Part 1 The following questions are worth 5 points each.1. The.docx

Part 1: The following questions are worth 5 points each.
1. The song, Fly Me to the Moon, was an important popular
artifact during the historic context of the moon missions. Who
sang this song? And, name one way this became a symbol of the
moon missions.
Frank Simatra, it was played on the Apollo to the moon in 1969.
2. What is the definition of American exceptionalism?
different and unique view of United States.
3. Identify one of the ways America’s “special role” as
exceptional is articulated.
self-rule
4. Who are the three principle examples of the contemporary
space program? How do we refer to them? Although their
goals seem similar, they do differ? What are their principle
goals?
5. In our readings about technology, we learned a number of
approaches to thinking about technology. What is the term that
captures the idea that technology is the sole cause of cultural
change?
Technological determinism
6. What is the term used to capture the idea that technological
progress is equated with social progress?
Technological positivism
7. Group one presented on a number of recurring core narratives

found in all of their films. Name one:
Unity
8. What is adventure capitalism? And, how does it fit with
neoliberalism?
Part II: The following questions are worth 10 points each.
1. In module 1 we discussed the four dimensions of
globalization, one that we didn’t talk about in depth is the
ecological dimension. Identity and provide two (2) examples of
this dimensions from the “space race” module. Briefly
elaborate.
2. Our readings indicate an interesting collaboration between
Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy. Briefly identify and
describe their individual roles and how they complemented each
other.
Part III: The following questions are worth 20 points each (2-4
paragraphs).
1. Using the American Studies Approach look closely at the
following photo, which is circulated with great frequency. 1)
Text—Closely describe the text; 2) Context—identify two
contexts that help the viewer make greater meaning of the text;
3) Power—lastly discuss what the photo tells us about power; 4)
Briefly discuss one (1) insight you have about the photo that
you hadn’t previously considered.
2. Cultural artifacts are powerful producers of dominant
ideologies in that they reflect and shape key ideas about core

narratives that serve to create a sense of unity among an
“imagined community” (Anderson). As cultural artifacts, the
four films presented by group one, draw on the core narrative
about American exceptionalism through the figure of the
“hero”. In this short essay, I’d like you to examine (identify
and describe) at least two of the regulatory ideals about
Americanness (nationality). Here I’m looking for
qualities/characteristics.
The Anatomy of an Essay
Process and Structure
The Writing Process
Writing is a series of individual steps that are impossible to
skip
Whether you space the steps out and complete them individually
or sit down to write in one sitting, you're still working through
every step.
The EASY way is to complete them individually.
You MUST generate ideas in order to fill an essay with the right
information
You MUST organize that information in order to present it
successfully as a cohesive piece of writing
Which means…
The Writing Process
You should not write a single sentence until you know
precisely:

What information is going to go in the essay
Why that information belongs in the essay
Where the information will go in the essay
Why the information is going to go where it goes
It is impossible to skip steps—either you break it down into
manageable chunks or you do it all at once. But no matter what,
you’re doing all the steps.
There is no shortcut to the process!
Every essay’s success is a direct result of the attention to and
success of the individual steps.
Combine the steps into one giant task and writing becomes very,
very difficult—and the end result suffers.
Thesis Statements
Major Claim
Minor Claims
Acknowledge Opposition
Thesis Statement—Major Claim
Major Claim:
Glitter should be banned.
Thanos’s solution was an effective way to address

overpopulation and limited resources.
Pineapple belongs on pizza.
Minor Claims
Glitter makes a mess
Glitter is impossible to clean up
Glitter always appears at the most inopportune times—like on
your face at a job interview.
Glitter should be banned because it makes a mess, is impossible
to clean up, and as a result appears at the most inopportune
times.
Major Claim + Minor Claim
Thesis Statements—Acknowledge Opposition
Last, Consider your Audience
People who disagree with you may need a careful approach.
Acknowledge your opposition by mentioning differing
viewpoints in the thesis statement!
Though using it is an easy way to make any craft project
sparkly, glitter should be banned because it makes a mess, is
impossible to clean up, and as a result appears at the most
inopportune times.
Putting it all together!
Acknowledge Opposition

Major Claim
Minor Claims (Forecast Organization)
Strategies Chapters
Generating Ideas and Text, Chapter 29
Guiding your Reader, Chapter 36
Beginning and Ending—Chapter 35
Hook
Opening Strategy
Thesis
Body Paragraphs: PIE—Strategies, Chap 37-45
Body Paragraph
Body Paragraph
Body Paragraph
Point

Point
Illustration(s)
Explanation(s)
Point
Minor Claim
Evidence
Minor Claim
Illustration(s)

Evidence
Explanation(s)
Minor Claim
Illustration(s)
Evidence
Explanation(s)
Beginning and Ending—Chapter 35
Restate Thesis
Closing Strategy
Mic Drop!
Organization and Guiding your Reader
This is a general outline that adheres to the same conventions
we just discussed.
THIS is how you alleviate ESSAY ANXIETY and write

successful essays:
Generate ideas and Gather Information
Organize your Ideas -
ONLY THEN can you DRAFT your essay.
R E S E A R C H[ 620 ]
Running head: EARLY WORD PRODUCTION 1
Early Word Production: A Study of One Child’s Word
Productions
Katryn Sheppard
Portland State University
.
.
A shortened title in
all capital letters is
used as a running
head in the upper
left corner of each
page; on the title
page, it is preceded
by the label
“Running head” and
a colon. Page num-
bers appear in the
upper right corner.
The title is centered

on the page, with
your name and the
school name below.
28 % A PA Style [ 621 ]
Abstract
Early word production, one of the initial stages of language
development
in children, plays an important role in the development of later
language skills. This study identifies the word classes and
number of
words spoken in a recorded interaction (Bloom, 1973) by one
normally
developing child of sixteen months and analyzes aspects of the
child’s
speech, with the goal of noting if the characteristics observed
were
supported by the existing research on early word production or
if they
deviated from those findings. The words that I analyzed fell
into six
categories: nouns, spatial terms, adjectives, negatives, social
phrases,

and verbs. Although the frequency with which the child used
words
from some of these categories reflected the expectations
established
by previous research, her use of words in other categories was
less
predictable. Noting word usage in the six categories led to an
analysis
of the functions that those categories served in the child’s
semantic
communication at this early stage of language development.
.
.
.
.
Abstract begins on a
new page. Heading
is centered.
Abstract text does
not need a para-
graph indent.
Use two letter
spaces after each
sentence.

250 words or fewer.
EARLY WORD PRODUCTION 2
R E S E A R C H[ 622 ]
Early Word Production: A Study of One Child’s Word
Productions
Introduction
Each step in the course of language development and
acquisition in
children provides a foundation for later skills and eventual
mastery of
the language. Early word production, a stage of language
development in
which children have only a few words in their vocabularies,
provides the
foundation for later vocabulary building and language
production and
has been shown to be closely linked to later language
performance skills
(Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994). The early word
production

stage is therefore worthy of examination, as it “signals that
children
have a new tool that will enable them to learn about and
participate
more fully in their society” (Uccelli & Pan, 2013, p. 95).
Because so few words are produced by children in this early
stage,
the analysis of their word production focuses on the particular
word
classes and how frequently each class of words appears in
speech. When
examining typically developing English-speaking children who
have
few words in their productive vocabulary, Bates et al. (1994)
found that
the words produced were most often nouns, while other
categories
more seldom appeared. These less frequent categories included
verbs
and closed-class words. Closed-class words are function words,
which
include the categories of articles, conjunctions, numbers,
pronouns, and
prepositions; they are called closed-class words because new

members
cannot be added to these categories.
Reporting on the most common kinds of the nouns uttered in
early vocabularies, Nelson (1973) found that children “began by
naming
.
.
.
.
.
.
Title is centered.
First-level headings
are centered, bold,
and capitalized.
Because this
source has fewer
than six authors,
all authors are
included in its first
citation; subsequent
references name
only the first author,
followed by et al. The
year of publication

is included in the
reference.
Because this source
has more than six
authors, the signal
phrase gives the
first author’s name
followed by et al. The
signal phrase uses
past tense, and the
year of publication is
given in parentheses.
Indent each
paragraph ½" (5-7
spaces).
Essay is double-
spaced.
28 % A PA Style [ 623 ]
.
1"
.
1"
.1"
objects exhibiting salient properties of change whether as the

result
of the child’s own action . . . or independent of it” (p. 1). In
other words,
nouns that point to consistent, concrete objects are most
prevalent in
early speech, because “children learn to name and understand
categories
that are functionally relevant to them” (Anglin, 1995, p. 165)—
they learn
to name the objects they see and interact with day to day.
Although nouns make up the largest percentage of the words
produced by children in the earlier stages of language
acquisition, other
word classes like verbs and adjectives also appear. While they
do occur
in children’s first fifty words, “verbs, adjectives, and function
words each
account for less than 10 percent” of total utterances (Uccelli &
Pan, 2013,
p. 96). Infrequent use of these categories supports the idea that,
while
all word classes are represented, nouns are still expected to
occur most

often.
Other lexical items that can be found in the speech of children
with limited vocabulary are words indicating spatial
relationships, how
things relate to one another in physical space. According to
Bowerman
(2007), “children’s earliest spatial words are topological forms
like ‘in’
and ‘on’” (p. 177). This observation supports the hypothesis
that those
prepositions are among the first lexical items children acquire
(Brown,
1973; Zukowski, 2013).
Overall, the research on early word production in children who
are
just beginning to acquire their first language has found that the
majority
of words produced will be nouns that refer to concrete objects.
According
to Pine (1992), children frequently use their early words to
describe or
.

.
.
.
Because the authors
are not named in a
signal phrase, their
names are given in
parentheses, with an
ampersand rather
than and between
them. A page num-
ber is provided for a
direct quotation.
The author, year, and
page number are
given in parentheses
right after a
quotation.
Multiple sources
cited in the same
parentheses are
ordered alphabeti-
cally and separated
by a semicolon.
The page number is
provided in paren-
theses for a direct
quotation when the
author and year of

the work are given
earlier in the signal
phrase.
. 1"
R E S E A R C H[ 624 ]
label, or to do both. Pine concluded that “children are making
referential
statements about the world with the kind of vocabulary items
which
they happen to have available to them” (p. 53). That is,
children try to
comment on referents (the things that words stand for) in
various ways
using just the limited language skills that they possess in their
early
stage of development.
Taking into account prior research on the early words children
produce, I analyzed the classes and categories of words that
appear
in a transcript of a young child speaking. I wanted to compare
this

particular child’s speech with what is expected during this early
stage of
language development, knowing that research predicts a higher
number
of nouns than other word classes in the data. I was interested to
know
whether nouns would occur as frequently as the literature would
have
me believe, and whether or not spatial terms would appear in
such
early speech. Furthermore, I wanted to note whether verbs
occur as
infrequently as expected and, if so, what words the child used
instead of
verbs to convey action.
Method
The transcript that I chose to analyze is one sample from a
series
of six recordings by Bloom (1973) of her daughter, Allison, a
normally
developing, English-speaking child. Allison’s age in the
samples ranged
from 1 year 4 months and 21 days to 2 years and 10 months.

The
transcript that I analyzed was the earliest of these. Information
about
the socioeconomic status of Allison and her family was not
available in
the transcript or the North American English manual of the
CHILDES
28 % A PA Style [ 625 ]
database (MacWhinney, 2000), from which the transcript came.
However, we can assume the family was from the professional
class, as
Bloom was a professor at Columbia University.
According to information in the CHILDES manual, the
recordings
took place in the Audio-Visual Studio at Teachers College,
Columbia
University, in a room that contained some furniture and toys.
The
sessions were conducted with audio-recording devices alone; as
a result,

no videos were available through the CHILDES database. Each
recording
session lasted 40 minutes, for a total of four hours of recording.
Bloom
(1973) describes her role in the interaction as “more
investigator than
mother” (p. 11), but the interactions seem to have been more
relaxed
than one associates with investigators and not structured
according to
a test or other prearranged activity. Rather, the interactions
were led by
the child’s actions in relation to her mother and objects in the
room.
The data are organized in six separate transcripts, arranged
chronologically. They contain the actual utterances and
morphological
notation indicating the parts of speech being used. Bloom
initially
transcribed the recordings, and later Lois Hood, a fellow
researcher,
revised the transcript, which was revised again by a larger
group of
researchers that also included Hood. Each time, the researchers

added
notes to provide situational context. Each line of the transcript
is
numbered, and there was an attempt to divide the data in a way
that
reflected where there was “a shift in topic or focus” (Bloom,
1973,
p. 11).
.
The date is placed
right after the
author’s name; the
page number in pa-
rentheses is as close
to the quotation as
possible.
R E S E A R C H[ 626 ]
Results
During the 40-minute exchange between Bloom and Allison,
Allison produced a total of 362 occurrences of identifiable
words. I did
not distinguish between single- and multi-word utterances

because
that distinction was not relevant to the purpose of this study.
Not all
of Allison’s turns in the conversation were intelligible; only
intelligible
words were included in my analysis. Altogether, I identified 27
different
words (types) used by the subject, although there were many
repetitions
(tokens) of words. I assigned the 27 words to six categories:
nouns, spatial
terms, adjectives, negatives, social phrases, and verbs.
The category of nouns contained the largest number of distinct
words or types as well as the largest number of instances or
tokens, as
shown in Figure 1. Allison used a total of 12 nouns, and all
reflected
concrete concepts. These included household objects, nouns
that
referenced people, and the names of animals referring to toys
present at
the time of recording. The most frequently used noun was
“baby” (n=25);

“chair” was second (n= 24). The total number of nouns
represented 122
occurrences, or 34% of the total words uttered.
The second most frequent category of words found in Allison’s
utterances was spatial terms. Five different spatial terms, or
types,
occurred, with “up” being the most common (n= 48). All of the
spatial
terms Allison used referred to her immediate surroundings—for
example, the chair that she wanted to climb “up” or “down”
from.
Altogether, 120 of Allison’s words were spatial words,
accounting for 33%
of her speech by word count.
28 % A PA Style [ 627 ]
The third most frequently used category of words in the data
was
adjectives, of which there were three types. Although “more”
was the
most frequently occurring adjective, “gone” was also often

repeated.
I will elaborate on the special role that adjectives played in
Allison’s
speech in the discussion and conclusion section.
Negatives also appeared with some frequency in Allison’s
speech,
although the category comprised only one type: “no.” The word
occurred
28 times (n=28), sometimes referring back to and negating other
words
that she had previously spoken, at other times negating the word
or
words that followed. The level of emphasis Allison placed on
the word
varied: sometimes her utterance was transcribed as “no”; other
times, it
Figure 1. Words uttered by the subject, by word category
(n=362). Data
recorded in transcripts by L. Bloom (1973), accessed through
the CHILDES
database (MacWhinney, 2000).
.
Figure is numbered,
and a description

and source informa-
tion are given.
34% Nouns
33% Spatial Terms
18% Adjectives
8% Negatives
6% Social Phrases
1% Verbs
R E S E A R C H[ 628 ]
was transcribed more emphatically, with an exclamation point,
as “no!”
This negative term accounted for 8% of her total words.
The remaining categories, social phrases and verbs, occurred
less
frequently. Social phrases—terms or utterances that are
appropriately
used in specific social contexts—were present in the transcript
in two
different words: “uhoh” (n= 20), and “oh” (n= 3). Together,

these add up to
a total of 23 words in the transcript that were social phrases.
The category of verbs was by far the least common in the
subject’s
production. Four different verbs were used, three of which
occurred only
a single time. “Stop” was used twice, while “turn,” “climb,”
and “sit” were
each used once. A total of five words (n=5) were identified as
verbs.
Discussion and Conclusion
Allison’s single-word utterances fell into six identifiable
categories,
the frequency of which varied considerably. Some categories
contained
only a few items that were not repeated often, while other words
and
categories of words showed up repeatedly. Allison’s tendency
to use
words in certain categories matches the findings of the existing
research
literature on child language production. In other instances,
Allison’s use

of words differed slightly from what might be expected.
As predicted, nouns made up a large portion of Allison’s
speech.
Since researchers have found the majority of early words to be
nouns,
it was not surprising that Allison used the greatest number of
different
words within the noun category and likewise showed the
greatest
number of repeated tokens in this category. Furthermore, the
kinds of
nouns Allison used are also in line with the finding that
children in
28 % A PA Style [ 629 ]
the early stages of language acquisition focus on concrete
concepts. All
of the nouns that Allison used referred to things in the room
where
the recording took place, mostly common objects that she could
draw
attention to. For instance, Allison used the noun “baby” when

she
wanted to communicate something to her mother about a baby
doll she
wanted to play with.
The category of spatial terms also accounted for a large
percentage
of the words Allison produced. The most frequent utterance of
any word
in any category in the transcript was of the word “up.” That
word, like
other spatial terms, was often repeated and sometimes took the
place
of a more complex construction, as when the subject said “up”
as she
was struggling to get up onto the chair and “down” when she
wished to
get back down. Allison’s choice of words fits with Bowerman’s
(2007)
descriptions of children’s first spatial terms: “early acquired
spatial
words revolve around relationships of . . . verticality (up,
down)” (p. 180).
This use of spatial terms contrasts with more complex spatial
terms

that appear in later development. However, the fact that Allison
used
five different words within the spatial word category could
suggest that
those terms play several important roles in her communication
at this
early stage.
As previously noted, adjectives like “gone” and “more” were
words
that played important roles in Allison’s speech when she wanted
to
convey something to her mother, as when she finished eating a
cookie
and repeatedly told her mother “more.” This single word
seemed to stand
in for a more elaborate question or request Allison could not
produce
R E S E A R C H[ 630 ]
at this stage, such as “Give me more.” “Gone” was also used
repeatedly

in the same context to refer to the cookie. The use of “gone” to
describe
what had happened to the cookie might be seen as evidence of
Pine’s
(1992) observation that children’s early words are used to label
and
describe objects around them.
While the category of adjectives did not form as large a portion
of Allison’s speech as either nouns or spatial words, it was
somewhat
surprising that adjectives composed 18% of total words in this
transcript.
Generally, adjectives and other word classes that are not nouns
are
expected to account for a much smaller percentage of words
spoken in
early word production (Bates et al., 1994).
One feature of Allison’s utterances that did adhere to what
is expected for a typical child at this age was her use of
negatives.
Although she used only one negative word—“no”—the word
was
repeated frequently enough to be the fourth most common

category in
the transcript. Her use of “no” rather than any other negative
conformed
to Brown’s (1973) finding that other forms of negation like
“not” and
“don’t” appear only in later stages of linguistic development.
In this very
early stage, Allison’s reliance on “no” alone seems typical.
There were varied contexts in which Allison used “no.” In
some
cases, the word seemed to convey a lack of something, as when
she
uttered “cookie,” looked around for the cookies, and then said
“no.” This
sequence of events might indicate that Allison was conveying
the lack
of cookies to her mother. A similar exchange revolved around a
picture
of a girl, when Allison turned the picture over and, upon finding
the
28 % A PA Style [ 631 ]

other side was blank, said “no,” evidently trying to convey that
there
was nothing on that side of the picture. On other occasions,
“no” was
produced as an answer to a question. In one example, Bloom
asked
Allison if the cup was for her (i.e., Bloom), to which the girl
replied
“no” and took the cup back from her mother. While adhering to
the
use of the single, simple form of negation that might be
expected,
Allison’s utterances of “no” were varied in purpose and
effective in
communicating a range of ideas.
The remaining categories, social phrases and verbs, made up
only a
small percentage of Allison’s words. Social words appeared
infrequently
and sometimes were attached to other words, as when the
subject said
“uhoh there.” The infrequency of social phrases in Allison’s
early speech

reflects typical aspects of early vocabulary development. As
Santelmann
(2014) explained, at this stage in a child’s linguistic
development, nearly
all lexical items will be nouns and adjectives, with a limited
number of
social phrases.
True to previous research findings, verbs formed the least
frequently used category in Allison’s speech. Allison used the
four
different verbs to describe what something was in the act of
doing or
what she intended to do. For example, she used “stop” to
describe a toy
car coming to a stop. The remaining three verbs were produced
when
Allison was performing an action herself, as when she said
“turn” when
she was turning the pages of a book, “climb” when she was
trying to
climb up onto the chair, and “sit” when she was going to sit on
the chair.
Although four different verbs showed up in Allison’s speech,
the total

R E S E A R C H[ 632 ]
number of tokens from the verb category was significantly
lower than
for any of the other word categories. This follows what
researchers
generally expect of children’s early speech, which includes only
a small
percentage of verbs (Uccelli & Pan, 2013).
While Allison used these four verbs to communicate action, she
often used other words to convey the same meaning. For
example,
Allison used “up” in two different contexts. The first was in
narrating
an action she was performing, as when she said “up” while
attempting
to get up onto the chair. The second was as a request to Bloom
to help
her up. Allison also used the spatial term “down” to indicate
similar
intentions.

When not using spatial terms in place of more specific verbs,
Allison used nouns to communicate intention and action. For
example,
one instance of her uttering the word “cookie” was to tell to her
mother that she wanted a cookie, indicating this intention
without
using any verb. This pattern occurred in other contexts, as
when she
used the concrete noun “chair” but not the verb “sit” to indicate
that
she wanted to get onto the chair. The use of nouns instead of
verbs
when communicating certain concepts is perhaps expected,
given the
established preponderance of nouns in early word production.
It also
supports the idea that children communicate using the tools at
hand
(Pine, 1992): since Allison frequently employed nouns and
spatial terms,
it would seem that those are the tools that she had to rely on to
convey
whole hosts of meaning.

The results of my analysis of the transcript of Allison
interacting
28 % A PA Style [ 633 ]
with Bloom revealed aspects of the child’s speech that were
mostly
in line with the established features of early word production.
The
frequency of the use of different word classes conformed to
previous
findings that concrete nouns are most common, but other
categories
varied from the expected patterns. Her choice of the spatial
terms “up”
and “down” and the simple negative “no” is typical of children
at this
age. However, the uncommon frequency of adjectives in her
speech
indicates that they are important to how she communicated
certain
meanings; like spatial terms, they often filled in for verbs in
cases where

the actual verb was beyond her vocabulary. Her use of verbs,
while
predictably limited, showed how she employed the few verbs
that she
had and how she conveyed meaning when she did not have the
precise
verbs available to her. Overall, Allison used a somewhat varied
set of
words to communicate a wide range of meanings even though
she had
only a limited vocabulary to work with.
R E S E A R C H[ 634 ]
References
Anglin, J. M. (1995). Classifying the world through language:
Functional relevance, cultural significance, and category name
learning. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 19(2),
161-181. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/
journal/01471767

Bates, E., Marchman, V., Thal, D., Fenson, L., Dale, P.,
Reznick, J. S., &
Hartung, J. (1994). Developmental and stylistic variation in
the
composition of early vocabulary. Journal of Child Language,
21(1),
85-123. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/58280
873?accountid=13265
Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time: The use of single-word
utterances
before syntax. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton.
Bowerman, M. (2007). Containment, support, and beyond:
Constructing
topological spatial categories in first language acquisition. In
M. Aurnague, M. Hickmann, & L. Vieu (Eds.), The
categorization of
spatial entities in language and cognition (pp. 177-203).
Amsterdam,
Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages.
Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.

MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for
analyzing talk. (3rd
ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
.
.
.
.
.
List of references
begins on a new
page. Heading is
centered.
All lines except the
first are indented ½"
(5-7 spaces).
URL given for an arti-
cle accessed through
a database. Do not
add a period at the
end of a URL.
Entries for a work
found in an edited
collection includes
the editors’ names,
first initial followed
by last name.

Entries are arranged
alphabetically.
28 % A PA Style [ 635 ]
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk.
Monographs
of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38(1), 1-135.
Retrieved from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%2
8ISSN%291540-5834
Pine, J. M. (1992). The functional basis of referentiality:
Evidence
from children’s spontaneous speech. First Language, 12(1), 39-
55. Retrieved from http://fla.sagepub.com/proxy.lib.pdx.edu/
content/12/34/39.full.pdf+html
Santelmann, L. (2014). Development of morphology and
syntax
[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://d2l.pdx.edu/d2l/le/
content/450980/viewContent/1515576/View

Uccelli, P., & Pan, B. A. (2013). Semantic development. In J.
Berko Gleason
& N. Bernstein Ratner (Eds.), The development of language (pp.
89-
112). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Walker, D., Greenwood, C., Hart, B., & Carta, J. (1994).
Prediction of school
outcomes based on early language production and
socioeconomic
factors. Child Development, 65(2), 606-621. Retrieved from
http://
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291467-
8624
Zukowski, A. (2013). Putting words together. In J. Berko
Gleason &
N. Bernstein Ratner (Eds.), The development of language (pp.
120-
156). Boston, MA: Pearson.
.
When the source
type is unconven-
tional, unclear, or
important to point
out, indicate the
medium in brackets.

Forman 1
Sam Forman
Professor Higgins
TUT 101: Freshman Tutorial
3 May 2008
The Future of Food Production
The process that food consumed in America goes through to
make its way to our mouths is like a Rube Goldberg contraption.
The seemingly straightforward process of growing, raising,
harvesting, and slaughtering goes on every day, completely
hidden

from consumers. Very few Americans are aware of the highly
complicated, mechanized, and convoluted journey that any
given
bite of food takes from its origins in nature (or some
manipulated
approximation of it) to its destination on our plates. Although
some people criticize the state of our food system, it is clear
that it
grew to be the international machine that it is because of
demand.
More than 300 million Americans want lots of food, meat
especially, and they want it cheap. So like every other
production
process in this country, our food system has been industrialized
to
produce maximum food calories for the American people at
minimum cost. This industrialization of our food system has
allowed for population increase and higher standards of living.
But there are significant problems with the industrial food
system. Caught up in a drive to maximize production and profit,
the industrial food system has grown to an unsustainable size.
As

food production has become increasingly industrialized, concern
for the environment and the animals we eat has taken a backseat
to expansion. Specialization, rather than integration, has
become
Forman 2
the hallmark of America’s farms. Rather than having chickens,
hogs, corn, and hay all on one farm, all these things now reside
on
separate, much larger farms. There is, however, another, very
separate food system that supplements the industrial food
system:
the local food system. Local food systems cater to people who
believe that it is better to “buy local” or from a smaller, usually

family-owned farm rather than from a supermarket with less
expensive mass-produced food.
There are few places where the two food systems are as
visible and distinguishable as in Grinnell, Iowa. Poweshiek
County
has a range of farms in terms of size, as illustrated by fig. 1,
taken
from the 2002 Census of Agriculture, County Profile:
Poweshiek, Iowa.
As a resident of Grinnell, I have become very familiar with the
faces of the two food systems. Wal-Mart, Hy-Vee, Monsanto
Seed,
and Fremont Farms are the incarnations of our industrial food
system, while Café Phoenix, the farmers’ market, and the
various
family farmers who participate in Community Supported
Agriculture programs represent our local food system here in
Grinnell.
Through both reading and personal interactions and
interviews, I have come across all kinds of opinions and
arguments

from proponents of both small-scale and large-scale agriculture.
One theme that everyone agrees on is that our world is
changing.
Serious economic and environmental challenges are on the
horizon. The current state of our food system in the United
States
is key to how well the industry will adapt when change comes.
The
American food system needs significant modification in order to
Forman 3
This image can not be included here for
permissions reasons. To view this bar graph,
please visit: https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/
Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/
County_Profiles/Iowa/cp19157.pdf
Fig. 1. Range of farms by size in Poweshiek County, Iowa.
United
States, Dept. of Agriculture.
guarantee that we can both eat healthfully and protect the

natural
workings of the planet. The most important change that could be
made is a return to methods of food production that resemble
nature’s traditional processes, rather than methods that
manipulate nature in an effort to make it work like a factory.
In Grinnell, as has been the case across the country, there
has been a strong trend in agriculture toward larger farms, fewer
farms, and fewer farmers on each farm. According to the most
recent county census of agriculture (taken in 2002), the number
of
farms in Poweshiek County has fallen 8 percent since 1997 and
the
average size of farms has grown 8 percent during the same time
http:https://www.agcensus.usda.gov
Forman 4
period. While growing bigger and industrializing, farms have

also
changed the nature of their operations to maximize efficiency
and
profit at all costs. Examples of this trend would be maximizing
cropland by demolishing buildings on the farm that used to
house
livestock or by planting on hilly ground that is prone to erosion.
In
effect, too much farmland is used to grow crops, and not enough
of
it is left for livestock to graze on, throwing off the natural
ecosystem. This is supported by the 2002 Census of Agriculture
of
Poweshiek County, which shows that 85 percent of all farmland
in
Poweshiek County is used to grow crops while only 5.5 percent
is
open pasture (Department of Agriculture 1–2). This great
discrepancy begs the question, if so little land is used for
pasture
and so much is used to grow crops on, where and what do the
livestock of Poweshiek County eat?

For the most part, livestock, especially those commonly
consumed like hogs, beef, and poultry, have been taken off the
farm and now reside in an invention of the industrial food
system:
the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO for short.
In
a CAFO hundreds of thousands of animals live together, eating
the
grain (corn for the most part) that is grown on the land where
they
used to graze. These CAFOs are a prototypical example of how
the
industrial food system has rearranged nature to provide the
ultimate value-added service: turning cheap, government-
subsidized corn into protein and calories, in this case meat.
During
a phone interview, Professor Mark Honeyman of Iowa State
University pointed out to me that by definition agriculture is the
manipulation of nature to turn solar energy into caloric energy
for

Forman 5
our consumption. This logical assertion forced me to stop and
ask
myself why, if agriculture was by nature manipulating plants
and
animals, is there anything wrong with the way food is mass-
produced in our country today? I quickly reminded myself that
there are different degrees of manipulation. The environmental
impact of Barney Bahrenfuse, the owner of a 500-acre farm in
Grinnell, keeping goats on his farm because they like to eat
weeds
is minimal because he is not changing anything about the goats’
natural habits. Goats like to eat weeds. Greater degrees of
manipulation often thwart the animals’ natural instincts,
reducing
their existence to little more than converting grain into meat.

It should be added that small farms are not all good and big
farms are not all bad. CAFOs recycle their animals’ waste, just
as
Bahrenfuse does on his farm. The only difference is that while
Bahrenfuse hauls his animals’ waste across his smallish farm,
CAFOs do not usually have farmland of their own and
sometimes
(because they do not depend on the soil in any way) are not
even
located anywhere near farmland, and thus have to truck the
manure to a buyer, using precious fossil fuels in the process. In
a
paper entitled “Sustainability Issues of U.S. Swine Production,”
Professor Honeyman points out that to optimize sustainability,
“the
relationship of swine population to arable land is important.
Large
swine production units [CAFOs] built on small acreages or not
part
of farms that also produce feed grains can have manure
utilization
problems” (1415). This is certainly not a problem in Iowa,

where
fecund soil is everywhere. The CEO of Fremont Farms, Steve
George, whose farm in Malcolm, Iowa, holds about 9 million
hens
Forman 6
that lay eggs for liquid egg products, does not have to look far
to
find a farmer in need of the waste his hens create. Animal waste
is
usually well dealt with by CAFOs; after all, it is not only
environmentally conscious but also profitable to sell your
animals’
waste as fertilizer.
There are, however, ways in which CAFOs are clearly less
earth-friendly than traditional farming. First, they are generally

farther from farmland that needs fertilizer, and so the animal
manure needs to be transported, a considerable waste of fossil
fuel.
This also contributes to pollution and global warming, problems
we all pay for. Another problem with CAFOs is the health of the
animals they produce. Separating the animals from their natural
habitat and constantly feeding them sub-therapeutic levels of
antibiotics weaken the animals’ natural robustness. In addition,
these practices create antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a threat to
the
health of humans as well as to the animals that host the
resulting
super-bacteria. There is much debate about what is the
healthiest
and safest environment for an animal. Steve George told me in a
phone interview that he wouldn’t want his chickens roaming
around outside, because of all the dangerous pathogens that lurk
outdoors. By keeping his hens indoors, he is able to protect
them
from disease and keep them big and productive by giving them

feed with growth-promoting antibiotics in it. In the other camp
are
Barney Bahrenfuse and Suzanne Costello, who run B&B Farms
in
Grinnell (see fig. 2). According to Bahrenfuse, they raise 600
chickens each year. They let their chickens peck around outside
in
addition to giving them feed that Barney grows and produces
Forman 7
Fig. 2. Not-so-concentrated accommodations at B&B Farms.
Photograph by author.
himself. As Costello put it, “One way of looking at it is there’s
this
horrible world out there that we’re all at war with,” and then
there’s the way Bahrenfuse and Costello handle their chickens:
“If
[the chickens] are getting fresh air, and they’re getting greens .
. .

they’re healthier beings and they’re less susceptible. So the way
we
view it is, you beef up their health and you don’t have to worry
about it.” Based on direct observation I would have to say they
are
right. It just so happened that on a drive-by tour of Fremont
Farms
(shown in fig. 3), I observed a truck full of dead hens being
covered
for highway transport. Apparently about 10 percent of laying
hens
in CAFOs simply can’t endure their situation and die, a fact that
is
Forman 8
Fig. 3. Fremont Farms in Malcolm, Iowa. Photograph by author.
built into the cost of production (Pollan 318). In the close
confinement that CAFO-bound laying hens exist in, “Every
natural

instinct [is] thwarted, leading to a range of behavioral vices that
can include cannibalizing [their] cage mates and rubbing [their]
breast[s] against the wire mesh until [they are] completely bald
and bleeding” (Pollan 317). Bahrenfuse mentions no such
problems
among his chickens. Obviously there are many hundred
thousand
more chickens living at Fremont than at B&B, but that truckload
stands in stark contrast to the three chickens at B&B that
“crapped
out,” as Bahrenfuse put it.
There is also evidence that CAFOs are as bad for the people
who live around them as for the animals that live in them.
According to Honeyman:

Forman 9
More than 20 years of studies have consistently shown
the negative influences of large-scale specialized
farming on rural communities (Allen, 1993). Lobao (1990)
found that “an agricultural structure that was
increasingly corporate and non-family-owned tended to
lead to population decline, lower incomes, fewer
community services, less participation in democratic
processes, less retail trade, environmental pollution,
more unemployment, and an emerging rigid class
structure.” (1413)
In addition to these findings, large CAFOs, especially hog or
beef
operations, create public nuisances in other ways. Because there
can be hundreds of thousands if not millions of animals living
in a
densely populated environment, their waste becomes a problem.
CAFOs pool the animals’ feces in vast open cesspools that can
cause huge environmental issues, in addition to attracting
clouds

of flies that plague anyone living nearby. It is clear that there
are
major drawbacks to the current industrial method of raising
animals. But what choices do we have? There are more than 300
million people living in the United States who need to eat, and
eat
on a budget.
Proponents of large-scale agriculture argue that it is cheaper
and more efficient to produce food following an industrial
model.
Judging by price tags, they may be right. Often vegetables at a
farmer’s market fetch a higher price than those sitting in the
supermarket do. But the supermarket is not the only place we
pay
for our industrially produced goods. Mark Honeyman pointed
out to

Forman 10
me, citing work by J. E. Ikerd, a professor emeritus of
agricultural
economics at the University of Missouri, Columbia, that many
of the
costs of mass-produced agriculture are hidden. For instance, we
all
pay taxes to the government, which in turn spends billions of
tax
dollars a year subsidizing the industrial food system. Between
2003

and 2005 the government spent an average of $11.5 billion per
year
on crop subsidies, 47 percent of which went to the top 5 percent
of
beneficiaries (“Crop Subsidy”). This means we are subsidizing a
lot,
and mostly the biggest agri-businesses. Family farmers, for the
most
part, receive no government subsidies. So when I told
Bahlenfuse
and Suzanne that I repeatedly heard from people involved in
large-
scale agriculture that family farming is nice, but ultimately not
very
profitable if even viable at all, Suzanne was quick to respond:
“You
take away [the industrial farms’] government subsidies—they
don’t
work. We don’t take any government subsidies, so who’s
viable?” In
fact, Steve George of Fremont Farms pointed out to me that they
receive no government subsidies, which I verified online;
according

to the Environmental Working Group’s website, which gets its
statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture,
except
for a paltry $5,361 in corn subsidies between 1999 and 2000,
Fremont Farms gets no government subsidies at all. No direct
subsidies, that is. It is important to remember, however, that
their
operation is indirectly subsidized by the artificially low price of
corn
in their chickens’ feed. By subsidizing the largest producers,
the
government encourages large-scale agriculture to organize itself
along the lines of a machine, operated with chemical inputs and
minimal human management, and measured by output.
Forman 11

It is much harder to offer a solution to our increasingly
problematic food system than it is to point out its flaws. Some
experts, like Bill McKibben, point to local food systems as a
more
earth-friendly and sustainable solution (2007). Others, like
Mark
Honeyman, propose many “modest-sized” diversified family
farms.
Both are plausible solutions, but critics claim that an industrial
food system is the only way to feed a country with the size and
appetite of the United States. Yet smaller farms do not
necessarily
mean less food. The solution is integration. Rather than having
one
huge corn farm and another huge pig farm, we should have
several
smaller integrated farms that would produce the same number of
hogs and acres of corn. Instead of agriculture existing in
enormous
monocultures, farms would resemble independent ecosystems.
This would simplify and reinforce the nutrient cycle and the
health

of the farms as a whole. Some might say that this would just be
backtracking several decades in agricultural history. But really
any
change made to improve sustainability would be progress.
The key to implementing a more sustainable future for our
food system is a multilateral effort by both government and
consumers. To reshape our food system, there needs to be a
concerted effort by the government to refocus subsidies along
with
greater awareness on the part of consumers; ultimately, the
consumers have the greatest effect on what the food system
produces while the government influences how they do it. Many
of
the individuals I interviewed noted a growing movement toward
local, fresh, chemical-free foods. Tom Lacina of Pulmuone
Wildwood noted the continual increase in sales of organic foods
in

Forman 12
the United States. Mark Honeyman observed the proliferation of
niche pork markets such as antibiotic-free and grass-fed pork.
Locavore, a noun that means “one who seeks out locally
produced
food” (“Locavore”), was the New Oxford American
Dictionary’s 2007
Word of the Year (“Oxford”). The local food movement is
clearly
alive at Grinnell. Many professors and students are conscious of
what they eat, and during the growing season local foods are
plentiful. From May until October there is a fledgling farmers’
market in town. Some local restaurants, most notably Café
Phoenix, make a point of buying local whenever possible. But
there
are also strong signs of the entrenched industrial food system.
Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee supply cheap, mass-produced food,
mostly

to the townspeople of Grinnell, who generally do not have the
economic means that people at the college do. This trend is not
unique to Grinnell. As Tom Lacina put it, “The top half of the
society is willing to pay for local, pure, organic. They have the
time
to shop; they have the education to shop.” But fresh, chemical-
free
food should not be limited to those with the money and
awareness
needed to shop locally. Government subsidies to encourage
more
smaller farms to produce goods for smaller regions could
effectively strengthen local food systems and perhaps even
result
in the kind of affordable prices that supermarket shoppers enjoy
today.
There is a clear set of goals for our food industry that
Americans must collectively work to achieve. Our food system
must achieve sustainability, meaning it should be able to
operate
indefinitely in its current state. Our food must be produced in a

Forman 13
manner that respects the plants and animals that we consume,
and the system must reward the farmers as well. The key is to
re-
create a system of farming that mimics nature rather than a
factory. But there are still daunting obstacles in the way of
progress. Most Americans enjoy the quantity of cheap food
available in supermarkets across the country. To ensure change,
Americans have to cast off the myopia that allows us to enjoy
the
state of our food system without worry for the future. As a
country
we must plan ahead for a time when cheap fossil fuel,
antibiotics,
and government subsidies will not keep a grossly unnatural food
system running smoothly.

Forman 14
Acknowledgments
I would like to formally thank everyone who spent his or her
valuable time talking to me for this paper. Steve, Tom, Barney,
Suzanne, and Mark, your knowledge and perspectives were all
invaluable and greatly influenced me as well as my paper.
Thank
you so much.
Forman 15

Works Cited
Allen, Patricia, editor. Food for the Future: Conditions and
Contradictions
of Sustainability. Wiley, 1993.
Bahrenfuse, Robert (“Barney”), and Suzanne Costello. Personal
interview. 14 Dec. 2007.
“Crop Subsidy Program Benefits.” Environmental Working
Group Policy
Analysis Database, Environmental Working Group, 2008,
www.ewg.org/key-issues/farming/2008/crop-subsidy-
program-benefits. Accessed 5 Jan. 2008.
George, Steve. Personal interview. 27 Nov. 2007.
Honeyman, Mark. “Sustainability Issues of U.S. Swine
Production.”
Journal of Animal Science, vol. 74, no. 6, pp. 1410–17.
— — —. Personal interview. 18 Dec. 2007.
Lacina, Tom. Personal interview. 7 Dec. 2007.
Lobao, Linda M. Locality and Inequality: Farm and Industry
Structure

and Socioeconomic Conditions. State U of New York P, 1990.
“Locavore.” The New Oxford American Dictionary, edited by
Erin
McKean, 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2005.
McKibben, Bill. Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities
and the
Durable Future. Henry Holt, 2007.
“Oxford Word of the Year: Locavore.” OUP blog. Oxford UP,
12 Nov.
2007, blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/. Accessed 5 Jan. 2008.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Penguin, 2006.
www.ewg.org/key-issues/farming/2008/crop-subsidy
Forman 16
United States, Department of Agriculture. 2002 Census of
Agriculture,
County Profile: Poweshiek, Iowa. United States Department of
Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service. United
States

Department of Agriculture, 2008, www.agcensus.usda.gov/
Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/County_Profiles/Iowa/
cp19157.pdf. Accessed 5 Jan. 2008.
“The Future of Food Production.” Reprinted by permission of
the author
[Editor’s note: Every effort has been made to include accurate
URLs for websites
cited. However, some of this information may be inaccurate.]
http:www.agcensus.usda.gov
Cullington 1
Michaela Cullington
Professor Foss
ENGL 160, Section 2
18 April 2010
Does Texting Affect Writing?

It’s taking over our lives. We can do it almost anywhere—
walking to class, waiting in line at the grocery store, or hanging
out
at home. It’s quick, easy, and convenient. It has become a
concern
of doctors, parents, and teachers alike. What is it? It’s texting!
Text messaging—or texting, as it’s more commonly called—is
the process of sending and receiving typed messages via a
cellular
phone. It is a common means of communication among
teenagers
and is even becoming popular in the business world because it
allows quick messages to be sent without people having to
commit
to a telephone conversation. A person is able to say what is
needed,
and the other person will receive the information and respond
when it’s convenient to do so.
In order to more quickly type what they are trying to say,
many people use abbreviations instead of words. The language
created by these abbreviations is called textspeak. Some people

believe that using these abbreviations is hindering the writing
abilities of students, and others argue that texting is actually
having a positive effect on writing. In fact, it seems likely that
texting has no significant effect on student writing.
Concerns about Textspeak
A September 2008 article in USA Today entitled “Texting,
Testing Destroys Kids’ Writing Style” summarizes many of the
Cullington 2

most common complaints about the effect of texting. It states
that
according to the National Center for Education Statistics, only
25%
of high school seniors are “proficient” writers. The article
quotes
Jacquie Ream, a former teacher and author of K.I.S.S.—Keep It
Short
and Simple, a guide for writing more effectively. Ream states,
“[W]e
have a whole generation being raised without communication
skills.” She blames the use of acronyms and shorthand in text
messages for students’ inability to spell and ultimately to write
well. Ream also points out that students struggle to convey
emotion in their writing because, as she states, in text messages
“emotions are always sideways smiley faces.”
This debate became prominent after some teachers began to
believe they were seeing a decline in the writing abilities of
their
students. Many attributed this perceived decline to the
increasing

popularity of text messaging and its use of abbreviations.
Naomi
Baron, a linguistics professor at American University, blames
texting for what she sees as the fact that “so much of American
society has become sloppy and laissez faire about the mechanics
of
writing.” (“Should”) Teachers report finding “2” for “to,” “gr8”
for
“great,” “dat” for “that,” and “wut” for “what,” among other
examples
of textspeak, in their students’ writing. A Minnesota teacher of
the
seventh and ninth grades says that she has to spend extra time in
class editing papers and must “explicitly” remind her students
that
it is not acceptable to use text slang and abbreviations in
writing
(Walsh). Another English teacher believes that text language
has
become “second nature” to her students (Carey); they are so
used to
it that they do not even catch themselves doing it.

Cullington 3
Many also complain that because texting does not stress the
importance of punctuation, students are neglecting it in their
formal writing. Teachers say that their students are forgetting
commas, apostrophes, and even capital letters to begin
sentences.
Another complaint is that text messages lack emotion. Many
argue
that texts lack feeling because of their tendency to be short,
brief,
and to the point. Because students are not able to communicate
emotion effectively through texts, some teachers worry, they
may
lose the ability to do so in writing.

To get a more personal perspective on the question of how
teachers perceive texting to be influencing student writing, I
interviewed two of my former high school teachers—my junior-
year English teacher and my senior-year theology teacher. Both
teachers stress the importance of writing in their courses. They
maintain that they notice text abbreviations in their students’
writing often. To correct this problem, they point it out when it
occurs and take points off for its use. They also remind their
students to use proper sentence structure and complete
sentences.
The English teacher says that she believes texting inhibits good
writing—it reinforces simplistic writing that may be acceptable
for
conversation but is “not so good for critical thinking or
analysis.”
She suggests that texting tends to generate topic sentences
without emphasizing the following explanation. According to
these
teachers, then, texting is inhibiting good writing. However,
their

evidence is limited, based on just a few personal experiences
rather than on a significant amount of research.
Cullington 4
Responses to Concerns about Textspeak
In response to these complaints that texting is having a
negative impact on student writing, others insist that texting
should be viewed as beneficial because it provides students with
motivation to write, practice in specific writing skills, and an
opportunity to gain confidence in their writing. For example,
Sternberg, Kaplan, and Borck argue that texting is a good way
to
motivate students: teens enjoy texting, and if they frequently
write
through texts, they will be more motivated to write formally.

Texting also helps to spark students’ creativity, these authors
argue, because they are always coming up with new ways to
express their ideas (417).
In addition, because they are engaging in written
communication rather than oral speech, texting teens learn how
to
convey their message to a reader in as few words as possible. In
his
book Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal discusses a study that
concludes that texting actually helps foster “the ability to
summarize and express oneself concisely” in writing (168).
Furthermore, Crystal explains that texting actually helps people
to
“sharpen their diplomatic skills . . . [because] it allows more
time to
formulate their thoughts and express them carefully” (168). One
language arts teacher from Minnesota believes that texting helps
students develop their own “individual voice” (qtd. in Walsh).
Perfecting such a voice allows the writer to offer personal
insights
and express feelings that will interest and engage readers.

Supporters of texting also argue that it not only teaches
elements of writing but provides extra practice to those who
Cullington 5
struggle with the conventions of writing. As Crystal points out,
children who struggle with literacy will not choose to use a
technology that requires them to do something that is difficult
for
them. However, if they do choose to text, the experience will
help
them “overcome their awkwardness and develop their social and
communication skills” (Txting 171). Shirley Holm, a junior high
school teacher, describes texting as a “comfortable form of
communication” (qtd. in Walsh). Teenagers are used to texting,

enjoy doing so, and as a result are always writing. Through this
experience of writing in ways they enjoy, they can learn to take
pleasure in writing formally. If students are continually writing
in
some form, they will eventually develop better skills.
Furthermore, those who favor texting explain that with
practice comes the confidence and courage to try new things,
which some observers believe they are seeing happen with
writing
as a result of texting. Teenagers have, for example, created an
entirely new language—one that uses abbreviations and symbols
instead of words, does not require punctuation, and uses short,
incomplete phrases throughout the entire conversation. It’s a
way
of speaking that is a language in and of itself. Crystal, among
others, sees this “language evolution” as a positive effect of
texting;
he seems, in fact, fascinated that teenagers are capable of
creating
such a phenomenon, which he describes as the “latest
manifestation of the human ability” (Txtng 175). David

Warlick, a
teacher and author of books about technology in the classroom,
would agree with Crystal. He believes students should be given
Cullington 6
credit for “inventing a new language ideal for communicating in
a
high-tech world” (qtd. in Carey).
Methods
I decided to conduct my own research into this controversy. I
wanted to get different, more personal, perspectives on the
issue.
First, I surveyed seven students on their opinions about the
impact

of texting on writing. Second, I questioned two high school
teachers,
as noted above. Finally, in an effort to compare what students
are
actually doing to people’s perceptions of what they are doing, I
analyzed student writing samples for instances of textspeak.1
To let students speak for themselves, I created a list of
questions for seven high school and college students, some of
my
closest and most reliable friends. Although the number of
respondents was small, I could trust my knowledge of them to
help me interpret their responses. In addition, these students are
very different from one another, and I believed their differences
would allow for a wide array of thoughts and opinions on the
issue.
I was thus confident in the reliability and diversity of their
answers
but was cautious not to make too many assumptions because of
the small sample size.
I asked the students how long they had been texting; how
often they texted; what types of abbreviations they used most

and
how often they used them; and whether they noticed themselves
using any type of textspeak in their formal writing. In analyzing
their responses, I looked for commonalities to help me draw
conclusions about the students’ texting habits and if/how they
believed their writing was affected.
Cullington 7
I created a list of questions for teachers similar to the one for
the students and asked two of my high school teachers to

provide
their input. I asked if they had noticed their students using
textspeak in their writing assignments and, if so, how they dealt
with it. I also asked if they believed texting had a positive or
negative effect on writing. Next, I asked if they were texters
themselves. And, finally, I solicited their opinions on what they
believed should be done to prevent teens from using text
abbreviations and other textspeak in their writing.
I was surprised at how different the students’ replies and
opinions were from the teachers’. I decided to find out for
myself
whose impressions were more accurate by comparing some
students’ actual writing with students’ and teachers’ perceptions
of
that writing. To do this I looked at twenty samples of student
writing
— end-of-semester research arguments written in two first-year
college writing courses with different instructors. The topics
varied
from increased airport security after September 11 to the
weapons

of the Vietnam War to autism, and lengths ranged from eight to
ten
pages. To analyze the papers for the presence of textspeak, I
looked
closely for use of abbreviations and other common slang terms,
especially those usages which the students had stated in their
surveys were most common. These included “hbu” (“How about
you?”); “gtg” (“Got to go”); and “cuz” (“because”). I also
looked for the
numbers 2 and 4 used instead of the words “to” and “for.”
Cullington 8
Discussion of Findings
My research suggests that texting actually has a minimal
effect on student writing. It showed that students do not believe

textspeak is appropriate in formal writing assignments. They
recognize the difference between texting friends and writing
formally and know what is appropriate in each situation. This
was
proven true in the student samples, in which no examples of
textspeak were used. Many experts would agree that there is no
harm in textspeak, as long as students continue to be taught and
reminded that occasions where formal language is expected are
not the place for it. As Crystal explains, the purpose of the
abbreviations used in text messages is not to replace language
but
rather to make quick communications shorter and easier, since
in
a standard text message, the texter is allowed only 160
characters
for a communication (“Texting” 81).
Dennis Baron, an English and linguistics professor at the
University of Illinois, has done much research on the effect of
technology on writing, and his findings are aligned with those
of

my own study. In his book A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers,
and the
Digital Revolution, he concludes that students do not use
textspeak
in their writing. In fact, he suggests students do not even use
abbreviations in their text messages very often. Baron says that
college students have “put away such childish things, and many
of
them had already abandoned such signs of middle-school
immaturity in high school” (qtd. in Golden).
In surveying the high school and college students, I found
that most have been texting for a few years, usually starting
Cullington 9

around ninth grade. The students said they generally text
between
thirty and a hundred messages every day but use abbreviations
only occasionally, with the most common being “lol” (“Laugh
out
loud”), “gtg” (“Got to go”), “hbu” (“How about you?”), “cuz”
(“because”), and “jk” (“Just kidding”). None of them believed
texting
abbreviations were acceptable in formal writing. In fact,
research
has found that most students report that they do not use
textspeak
in formal writing. As one Minnesota high school student says,
“[T]
here is a time and a place for everything,” and formal writing is
not
the place for communicating the way she would if she were
texting
her friends (qtd. in Walsh). Another student admits that in
writing
for school she sometimes finds herself using these
abbreviations.
However, she notices and corrects them before handing in her
final

paper (Carey). One teacher reports that, despite texting, her
students’ “formal writing remains solid.” She occasionally sees
an
abbreviation; however, it is in informal, “warm-up” writing. She
believes that what students choose to use in everyday types of
writing is up to them as long as they use standard English in
formal writing (qtd. in Walsh).
Also supporting my own research findings are those from a
study which took place at a midwestern research university.
This
study involved eighty-six students who were taking an
Introduction to Education course at the university. The
participants
were asked to complete a questionnaire that included questions
about their texting habits, the spelling instruction they had
received, and their proficiency at spelling. They also took a
standardized spelling test. Before starting the study, the

Cullington 10
researchers had hypothesized that texting and the use of
abbreviations would have a negative impact on the spelling
abilities of the students. However, they found that the results
did
not support their hypothesis. The researchers did note that text
messaging is continuing to increase in popularity; therefore,
this
issue should continue to be examined (Shaw et al.).
I myself am a frequent texter. I chat with my friends from
home every day through texting. I also use texting to
communicate
with my school friends, perhaps to discuss what time we are
going
to meet for dinner or to ask quick questions about homework.
According to my cell phone bill, I send and receive around
6,400
texts a month. In the messages I send, I rarely notice myself
using

abbreviations. The only time I use them is if I do not have time
to
write out the complete phrase. However, sometimes I find it
more
time-consuming to try to figure out how to abbreviate
something
so that my message will still be comprehensible.
Since I rarely use abbreviations in my texting, I never use
them in my formal writing. I know that they are unacceptable
and
that it would make me look unintelligent if I included acronyms
and symbols instead of proper and formal language. I also have
not
noticed an effect on my spelling as a result of texting. I am
confident in my spelling abilities, and even when I use an
abbreviation, I know how to spell the word(s) it stands for.
On the basis of my own research, expert research, and
personal observations, I can confidently state that texting is not
interfering with students’ use of standard written English and
has
no effect on their writing abilities in general. It is interesting to

Cullington 11
look at the dynamics of the arguments over these issues.
Teachers
and parents who claim that they are seeing a decline in the
writing
abilities of their students and children mainly support the
negative-impact argument. Other teachers and researchers
suggest
that texting provides a way for teens to practice writing in a
casual
setting and thus helps prepare them to write formally. Experts
and
students themselves, however, report that they see no effect,
positive or negative. Anecdotal experiences should not
overshadow
the actual evidence.

Cullington 12
Note
1. All participants in the study have given permission for
their responses to be published.
Cullington 13
Works Cited
Baron, Dennis. A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the
Digital
Revolution. Oxford UP, 2009.

Carey, Bridget. “The Rise of Text, Instant Messaging
Vernacular
Slips into Schoolwork.” Miami Herald, 6 Mar. 2007. Academic
OneFile, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?.direct=true&db=ed
sgao&AN=edsgcl.160190230&site=eds-live. Accessed 27 Oct.
2009.
Crystal, David. “Texting.” ELT Journal, vol. 62, no. 1, Jan.
2008,
pp. 77–83. Academic OneFile, search.ebscohost.com/login.
aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.177163353&site=
eds-live. Accessed 8 Nov. 2009.
— — —. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8. Oxford UP, 2008.
Golden, Serena. Rev. of A Better Pencil, by Serena Golden.
Inside
Higher Ed., 18 Sept. 2009, insidehighered.com/
news/2009/09/18/barron. Accessed 9 Nov. 2009.
Shaw, Donita M., et al. “An Exploratory Investigation into the
Relationship between Text Messaging and Spelling.” New
England Reading Association Journal, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 57–62.

EBSCO Discovery Service for Marywood University, search.
ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=2564808
1&site=eds-live. Accessed 8 Nov. 2009.
“Should We Worry or LOL?” NEA Today, Mar. 2004, p. 12.
ProQuest,
search.proquest.com/docview/198894194?accountid=42654.
Accessed 27 Oct. 2009.
http:insidehighered.com
Cullington 14
Sternberg, Betty, et al. “Enhancing Adolescent Literacy
Achievement
through Integration of Technology in the Classroom.” Reading
Research Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3, July–Sept. 2007, pp. 416–20.

ProQuest, search.proquest.com/docview/212128056?
accountid=42654. Accessed 8 Nov. 2009.
“Texting, Testing Destroys Kids’ Writing Style.” USA Today
Magazine,
vol. 137, no. 2760, Sept. 2008, p. 8. ProQuest, search.proquest.
com/docview/214595644?accountid=42654. Accessed 9 Nov.
2009.
Walsh, James. “Txt Msgs Creep in2 class; Some Say That’s
gr8.”
McClatchy-Tribune News Service, 23 Oct. 2007. ProQuest,
search.
proquest.com/docview/456879133?accountid=42654.
Accessed 27 Oct. 2009.
“Texting and Writing.” Reprinted by permission of the author.
�

Dylan Borchers, “Against the Odds”
1 ”
2
• Last name and
Borchers 1 page number.
•
•
Dylan Borchers Heading
includes your
Professor Bullock full name and
identifies the
English 102, Section 4
4 May 2012
teacher, course,
and date.
Against the Odds: Center the title. •
Harry S. Truman and the Election of 1948
Double-spaced Just over a week before Election Day in 1948, a
New York
throughout.

•
Times article noted “[t]he popular view that Gov. Thomas E. No
page
number needed Dewey’s election as President is a foregone
conclusion” (Egan).
for one-page
source.
•
This assessment of the race between incumbent Democrat Harry
S. Truman and Dewey, his Republican challenger, was echoed a
week later when Life magazine published a photograph whose
caption labeled Dewey “The Next President” (Photo of Truman
37). In a Newsweek survey of fifty prominent political writers,
each
one predicted Truman’s defeat, and Time correspondents
declared
that Dewey would carry 39 of the 48 states (Donaldson 210).
Nearly
every major media outlet across the United States endorsed
Author named
in signal phrase,
page number in
parentheses.
Dewey and lambasted Truman. As historian Robert H. Ferrell •

observes, even Truman’s wife, Bess, thought he would be
beaten
(270).
The results of an election are not so easily predicted, as the
famous photograph in fig. 1 shows. Not only did Truman win
the
election, but he won by a significant margin, with 303 electoral
votes and 24,179,259 popular votes, compared to Dewey’s 189
•electoral votes and 21,991,291 popular votes (Donaldson 204-
07). 1”
Borchers 2
This image can not be included

here for permissions reasons.
Please see page 828 of Back to
the Lake, 3rd ed. to view this
image.
Fig. 1. President Harry S. Truman holds up an Election Day
edition
of the Chicago Daily Tribune, which mistakenly announced
“Dewey
Defeats Truman"; Byron Rollins, Dewey Beats Truman (4 Nov.
1948;
Associated Press; AP Images; Web; 23 Mar. 2009).
In fact, many historians and political analysts argue that
Truman
would have won by an even greater margin had third-party
Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace not split the
Democratic
vote in New York State and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond not won
four states in the South (McCullough 711). Although Truman’s
defeat was heavily predicted, those predictions themselves,
Dewey’s passiveness as a campaigner, and Truman’s zeal turned
the tide for a Truman victory.
In the months preceding the election, public opinion polls

predicted that Dewey would win by a large margin. Pollster
Elmo
Roper stopped polling in September, believing there was no
reason to continue, given a seemingly inevitable Dewey
landslide.
Put your last
name and the
page number in • the upper-right
corner of each
page.
Illustration is
positioned close
to the text to
which it relates,
with figure num-
ber, caption,
and parentheti-
cal documenta-
tion.
•
Indent first line
of paragraph
• 5 spaces or
1 inch.
2

.....
Borchers 3
Although the margin narrowed as the election drew near, the
other pollsters predicted a Dewey win by at least 5 percent
No signal
phrase; author
and page (Donaldson 209). Many historians believe that these
predictions •
aided the president in the long run. First, surveys showing
Dewey
in the lead may have prompted some of Dewey’s supporters to
feel overconfident about their candidate’s chances and therefore
to stay home from the polls on Election Day. Second, these
same
surveys may have energized Democrats to mount late get-out-
the-vote efforts (“1948 Truman-Dewey Election”). Other
analysts
believe that the overwhelming predictions of a Truman loss also

kept at home some Democrats who approved of Truman’s
policies
but saw a Truman loss as inevitable. According to political
analyst
Samuel Lubell, those Democrats may have saved Dewey from
an
even greater defeat (Hamby, Man 465). Whatever the impact on
the
voters, the polling numbers had a decided effect on Dewey.
Historians and political analysts alike cite Dewey’s overly
cautious campaign as one of the main reasons Truman was able
to achieve victory. Dewey firmly believed in public opinion
polls.
With all indications pointing to an easy victory, Dewey and his
staff believed that all he had to do was bide his time and make
no foolish mistakes. Dewey himself said, “When you’re leading,
don’t talk” (Smith 30). Each of Dewey’s speeches was well
crafted
and well rehearsed. As the leader in the race, he kept his
remarks
faultlessly positive, with the result that he failed to deliver a
solid

message or even mention Truman or any of Truman’s policies.
number in
parentheses.
Borchers 4
Eventually, Dewey began to be perceived as aloof and stuffy.
One
observer compared him to the plastic groom on top of a wedding
cake (Hamby, “Harry S. Truman”), and others noted his stiff,
cold
demeanor (McCullough 671–74).
As his campaign continued, observers noted that Dewey
seemed uncomfortable in crowds, unable to connect with
ordinary
people. And he made a number of blunders. One took place at a
train stop when the candidate, commenting on the number of
children in the crowd, said he was glad they had been let out of

school for his arrival. Unfortunately for Dewey, it was a
Saturday
(“1948: The Great Truman Surprise”). Such gaffes gave voters
the
feeling that Dewey was out of touch with the public.
Again and again through the autumn of 1948, Dewey’s
campaign speeches failed to address the issues, with the
candidate declaring that he did not want to “get down in the
gutter” (Smith 515). When told by fellow Republicans that he
was
losing ground, Dewey insisted that his campaign not alter its
course. Even Time magazine, though it endorsed and praised
him,
conceded that his speeches were dull (McCullough 696).
According
to historian Zachary Karabell, they were “notable only for
taking
place, not for any specific message” (244). Dewey’s numbers in
the polls slipped in the weeks before the election, but he still
held
a comfortable lead over Truman. It would take Truman’s famous

whistle-stop campaign to make the difference.
Few candidates in US history have campaigned for the
presidency with more passion and faith than Harry Truman. In
•
Two works cited
within the same
sentence.
•
Title used
when there’s no
known author.
.................................................................
Borchers 5
the autumn of 1948, he wrote to his sister, “It will be the

greatest
campaign any President ever made. Win, lose, or draw, people
will
know where I stand” (91). For thirty-three days, Truman
traveled
the nation, giving hundreds of speeches from the back of the
Ferdinand Magellan railroad car. In the same letter, he
described the
pace: “We made about 140 stops and I spoke over 147 times,
shook
hands with at least 30,000 and am in good condition to start out
again tomorrow for Wilmington, Philadelphia, Jersey City,
Newark,
Albany and Buffalo” (91). McCullough writes of Truman’s
campaign:
No President in history had ever gone so far in quest of
support from the people, or with less cause for the effort,
to judge by informed opinion. . . . As a test of his skills and
judgment as a professional politician, not to say his stamina
and disposition at age sixty-four, it would be like no other
experience in his long, often difficult career, as he himself

understood perfectly. More than any other event in his public
life, or in his presidency thus far, it would reveal the kind of
man he was. (655) •
He spoke in large cities and small towns, defending his
policies and attacking Republicans. As a former farmer and
relatively late bloomer, Truman was able to connect with the
public. He developed an energetic style, usually speaking from
notes rather than from a prepared speech, and often mingled
with the crowds that met his train. These crowds grew larger
Quotations of
more than 4
lines indented • 1 inch (5 spaces)
2and double-
spaced.
Parenthetical
reference
after final
punctuation.
Borchers 6

as the campaign progressed. In Chicago, over half a million
people lined the streets as he passed, and in St. Paul the crowd
numbered over 25,000. When Dewey entered St. Paul two days
later, he was greeted by only 7,000 supporters (“1948 Truman-
Dewey Election”). Reporters brushed off the large crowds as
mere
curiosity seekers wanting to see a president (McCullough 682).
Yet
Truman persisted, even if he often seemed to be the only one
who
thought he could win. By going directly to the American people
and connecting with them, Truman built the momentum needed
to surpass Dewey and win the election.
The legacy and lessons of Truman’s whistle-stop campaign
continue to be studied by political analysts, and politicians
today
often mimic his campaign methods by scheduling multiple visits
to key states, as Truman did. He visited California, Illinois, and
Ohio 48 times, compared with 6 visits to those states by Dewey.
Political scientist Thomas M. Holbrook concludes that his

strategic
campaigning in those states and others gave Truman the
electoral
votes he needed to win (61, 65).
The 1948 election also had an effect on pollsters, who, as
Elmo Roper admitted, “couldn’t have been more wrong.” Life
magazine’s editors concluded that pollsters as well as reporters
and commentators were too convinced of a Dewey victory to
analyze the polls seriously, especially the opinions of undecided
voters (Karabell 256). Pollsters assumed that undecided voters
would vote in the same proportion as decided voters — and that
.....
Borchers 7
turned out to be a false assumption (Karabell 257). In fact, the
lopsidedness of the polls might have led voters who supported
Truman to call themselves undecided out of an unwillingness to

associate themselves with the losing side, further skewing the
Work by 3 or
more authors is polls’ results (McDonald et al. 152). Such
errors led pollsters to • shortened using
et al. change their methods significantly after the 1948 election.
After the election, many political analysts, journalists,
and historians concluded that the Truman upset was in fact a
victory for the American people, who, the New Republic noted,
“couldn’t be ticketed by the polls, knew its own mind and had
picked the rather unlikely but courageous figure of Truman to
carry its banner” (T.R.B. 3). How “unlikely” is unclear,
however;
Truman biographer Alonzo Hamby notes that “polls of scholars
consistently rank Truman among the top eight presidents in
American history” (Man 641). But despite Truman’s high
standing,
and despite the fact that the whistle-stop campaign is now part
of our political landscape, politicians have increasingly imitated
the style of the Dewey campaign, with its “packaged candidate
who ran so as not to lose, who steered clear of controversy, and
who made a good show of appearing presidential” (Karabell
266).

The election of 1948 shows that voters are not necessarily
swayed
by polls, but it may have presaged the packaging of candidates
by
public relations experts, to the detriment of public debate on the
issues in future presidential elections.
..........................................
Borchers 8
Works Cited •
Donaldson, Gary A. Truman Defeats Dewey. UP of Kentucky,
1999. •
Egan, Leo. “Talk Is Now Turning to the Dewey Cabinet.” The

New York Times, 20 Oct. 1948, p. 8E, www.nytimes.com/
timesmachine/1948/10/26/issue.html. Accessed 18 Apr. 2012.
Ferrell, Robert H. Harry S. Truman: A Life. U of Missouri P,
1994.
Hamby, Alonzo L., editor. “Harry S. Truman: Campaigns and
Elections.” American President, Miller Center, U of Virginia,
11 Jan. 2012, millercenter.org/president/biography/truman-
campaigns-and-elections. Accessed 17 Mar. 2012.
- - -. Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman. Oxford UP,
1995.
Holbrook, Thomas M. “Did the Whistle-Stop Campaign
Matter?”
PS: Political Science and Politics, vol. 35, no. 1, Mar. 2002, pp.
59-66.
Karabell, Zachary. The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman
Won the
1948 Election. Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
McCullough, David. Truman. Simon and Schuster, 1992.
McDonald, Daniel G., et al. “The Spiral of Silence in the 1948
Presidential Election.” Communication Research, vol. 28, no. 2,

Apr. 2001, pp. 139-55.
“1948: The Great Truman Surprise.” The Press and the
Presidency, •
•
Heading
centered.
Double-spaced.
Alphabetized
by authors’ last
names.
Each entry
begins at the
left margin;
subsequent
lines are
indented.
Multiple works
by a single
author listed
alphabetically
by title. For
second and sub-
sequent works,
replace author’s
name with three
hyphens.
Sources
beginning with

numerals are
alphabetized as
Dept. of Political Science and International Affairs, Kennesaw
if the number
were spelled
State U, 29 Oct. 2003, kennesaw.edu/pols.3380/pres/1984. out.
html. Accessed 10 Apr. 2012.
http:www.nytimes.com
Borchers 9
“1948 Truman-Dewey Election.” American Political History,
Eagleton
Institute of Politics, Rutgers, State U of New Jersey,
1995-2012, www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/research/
americanhistory/ap_trumandewey.php. Accessed 18 Apr.
2012.
Photo of Truman in San Francisco. “The Next President Travels

by Ferry Boat over the Broad Waters of San Francisco Bay.”
Life, 1 Nov. 1948, p. 37. Google Books, books.google.com/
books?id=ekoEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=
onepage&q&f=false. Accessed 20 Apr. 2012.
Rollins, Byron. “President Truman with Chicago Daily Tribune
Headline of ‘Dewey Defeats Truman.’ ” Associated Press,
4 Nov. 1948. Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, www.
trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=25248. Accessed
20 Apr. 2012.
Roper, Elmo. “Roper Eats Crow; Seeks Reason for Vote Upset.”
Evening Independent, 6 Nov. 1948, p. 10. Google News, news.
google.com/newspapers?nid=PZE8UkGerEcC&dat=19481106&
printsec=frontpage&hl=en. Accessed 13 Apr. 2012.
Smith, Richard Norton. Thomas E. Dewey and His Times.
Simon and
Schuster, 1982.
T.R.B. “Washington Wire.” The New Republic, 15 Nov. 1948,
pp. 3-4.
EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=tsh&AN=14779640&site=ehost-live. Accessed 20 Apr. 2012.
Truman, Harry S. “Campaigning, Letter, October 5, 1948.”
Harry S.
Truman, edited by Robert H. Ferrell, CQ P, 2003, p. 91.
•
•
A range of dates
is given for
web projects
developed over
a period of time.
Every source
used is in the
list of works
cited.
Dylan Borchers, “Against the Odds: Harry S. Truman and the
Election of
1948.” Reprinted by permission of the author.
http:books.google.com
www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/research

Michelle Watson, “Shades of Character”
Anyone who has spent time around children will notice that
each one has a special personality all his or her own. Children,
like
adults, have di erent traits that make up their personalities.
Experts
Classifcation
have researched these traits in detail, and they classi y children
system is made
up of three per-into di erent categories. Some experts have
named more than • sonality types
three categories, but Dr. Peter L. Mangione has chosen three
that determined by
experts
most experts agree with. These categories are “fexible,” “ ear
ul,”
and “ eisty.” Children generally may have similar interests, but
the Explains the
principle of way they interact and deal with these interests
displays their •
personality types.

The fexible personality is the most common o the three
types. About “ orty percent o all children all into the fexible or
easy group” (“Flexible, Fear ul, or Feisty”). These children
usually
handle eelings o anger and disappointment by becoming only
mildly upset. This does not mean that they do not eel mad or
disappointed, they just choose to react mildly. These actions
mean
the fexible child is easy to take care o and be around.
According to
Mangione, such children usually “adapt to new situations and
activities quickly, are toilet-trained easily, and are generally •
cheer ul.” Flexible children are subtle in their need or
attention.
Instead o yelling and demanding it, they will slowly and
politely let
their caregivers know about the need. I they do not get the
attention
right away, they “seldom make a uss.” They patiently wait, but
they
still make it known that they need the attention. These children
also
are easygoing, so routines like eeding and napping are regular
(“Flexible, Fear ul, or Feisty”).
Flexible children may be re erred to as “good as gold” because
o their cheer ul attitudes. Since these are well-behaved
children, •
the caregiver needs to make sure the child is getting the
attention
he or she needs. The caregiver should “check in with the fexible
child rom time to time” (“Flexible, Fear ul, or Feisty”). By
checking
in with the child regularly, the caregiver will be more
knowledgeable
about when the child needs attention and when he or she does

not.
classification
for the categories
Watson devotes
two paragraphs
to each category;
¶2 & 3 explain
the signifcant
characteristics
of “fexible”
children
Suggests the
purpose for
classifying
children (to aid
in their care)
The next temperament is the ear ul type. These are the
more quiet and shy children. This kind makes up about 15
percent
o all children, according to Mangione. They adapt slowly to

new
environments and take longer than fexible children when
warming Signifcant
characteristics
of “fearful” chil-up to things. When presented with a new
environment, ear ul •
children o ten cling to something or someone amiliar, whether
it
be the main caregiver or a material object such as a blanket. The
ear ul child will cling until he or she eels com ortable with the
new
situation. This can result in a deep attachment o the child to a
particular caregiver or object. Fear ul children may also
withdraw
when pushed into a new situation too quickly (“Flexible, Fear
ul, or
Feisty”). They may also withdraw when other children are
jumping
into a new project or situation they are not com ortable with.
These
children may tend to play alone rather than with a group.
In dealing with ear ul children, caregivers fnd they need
more attention than fexible children. A good technique or
helping
these children is having “a sequence o being with, talking to,
stepping back, remaining available, and moving on” (“Flexible,
Fear ul, or Feisty”). The caregiver can also help ear ul children
by
giving them “extra soothing combined with an inch-by-inch
ostering
o independence and assertiveness” (Viorst 174). One o the
most
e ective techniques is just taking everything slowly and helping

the
child to become more com ortable with his or her surroundings.
The third temperament type is called eisty. About “ten
percent” o children ft into this category (“Flexible, Fear ul, or •
Feisty”). Feisty children express their opinions in a very intense
way.
Whether they are happy or mad, everyone around them will
know
how they eel. These children remain active most o the time,
and
this causes them to be very aggressive. Feisty children o ten
have a
tendency toward “negative persistence” and will go “on and on
nagging, whining and negotiating” i there is something they
particularly want (“Facts About Temperament”). Unlike fexible
•
dren explained
in ¶4 & 5
By including
percentages,
Watson shows
how litle her
categories
overlap and
how inclusive
they are, since
the categories
cover in total
about 65% of
the population
Signifcant char-
acteristics of

“feisty” children
explained in
children, eisty children are irregular in their napping and
eeding ¶6 & 7
times, but they do not adapt well to changes in their routines.
They
.....
get “used to things and won’t give them up” (“Facts About
Temperament”). Anything out o the ordinary can send them
into a
ft. I these children are not warned o a change, they may react
very
negatively (“Flexible, Fear ul, or Feisty”). Feisty children also
tend to
be very sensitive to their surrounding environment. As a result,
they
may have strong reactions to their surroundings.
When dealing with eisty children, the caregiver should

know strategies that receive positive results when di erent
situations arise. Mangione supports the “redirection technique”
to
calm eisty children. This method helps when the child is
reacting
very negatively to a situation. According to Mangione, to
properly
implement the redirection technique, the caregiver should
begin by recognizing and empathizing with the eelings o
the eisty child and placing frm limits on any unacceptable
behavior. This response lets the child know that both his or
her desire or the toy and eelings o anger when denied the
toy are acceptable to the caregiver. At the same time,
the caregiver should clearly communicate to the child that
expressing anger through hurt ul or disruptive behavior is not
acceptable. The child will probably need time to experience
his or her emotions and settle down. Then o er an alternative
toy or activity that may interest the child, who is then given
time to consider the new choice and to accept or reject it.
Caregivers should consider that these children generally do not
have
regular eeding and napping times. The caregiver should be
fexible
when working with these children and should try to con orm
more
to the desires o the child (“Flexible, Fear ul, or Feisty”). I
there is
going to be a change in a child’s routine, the caregiver has an
easier
time when the child has been warned o the change.
Generally speaking, children can be divided into three
groups, but caregivers must not orget that each child is an
individual. Children may have the traits o all three o the •

personality groups, but they are categorized into the one they
are
most like. Whatever their temperament, children need to be
treated
Conclusion
reiterates the
categories and
ends with a
thesis statement
explaining why
it’s helpful to
classify children
this way
according to their individual needs. When these needs are met
appropriately the child will be happier, and those around the
child
will eel better also. Knowing the general personality types and
how
to react to them will help to make the caregiver’s job much
easier
and aid in the relie o unnecessary stress.
Works Cited
“Facts About Temperament.” Australian Temperament Project.
Australian Temperament Project, ai s.gov.au/atp/ acts-about-
temperament. Accessed 25 Oct. 2000.
Flexible, Fearful, or Feisty The Different Temperaments of

Infants and
Toddlers. Content developed by Peter Mangione, J. Ronald
Lally, and S. Signer; written by Peter Mangione; produced by
J. Ronald Lally; directed by Janet Poole. Media Services Unit,
Cali ornia Department o Education, and WestEd, 1990.
Viorst, Judith. “Is Your Child’s Personality Set at Birth?”
Redbook,
vol. 186, no. 1, Nov. 1995, p. 174+. EBSCO Host, connection.
ebscohost.com/c/articles/9510191810/your-childs-personality-
set-birth. Accessed 23 Oct. 2000.
Michelle Watson, “Shades o Character” by Michelle Watson is
used by
permission o the author, Michelle Watson DeBord.
[Editor’s note: Every efort has been made to include accurate
URLs for websites cited. How-
ever, some of this information may be inaccurate.]

Part 1 The following questions are worth 5 points each.1. The.docx

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Similaire à Part 1 The following questions are worth 5 points each.1. The.docx

Similaire à Part 1 The following questions are worth 5 points each.1. The.docx (15)

Plus de karlhennesey

Plus de karlhennesey (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Part 1 The following questions are worth 5 points each.1. The.docx