Revisions and Editing of Policy/Proposal Paper

Paper Thesis: Although Occupy participants around the country have the right to demonstrate on public property, they must also do so in accordance to State laws and regulations. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement has broken legal boundaries in the past months, and this is also true with the Occupy Columbia group.

Concerns for the reviser-> My topic requires much research and information such as state laws and regulations, and these were hard to come by. My only real concern for this paper is if I have adamant evidence for my argument.

In Class Writing11/22/11

I. One policy/issue on campus that I believe needs reforming is the notorious parking issue, which has been an object of students' woes for years. Paying for a seasonal parking pass to park near the Colliseum is very inefficient; parking spaces are rarely available past 9 am and the lot is pretty far from USC campus. In order to make it to class, students must take the bus to the Horseshoe (or other stops), and then proceed to walk to class. I think a policy that can be reformed is limiting the amount of parking passes that are issued so the lot will always have enough parking spaces for a certain amount of students. For others, I believe it is important that the School invest in more space for student parking. As a commuter, parking can be an extremely frustrating task and can actually hinder my ability to make it to class. It is very expensive to park in the Discovery Garage (or other garages), especially considering a student's budget.

II.  Perspectives for my exploratory paper:
1. A participant and active sympathizer of the Occupy Movement
2. A sympathizing citizen; non participant
3. A critic of the protest; often Government Official or concerned citizen
4. A citizen that is negatively impacted by the protests

The dominant perspective in the current state of things is probably the participant and active sympathizer of the Occupy movement. This is particularly so because the movement has gained widespread popularity in the recent months, and there are many famous figures that also support the movement. Although there is an increasing number of critics of the protests, it seems that youth are often attracted to the Occupy message. I agree with critical view of the protests, and believe that they will eventually prevail over other views.

"Chicken In The Henhouse"

       David Sedaris delivers a purely sarcastic story in "Chicken In The Henhouse" to ridicule public conceptions about homosexuality, especially targeting a woman named Audrey who offered a more radical perspective on a "local talk show". The story is actually so serious that it seems like it is actually written through the perspective of a child molester, however; through further analysis of the text it becomes obvious that Sedaris seeks to ridicule the public in their belief that homosexuals seek to target our nations youth. He uses himself as a prime example in the story, characterizing himself as a sweaty gay man, standing next to a fashionable 10 year old in the elevator. Although he might actually appear to be the boy's father, Sedaris puts emphasis on the fact that because he is a homosexual, people would think negatively about his actions in the kid's aid. He also characterizes himself as wanting to touch the boy (as well as other people on the plane) in order to further ridicule Audrey's comments about the nature of homosexuals. Along with his humorous musings, Sedaris delivers a more serious message in the story, saying that "yes, I am a homosexual; yes, I am soaking wet; yes, sometimes I feel an urge to touch people's heads, but still I can safely see a ten-year-old back to his room". Sedaris' use of humor is more effective than using anger or indignation to reflect his views because I believe his wittiness and story-telling invokes the audiences emotions and sympathy rather than starting an angry debate that would do little to help people understand his views.

In Class Response 11/15

1. Between Thursday and today, I was able to edit some grammatical mistakes and ensure the cohesiveness of the essay through further analysis of my essay's structure. The strongest element of my paper is probably the evidence I provide, as well as my clear cut explanation of each view on the issue. I am concerned about whether I provided too much detail instead of making a clear argument, however, this type of essay is new to me and I believe I adhered to the assignment as best as I could.

2. For my fourth essay, I plan to probably write a Policy paper arguing for the inadequacy of the Wall Street Protesters' conduct, as well as for a change in laws regarding the ability of people to protest. I think that I have done plenty of research and have adecuate research for the new essay. I might want to look back through the news to see if there have been any new developments in the area.

Types of Arguments: Definitions

• Causal- an argument that asserts that there is a distinct relationship between two events, and one happened as a result of the other. X causes Y because...
• Resemblance- when the author asserts the resemblance of two issues or arguments. X is similar to Y because...
• Definitional- an argument that disputes or confirms the validity of a definition based on a certain criteria, situations. X is really Y because it meets the criteria of Y
• Evaluation- tries to convince the reader that the criteria that a writer uses to evaluate a situation is appropriate, therefore the evaluation is correct. X is a good or bad Y
• Proposal/Policy- Policy: X should not be in place; Proposal: X should be done in steps A,B,C
• Argues for an change in something, providing evidence. Proposals offers a change in policy following certain steps/guidelines
• Ethical

In Class Writing Assignment 11/1/11

The problem is that there are thousands of people protesting in over 70 major US cities against the current state of the Government, and this movement has inspired people in over 900 cities worldwide to adopt similar protests.

It is important because it clearly shows the unrest and frustration of many over social and political inequalities in our country. Although protests are not uncommon, this one has struck much interest by the media and has inspired similar movements around the world.

The people affected are an apparent variety of people. Anybody and everybody who is unhappy with the inequality of wealth and state of affairs in our country can show up to protest at any of the hundreds of locations.

People might disagree that this movement holds any sort of importance. Others might think that such a movement can be influential enough to start a revolution. We have already seen instances of violence in certain occupy areas, and this movement has the potential to become very violent.

Occupy Wall Street: Two Sources

http://www.occupytogether.com
This is the webpage of the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" movement that has spread around the country in recent months. It is a good source to use in my research on the Occupy movement because it is the group's official page, and contains the opinions and projections of the public at large. There is ultimately no better way to understand the concerns of the movement than reading about them first-hand. Although the web page will obviously contain much bias, it will be crucial in obtaining information about the movement.

http://occupywallst.org/
This is another webpage of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, however an unofficial one. Similar to the occupy together page, this site will provide me with more opinions and links to other pages that have opinions about the movement firsthand. Although this source will also contain a considerate level of bias, it will provide me with a considerable amount of information.