BUS110:7:Online Foundations of Business
Discussion 2.1
Should imports to the United States be curtailed by, say 20 percent to eliminate our trade deficit? What might happen if this were done?
Discussion 2.2
Is growth a good thing for all firms? How does management know when a firm is ready to grow?
Discussion 1.2
Why should businesses take on the task of training the hard-core unemployed?
Discussion 3.1
Would you rather own your own business independently or become a franchisee? Why?
Discussion 3.2
Why are leadership and motivation necessary in a business in which people are paid for their work?
Discussion 5.1
How do human resources managers go about matching a firm’s supply of workers with demand?
Discussion 5.2
According to equity theory, how does an employee determine whether he or she is being treated equitably?
Discussion 6.1
Is it a good strategy to focus most marketing efforts on the most profitable customers?
Discussion 6.2
What is the difference between manufacturer brands and store brands? Between family branding and individual branding?
Discussion 7.1
What can nonstore retailers offer their customers that in-store retailers cannot?
Discussion 7.2
Is outsourcing good for an e-business firm? The firm’s employees? Explain your answer.
ENGL101:9:Online English Composition I
Writing Assignment – Two Audiences
Write a paragraph for two audiences explaining an interest you have or activity you like to do. Describe why this interest is appealing to you or other people. (Type your writing in Moodle or submit a document).
Note: All writing must be your own. I’m looking for your personal story. Plagiarized and AI-generated content will not be accepted.
Audience 1: your friends (casual audience)
Audience 2: a professor or colleagues (formal audience)
Examples:
Audience 1: Backpacking is something I’ve really gotten into the last few years! There’s something great about just escaping the “real world” for a while and only thinking about being in nature. Even the stuff that seems hard like hiking all day and sleeping on the ground is so worth it in the end. I always feel so full of energy by the time the trip’s over, and I really appreciate my soft bed and hot showers. It’s super fun to meet other people who like it too. I made some of my best friends just sitting around a quiet campfire under the stars. It’s like being out there away from work and technology makes us all want to open up and share our hopes and dreams.
Audience 2: Nature backpacking is growing in popularity these days, despite seeming like an old-fashioned activity. Nature backpacking is the act of traveling around a secluded area with only the items you can carry on your back. Generally, backpackers set up tents to sleep in for the night before moving to the next location in the morning. While many people who do this activity invest in quality gear such as hiking poles, lightweight sleeping bags and gas stoves, ultimately, they are limited in the amount of luxuries they can bring along. This is the appeal for many, however. In this world of constant work and technological demands, it can feel freeing to take some time to only focus on basic survival skills and being in touch with nature.
Reading and Discussion Questions
Read the article. Then answer the questions below using your own ideas. Respond to at least two classmates.
1. In your opinion, what is the purpose of this article? What point is Rachel Toor trying to make?
2. What is Rachel Toor’s tone in this article? Is she more serious or light? How do you know?
Love to Write? Keep it to Yourself
I do not like people who say they like to write.
Once I asked a friend who is a novelist — an irritatingly good novelist, a prize-winning novelist — when he worked. He said, “I write when I feel like it,” but before I could bond with him in slackerhood, he added, with a grin that made me want to smush his handsome face into the well-manicured lawn of his huge Victorian house where his lovely children play and his beautiful wife hangs out, “And I almost always feel like it.”
From another friend I heard a comment made by a novelist we both know, who was working on her second book. She said that each day she sits at her desk and channels her main character; hours later, she notices that she has written pages and pages. I’m glad that remark came to me secondhand. Had I heard her say it in person, my response would have been less than pleasant.
A good friend of mine, a graduate student in history, made the mistake of interrupting me on one of the myriad occasions when I was ranting about the hard work of writing. “No,” he said. “Laying bricks is hard work. Digging postholes is hard work. Writing is not.” He would have been OK — maybe — if he had left it at that, but he didn’t. He went on to allow as how he enjoyed writing and didn’t find it all that taxing.
My hackles rose. I reminded him that I had read a lot of his writing. I reminded him of some of my more pointed comments about his writing. And then I whipped out Samuel Johnson: “What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
Maybe novelists can go into some kind of fugue state while they’re writing and it’s enjoyable. They do tend to say weird things like, “I really like this character” or, “I can’t wait to see what happens,” as if their agency — their authorship, their authority — has somehow been shunted aside. Maybe it has. If that ever happened to me as a writer, maybe it would even be fun.
So I’ll forget about my friends in fiction and say this: Writing nonfiction is not fun. It’s work. Hard work.
Those who are excellent at what they do — whether it’s writing, bull riding, or figure skating — make it look not only easy, but effortless. It’s when the labor starts to show, you are reminded how difficult it is. Each time I’m in the throes of writing a book, I realize that I have somehow forgotten how exhausting it is. After writing for a couple of hours, I have to go lie down, wrist thrown across an aching forehead. It helps only a little to remember that I am not alone, to think of George Orwell’s comment that “writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.”
It’s not only doing the work that’s hard, it’s also the recognition that you never quite know when it’s over. Once you get through the labor of creation, there’s the torture of revision. You can revise for months. For years. You can convince yourself that, unlike a Thanksgiving turkey, it’s never going to be done. In a way, having deadlines, while adding cuticle-chewing stress, can be a boon.
I will allow that there may be people who like various aspects of the writing process. For some, it may be the excitement of facing a blank page. (Hate them!) For others, it could be a sense of getting a sentence just right. (Jerks!) There may be those who like the revision process, who can go over what they’ve produced with a cold eye and a keen ear and feel a satisfaction in making it better. (Liars!)
Dorothy Parker said, “It’s better to have written than to write.” Amen, sister. Unless you are called on to read what you have published. Then you have to go through the printed book, with its tight little lines, and edit every sentence before you can bear to hear yourself pronounce any of it aloud.
It’s a daunting thing — to believe that you have something to say (that others will want to hear); to convey information in a way that is pellucid and intriguing; to find the mot juste, to avoid the tired and the cliched to create scaffolding to support the ideas you are juggling; and then to have the confidence to put it out there in the world, where it will surely be picked apart, kicked around, and perhaps even trampled.
While there are no shortcuts, there may be ways to make the whole affair less hellish. Routine helps. Knowing that you have to do it, every day, at the same time in the same place (and if you’re me, with the same breakfast in front of you) for some number of hours makes writing a normal part of the day.
Knowing the limits of your own productivity helps. I have about three hours of writing time in me. After that, there’s a lot of Internet surfing, Spider Solitaire playing, and staring off into space. At that point, it’s useless to keep sitting in front of a screen. Hemingway said it’s best to write in the morning and then not think about it for the rest of the day; to let the subconscious go to work. He also said that he always stopped at a point when he knew where he had to go next; it made it easier to start again the following day.
But no matter what tricks you find to make writing less onerous, it will still be hard work. If it’s not, then you’re asking the reader to fill in your gaps, to glide over your flaws. Readers don’t like to do that. I know I don’t.
If you love to write — if you think it’s a joy to express yourself on the page, if you are transported by the muse — bully for you. But give me wide berth. And please, don’t ask me to read your “work.”
This past summer I ran a 50K race in the (big, rocky) mountains just south of Helena, Mont. The whole state had been on fire for some time and the air was filled with acrid smoke. The course had thousands of feet of elevation change. There were points when you felt dizzy from a lack of oxygen; there were no flat parts. It was in August — hot. I led the women’s race for five hours and then, somehow, missed a turn. I ended up going up, way up, and then down, and finishing off course, out of water, out of food, having run more than 35 miles without even getting an official completion. It was hard.
But it was not as hard as writing this column.
Rachel Toor is an assistant professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane.
Writing Assignment – Using Core Concepts 1-5
Write a short persuasive essay about a debatable topic. For this week, begin with steps 1-5 of the core concepts. Complete the five steps below and submit your answers:
Here is a list of topics to choose from, or you can choose your own: https://www.thoughtco.com/argument-essay-topics-1856987
Step 1: Explore a topic – Write 2 topic ideas that are interesting to you. For each one, write a few sentences about what you know about the topic and why it’s interesting to you. (Example: Should cigarette smoking be banned?)
Topic 1:
Topic 2:
Step 2: Examine the Rhetorical Context – Choose one of your topics from step 1. In a few sentences, describe who your audience is and why they would care about this topic now.
Step 3: Select a Medium – The medium for this project is a typed essay document. However, in one or two sentences, describe one more medium that would be effective to argue your opinion on this topic. Why would it be a good medium choice? (examples: video, PPT presentation, photo essay, etc.)
Step 4: Have Something to Say – Write a thesis statement for your topic. Your thesis statement should clearly and strongly state a point of view. (Example: Smoking cigarettes should remain a personal choice for individuals.)
Step 5: Back Up What You Say – Write at least three arguments to back up your thesis statement. Briefly explain each argument in a sentence or two. (Example: Banning cigarettes will lead to banning other activities people choose to do. For example…).
argument 1:
argument 2:
argument 3:
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