Category: Discussions/Homework

Discussion Questions Week of 8/2

Response to #1

In “Is Redemption Possible in the Aftermath of #MeToo” by Tovia Smith, a reporter at NPR, difficult questions regarding the reintegration of men who are accused of being predators and a part of the #MeToo movement are examined. The author notes that it has been two years since the #MeToo movement began to gain media attention as a result of Harvey Weinstein and stated that it is time to question whether or not some individuals are worthy of returning to society.

Smith presents the question of when the men guilty of their crimes should be allowed back into society. Through interviewing activists like Taran Burke, lawyers, and ethicists, Smith presents a compelling argument of what needs to be further examined. To eliminate sexual violence in the workplace, we must focus on undoing the harm that the perpetrators have accomplished. Undoing their harm, according to others can only be accomplished through rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Determining whether or not these individuals can return to society depends on the gravity of the crime at hand. Various elements such as the seriousness of the offense,  sincerity of the apology, and restitution to the victims are just some things that need to be examined.

This question that Smith presents to the reader is an extremely valuable one. In a world where one scandal replaces the next, it is important to understand that the perpetrators of sexual crimes in the workplace these past two years cannot be let off the hook. Factors that determine whether or not these individuals are still menaces in society must be examined, as not everyone can be rehabilitated. The article however states that through therapy and rehabilitation, change is possible, and we need to aim to reintegrate these individuals into society. This thankfully is not as easy as it seems. Organizations understand the weight that the #MeToo movement carries and the reputations that these perpetrators carry around with them. Therefore, it isn’t easy and most of them won’t be able to obtain a job that they previously held due to questions surrounding the organization’s reputation and liability.

This source adds a tremendous amount of value to Wynn’s article. The article “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations” addresses the issue of female underrepresentation in the tech industry, with only 25% of jobs being held by women. The toxic workplace culture creates an environment that does not support female leaders, instead, fostering one where sexual harassment is deemed somewhat normal. Along with this, the article examines the idea that change doesn’t occur on an individual level, however, a transition into a workplace that promotes equality can only be accomplished through organizational change. Smith’s article on the #MeToo movement examines what steps society needs to take as a whole towards rehabilitating perpetrators. It is not something that can only be accomplished by themselves, rather the justice system, therapists, the perpetrators, and regular individuals need to recognize the role that they have in creating an environment that does not tolerate SA.

             Both articles, in summary, recognize that change needs to happen on a larger scale. Changing one individual through classes does not promote change. Changing the way that society as a whole approach various issues creates long-term change and hopefully prevents incidents like this from occurring in the future or being seen as normal.

Response to #2

Leaders who want to gain a new perspective on how to promote positive change in their organization would benefit the most from Wynn’s article. This includes HR reps (more specifically, talent acquisition groups), managers, and people who have the ability to act to change their organization. This includes CEOs and COOs. Wynn wants the steps and the issues addressed within the article to be applied to every industry, as she believes that the framework can be applied to every organization to promote equality.

HR reps are an important target group for this article because for the steps that she lays out for organizational change, they are all directed towards HR responsibilities. For the first two elements, recruiting and hiring, those are often done by the talent acquisition department which is why  I stated that they are a more specific target audience than just HR representatives. Giving HR representatives clear, well laid out steps on how to approach the issue of equality in the workplace allows for HR to address equality in the workplace. Furthermore, Wynn addresses that organizations not only pursue equality related to gender, but for all types.

One of the main points that Wynn also makes in her article is the idea that we cannot blame society, or ourselves, for all causes of inequality, as “It may be easier to think of individualistic solutions- such as training ourselves to think differently and change our own behavior- or to blame larger societal forces we can’t control, rather than to change the intricate organizational procedures and practices that contribute to employment outcomes in complex ways. However, my research suggests that we must address organizational forms of inequality as well” . This is where she targets CEOs, COOs, and managers as well.

It is important that in the leadership positions  in the organization accept fault on areas where they are lacking or fail to live up to expectations on equality. In order to promote change within the organization, understanding the shortcomings of the organizations will prove critical in creating the change necessary to create for an equal opportunity, safe environment. Managers that recognize their organizations lack equality are able to create an environment where change is possible. They have the ability to control the way that the organization approaches issues of equality or procedures.  This is why I believe that she is mainly targeting leaders within the organization, because they have the ability to change the organizations procedures, and culture.

If you really think about the message that Wynn is trying to send to the reader, she is really just targeting anyone that is a part of an organization. She recognizes that although one person might not spark change in an organization, if you have a collective group of people within that organization that promote the idea of changing certain procedures, then an organization may be able to change. Therefore, Wynn is targeting pretty much anyone that is in an organization in my opinion.

Discussion Questions wk 8/2

1)

The article “In ‘Brotopia’, Silicon Valley Disrupts Everything but the Boys’ Club”, Jennifer Szalai analyzes Emily Changs book “Breaking up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley” in order to make sense of the privilege men in the technology industry have. She expresses that men in this industry have been able to profit off of their wealth and power so they can indulge in all the things that were previously denied to them which are “mainly stuff, status and sex.”. Szalai mentions a group of men who created a company and rather than hire female engineers, they decided to hire their friends. She attributes this to the idea that “women in leadership will create an environment for more leadership”, which would be a hinderance to the way the men were able to abuse their power and wealth. When men are in power they are able to get away with many things which is what Jennifer concludes from Chang’s book. Men in this industry were able to get away with numerous cases of sexual harassment and online trolling.

This article contributes to Wynn’s article because it supports the claims she has explored in her writing. Wynn says that women only make up “25% of computing jobs and 5% of leadership positions in tech”. Szalai expands on this when she mentions that the men in the tech company did not want to hire women and instead resorted to hiring their male friends. When Wynn mentions the disrespectful treatment of women in the tech industry Szalai’s article supports this because she goes on to mention that the men in these positions had been able to get away with cases of sexual harassment without any consequences.

2)

I think this article would benefit many people because it highlights the flaws in the tech industry. I believe the target audience is people who are in a position of power in this industry and many other male dominated industries. This article tackles the issue of entitlement and unfair practices in the tech industry based on gender which can be very enlightening to people in these positions who may have not thought about it. The sentence from this article that I believe is very significant “From its earliest days the industry has self-selected for men:first, antisocial nerds, then, decades later, self-confident and risk-taking bros”. This would work for this intended audience because it provides an introduction to way the industry has favored men for years and the changes that have emerged in these men.

Discussion Questions Week 8/2

#1 The journal article, “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations,” authored by Alison Wynn, points out that gender bias as well as disparity are still very present in today’s workplace and decision makers need to step up to decrease this. Jessi Hempel in the article, “Why Are There Few Women in Tech?” explores this concept from a pre-employment recruiting standpoint as to how companies alienate women and thus do not end up with qualified female candidates with science, technology engineering, or math (STEM) degrees.

The article discusses preliminary recruiting sessions in well-known colleges, which apparently routinely discourage women from applying to their tech organizations. The gaffes that tech companies make while attempting to recruit female candidates are numerous and clearly indicate not only an unwelcoming environment for women, but rather a misogynistic environment within the organization.

As Alison Wynn indicates, this atmosphere is crystal clear from the start of staff recruiting sessions. Women were relegated to refreshment control and handing out swag (did I hear the term secretary whispered?). Female engineers were not given featured roles in presentations but rather served as window dressing and if they did get a word in…they had the real possibility of being rudely interrupted by a male colleague. Of the sessions Wynn’s research team observed, only 22 percent featured female engineers talking about technical work. When those women did speak, according to the sessions observed, male presenters spoke over them. Moreover, recruiters used gender stereotypes of women in sexy attire and discussed porn. Seriously? Is this a frat house party or recruitment of individuals with an Ivy League degree?

As expected, many women walked out of the recruitment meetings without submitting an application. In the words of Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If organizations expect to recruit female candidates, they must change the manner in which they interact with potential candidates. Failure to do this will continue the inequality in the organizations.

 #2 Who do I think would most benefit from reading this article? I think decision makers from HR managers to CEOs to recruitment team members need to not only read this article but to take a cold hard look at the manner in which they recruit individuals. While this article focused on female recruitment, I suspect we could add other demographics to this as well. I can’t even begin to contemplate what the recruiters would think of someone with a disability (my research paper area). By actively including female candidates in their recruiting efforts an organization can move forward and make the most of its diversity by creating an inclusive, equitable and sustainable culture and work environment. The diversity of women creates the potential for greater innovation and productivity, inclusion is what enables organizations to realize the business benefits of this potential. Equity refers to fair treatment in access, opportunity and advancement for these individuals. Work in this area involves identifying and working to remove barriers to fair treatment for this group. Obviously one way as the article suggests, is to recruit more females into tech firms.

Wynn’s group research however shows some of the problems in the recruiting teams sent to bring more females into the firms. These are a few of their findings.

In an attempt to appear approachable, presenters often made comments that disparaged women or depicted them as sexualized objects rather than talented technical colleagues. For example, in one session, a man mentioned the “better gender ratio” at the company’s Los Angeles office compared with its Silicon Valley office. “I had no girlfriends at [University Name], but now I’m married,” he said, suggesting that the better odds had helped get him hitched.

This type of informal banter occasionally devolved into overtly sexualized comments. One presenter from a small startup mentioned porn a couple of times. Another, when talking about a project that would allow banking on ships, suggested that sailors needed access to cash for prostitutes.

I think if HR managers, CEOs and recruitment team members were to look at these findings with an unbiased eye, they might recognize this certainly is not the way to encourage women to work with them. I also believe if their legal staff were to review these statements, there might be other issues at hand as well.

Frankly when I read through this article for the first time, I almost laughed because the examples were almost so ludicrous. Is this real life? Sadly it is. Effective recruitment means companies recruit individuals with a collective mixture of not just similarities but differences to provide the company with a diverse group of employees. Until the recruiters and their firms learn how to present information in an unbiased manner, there will continue to be a lack of females in the tech field.

Discussion Questions Week of 8/2

Response to #1

In “Research: Vague Feedback is Holding Women Back,” Shelley J. Correll and Caroline Simard identify a major problem in the employee performance evaluation process that is making it harder for women to advance into upper-level management roles. The authors are associated with the VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University, where they conducted a study of performance evaluations at several high-tech companies. They found a noticeable difference between the way men and women received feedback on their performance. It turns out, men receive much more specific and detailed information about their performance than women, who tend to receive feedback in more general and vague ways. The authors hypothesize that because men receive critical and concrete feedback, they can make specific and measurable adjustments that demonstrate improvement. In contrast, because women tend to receive vague feedback along the lines of “people like working with you” or “you had a great year,” they do not have a chance to make adjustments that will demonstrate improvements in performance. Additionally, when women did receive specific feedback, it tended to relate to their communications style rather than ways to develop technical expertise that would help them advance. I found it interesting that nowhere in the article did it state that male reviewers were more likely to give these types of biased performance reviews, which I took to mean that female managers are also perpetuating the problem.

As a result of these findings, Correll and Simard make several recommendations to help managers give better feedback to women and level the playing field, such as setting a goal to discuss three specific business outcomes with each employee, avoiding vague language and praise, and striving to write reviews of the same length for all employees. In sum, providing actionable feedback is the key.

The Correll and Simard article supports Alison Wynn’s article in a couple of ways. Because Wynn’s article provides only a high-level overview of areas in the employee life cycle where organizations can improve gender equality, she does not go into depth in any specific area. The Correll and Simard article provides a rationale for making improvements to the performance evaluation process as well as recommendations for how to go about doing it. Correll and Simard can also devote more space to defining a “vague” evaluation and the ramifications. I found the link to the supporting article to be an effective way for Wynn to offer more details to readers who wanted them, without detracting from her overall goals.

Response to #2

In “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations,” Alison Wynn explores an issue that I have questioned for some time. Can we expect organizations to bear the burden of changing the people who work there? Or should an organization focus on the changing things it can control, like policies and processes? Based on her research studies, she argues that organizations are more likely to create change by focusing on the organization itself. After reading her article, I would say I definitely agree.

Wynn is targeting executives and leaders of organizations with this message. When she writes: “The executives in my sample trended toward two primary explanations for inequality: placing responsibility on individual men and/or women, and blaming the larger society,” she not only reveals her intended audience but also raises an important point. When people get asked about a complex problem, they often talk in a way to justify or rationalize why the problem exists instead of talking about ways to fix it. In a way, this type of reaction is a defense of the status quo and deflects the issue away from the responsible parties. If there’s any group that has the power to change the status quo in an organization, it’s the organization’s leaders. So I’m glad to see her directly address them in this way. Additionally, the framework for change that she recommends offers very practical advice that is not too difficult or disruptive for executives to implement. In a way, she is saying that a lot of small changes can result in a big improvement in gender equality overall.

Discussion Questions Week 8/2

Question 1

In the journal article “Women are Working more than ever, but they still take on most Household Responsibilities” Maggie Germano explores the responsibilities that women take on in addition to their job. She explains that while women have definitely gained more equality in the workplace than we had 50 years ago, we have yet to achieve true equality in the workplace and in more places than just the office. Germano gives statistics and discusses how women are treated differently in the workplace in regards to their lives at home. Having children, caring for sick and/or elderly family members both are most likely taken care of by the women in the relationship and therefore their jobs are affected.

The value in this article is that it is drawing attention to how much women do in a day and how their jobs and income is negatively affected by it. Why should a women be penalized for having a child if it does not affect how much work they do or how they do it? Why do men not get penalized as much for the same thing? Germano makes these points in ways that are not attacking or accusing businesses or companies but simply pointing out that these practices are unfair and need to be changed. This adds an example to Wynn’s point in her article “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations”. It is supporting her ideas and giving evidence to her argument.

Question 2

Alison Wynn’s article “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations” discusses the idea that individuals are not enough to fix gender inequality in the workplace. She identifies different ways that employees can work together to dissolve inequality in their company and offices. I think that all men would benefit the most from reading her article, not just men who have authority or are higher up at their company but all of them. I believe so because those are the people who are participating in inequality. They are the ones who are sexually harassing and discriminating against women. Are they the only ones, most likely not. Unfortunately, there most likely are women who discriminate against other women. But men are the rings leaders of it all and by changing their behaviors, women will be more comfortable in the office.

I liked the question that she posed in the beginning of the article, “If you were an executive tasked with reducing gender inequality in your organization, how would you do it?”. I think that this is a good question for everyone to ask themselves when hearing about gender inequality, or all kinds for that matter. I think that there are definitely people, especially men, who participate in gender equality without particularly realizing it. If they all asked themselves Wynn’s question, their actions might come to light in their minds. They could point out things that should be done to fix inequality and along the way realize ways that they have been making it worse.

Discussion Questions Week of 8/2

Response to #1

In the journal article, “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations,” written by Alison Wynn, a critical point is brought up regarding holding decision-makers accountable for reducing gender inequality within an organization. In Emilio J. Castilla’s article, she explores this idea. Castilla proposes that being more transparent when making pay decisions would reduce the pay gap by employee gender, race, and “foreign nationality.” Castilla delves into her study of reward decisions in the workplace, where she notes the introduction of new organizational procedures, accountability, and transparency has affected almost 9,000 employees positively. Before this, however, there was a large gap in “performance-based rewards” that resulted in unfairness towards women, who could also be ethnic minorities. They also received less money than men, who also happened to be citizens of the United States. Castilla notes that after attaining accountability and transparency, however, this gap was reduced.


I believe this approach is crucial for reducing gender inequality within organizations, and it adds to Wynn’s article perfectly because one wrong turn when it comes to being accountable and unbiased can cause vast marginalized intersectionality. When decision-makers decide to be biased and pay White men more, for example, women are oppressed. First, women are oppressed, but racist bias is brought into the picture when ethnic women are oppressed. Multiple biases then co-exist, backtracking greatly when it comes to reducing inequality. Although Castilla’s proposal initially involves gender inequality, it also simultaneously involves racial inequality as well. Many intersectional components of marginalization can be reversed when decision-makers are trained to be more transparent. By starting within an organization, employees and bosses can really look inward and not blame a larger picture for an easy “out.

Response to #2

In Wynn’s article, “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations,” I believe an employee or a person soon to have a higher position within a company would benefit the most from reading this article. I do not believe Wynn’s article is vague at all. Still, if it were directed towards executives within an organization, her tone would be more analytical, presenting more data and evidence that executives would understand. Wynn also subtly hints at a larger picture through her writing. People can not simply acknowledge that they are “good” but work together to change the structures that ultimately increase gender inequality. As cliché as it sounds, working together towards specific issues is crucial, and Wynn laid out these issues perfectly. Although not specifically written, I believe one of Wynn’s main points is that there needs to be a framework for an issue, or else people are not able to see the issue. In a TED talk I recently watched, Kimberlé Crenshaw said just this. If there is no framework (for example, a commonly seen issue regarding police violence against women), there is no priority for the injustice.


I believe Wynn is trying to open the eyes of future employees or new employees ahead of time. Although she focuses on gender inequality within the workplace, Wynn tries to set up solutions and a framework for all inequalities. Wynn notes, “These recommendations can help fight bias and inequality on many dimensions, beyond just gender. While my research specifically focused on a gender equality initiative, similar research must be done examining other types of initiatives to ensure organizations can address all types of inequalities.” To effectively create change, people must address and acknowledge the most marginalized first, prioritize them, set a framework for change, and carry this mindset onto other injustices. This quote works for the audience I have mentioned because it introduces a certain demeanor for young adults that regard future change towards equality.

Discussion Questions

Response to #1

Out of the assigned readings I personally found the topic of organizational culture to be the most interesting. As the term culture has a very loose definition and can be molded based on the values and beliefs of different societies, organizational culture is not too dissimilar to the traditional sense of culture that we often perceive in religious and ethnic groups. In Watkins’ article, he pointed out the different responses to what the term organizational culture is, with some concluding it to be either a product of incentives or compensation. However, the quote that I find the most compelling and the closest to my perception of what organizational culture means is the one by Abdi Osman Jama. Jama stated that, “An organization [is] a living culture…that can adapt to the reality as fast as possible.” If we are to agree that the point of the organization is to survive, thrive, and provide meaning for its participants, adaptation and change according to reality is the utmost necessity and should serve as its defining feature. The only disagreement I have with Jama is that the quote and Jama’s definition defines an ever-changing culture, one that has no solid base or root in what created the culture in the first place. Whether the organization is centered on business, culture, religion, or any other goal, there has to be a set of “rituals” and origin story that cannot be changed. The stability of the origin point and meaning for the organization will prevent the final disintegration of the organization itself, since the organization loses all meaning when its sole purpose is simply based on adaptation to change and the unknown.     

Response to #2

Why Diversity Matters proves once again that racial and gender diversity in the workplace, in general, brings positive financial benefits. Based on McKinsey’s Diversity Matters report, the examined companies were all based in countries with large populations of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. This makes perfect sense since to appeal to the larger market in the Americas and the United Kingdom, representation within larger corporations provides both a better image as well as generate interest among ethnic minorities. However, coming from an East Asian background, the focus on racial diversity is not as prominent an issue as over in the West, especially due to the relatively homogenous ethnic structures of China, Japan, and Korea. Having spent most of my life in Hong Kong, which is already one of the more westernized and ethnically diverse cities in East Asia (with significant Filipino, Indonesian and Indian populations), I have noticed that minority ethnicities constantly fluctuate between 6~8% of the city’s population, and the lack of government assistance in assimilation, linguistic and communication issues prevent ethnic minorities in Hong Kong from being seen or represented in career fields outside of low-skilled labor. In this reality, the combination of low numbers and lack of financial capability means that the value and pressure placed on businesses in Hong Kong or the larger East Asian sphere to adopt the stance of having more ethnic diversity within the workplace is especially low compared to the West.          

Introduction

Hi, my name is Tim and I’m a recent graduate from VPA’s Industrial and Interaction Design program. I’m from Hong Kong and I am taking this course as well as some other design courses to fulfill the studio requirements. Spending the last five years in Syracuse was truly a life-changing experience, especially with meeting people from all fields of study as well as having the chance to study abroad in Poland and Central Europe. As for myself, besides my major in industrial design, my main passions and interests are history and playing the cello. Besides this course, I will be taking part in an internship for a design company assisting the Mini car brand as well as working on further videos for my channel on historical education. Since I have returned to Hong Kong from Syracuse since the early months of the pandemic last March, I have been taking online classes since. I believe that the most important part of learning asynchronously is having a strict schedule as well as self-control, especially since you have to keep track of the work by yourself and communication is slightly more difficult. However, no matter how strange times have become, I believe it will slowly improve and I look forward to working with all of you.

Discussion prompts for Week of 8/9

I am working my way through your research portfolios and will be getting you some feedback as soon as I can. While you’re waiting for that, please review the  unit 3 assignment sheet and get started on the week’s readings, a couple of texts on building healthy cultures within an organization that look rather different from the essays/articles we’ve been reading.

Our focus is on genre this week and next. To refresh, “genre” refers to the sort of reasonable responses we make to recurring writing situation–need to reach out to a prospective client? a formal business letter can be a good way to initiate contact. Need to show what you know to a teacher on an exam? a 5-paragraph essay might get the job done. Need to impress a potential employer? An organized, clean, easy-to-read resume is a good plan. Have to make a sales pitch? A snazzy Prezi might be just the thing. Genres take shape because we find them to be helpful, audience-centered ways to accomplish a particular kind of communication task. The demands of the writing situation dictate the sort of genres that might be appropriate. As you move toward presenting your research, it’s time to explore possible genres for that work.

For this week’s discussion, please respond to both of the questions below. Categorize your posts as “Discussions/Homework,” and tag them with “weekof8/9,” “unit3,” “genre,” and [your name].

  1. Notice the practical focus of both of this week’s readings (these aren’t just about sharing information for curiosity’s sake but rather about rendering it usable for a particular audience and purpose). Select one of this week’s readings to focus on, and examine how the authors do that–how do they process what they’ve learned to make it actionable for a reader? what readers? what writing/rhetorical strategies do you see them employing to make this information usable for their readers? Be specific and analytical–why do you think they go about it in this way? How effective do you think it is for that particular audience?
  2. It’s time to start imagining the possibilities for your own research writing in Unit 3–given what you want to discuss, for what purpose, and to whom, what are some of the options for you? What kinds of texts would this sort of reader be likely to engage with? where/when/on what platform do you see them getting this info? what kinds of expectations would your readers have about
  • level of detail
  • writing style
  • length of text
  • time spent reading
  • citation method
  • types of evidence/sources

Your response work might carry over a little into next week–you can either respond to their answers to #2 above, or read through a couple of your classmates’ project proposals after they’re due on Sunday, 8/15. Either way, please comment on at least 3 of them.  Try to offer up your suggestions for what forms their work might take, given the parameters they’ve outlined.

Discussion prompts for Week of 8/2

In this article, Alison Wynn (a researcher at Stanford) summarizes her own recent article, in which she analyzed the findings of a year-long case study of a Silicon Valley tech company’s gender equality initiative.

As is typically the case with summaries, an author is trying to do justice to the original text (representing it for what it is), while also working toward their own distinct purpose. Here, for Wynn, that is bottom-lining the findings for a different audience and objective–trying to open up a new kind of conversation around the role that organizations (and not just individuals) must play.

Pay attention to how she works with research in here. Within this article, Wynn provides a lot of linked resources, which function both as a sort of bibliography (here are some of the sources I’m working with…) and as a reading list for those who want more (if you think this is interesting, check this out….). Consider the first one, which links to this article, itself a compendium of a whole bunch of different sources.

Giving her readers access to this lets Wynn build upon that informational foundation without taking up a lot of space in her text. It also gives interested readers a lot more to work with (and a lot more reason to trust Wynn as knowing her stuff). Each of you will follow up on one of the other resources she links and give us a sense of what’s in there and how it’s valuable (both to Wynn and to us, readers who might be looking to use this new knowledge).

Also pay attention as you read to her section headings–she’s setting up a careful logical chain. These headings are kind of like breadcrumbs (think Hansel and Gretel) for the reader to follow Image result for hansel and gretel breadcrumbs

We can learn from that, of course, about a way to organize our ideas to make them as usable as possible for our readers. As we head into Unit 3, that’s going to be an important consideration–not just writing for ourselves or for me (a teacher reader), but for an audience who needs to hear what you have to say and needs to be able to act on it or make use of it in some way.

Once you’ve read through Wynn’s article, follow up on your assigned link (see the announcement on Blackboard for those assignments). Then, post your responses to these 2 questions (everyone should answer both):

  1. Give us a capsule summary of the linked article/resource that you explored. What is it? what’s in there? what’s valuable about it? what does it add to Wynn’s article?
  2. Who do you think would most benefit from reading this article, and why? (in other words, who do you think her target audience is or ought to be?) Select one passage (a sentence or two) from the article, and explain why you think this segment would work especially well for that group of readers. Please quote the passage in your response.