Author: chris

This rough draft of your Final Paper allows you to develop and refine your ideas and your writing before final submission. While the Final Paper is to be eight to ten pages, the rough draft should be a minimum of four to six pages. It is recommended that you develop this draft as fully as possible since doing so will likely help you in producing a high quality Final Paper. Below is the Final Paper assignment:

Throughout this course, we have explored how artistic expression is evident in our everyday lives, as well as how creative expression both shapes and is shaped by our individual and cultural identities. Each week we have also focused on specific themes which reflect the significance of art and literature in relation to identity, culture, and our everyday perceptions and experiences. The Final Paper is intended as an exercise in bringing together, or synthesizing, your reflections on the aesthetic works and themes and concepts discussed in this class. This is a comparative paper which analyzes two to three literary works from the course readings which share a common theme.

The paper must be organized by a thesis, or argument, which is the main point of the entire essay. When developing a thesis for a comparative paper, consider how a comparison of the works provides deeper insight into the topic of your paper. In other words, think about why you have chosen to look at these particular works in relation to one another.

You may choose from any of the topics and works listed at the end of this assignment description. Many of the listed themes overlap with one another, and you may find that in choosing one topic you also touch upon another. Doing so is perfectly acceptable as so long as your paper is focused and has a defined and well-supported thesis. If you are interested in writing about a course reading which you believe relates to one of the themes listed below, but that work has not been associated with the given theme, you may ask your instructor whether it is acceptable to write about that work in connection to the topic you have chosen. (Please note that many of the listed themes relate to more than three works – please limit yourself to only two or three. Doing so will allow you to give ample attention to each literary work you are analyzing.) Though the possible topics for the assignment are given below, what you say about the significance of the theme is up to you.

The draft must be four to six pages in length (excluding APA title and reference pages). It should include an original title, an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. Remember that the thesis statement must relate to the theme you have chosen and should answer the question “so what?” (What is important about the argument you are making? What meaning or value might it have to your reader and/or to society?) Also, be sure that your argument is supported by textual details and analysis. You may find it useful as you begin your analysis to review the literary concepts and analytical approaches covered in class. Also, in addition to supporting your arguments with examples from the two or three bodies of work you have chosen, you must also draw on the support of at least five other scholarly resources, two of which can be found in the Ashford University Library.

You may choose from the following topics and works:

1. Art and the everyday

• Schildkrout, “Body Art as Visual Language” (p. 86)
• Tan, “Mother Tongue”
• Artz, Munger, and Purdey, “Gender Issues in Advertising Language” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)
• Levine and Wolff, “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” (p. 158)
• Van Buren, “The Doura Art Show” (p. 274)

Language, culture, and identity

• Tan, “Mother Tongue”
• Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)
• Levine and Wolff, “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” (p. 158)
• Cisneros, “My Name”
• Hamilton, “A Feminist Voice Against Linguistic Sexism” (Retrieved from the ProQuest database.)
• Roger Ebert: Remaking my voice

Fashion, culture, and identity

• Ortiz Cofer, “The Myth of the Latin Woman” (p. 109)
• Steele and Major, “China Chic: East Meets West” (p. 355)
• Meeta Kaur, “Journey by Inner Light” (p. 44)
• Kulick and Macado-Borges, “‘Leaky’ Brazil” (p. 115)

The body as artistic and cultural expression/manifestation

• Linden, “Shamans, Healers and Experiences I Can’t Explain” (p. 363)
• Schildkrout, “Body Art as Visual Language” (p. 86)
• Meeta Kaur, “Journey by Inner Light” (p. 44)
• Kulick and Macado-Borges, “‘Leaky’ Brazil” (p. 115)
• Steele and Major, “China Chic: East Meets West” (p. 355)

Cross-cultural relations/Global society

• Nafisi, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
• Keshavarz, “Introduction: What Does the Elephant Look Like?”
• Steele and Major, “China Chic: East Meets West” (p. 355)
• Meeta Kaur, “Journey by Inner Light” (p. 44)
• Levine and Wolff, “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” (p. 158)
• Norberg-Hodge, “Learning from Ladakh” (p. 165)
• Gersi, “Initiated into an Iban Tribe of Headhunters” (p. 80)
• Ojeda, “Growing Up American: Doing the Right Thing” (p. 230)

History, culture, identity, and creative expression

• Maclean, “Seeing, Being Seen, and Not Being Seen” (p. 341)
• Nafisi, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
• Keshavarz, “Introduction: What Does the Elephant Look Like?”
• Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby” (p. 380)
• Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)

Audience reception

• Nafisi, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
• Keshavarz, “Introduction: What Does the Elephant Look Like?”
• Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)

Based on research conducted on the South University online library or via the Internet, identify a brand which is struggling in the marketplace. In this project, you will assume the role of the brand manager who has been hired reposition the brand in the marketplace and increase sales through an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan.

Complete the following activities:

• Describe the brand you selected. Why is the brand struggling and how will you revitalize the brand?
• Conduct a market segmentation analysis. Who is your target market and why? Be sure to consider the four sets of consumer characteristics which influence what people consume and how they respond to marketing communications.
• Determine how your brand is positioned in the marketplace. Who are your competitors? What benefits and attributes are associated with the brand?
• Determine the objective of your advertising campaign and provide justification.
• Create your marcom budget. Determine if you will utilize the percentage of sales method, the task method, or the competitive method.
• Create the advertising message for your campaign. How will you create effective advertising and get the message to stick in the minds of your target audience? What message strategy will you use?
• Outline how you will measure the effectiveness of your advertising message.
• MUST BE 5-6 PAGES AND INCLUDE A REFERENCE PAGE AS WELL AS INTEXT CITATIONS

• Assignment 2 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
  Described the selected brand and discussed why the brand is struggling and how they will revitalize the brand.	20
  Conducted a market segmentation analysis. Outlined the target market considering the four sets of consumer characteristics.	20
  Determined how the brand is positioned in the marketplace. Outlined the competitors and the benefits and attributes associated with the brand.	25
  Determined the objective of the advertising campaign and provided justification.	20
  Created the marcom budget. Determined and justified the method of budgeting to be used.	25
  Created the advertising message for the campaign. Outlined the message strategy.	25
  Outlined how they would measure the effectiveness of the advertising message.	25
  Presentation Components: Organization (10) Style (10) Usage and Mechanics (10) APA Elements (10)

In this assignment, you will explore specific ethical standards that apply to the practice of professionals working in the human services field. You will demonstrate your ability to analyze potential dilemmas that might arise in this work by discussing the inherent challenges with practicing within the parameters of many different types of regulation standards.

Tasks:

Using your textbook, the Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet, research the ethical standards of one type of human services agency in your state or province. In a 3- to 4-page analysis paper, address the following:

• Describe the type of service you have selected.
• Briefly explain the related laws that govern the practice of the selected service.
• Discuss the specific ethical standards (at least three) that are in place for direct service providers or human services agencies providing the selected service.
• Identify and discuss at least one potential conflict that might arise in work under these standards if they were different from the agency’s policy or direct service provider’s own moral standards.

Submission Details:

• By Wednesday, December 9, 2015, prepare a 3- to 4-page analysis paper. Your response should rely upon at least three sources from professional literature. This may include the Argosy University online library resources, relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, or .gov). Write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources (i.e., APA format); and use accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Access the interactive map at http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map

Select your home state or a state in which you are familiar, choose an identified hate group, and then use the internet to research the group.

Prepare a 1,050- to 1,450-word paper describing the group, their mission, and their message. Discuss the impacted and protected class populations they have targeted and any incidents they have been responsible for. Include in your analysis what methods of prevention, intervention, and treatment human service workers could apply to mitigate their impact.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. Include In-text citations and references.

• Review Chapter 1 of the course text, Social Psychology, focusing on research bias and research ethics.
• Watch the “Research Methods” video from the Contemporary Videos in Social Psychology DVD. Focus on the various problems that can be associated with different types of research.
• Read the online article, “What Is Ethics in Research and Why Is It Important?” Focus on the expectations of ethics for the scientific community, how results are used in the real world, and related ethical issues.
• Select one of the following articles from this week’s Learning Resources:
  • “Intervening to Decrease Alcohol Abuse at University Parties: Differential Reinforcement of Intoxication Level”
  • “An Attitude-Behavior Model of Salespeople’s Customer Orientation”
  • “Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Preadolescence: Teachers’ and Parents’ Perceptions of the Behavior of Girls and Boys”
  • “The Self-Protective Altruist: Terror Management and the Ambivalent Nature of Prosocial Behavior”
  • “A Cross-Cultural Study of Environmental Motive Concerns and Their Implications for Proenvironmental Behavior”
• Read your selected article thoroughly and think about the following questions:
  • What was the purpose of this research study?
  • How were the participants selected?
  • What kind of design is the study? (correlational or experimental)
  • How was data collected?
  • Where might bias exist in the study and for how was it controlled?
  • What might be the implications of bias in this study? In other words, if the results of this study were applied in real life and bias was indeed present, what might be the results?
  • Was the study conducted ethically? If so, what strategies did the researchers use to assure that the study was conducted ethically? If not, what could they have done differently?

The assignment (1–2 pages):

• Analyze the article you selected by responding to the following questions:
  • Briefly, what was the purpose of the study and what were the main findings?
  • Where could bias exist in the study design, in the conduct of the study, in the behavior of the study subjects as they participate in the study, or the interpretation of results? Did the research do anything to help control for bias? Explain. If there is potential bias in the study, how might this impact the use of the study results in the real world or in future research? If the researchers controlled for bias, what might be the results if they had not controlled for bias?
  • Was the study conducted ethically? Explain in terms of the information you learned in the assigned readings. Would you implement additional strategies to assure an ethical study? Explain.

Assignment 2: Federal budget assignment—short paper.
http://connectusfund.org/13-key-pros-and-cons-of-military-spending

http://www.brookings.edu/research/topics/u-s-defense-budget

Identify a significant budget issue (and one in which you have some personal interest or curiosity) facing the US Federal Government (it can be on either the expenditure or financing side, or a combination),, and evaluate it from the following perspectives:
What is the issue: why is it important for the budget and for the nation?
Response: The issues is the ongoing increase in the country`s military speding at the expense loss the country is facing in terms of jobs, trouble economy with financail problems in the country`s banking syetem.
What is the scope of the issue relative to the overall budget? (How big a problem—or opportunity– is it fiscally?)
What efforts have been made to date to resolve the issue—and what has been the result?
What are the major alternative solutions for the issue that have been identified in Congress and/or by interest groups? What
would be the impact of these solutions on the budget, taxpayers, and the public who receive services?
What is the like general impact of the alternative solutions at the federal level for state and local governments, their taxpayers, and their service recipients?

Access Assignment 1 – Also see Access Assignment 1 Database
For the given Zara Database on recent sales in a particular Zara store, what colors (from most to least desirable) should Inditex stock next in this store? Create a query in Access to find the answer. Create a report in Access to summarize your findings. Please turn in your database file for this assignment, along with your Word file answering the other nine questions. You may find this short tutorial helpful when answering this question.

Excel Assignment 1 – Edit Spreadsheet Excel Assignment 1
Create a fourth column labeled Metcalfe Value that calculates the value of each social media outlet based on the number of users it has. (See the quote below from section 6.2 of the text to get the right calculation.) The calculation should be performed by an Excel function (NOT calculated outside of Excel).

Bob Metcalfe…wrote a column in InfoWorld magazine stating that the value of a network equals its number of users squared.

If you need a refresher on squares and square roots, please see this video.
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/exponents-radicals/radical-radicals/v/understanding-square-roots
Create a fifth column labeled Scaled Metcalfe Value that scales the Metcalfe Value according to the activity level of the outlet’s users. Specifically, you will use the following formula in Excel to perform the calculations.
Scaled Metcalfe Value = Metcalfe Value x Activity Level
Sort the data based on the Scaled Metcalfe Value such that the social media outlet with the highest value appears first and the outlet with the lowest value appears last.
Based on Scaled Metcalfe Values, indicate the top three social media outlets (e.g. SM 1) where your company should consider advertising. It is up to you how you choose to highlight these top three choices. You could use shading, text color, shapes, etc. Just make sure your choices are clear.
To visually illustrate the curved relationship predicted by Metcalfe between the number of network users and the value of a given network, create a scatter chart in Excel based on the Number of Users and the Metcalfe Value.
Excel Assignment 2
-See Spreadsheet Excel Assignment 2-

Excel Assignment 3
You are the chief security officer at NisCo, a company that sells sports equipment. After conducting a risk analysis, you have determined that the following company assets need to be protected.
Computer hardware and software
Database of customer information and inventory levels
Sports equipment
Factory
Employees
Specifically, you are concerned about the following risks. The percentage indicated in parentheses for each risk is the likelihood of occurrence this year, while the dollar amount is the expected loss per incident.
Malware (75%, $17,000)
Power surge (2%, $8,000)
Hardware theft (5%, $450)
Corporate espionage (1%, $500,000)
Inventory theft (9%, $185)
Fire (7%, $350,000)
Prepare a spreadsheet to help analyze these risks. Determine which two are the highest priority and should be addressed first this year. Your spreadsheet should be attractive and readable and should contain the following elements.
Column for threat
Column for likelihood of occurrence this year
Column for financial loss per occurrence
Column for expected loss this year o For hardware theft, this would be 5% x 450 = $22.50.
o Use a formula in Excel to determine this value.
Clear indication of the two highest priority threats based on expected loss this year o For example, you could highlight the threats, list the threats in a textbox, etc.

21 November 2015
Turning the Negative Aspects of Relationships into Positive Ones
The United States of America has come under many attacks in the past decades. Jean Kilbourne’s “Jesus is a Brand of Jeans” and Helena Norberg-Hodge’s “The March of the Monoculture” highlight the negative aspects of American culture, especially with regards to advertising and the diffusion of their culture. Kilbourne at leads people to have relationships with objects, not other people. Norberg-Hodge does not directly address America, but Western culture, blaming it for the advancement of a program that attempts to establish a cultural hegemony, destroying other cultures. Even though they present their arguments in a very logical and sound way, one must take into account that it is always easy to criticize an entity that has as much power as this country. Therefore, even though Kilbourne and Norberg-Hodge both present compelling cases of the United States’ negative influence on the rest of the world, one should take it with caution, as the country is in a position where people usually criticize everything that they do.
The main argument of Kilbourne’s “Jesus is a brand of jeans” is that the American-lead advertising system has changed relationships negatively, having people with relationships to objects, instead of to other people. He begins by gibing examples of two different advertisements that “state or imply that products are more important than people” (Kilbourne). Even though he accepts that advertisers have long tried to make people consumers, purporting that they have the objects to fill their needs and make their human relationships better, “more recently, they have gone beyond that proposition to promise us a relationship with the product itself” (Kilbourne). Therefore, the author characterizes contemporary advertising as changing relationships negatively, by promoting relationships with objects.
However, this obviously brings many problems. Even though, for the author, advertising promotes that “it is easier to love a product than a person” (Kilbourne), he finds many problems with this. Obviously, objects do not have many things that usually bother people about others, yet they do not have the positive aspects of the people either: they are just neutral. “No matter how much we love them, they will never love us back” (Kilbourne). What is most dangerous is that many people do not even see that advertising influences them. “Much of advertising’s power comes from the belief that it does not affect us” (Kilbourne). Therefore, they are being falsely taught that it is better to love an object, even though they do not even see it.
One of the greatest criticisms that Kilbourne advances is that they manipulate people, leaving them in a state of loneliness. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers us products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need” (Kilbourne). This is something that Norberg-Hodge also decries, seeing it as one of the greatest symptoms of Western culture. “Advertising co-opts our sacred symbols in order to evoke an immediate emotional response” (Kilbourne). This is probably the nastiest aspect that Kilbourne criticizes, as one can see that advertisers constantly abuse of people and culture’s weaknesses to sell products. Even though, as he states, they are just doing their job, it also is leaving a great cultural wound.
Furthermore, Kilbourne warns that addiction is one of the greatest problems that this type of American advertising is producing. “This is especially dangerous when the products are potentially addictive, because addicts do feel they are in a relationship with their substances” (Kilbourne). Even though the author sets the example of different drugs, studies have found that there are various types of addiction, some of which come from everyday substances that many people take for granted. For instance, there are many people addicted to caffeine, present in coffee or tea, but are not aware of it. Furthermore, there are many people that may be addicted to video games as well.
Another article, Helena Norberg-Hodge’s “The March of the Monoculture”, also presents a problem, yet with Western culture as a whole. She believes that it is establishing an only culture, doing away with all the other local ones.“For many, the rise of the global economy marks the final fulfillment of the great dream of a ‘Global Village’” (Norberg-Hodge). She uses this almost mocking rhetoric to buffoon those that believe people have an innate desire to be Westernized.
Even though the author believes that this is nothing new, she demonstrates that marketing people are doing it in a very different way. Colonization was one of the greatest forces in the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Like is happening now, the imperialist factions attempted to change the culture of the people that they were invading. They did this systematically, regardless of how the community reacted to the changes. Nevertheless, Norberg-Hodge believes that the main change is how aware people are of this change, writing that “the destruction of cultural integrity is far more subtle than before”. Therefore, she believes that she is not presenting anything new, just providing a useful diagnosis for an old process that people may not be aware still exists.
Nevertheless, another important difference that she sees is the quickness and power with which it happens. For her, “the scale and effects [of the methods employed currently] are often even more devastating” (Norberg-Hodge) than those that people did before. She blames this on different technologies, such as television and the internet. This is because these artifacts have allowed marketing people to reach every household remotely and at the same time. While the colonialists had to directly interact with people before, the victims in contemporary culture just have to turn on their computer or television.
This type of alienation also extends to the culture itself. “Even more alarming, people end up rejecting their own ethnic and racial characteristics – to feel shame at being who they are” (Norberg-Hodge). The writer feels that this is especially evident in the younger generations, who deeply resent their traditions and culture. Although they want to live in the luxurious first world that the advertisements sell, their lifestyle is often radically different.
Perhaps the greatest social malady that she sees is the divisions and violence that many of these contemporary colonies profess. “The rise of divisions, violence and civil disorder around the world are the consequence of attempts to incorporate diverse cultures and peoples into a single global monoculture” (Norberg-Hodge). She sees Western culture as providing a nihilist point of view: even though it critiques the local cultures, it does not provide any solutions. “For what it destroys, it provides no replacement but a fractured, isolated, competitive and unhappy society” (Norberg-Hodge). Nevertheless, as she argues, this may just be a consequence of this civilization.
Norberg-Hodge laments that the people that advertisement influences do not see the other side of Western culture. Even though she believes that this civilization has many positives, she also enumerates many negative edges: “the stress, the loneliness, the fear of growing old, the rise in clinical depression and other ‘industrial diseases’ like cancer, stroke, diabetes and heart problems” (Norberg-Hodge). To this long list of mental and physical diseases, she adds social and ecological maladies as a consequence of Western culture.
Even though this may be true, it has always been very easy to critique the person or institution on top. It is undeniable that the United States is one of the greatest powers on Earth. Just because of this fact, it should not surprise anyone that people constantly attack it. Many people see them as the country that sets the trends in the world, and thus hold them responsible. For example, if something horrible is happening in another country, people criticize them if they do something, because they see them as imperialists. However, if they do not do anything at all, people say that they are cold and heartless. This part is deeply unfair, as there is nothing that this country can do to get away from this perception, just because of the powerful position that they are in.

Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean. “Jesus is a brand of jeans.” Reading Our World: Conversations in Context. Ed. Robert P. Yagelski. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 410-418.
Norberg-Hodge, Helena. “The March of the Monoculture.” Reading Our World: Conversations in Context. Ed. Robert P. Yagelski. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 629-638.

• Essay must be between 800 and 1100 words long (include word count at the end of your essay)
• Essay must be typed, double spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman/Arial, 1 inch margins
• Your essay must have a thesis – keep this thesis in mind throughout your paper to ensure that your analysis ties in with your thesis
• Use 3-5 examples of specific works of art, preferably ones that we have discussed in class, to support your points
• Discuss each work thoroughly, analyzing it in response to the prompt
• This is a short paper so narrow your focus – do not pick three works created thousands of years apart; your essay will be more effective if you focus on a single era, regime, or theme
• Careful planning is key! Do not wait until the night before – give yourself ample time to outli

Partnership vs. Corporation

Use the partnership and corporate tax returns for the practice sets titled, “Pet Kingdom” and “ROCK the Ages, LLC” that you prepared in Weeks 3 and 5 in order to complete this assignment.

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

1. Compare and contrast the tax rules and treatment applicable to corporations and partnerships. Indicate the major way in which the tax treatment affects the shareholders or partners.
2. Explain at least two (2) reasons why a business owner might opt to become a partnership over a corporation. Provide support for your rationale.
3. Imagine that you are a partner at ROCK the Ages, LLC. Justify why you elected to become a partnership as opposed to a corporation. Indicate tax rules that influenced your decision.
4. Imagine that you are the Chief Financial Officer at Pet Kingdom. Justify why your management team elected to become a corporation rather than a partnership. Indicate tax rules that influenced your decision.
5. Analyze what a business owner must consider when deciding what type of entity is best for the goals and vision of the business. Provide at least two (2) examples of research the owner must perform to ensure the proper election is made. Provide support for your rationale.
6. Use at least two (2) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. Note: Please refer to the APA template in the course shell for more information on APA style.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.