Category: Writing

There are many interesting places in the world. Different regions of the world have different cultures, geographies, climates, sights, and activities. If you could choose to visit one place in the world that you have never been before, where would it be? Why?
In a detailed essay, discuss the place in the world you would like to visit for the first time

Your school district has recently decided to eliminate your favorite sport or club due to funding problems. Do you think that eliminating sports teams or clubs is a good way for school districts to help reduce spending? Why or why not?

For this essay, you will be writing a 5 to 6 page argument of definition using the MLA system of citation for sources used. You may use scholarly, magazine and/or newspaper articles for evidence to support your claims, but not websites—choose highly credible sources. Each source you use will be evaluated for credibility (see Part 4 of EAA).
Before you begin selecting a claim and creating an outline for this paper, read Chapter Nine in EAA, including the sample essays at the end of the chapter. First of all, what is an argument of definition? How human beings agree on the definitions, updates, and challenges to concepts and the words that represent them is litigated by arguments. In academia, we make and revise definitions. In courtrooms, lawyers and judges negotiate definitions. We may even define ordinary things differently than others, since we are all products of disparate language and idea communities; take, for example, barbecue. Texas, Tennessee, and North Dakota are going to have very different definitions of barbecue.
An argument of definition usually follows the formula:
X is/is not Y [Ex. Protesting the National Anthem (X) is more patriotic (Y) than singing it.]
Coronavirus (X) is an airborne virus (Y).
Texting while driving (X) is reckless endangerment (Y).
Happiness (X) is a warm puppy (Y).
The most familiar way to define something is by using the definition of an authority, such as a dictionary, then citing that authority appropriately using the MLA Style system. Not all dictionaries are appropriate for college writing. Examples of dictionaries that are acceptable for college-level writing are Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, and Oxford English Dictionary. For some words or ideas, the dictionary is not an appropriate authority. Your essay must contain a formal definition discussion of at least one word that you define and discuss how it frames your thinking around a debate.
You may also define by synonym, categorization, and similar or novel properties. For example, the Greeks used several different words for “love”: storge, agape, philos, and eros. Love (X) is (Ya, Yb, Yc, Yd) for familiarity, charity, friendship, and romance respectively. This is a definition of quality or degree.
Likewise, you can define by using antonyms—what something is not. For example, in Texas, killing someone (X) is not murder (Y) if you reasonably believe you are in danger (self-defense), but this may not be true around the world. This is defining by qualification—a certain condition must be met in order to meet the definition, “murder.”
An argument of definition has several parts. First, it is based upon a claim. From the claim, you will build your argument using evidence/grounds that supports your claim. Opposing ideas or opposing arguments are called counter-claims, counter-arguments, or rebuttals. Sometimes it is better to discuss your counter-argument at the beginning of your argument [Rogerian Argument], rather than the end of your argument [Toulmin Argument]. Study and consider the concepts of warrant, backing, and qualifiers and if you should include these in your argument.
Be cautious of a definitional claim that veers into an evaluative (Country Music is/is not cool) or deliberative (what should happen in the future) argument. You must truly define a thing.
There are several ways you can approach this assignment:
Formulate a controversial/provocative definition
Ex. Owning a home is no longer an expectation in the “American Dream.”
Challenge a definition
Ex. Capital punishment is murder.
Here, the “Y” in the formula [X is Y] is a surprising reversal from the established legal definition.
Determine whether something fits into an existing definition
Ex. Should healthiness of foods take their carbon footprint into account?
Here, healthiness is being redefined as not just good for the body, but also good for the earth.
Health (X) is NOT (Y—just one’s own body, but that of other organisms and the earth)

I uploaded a draft of my own essay, please re-write and add additional information or take out information after reading the instructors feedback. I will upload sources I have used but, feel free to use any sources of your own choice if needed. PLEASE note ALL of instructors feedback and re-write accordingly.

Written by Paragraph, one paragraph. Topic: The role of cybersecurity in achieving the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2030.

I’ve attached an “Essay Check Sheet” from professor. Just need 4 pages with an intro, body pparagraphs (3-5) and concluding paragraph. Persuasive paper over the importance of exercising; persuading readers to exercise. Please include a couple of sources with works cited. 

Describe a past or current involvement in a deviant behavior or way of being (e.g., stigma, a subculture). Using the course readings, explain how your involvement developed. If you haven’t engaged in deviance, use the readings to explain why you haven’t. Remember that what is or isn’t deviant in any given setting is shaped by the setting itself (school, work, home), and your age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, etc. Have you been able to move in and out of a deviant status, and if so, how? In short, how do you make sense of your involvement or lack of involvement in a given type of deviance? Use Becker (“Labeling Theory,” “Career Deviance,” “Becoming a Marihuana User”), Goffman (Stigma), and other relevant readings from the course to tell your story. (Be sure to discern whether your nonconformity is deviance, which is behavioral and presumably by choice; and stigma, a violation of identity norms, generally not by choice).
Guiding questions (adjust these as needed to apply to stigma):
How and/or why did you start engaging in deviance? Or when did you acquire your stigma or the awareness that you possess a stigma?
Why do you continue to engage in deviance, if you do?
Were you ever caught “deviating”? Labeled a deviant? Subjected to “correction?” With what consequences for your public identity and further social participation (e.g., were you treated differently by peers or adult authority figures, did you gain or lose friends, etc.)? Did it lead to secondary deviance? Or what sort of stigma-management work have you performed and why? Has this changed over time? Why?
Changes in deviant behavior/activities over time or stigmatized identity: types of deviance engaged in, frequency or intensity of engagement:
Did you pick up additional deviant behaviors/activities, drop one form of deviance for another, or move in and out of deviance or reduce/increase your engagement with deviance? Explain any such changes. Consider the influence of opportunity/exposure, positive or negative reactions of others, and broader processes of medicalization and/or criminalization.
If you’ve stopped engaging in whatever form of deviance, why did you stop? If you haven’t stopped, why haven’t you? Consider actual or potential negative impacts on your health, family relations, friendships, etc., the likelihood of getting caught and the potential consequences for your educational and/or career aspirations, etc.
Alternatively, you may interview someone else about their deviant career. Adjust the guiding questions as needed. Please speak to me if you want to pursue this option so I can provide you with additional guidance.
Your papers should be approx. 4-5 pages in length, double-spaced with 1″ margins on all sides, using a standard 11 or 12-point font. DO NOT SUBMIT AN AI-GENERATED OR OTHERWISE GENERIC “SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE” PAPER. I will not read it. The assignment calls for specificity and (personal) insight using the course material. Only a living, breathing, thinking-feeling human being can do that.
Regarding citation style and references
For in-line citations (in the body of your text), use the author’s last name and the year their work was published, in parentheses; for example: (Goffman 1963). Insert them directly after the idea you’re attributing to them, whether by direct quote (as indicated by double-quotation marks and a page reference) or paraphrase. If the citation comes at the end of your sentence, place the period after the citation, e.g., (Goffman 1963). See the “Quick Tips for ASA Style” PDF attached to this prompt and posted to Assignments on Bb.
It’s always a good idea to include a list of references, in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name, single-spaced, at the end of any academic writing you do. For this assignment, use any standard format you like: MLA, APA, Chicago, etc., just use it consistently.

Answer the questions posed in each of the categories. Use additional references from the readings and what you may find in your current event research as you relate your answers to the hospitality industry. Be sure to cite your references in APA format.
INCENTIVES (20 POINTS)
When asked, employees prefer cash incentives over non-cash incentives. However, research indicates that employees have more long-term satisfaction from non-cash incentives. As a manager, how might you incentivize a front-line hospitality employee in your establishment? Discuss two ways you incentivize a front-line hospitality employee.
WELLNESS PROGRAMS (70 POINTS)
Search for wellness programs:
Wellness programs – walking
Why create a wellness program
Wellness program incentives
Engaging Employees in Their Health and WellnessLinks to an external site.
Enriching lives through employee wellness
10 Examples of Health and Wellness Programs in the WorkplaceLinks to an external site.
sLinks to an external site.Answer the following if your company has a wellness program.
Describe the wellness program available from your company. You have been hired as a consultant to suggest 2-3 new programs to add to your current wellness program.
Create the presentation you will give to the board of directors or executive board on powerpoint.
Create a podcast or a youtube video presentation using the powerpoints as your guide.
Attach the presentation outline (or talking points) along with the link to the youtube video.
Don’t know how to create a youtube video? Google it – there some great how to videos. Part 1 and Part 2 of How to create a youtube video from 2011 – is good. Be sure to make your youtube video public so I can access it.
Answer the following if you are working at a company that does not offer a wellness program.
You have been hired as a consultant to create a wellness program for a new boutique hotel company.
First please describe the type of boutique hotel and the makeup of the company’s workforce.
Then create a wellness program that includes a cafeteria of offerings (a minimum of 7 different offerings).
Create a podcast or a youtube or panopto video presentation using the powerpoints as your guide.
Attach the presentation outline (or talking points) along with the link to the youtube video.
Don’t know how to create a youtube video? Google it – there some great how to videos. Part 1 and Part 2 of How to create a youtube video from 2011 – is good. Panopto is a link on the left vertical bar!
SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND PRESENTATION SKILLS (10 POINTS)
Turn in a written document (could be the outline or script of your podcast) and a reference list. You may use powerpoint if that is easier to present from.

Technology and the changes it brings can have a very big effect on our lives. Which technological change has had the largest effect on life in this country? Why?
Write an essay explaining the technology you have chosen and how it has affected our lives.

Can you persuade your readers?
Conflicting viewpoints and voices surround us every day, telling us what to think, how to act, even who we are. Learning effective argumentation teaches us to evaluate and analyze information, improves our reading and listening skills, and helps us communicate more effectively. In learning to persuade our readers, we develop skills we can apply every day as we hear and respond to messages from an infinite number of sources and work toward positive changes in our home, work, and social lives.
Purpose, Topic, and Audience
The purpose of this paper is for you to make a claim and support it with evidence from credible sources. Instead of informing your audience about the topic, you will choose a side to argue in an ongoing conversation about the topic. This means your topic choice should involve at least two distinct viewpoints with numerous points to debate. Part of your work in this essay may be to convince your audience to take an interest in your topic in the first place, but once that is established, your goal will be to sway your audience to your side by providing convincing evidence from your sources. Your audience will include your professor, your classmates, and the academic community at large. Please remember, however, that you should not use one of the topics to avoid as discussed via our Selecting a Topic page.  Also remember that you should, at some point, acknowledge oppositional/alternative views; in other words, you will not be very persuasive (or appear credible) unless you engage ideas that differ from your own.
Development and Evidence
Your thesis should be an arguable claim, meaning it is something that two rational, well-informed adults could debate. It could begin as a statement that answers a question or questions about your topic. For example, “Why should your county commission approve a motion to build a new pickleball court in XYZ Park?” Your response might be a thesis that answers that question with, “The county commission should approve the motion to build a new pickleball court in XYZ Park because it is a cost-efficient, low-maintenance facility that would meet community demand from local pickleball leagues and provide recreational opportunities for the adjacent county-run day camp.” 
Once you choose a side and have a working thesis–one that might change as you read through a variety of sources–choose rhetorically effective reasons and evidence to support your argument. Evidence may include personal experience, newspaper and magazine articles, statistics and facts, authoritative websites, scholarly articles, community brochures or information, and interviews with experts.  If your thesis is about social media, you may need to include posts from social media to make a point, but these would not be considered credible sources for other topics.
You will also need to include appeals to the major stakeholders in the problem, which might include graphic elements like charts, illustrations, etc. You’ll need at least four (4) sources, at least two (2) of which should be scholarly and from a database in GALILEO. Prepare to write 3-5 pages to fully develop your argument.
Organization
Present an effective, consistent argument. Be sure to provide enough background on the topic so readers understand the issue and why it is important. Be sure to develop your own authority and credibility. 
Your essay should include the following sections: 
An introduction to the problem and its context or background;
The reason you feel the issue must be addressed;
Your argument regarding how the problem should be addressed;
The limits to or potential barriers to your proposed argument being enacted;
The benefits that will result from addressing this issue, and;
A summary of the issue, your position, and a call to action.
Clarity, Readability, and Format
Write with your audience (well-disposed, intelligent adults) in mind, in academic English, and with effective style. This includes varied sentence structure and precise word choice. Please do not use the first or second person in this essay. Prepare your essay following the MLA 9th edition format, and include a Works Cited page including all cited material.
Requirements
Your essay should meet the following markers for success:
Effective overview of the topic and its main ideas, with clearly articulated and specific thesis;
Well introduced, contextualized, accurately represented, and explained textual evidence in each body paragraph;
Strong organization, including topic sentences, logical relation of points within paragraphs, and transition sentences;
Use of clear and straightforward language with little error;
Evidence of critical thinking and synthesis, not just summary;
Informed use of four to five credible sources;
Full attribution of all summarized, paraphrased, or quoted source materials through use of signal phrases, in-text citations; 
Completed development of a 3-5 page essay in full MLA document format