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ENGL 112 Topic Selection Prewriting with Perspective Summary Week 5

This week’s goal is to begin collecting information and planning for the final Commentary essay by reading, thinking, and engaging with your topic. As you determine your topic, you’ll want to be sure it’s viable by understanding the perspectives within it and determining what unique angle you can offer to the conversation. Under each prompt or question below, provide detailed information that shares information about your topic.

1. What is your chosen topic, and how did you come across it? Why is it interesting to you? What do you personally hope to gain or accomplish by writing about this topic? In this section, define your topic and explain where you first heard about it (i.e. local newspaper, website, etc.). Reflect on how or why your background, motivations, needs, or interest sparked your interest on this topic and relate to your overall goals for writing.

[Insert your response in one to two paragraphs here.]

I chose “Ebola is manageable” as Ebola is an epidemic that has not only gained the media’s extensive coverage, but the whole world’s attention due to its high transmission rate. I first heard about in it the news, but I have come across it in newspapers, over the radio, and even in websites. At this period of time, the world’s attention has been arrested by news concerning Ebola’s transmission and fatalities. My background as a person whose motivation is to correct inaccurate and biased beliefs led me to address this topic. It is my belief that the public has a right to access accurate information, and then form opinions based on the provided information. Otherwise, the public is at the mercy of the social media whose speculations are used to instill fear and hopelessness.

My interest in the topic has been brought about by the fact that the media has for a long time used sensational topics to evoke interest in people. I believe the topic of Ebola has been used to evoke feelings of fear and helplessness in people, as their thirst and hunger for Ebola news has been used as bait to feed them with views and opinions which may be far from the reality of the situation. I therefore feel that it is my duty to provide information that is accurate and unbiased so as to provide hope that the situation may be dire, even fatal, but it is definitely controllable. It is my hope that the audience will have an opportunity to know about the real situation on the ground, and they can thereafter use it to make their own judgments.

2. Provide a brief summary of the topic. Explain the current issues surrounding the topic and share at least two different positions on the topic. As this is a summary, this section should be written in your own words; however, you must first conduct research to complete this section. Find at least two sources that offer differing perspectives on this topic and summarize their points of view. In your summary, also explain who the author or publishing organization is and how he, she, or it relates to the topic. Although we will be learning more about APA style next week, use Chapter 28 in your textbook and our APA class tutorials to provide full references for both sources.

[Insert your response in two to three paragraphs here. Additionally, provide full APA references for two sources.]

Ebola is a rare disease caused by the Ebola virus. The Ebola virus was first reported in 1976 near the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but it has since spread to other parts of the world. It affects both humans and nonhuman primates such as monkeys and gorillas. It is transmitted through getting in contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCC, 2014), 3,400 people have died from the disease, the most affected regions being Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. The CDCC is an official organization tasked with providing information concerning diseases, their transmission, and their management. It states that the situation is under control, and all measures have been put in place to curb the disease.

In March 2014, an Ebola epidemic was reported in West Africa, and it spread to other parts of the world, including the United States of America. As a result, the public fielded speculations concerning whether the disease can be controlled. Many major airlines halted their activities in the West African region, and placed screening check points to assess passengers for the disease. However, despite their precautionary measures, a D.C. Hospital has confirmed the first Ebola case on American land. As expected, this has created fear and paranoia within the public, with the Washington Post, a leading news reporting agency, stating that the medical practitioners are unable to manage the spread of the disease. The news center states that the U.S. has derailed in its response to the epidemic, and only responded six months after it learned of the outbreak of the disease. This has made the situation unmanageable, with too many people succumbing to the disease, and the infection rate spreading at an alarming rate (Washington Post, 2014).

However, the people who are at a higher risk of contracting Ebola are health workers in health settings as they handle Ebola patients, and chances of contacting the disease are high. To the general public, the chances of being infected are quite minimal as they would have to get in contact with infected bodily fluids so as to get the disease. Additionally, people can get infected through contact with infected animals such as bush meat, a favorite delicacy in the West African region. Ebola is not spread through food, air, or water. It is also not spread through insects such as mosquitoes or ants. As such, the chances of it becoming a worldwide epidemic are quite rare as it has been well managed, with infected people isolated from the rest of the public, and those in contact with the infected are kept in quarantine to be evaluated for the disease and to prevent further spread to other people.

3. What specific issue will you write about within the larger topic, and what unique angle will you provide?

[Insert your response in two to three sentences here.]

I will focus on the transmission of Ebola, and the care of patients who have contracted the disease. The unique angle provided by the research paper will focus on hope for eradication of the disease despite the many challenges faced by the infected as well as medical practitioners.

4. Define your audience. Who are they, and what are their needs, motivations, and influences? In what ways will you need to structure your writing to appeal to them? Analyze the groups and individuals who are reading and writing on your chosen topic. Work to define who they are and how their backgrounds will dictate your writing approach.

[Insert your response in two to three paragraphs here.]

The research paper will be targeted towards the general public. This includes people who are closely associated with infected people, such as family and relatives. It also includes people who live in areas that have not yet experienced the disease outbreak, but who live in fear that the disease may somehow infiltrate through the stringent measures put in place and infect them. Most of the audience do not have the accurate facts about Ebola, and as such, their fear is based on myths and rumors generated by the social media as well as through discussion with other equally uninformed people. They would be interested in the topic as it will address their fears and offer reliable and accurate information.

The research paper will first introduce the topic of Ebola transmission and provide facts concerning infected regions, transmission rates, and death and illness statistics. This will help to draw the audience in. After that, I will state the fears of transmission that the public may have by delving into methods of transmission and the people who are at a higher risk of infection. The audience may not have access to accurate information concerning Ebola, and the paper will provide information in a manner that is easy to understand.

References

Lena H. Sun, Brady Dennis, Lenny Bernstein,. (n.d.). How Ebola sped out of control. Washington Post. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/10/04/how-ebola-sped-out-of-control/

Transmission. (2014, October 3). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html