Ec- essayyyy2

EC-Essay2second.docx

After having learned about how to identify and use arguments and how to synthesize diverse perspectives, it is now time for you to apply the knowledge. In this assignment, you will write a five-paragraph argumentative essay based on one of the three topics provided below. Pay attention when developing your arguments and counterarguments.

Please note that each topic comes with an article that you need to read beforehand. Somewhere in your essay, you need to cite the accompanying article at least once; if you wish, you can also cite other articles, but this one is a must. The article assigned to the topic should not be analyzed as a primary source but should only serve as supporting evidence either for one of your arguments or counterarguments. The accompanying articles are attached to this assignment, and they also provide a direct link for the article itself. Please do not quote; instead, you should paraphrase.

Please note that you must submit this essay as a Word document, and it has to follow proper APA format and structure. Click Here to see a sample.

In addition, before writing your essay, please go over the argumentative essay template attached HERE .

Note: MRU prohibits any forms of plagiarism (including artificial intelligence); TurnItIn will be activated to avoid plagiarism.

Argumentative Essay Topics:

1.

According to certain activists, one way of improving diversity in the workplace is through Affirmative Action measures. Yet California, a traditionally liberal state, rejected Affirmative Action on their November 2020 ballots. Why might a Democratic supermajority state reject this solution to diversity issues? Investigate the problem related to increasing diversity and opportunity to people of all races and ethnicities, and then write an argumentative essay where you propose what you consider to be the best solution, whether it is Affirmative Action or some other solution, to help solve this problem long term.

Read the article titled “Beyond the Pale. Race in Silicon Valley.”

2.

In 2020, Black Lives Matter was both a hashtag and an organization; both the hashtag and the organization were particularly visible during the protests after George Floyd’s death during the summer of 2020. Some people willingly use the hashtag and support the organization. It is often stated that all lives cannot matter until Black lives matter. But others support the idea behind the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter while eschewing any relationship with the organization itself based on accusations of political extremism. Why would this organization appear extremist to some, causing them to reject its mission? Is this just a reflection of people’s dislike of the chaos created by the Floyd protests and riots (93% of which were considered peaceful according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project at acleddata.com)? Or is it a symptom of deeper, implicit biases? Is there some legitimacy to the claims of extremism for the Black Lives Matter group? Consider a strategy to improve understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement, both including the formal organization and the idea, and the best way to decrease any potential biases against Black people. Where would you start? Write an essay argumentative defending your strategy.

Read the article titled “Lawns, softball, bourbon and privilege.”

3.

Choose an artifact that is specific to a particular culture, religion, or other group (like the hijab) and write an analysis of it. Describe the item, what it looks like, who wears or uses it, and why people of a particular group wear or use it. You may want to include a personal story of your own encounters with this artifact or images of it in your analysis, if appropriate. Investigate different ways that people interpret and react to this artifact, as well as ways that views on this artifact may have evolved in recent times. Write an argumentative essay where you argue about people’s different views of this artifact.

1.Beyond_the_pale_Race_in_Silicon_Valley3.pdf

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Beyond the pale; Race in Silicon Valley Date: June 20, 2020 From: The Economist Publisher: Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated Document Type: Article Length: 529 words

Full Text: The technology industry faces up to its diversity problem

TO GET A sense of diversity in tech, take a stroll on University Avenue in Palo Alto, a city at the heart of Silicon Valley. Before the pandemic, if you encountered a black person, the chances were they worked in a local shop. African-Americans account for 3% of workers at America's five biggest technology firms (see chart) and probably less at smaller ones. About one in 50 partners at venture- capital (VC) firms is black. The figure among VC-financed entrepreneurs is one in 100. Such dismal numbers, and Silicon Valley's meritocratic pretensions, help explain why tech's response to the killing of George Floyd has been louder even than other industries'. Will outrage lead to lasting change?

Pushed by a left-leaning workforce, big tech now regularly takes an activist stance on important issues, from immigration to the pandemic. Yet even by these standards, the reaction to the Black Lives Matter protests has been remarkable. Firms offered donations to race-related charities, set up funds to finance startups by non-white founders, stopped selling controversial technologies such as facial recognition and vowed to purge their software of racist language. Apple and YouTube (part of Google) each pledged $100m to combat racism with educational schemes and support for black artists. On June 17th Google said it would raise the share of "under-represented groups" in leadership by 30% by 2025.

Yet corporate activism will amount to little if tech firms and their financiers do not change how they operate, says Sydney Sykes, co- founder of BLCK VC, a group on a mission to swell the ranks of black venture capitalists in America. Companies must make more of an effort to promote and retain minority employees. VC firms have to examine why they often reject pitches by minority entrepreneurs; a simple "just can't get excited about this" is no longer enough. They should also broaden their professional networks beyond the usual lily-white crowd, argues Elliott Robinson of Bessemer Venture Partners, a big VC firm.

Since diversity, particularly on gender, became a hot topic in the tech industry a few years ago, progress has been slow. But Ms Sykes believes things will speed up now. Customers and employees want it. And the firms have started to twig that lofty statements and charity do not suffice. Facebook's chief diversity officer, Maxine Williams, now reports directly to Sheryl Sandberg, the firm's number two (though not to its boss, as some would like). At Reddit, a popular discussion website, a white co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, stepped down from the board to make way for a black replacement, Michael Seibel, boss of Y Combinator, a startup school. On June 17th Apple said it would replace its diversity chief.

Mr Robinson has long lamented the tech industry's "diversity theatre": grand statements followed by little action. But even he is somewhat hopeful. Thanks to smartphones, he says, whites can see for themselves how black people are treated--and want it to stop. He knows all too well: he has been forcibly restrained by police three times in his life, for no reason other than the colour of his skin. The last time was not far from University Avenue.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated http://store.eiu.com/ Source Citation (MLA 9th Edition) "Beyond the pale; Race in Silicon Valley." The Economist, 20 June 2020, p. 54(US). Gale College Collection,

link.gale.com/apps/doc//GCCO?u=mia56118&sid=lms-GCCO&xid=dcbb4810. Accessed 18 June 2023. Gale Document Number: GALE|A626946756

http://store.eiu.com/

Arg_SocialMedia_SampleSZMRU.docx

2

Effects of Social Media

Student First Name Midde Initial Last Name

School of Arts and Sciences, Miami Regional University

ENC1102: English Composition II

Professor Shazia Zaidi

March 22nd, 2026

Effects of Social Media

Nowadays, the use of social media accounts has been on the rise, especially with over 4.62 billion users (Fatehkia et al., 2018). This is an issue because the increased usage means people are becoming addicted to it. The addition can lead to decreased physical activity, poor performance at school or work, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Some people say that they create true connections using social media with people not within their geographical capability of reach because it turns the world into a small village. Other people say that they find happiness on Facebook because they can watch funny videos and also read memes. In my opinion, social media accounts are a key contributor to people being scammed as well as cyber bullying.

Scamming

One reason I think that social media accounts have many disadvantages is that they can lead to the scamming of innocent people. For example, individuals can create social media accounts in which they can post videos and photos indicating that they have a thrift store and sell clothes. Once a person gets interested in the commodity, they will go ahead and shop from them. Most of these online stores request upfront payment, and once they receive the payment, they block the client (Kawaf and Istanbulluoglu, 2019). From this, it is a clear indication that innocent people will be scammed. This means that the online conman will scare aware customers from online shopping. Therefore, I think that this trend will affect other decent online stores, such as Amazon, by decreasing their online sales. People will be cautious about shopping online because of the fear of being conned.

Cyber Bullying

Another reason I think that social media accounts are big contributors to cyber bullying is that this is a type of bullying that happens on digital devices such as laptops and phones. It involves emailing, broadcasting, or spreading damaging, inaccurate, or offensive information about another person. Cyberbullying can happen, for example, when someone makes a fake social media account to make fun of someone else. This means that cyberbullying will impact the person being ridiculed negatively (Khairy et al., 2021). Such repercussions include mental health issues, low self-esteem, acting out violently, and depression. According to the article, what are you talking about? meaning and machine intelligence, social media accounts have the ability to mimic someone based on what someone feed them but the key challenge is that they cannot have a true conversation. From this, the auto mimic can be in a way that embarrasses someone after looking into dirty content. This creates an auto bully because of the poor recommendations by an account. Therefore, I think cyberbullying is a vice that trends on social media accounts, leading to negative outcomes for the bullied individual.

Counterview along with Rebuttal

Some people say that social media accounts provide the best market for products because of the huge number of people using them. Cyber-bullying is a way of making soft people tough. They say that these accounts breach the gap between the buyer and seller by creating a common platform for them to mingle without moving from one place to another, and so they think people are not scammed online. Moreover, they say that ridiculing a person without his or her consent can make them trend, leading to their prosperity because of online fame. The idea is right in some ways, but I disagree with them because many scammers have taken advantage of the online trade on social media platforms. Since people tend to shop online, scammers sell false goods to people, and this leads to innocent people suffering. Also, I disagree with them because making a person famous by cyberbullying them can be in a bad way, leading to their downfall in mental health issues.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that social media accounts are the key contributor to people losing their money online as well as leading to many individuals' mental health problems. I think that the only way to avoid this is by educating people about social media advantages and disadvantages and how to balance real life with the online world. It is important because it will solve a lot of problems related to social media.

References

What are you talking about? Meaning and machine intelligence. (2017, Jan. 7). The Economist, 422(9022), 9.

Fatehkia, M., Kashyap, R., & Weber, I. (2018). Using Facebook ad data to track the global digital gender gap. World Development, 107, 189-209.

Kawaf, F., & Istanbulluoglu, D. (2019). Online fashion shopping paradox: The role of customer reviews and facebook marketing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 48, 144-153.

Khairy, M., Mahmoud, T. M., Abd-El-Hafeez, T., & Mahfouz, A. (2021, March). User Awareness of Privacy, Reporting System and Cyberbullying on Facebook. In International Conference on Advanced Machine Learning Technologies and Applications (pp. 613-625). Springer, Cham.

2.Lawnssoftballbourbonandprivilege.pdf

Disclaimer: This is a machine generated PDF of selected content from our products. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace original scanned PDF. Neither Cengage Learning nor its licensors make any representations or warranties with respect to the machine generated PDF. The PDF is automatically generated "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and are not retained in our systems. CENGAGE LEARNING AND ITS LICENSORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES FOR AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Your use of the machine generated PDF is subject to all use restrictions contained in The Cengage Learning Subscription and License Agreement and/or the Gale College Collection Terms and Conditions and by using the machine generated PDF functionality you agree to forgo any and all claims against Cengage Learning or its licensors for your use of the machine generated PDF functionality and any output derived therefrom.

Lawns, softball, bourbon and privilege: I have feared white men and I have loved them Author: Roxane Gay Date: Oct. 10, 2014 From: New Statesman(Vol. 143, Issue 5231) Publisher: New Statesman, Ltd. Document Type: Essay Length: 1,096 words

Full Text: I have known white men. I have loved white men. This often surprises people. They read my writing about race and gender and make assumptions. They think that a passionate desire for equality rises from a place of hatred rather than from an abiding sense of fairness. They misunderstand equality as the destruction of one group instead of the salvation of another.

There was the first boy I ever loved--golden-haired, blue-eyed--and then he and several other boys who were just like him did something terrible to me. It would have been easy, I suppose, to imagine that all white men were like that: brute, taking what they wanted as if it were owed to them. Perhaps I do think that of white men. Some days, I cannot be sure.

I am a child of the suburbs and forgotten rural places. For most of my life, I have lived in areas where I am the exception rather than the rule. I have known white men. I have watched them mow their lawns and play softball on Thursday nights and drink beer and go to work each morning in their sensible suits and sensible shoes. I have studied the confidence with which they walk, the shape of their squared shoulders, the almost unbearable firmness of their handshake. I have seen how they survey a room they enter, knowing they have an inalienable right to fill that space as they see fit, no matter the circumstance. I have hated such confidence. I have envied such confidence.

I have seen white men presiding over trials, presiding over corporations, presiding over many countries in the western world. I have watched as they have made choices that serve, mostly, their own best interests. I have watched as such self-interest has gone unchecked and even been encouraged.

I have seen white men kill men and women with skin like mine because their fear of difference overcame grace and humanity. It pains me to realise this but I will continue to bear witness to such disgrace. I will continue to be powerless in the face of it.

When I see a white man ambling towards me on the street at night, or when I am in an elevator with him, or when I see him in the car next to mine on the interstate, I often think I should be afraid. I know what white men are capable of. Bullets are impervious to righteousness. I and many others will be forced to mourn Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, John Crawford and, and, and ...

I have written about white men and how prominently they figure in our culture. I have written about the ease with which they move through the world. I have written about how far too many white men are unwilling to acknowledge that ease, that privilege. They hate that word, privilege. They hear it as an accusation rather than a statement of fact. They see it as an attack on their character or an attack on their way of life. They feel threatened and, perhaps, they should. They know how good they have it. They know what their lives would be like if they lost that privilege. No one would willingly relinquish such power.

White men have written to me to tell me I am wrong. White men have written to me to tell me their sad stories, as if their suffering, great or small, were the bridge across which we could find common ground. They are not interested in my sad stories. When these white men write to me, they are trying to say, "I am more than my skin." They are trying to say, "I bleed, too." I want to write back and say, "I never said otherwise."

There is the most recent man I loved--the rugged sort, a logger and a hunter. He was persistent. He took me into the woods and showed me hidden waterfalls. He took me deer hunting in the cold, early morning. He taught me the various parts of a crossbow and how to hold it properly, braced against the shoulder. He taught me how to exhale as I pressed the trigger. He loved the natural world and understood it better than people.

He couldn't stand heat and humidity. He kept a beard even though I often urged him to shave so I could see the smooth of his face.

He drove a truck and he had a cabin on a lake and he loved to fish. I would sit on the dock at his cabin reading while he held his fishing pole, staring at the water like he knew the mysteries lurking beneath the surface. I stared at him over the pages of my book like I knew the mysteries lurking beneath his surface.

He was conservative and I was decidedly not. When I tried to lure him to my liberal way of thinking, he smiled at me like I still had so much to learn. 1 loved to argue with him. I loved to make him question his place in the world the way he made me question mine. I made him happy. He made me happy. We never knew if that was enough.

He was a drinker, beer and bourbon mostly. On weekends, we would go out to a bar or the bowling alley, anything to get out of the house, hear a little music, dance together. We lived in a really small town. We were never going to be able to hide in plain sight. We drew attention as an unlikely couple: my brown skin, his skin somewhat paler, me the quiet graduate student, he the outdoorsman with thickly calloused hands and a calm demeanour until the drink got in him real good.

Small town, middle of nowhere, far from everything--people couldn't keep their opinions to themselves and he couldn't keep his fists to himself. He was a drinker and he was a brawler. He could not understand why anyone would question his choices, the things that made him happy. He said he was defending my honour but really he was defending his.

At night, in bed, he would say, "I love your skin," and then he would show me how he loved my skin, how he loved me as more than my skin. He showed me how to love him as more than his skin.

I have known white men.

Roxane Gay is a professor of English at Purdue University, Indiana. Her collection of essays "Bad Feminist" is published by Corsair (12.99 [pounds sterling])

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 New Statesman, Ltd. http://www.newstatesman.com/ Source Citation (MLA 9th Edition) Gay, Roxane. "Lawns, softball, bourbon and privilege: I have feared white men and I have loved them." New Statesman, vol. 143, no.

5231, 10 Oct. 2014, pp. 36+. Gale College Collection, link.gale.com/apps/doc//GCCO?u=mia56118&sid=lms- GCCO&xid=dcbb4810. Accessed 18 June 2023.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A388051364

http://www.newstatesman.com/