Animal Testing

In my issues paper, I am going to be addressing animal testing and the arguments of whether or not animal testing is a good or a bad thing. I am researching and expanding on how it all started and how it came to be so successful in medical technology. I am also referring to the moral standards of animal experimentation and provide different perspectives of it being unethical or ethical. The answers I plan on answering in my issues paper are: why animals are being tested, what specific animals are being tested and how many animals are being tested, and are there any alternatives to animal testing?

I will narrow my topic by talking more about the effects and pain it is causing the animals and talking about animal rights. As of right now, I cannot agree whether or not animal testing is a bad or a good thing because they both have positive and negative outcomes. For instance, I believe animal testing is unethical and cruel to animals, but without animal testing there would not be the great advances in medicine. Over the counter medicine, prescribed medicine, vaccines, and research are all good causes for animal testing, but for cosmetics and toiletries I believe there can be an alternative to using animal testing for these causes.

I think my target audience would be those how care about making a change and are interested in animal testing and especially come out to those who are not aware of the story behind beauty products and toiletries. I will develop my argument by using the process of stasis: stating the facts about animal testing, the quality of the issue, and a plan of how it can be decreased. I am planning to incorporate my counterarguments towards the middle when I am explaining the quality of the issue or meaning of the issue.

As of right now, I feel like I need to find more sources specifically on how animal testing is used on cosmetics. Along with finding specific sources on what I want to talk about, I am having difficulty on setting a specific argument if whether I am for or against animal testing completely. I also need to improve on organizing my topic and subcategorizing on what I want to argue in my issues paper and I still need to do more research on the statistics of animal testing and facts about animal testing.

Mental Illness/Health Deserves Attention

For my issues paper, I am choosing to address the globalization topic of mental illness/health. I want to focus my studies not only on the prevalence of mental diseases in our society today, but the fact that many people harbor prejudices and misinformed judgments on the idea of “mental illness.” I want to help raise awareness of diseases such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, etc. There is a strong global stigma against these disorders, and as a result, less than half of the people who suffer from such illnesses do not seek diagnosis or the proper treatment that they need.

I plan on narrowing my topic by breaking it into subcategories and really focusing on answering the question of “what exists.” Although mental illness is an issue all across the world—not just in the United Sates—in order to narrow my topic, I plan on focusing my research and most of my examples on situations within the United States. Then, after establishing the position of the U.S. on mental illness and treatment, I will describe a few of the situations in other countries involving their response and treatment of mental disorders in order to help my audience understand that mental disorders are an issue that needs to be addressed on a global scale.

My target audience will cover all citizens of society because everyone needs to be aware of the rising issue regarding social stigma and the need to end it. I will keep it specific to this audience by addressing just that—the negative effects of stigma. In addition, a portion of my target audience will include those who are personally affected by mental illness, including those who are diagnosed with a disorder as well as family and friends of those diagnosed, or those even those who have not officially been diagnosed. I will keep my paper focused on them by giving encouragement to end the fear that accompanies the label “mental illness.” I plan on giving examples of things that individuals can do in order to create a lifestyle for these individuals that is as “normal” as one would expect an individual to live without a disorder. I want to help these people understand that having a mental illness diagnosis is totally normal, and that treatment for said diseases should become an integral part of society.

The World Cup

I am writing my issues paper on the impact that the major international sporting events have on the countries that hosts them. Specifically, I am researching and writing about the impact that the World Cup has on the economy of the host country when it is only a developing country. I plan to narrow this issue even further by focusing on the last World Cup held in Brazil as an example. My research shows that there is an overall negative impact on developing countries that host the World Cup so I will emphasize this. I will also specifically address the reasons for the negative economic impact such as the new stadiums, hotels, roads, and airports that are mandatory to be built and the lack of support from the FIFA organization to do so. I am making the specific proposal that If a developing country is chosen to host the World Cup, they should receive financial assistance from FIFA to do the things required to put on the event.

My target audience includes both a primary audience and a secondary one. First, I will be directly writing to the administration of FIFA, the organization that puts on the World Cup. To be most effective with this audience, I will not take a critical approach nor just attack the organization for the things they are doing wrong. This will likely make them defensive and hostile. But, I will acknowledge their positive intent to help countries and constructively explain how they can be more successful with their purpose and not cause harm to developing countries' economies.

I will also indirectly be writing to World Cup fans in first world countries as well as citizens of developing countries. People who enjoy watching the World Cup in first world countries such as the United States and European nations will hopefully learn about the negative effects it is having on developing countries, feel bad about it, and want to change policies so that developing counties are not harmed. The World Cup fans in developing countries will likely recognize these negative effects and agree with the argument, thus establishing a group of supporters for my argument of a change in policy.

A question that I have about the research is: even though our argument has to be supported by the sources we use, does the exact solution that we propose to the problem have to be mentioned in our sources? Or, can we come up with our own original solution based on the information about the problem provided in our sources?

Neopaganism

I have chosen to write about Neopaganism for my issues paper. I will be able to narrow my topic down more if I focus on a certain aspect of Neopaganism, such as the huge incorporation of nature, witchcraft, or how it relates to early paganism from Britain. It’s difficult narrowing this topic because not a lot of people know all the specifics about it, and because there are so many different types of Neopagans themselves.

            The people I want to be my target audience is those who are critical of Neopaganism, those that don’t know a lot about Neopaganism, and those who just don’t know it exists. I want to address them in my paper because I want to help give a better understanding of this religion and help people form educated, non-biased views. I don’t want to address people who are Neopagans in my paper because they already know a lot, and I’m not trying to make them judge their own religion less harshly.

            I will be able to direct my essay towards these people that will be my audience by addressing the stases we learned in class. I can talk about the existence of Neopaganism and it’s history since it was created, then I will address what it is exactly and what Neopagans believe in. I will address their rituals as well. As to the question of whether neopaganism is good or bad, I’ll say why people should not judge it so harshly, but they should take the time to learn about it before they draw conclusions on it. The last question, what should we do about it, doesn’t really apply to my paper as much, other than I’m trying to get people to stop judging Neopagans as quickly, so I won’t talk about that one as much.

            I have a few concerns on the narrowing of my topic. I wasn’t really aware of the existence of Neopaganism before I started writing this paper, and I’m still trying to get a handle on what it is exactly. It might have been better for me to choose a topic that I was more familiar with, but it is also interesting to learn about this religion, so there are pros and cons to choosing this topic. Also, Neopaganism has so many different aspects, and it’ll be hard to stay focused on just one. And I’m worried that if I do narrow my topic down, I won’t have enough to say for eight to ten pages.

Free Trade

In my issues paper, I will be addressing the global effect of free trade and the growing acceptance of open borders around the world. Many Americans fear the possible consequence of losing jobs and hurting the economy. They also disagree with the poor working conditions and treatment of workers in third world countries that are often taken advantage of by large corporations. My topics for my issues paper will talk about these main concerns that the American people commonly have. Therefore, I will mainly be directing my argument to the American population that disagrees with free trade. I will direct my argument towards them by addressing their valid concerns and agree that these are possible outcomes. However, I will clarify that although these are plausible concerns, these potential effects are not as negative as they tend to believe. I will establish my point that the negative effects of free trade are not as bad as those that would take place without free trade. In order to not get caught up in generalizing all people who disagree with free trade, I will find specific statements by economists, labor groups and other humanitarian groups that believe that open borders leads to job loss and provides opportunities for corporations to take advantage of the resources and poverty stricken people that exist in third world countries. By specifically stating these concerns from the audience themselves, I will be able to better formulate and craft my argument around their ideas. My argument will be stronger if my audience can see that I am well aware of their concerns and admit that they are valid and plausible. This recognition and citing my target audience directly will allow me to narrow down my broad topic of free trade as well as leave less room for loop holes that my audience can question my own validity on the subject.

While developing my paper, I am worried about becoming too repetitive. I feel like I need to include more topics into my paper but I do not know where to draw the line. It is such a broad topic so I do not know what is too much and what is too little. It is also a very complex topic that includes economics and terms that the general public sometimes does not understand. I know that I will need to include a lot of background information and explanation of terms that I will be using in my paper but I am not quite sure what that all entails.  

Globalization and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

              The topic I have chosen to address is certainly broad: The Globalization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  To baptized members of the church, the globalizing of the ecclesiastical entity is a fulfillment of prophecy.  The Resurrected Savior commissioned his disciples to, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).  This has meant a continual increase in missionary and humanitarian efforts world-wide, which has greatly blessed the lives of many thousands of people who feel lost or forsaken, either spiritually or physically.

                As members, we support and sustain this growth.  We desire all to receive the blessings so prevalent in our lives.  How do non-members feel about these efforts?  This is what I plan to focus on, and to whom I will address my Issues Paper.  As I address either agnostic or religious individuals outside of the church, I plan to evaluate a few specific benefits to which they will be privileged as the church continues to grow.

                The most disputed movement recognized by non-members is the building of temples.  From my research and observation thus far, it seems that they are fairly impartial until a new temple is announced in their neighborhood.  In recent years, it has almost become a fad to protest the building of temples in many forms – most popular, however, tends to be disputations pertaining to size, lighting, and traffic.  To counter this argument, I will address the economic benefits that accompany the building of new temples.  There are facts that support the increase of real estate and business value in the area surrounding the temple. 

                Additionally, I will analyze the benefits of missionary work and humanitarian efforts.  I will also briefly discuss the Boy Scout Program and Family History efforts along with other programs offered by the church to members of all faiths.

                To illustrate these points, I will first establish with statistical data that the church is rapidly expanding.  The increase in overall church membership, membership outside of the United States, and the recent surge of missionaries are just a few staggering figures that narrate this point.  I will also add testimonials from members and non-members of the spiritual and temporal advantages to being involved with the church and its functions.

                I continually worry about the organization of my paper.  I want it to flow well with very specific structure.  In order to do this, I will choose a few specific topics to deeply analyze, as stated above.  My hope is to make more clear the many blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ as we strive to fulfill the Savior’s commission and honor the covenants we've made to stand as witnesses of God at all times.  

Cyberbullying Globalization Issues Paper

As I began my research I was looking for any information about cyberbullying. I then started to narrow it down to only adolescents. However, that term is not always clear about any specific age. So I will need to define my own age group of adolescents. The more I have researched, I think that I plan to do students from junior high up until high school. 
Something I have struggled with since the beginning is choosing my audience. I feel that I have so many options as to who I should write to. I've highly considered directing the paper towards parents and teachers. They seem to have control, however being so close to an adolescent age, I am worried that regardless of my planned and suggested procedure, nothing will be done because the generation gap is getting larger and when it comes to social media, it seems that adolescents are far more advanced than their own parents. Another audience I have thought about is the source, adolescents themselves. I think that could take an interesting turn because if I include many facts and even pathos, it could spark interest, hoping to cause them to stop the heartache that so many feel each day from being cyberbullied. 
I plan to direct it toward the youth. I want action to happen and they are the only ones who are really and truly in control of what is happening day to day. I plan on providing many facts, as well as like I said before, connecting using a pathos argument. I think most students have felt at least once that they had been a victim of cyberbullying, and I hope to use that to my advantage so the youth will want to see a change. 
I am a little concerned about my counterargument. Originally I felt I had a good way of bringing that in, but I was using the parent and teacher procedure that I wanted to take place. But now that I am going to attempt this new audience, I am not sure as to what the counterargument would be. I will continue to research the issue, hoping to find one. Another issue I am facing is how to bring in fact and emotion. Since the paper is so long I am worried that I wont be able to have a good balance of emotion and fact, but I am hoping that if I focus on what we learned about define, quality, procedure, I can have an effect on my audience.