Testing Evaluate Schools?”Education Canada. vol. 44, no. 3, 2004. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017. 

Causal Argument – collegegirl

Providing to Our Youth

Police brutality has been an issue for many years and it remains a major concern for people of minority communities. In 2014, Barack Obama created a movement that provided young black men a place to go to seek guidance and influences. This movement has caused young men to be more successful and have better futures.

The White House has six milestones to define the MBK movement. The six milestones can be defined as the following, to ensure all children enter school emotionally and physically ready, ensure all children read at grade level by 3rd grade, ensure all youth graduate from high school, ensure all students complete post secondary education or training, ensure all youth out of school are employed and lastly, to ensure all youth to remain safe from violent crimes and have a second chance. These milestones can ensure that the younger crowd will have a better future and be more successful. Let’s break the milestones down to see how they will help our youth be successful. When kids are physically and mentally prepared to go to school, they are ready to learn on a day to day basis. Statistics has proved that 75 percent of students who struggle with reading in 3rd grade, never catch up, which is why all children should be able to ready at grade level by 3rd grade. Teens graduating from high school is a milestone in general. Completing college is the next phase. Getting a degree is extremely important when it comes to getting a job since good paying jobs now a days require a degree. Lastly, when it comes to keeping our youth safe, it is obviously very important. Young people are the future. They are the ones who are going to make changes in our communities and workplaces. Keeping them out of trouble should be our main priority.

Because the movement has so many goals and milestones that it would like to achieve, it really is a powerful movement. Providing our youth with guidance and responsibilities will cause them to want to make their communities better and help them with their future as well. Taking their minds off of what is happening in the world we live in today with police brutality, will help the youth feel like they aren’t stuck in the communities they live in and that their is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Causal Argument -NewEditionLover

Gun Violence & The Extreme Severity

Gun Violence is very dangerous and one of the most leading causes in American deaths. Using a gun could be one of the most cowardly actions you could ever due. When you decide you want to harm someone is when the real question Of is this person mentally ill is frequently asked . Many people who decide that they want guns are following after the United States constitution and the act of the rights to individual to bear arms. This gives individuals the rights to have a firearm for protection , hunting and other activities. Many people think that guns are bad and all they do is kill people. In fact guns do kill people  but they also serve & protect people in difficult circumstances whenever something ridiculous may happen.Changing the laws still today may not prevent criminals and others to obtain guns.

The lack of mental health treatment in these cases is shown to be a direct cause of violence. The only correct way for civilization to reduce crime would be to improve access to treatment for mentally-ill individuals, and to improve the armament of our police forces.  In addition having gun control laws may implement more higher crime rates. Although guns isn’t the only major risk of violence it is one of the most highest causes! Guns aren’t the only weapons used in crime ! Since we are going in an affect to ban guns should we should ban everything that is considered harmful. Such examples can go as followed knives , and other harmful items known to man.

Now guns are just a tool but it can be used for good and bad. Some people that abide by the laws use guns for hunting & protection. On the other hand we have the ones who don’t follow the rules and break the rules in such cruel ways by intending to harm or cause chaos. Next guns generally started off in a good manner helping to preserve land and keep our freedom! But then it suddenly turned around as our world changed it became a deadly weapon used to inflict pain or by killing. Does the possibility of guns being available serve as an advantage to gun Violence ? I believe that the ideas of guns being available and the acces being very easy gives people the urge to want to break the law.

In addition you barely hear that someone actually used there gun in an act of self defense . Changing the laws still today may not prevent criminals and others to obtain guns. The access is simply to easy & there’s nothing we can do to stop that. Does a person being mentally ill have anything to do with gun Violence ? According  to Metzelz article “Mental Illness, Mass Shooting’s  “mental illness causes gun violence, (2) that psychiatric diagnosis can predict gun crime, (3) that shootings represent the deranged acts of mentally ill loners.” In almost every incident including huge shootings mental illness is always a question of it .The perpetrators of mass shootings, and crime in general tend to be mentally-ill. These individuals commit violence even though firearms regulated.

Many people are in higher risk of being affected by gun violence due to the problems of bulk weapons. According to Giffords Law Center “Laws limiting the number of guns someone can buy within a short span of time helps reduce gun trafficking.” This is very significant because this will prevent and lower the number of victims and hopefully send a message to everyone. Furthermore I believe the restriction of bulk buying will make purchasers not feel the urge to continue to buy or even try to sell the product through an illegal way. “New Jersey prohibits licensed firearms dealers from knowingly delivering more than one handgun to any person within any 30-day period. With limited exceptions, people may not purchase more than one handgun within any 30-day period.” The new reality is that crime is slowly but surely shaping the country but is also making the world a more systematic consequence. The offenses of gun violence and illegal activities with firearms in New Jersey are becoming more of a strict haven to make this world a safe country again.

Work Cited

Bulk Gun Purchases.” Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 15 Oct. 2017, lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/crime-guns/bulk-gun-purchases/.

Metzl, Jonathan. Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms. 9 Aug. 2014, http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302242

 

Causal Rewrite – thathawkman

Poor, Poor Scientists

With these massive rigid systems that scientists must undergo for their livelihood, scientists put massive amounts of value in publication. As innovation comes directly from the scientists, they are put under massive amounts of pressure for publishing. This pressure to publish has directly resulted in the overflowing publication rates that seem to have no end. Thus, a large portion of studies is only partial truths due to the many different biases they are forced to undergo through, intentionally or not. The reason why there is so much potential for bias is due to the fractured system that scientific studies are based off.

Due to the emphasis on quantity over quality for both payments and value, scientists are more inclined to not publish the full potential of what studies could have achieved. Thus, more and more faulty studies with intriguing, misleading theses start to accumulate. To combat this, replication tests are very valuable as they attempt to retest the study exactly to test the study’s validity. These tests are essentially a fail-safe, where another scientific group that is independent to the original does everything that the study did to see if it produces similar results. Erick Turner from the FDA-also known as the Food and Drug Administration- spoke about the replication tests held in 2008. The FDA retested 74 studies that proved the effectiveness of numerous FDA-registered antidepressants. From the replication tests, they found that 23 of them didn’t even have evidence of publication, which left 51 studies to examine. It was reported that 48 of those 51 studies that were left originally showed positive results, yet when the FDA concluded the replication studies they found that only 38 studies out of the original 74 had positive results, completely disproving studies that were now found to be selling ineffective antidepressants.

If such a test is so valuable to validate incorrect tests, then there should not be so many tests that people can view where the study essentially publishes false claims. Sadly, these faulty studies are unlikely to be corrected as there is no incentive within the scientific community to replicate the tests. Even though the FDA made replication tests, the company is not a good representation of the entirety of the community as the FDA is a government funded organization whose primary focus is to regulate issues such as the biased studies.  This occurrence is known as the replication crisis. To make sure that harmful products do not go to the patients and prevent the need for replication tests, organizations such as the FDA place very rigid requirements. However, regulatory associations such as the FDA are simply not enough to keep the influence of drug companies away from scientific studies.

As noted before, the scientists’ payment is incentivized to push the claims of whatever will help their career. If the scientists could sustain themselves using the replication test, researchers would have used these replication tests. However, replications tests carry no monetary value, as they only restate what someone else has stated, so scientists avoid the very test that helps counteract faulty claims. As scientists are only human and will have the tendency to prioritize their own living at the expense of integrity, scientists would rather push a swarming number of theses for money. This phenomenon eliminates the fail-safe that is made to get rid of the faulty studies, which means that the number of studies that are fundamentally lying is going to steadily increase with little resistance.

This phenomenon is very detrimental to the future of science. In the article, “Pressure to ‘Publish or Perish’ May Discourage Innovative Research, UCLA Study Suggests,” author Phil Hampton discusses a study lead by Jacob Foster that measures the risks and innovation studies take and the implications that studies make.  Foster found in the fields of biomedicine and chemistry that more than 60% of the studies that were analyzed showed no new connections. This essentially means that innovation is slowly grinding to a halt due to the flawed system. As scientists are fixated with their publications to make a steady income, they will push whatever will gives them the safest income. Even though going with the more innovative idea may result in a breakthrough that will net massive amounts of revenue from publication, there is an even greater chance that the study will not result in a positive study, which would not be beneficial to the scientist. This risk vs reward scenario causes scientists to then make a choice on what they value more, to be put in a textbook or to eat the next day. There, the non-innovative route becomes the favored choice as scientists do not have a safety net that can warrant the risk. Thus, innovation is slowly starting to decrease. This result is one of the worst outcomes, as only innovation causes new leaps and bounds to be made from science. If innovation starting to slow down, science slows down as well.

These issues can be solved by money, so funding from organizations seem to be one of the best solutions. Money being given to the researchers which allow them to remove the restraint of income so better tests are made. However, this harmonious relationship becomes detrimental as both parties benefit too much. A claim from a scientific study is very valuable for a business. The faith people have with how rigid scientific studies are causes people to believe essentially anything a scientific study proves. Thus, companies are willing to invest a lot of money for scientific studies that positively help whatever the company is pushing. This investment would ultimately result in more money for the future. This interest itself causes a cycle that makes this issue worse. A business wants to be able to push their values to gain more money or popularity, so the businesses are more willing to pay money to inevitably reap the benefits. As the business itself pays money for the studies, scientists are more enticed to make a study that proves the business’ value for a better living, giving more and more incentive to produce more or alter claims that prove the value.

This cycle results in countless biased articles that unjustifiably prove the claim of the business that affects the public. Companies such as pharmaceuticals and sport drink companies are repeatedly found in the obvious malpractice. For example, in the study “Association of Funding And Conclusions in Randomized Drug Trials,” Bodil ALs-Nielsen randomly selected 370 random drug trials to see if there was an effect on the result of the test being funded by a non-profit organization or a for-profit organization.  With only 16% of the studies recommending the drugs when it was funded by a non-profit organization and 51% of the studies when funded by a for-profit organization, it is painfully obvious to see the effect that funding sources have.

Turner, Erick H. “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy — NEJM.” New England Journal of Medicine. N.p., 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

Hampton, Phil. “Pressure to ‘publish or Perish’ May Discourage Innovative Research, UCLA Study Suggests.” UCLA Newsroom. N.p., 08 Oct. 2015. Web. 018 Nov. 2016

Nielsen, MD Bodil. “Association of Funding and Conclusions in Randomized Drug Trials.”Association of Funding and Conclusions in Randomized Drug Trials. The JAMA Network, 20 Aug. 2003. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.