Tag: zoe miller

Unit 3 Reflection

Originally I was going to research discrimination against people who are disabled both physically and mentally. However, I decided to instead do research on discrimination against people who are apart of the LGBTQ+ community. The reason I decided to change my topic was because I have disabilities that while are nothing like what most people are discriminated for, I do have a hard time doing what comes easily to other people. I choose to stay away from that topic because I wanted to learn about something that I did not know as much about. Finding articles about LGBTQ+ discrimination was unfortunately easy. I choose articles that each had something different to contribute to my research and my portfolio. All six articles, while discussing the same concept and had overarching ideas and themes, had something different to explain about discrimination. I applied different source finding skills like web of knowledge, subject searching, and backlink checker to help me find some of my favorite sources that ended up in my portfolio.I learned a lot about my topic. I learned that there is so much I do not know about it which is leading me to think that there is a lot about other topics that I think I know a lot about and don’t. I also learned more productive ways to search for sources, when I started researching the way I always have I was having a hard time finding articles that were both relevant and would contribute important information to my portfolio. After learning how to use different ways to search for them, the sources almost fell into my lap. Not to mention, my favorite and most interesting topics came from the different ways that I complicated my research.

I learned that writing is more than an essay. I also learned that reporting is some of the most important writing that anyone could do. The way that I, and my peers, delivered the research that we find could have a big impact on the way in which people understood our information and viewed us as a writer. I learned that there are more ways to share what I’ve learned than what I thought. I can put my writing into whatever form or genre that I want it to be in and which ever way that I feel will be the most productive and effective. I learned that giving and receiving feedback are one of the most important things about writing. Receiving and using feedback is a productive way to engage readers and hear what changes should be made that may have been looked over. That also taught me how to figure out what to prioritize. Another set of eyes will tell you what you’re missing, what is the most important, and what is maybe not necessary to your point. I learned that the most important thing is who you are writing to and how they are going to feel about what you say and how you say it. when reporting on research, it’s important to be sensitive and sympathetic especially when reporting on topics that are as important as discrimination.

I learned a few very important things that I plan to take with me from this project and this course. I did learn how to search for sources much more productively than in the past. Something that I think is extremely important that I learned is that the way we phrase things can be very important when writing and especially when writing about a sensitive topic. I caught myself a few times writing something and then thinking “wait, is this the politically correct way to say this and will people take offense to it?”. This helped me realize that what I say and how I say it can make a big impact no matter what I am talking about.

Final Project

Unit-3-ProjectDownload

My audience is mainly people who work in offices and schools that are interacting with people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I think that everyone can benefit from my memo but I tailored it to people who are working with and hiring people who they do not know their entire background.

My purpose is to share the information that I learned to express to others that we do not know the whole story, no matter how much we think we do. This project really opened my eyes to what I did not actually know.

I created a memo because it is a short and easy way to spread information. It can be forwarded in emails, posted on bulletin boards, ect. I felt that it would be the most productive way to spread the information to my intended audience and everyone else who might be interested.

Unit 3 Draft

Creating this I intended for my main audience to be people working in an office or community where there are or could be people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I feel, however, that everyone could benefit from reading and learning the information that I learned. I think that it will open most people’s eyes into seeing that they did not know as much as they thought they did, the same way it did to me. I would like people to take what I researched and apply it to their daily lives as they communicate with people whose backstories they do not know, or even do know.

Week of 8/16

This type of writing gets to the point quickly compared to a book or an article. It categorizes the information in ways that allow the reader to navigate the piece easily and understand information is trying to be passed on to them in a timely manner. The sample gets the information across clearly by sectioning off the piece. It has statistics, bullets, and bold and italicized text which when someone is scanning the memo or doing a quick read they can quickly go to the most important points of the piece. All of the things that make the sample work well are the things that I like about it and why I want to do a memo for my project. It contains features that make it a quick read but is still able to get its point across.

There are a few things about this particular memo that I plan to do differently when creating mine. I would like mine to be shorter and less wordy and I would like to make it more fun and colorful. I do not necessarily think that these things make or break a memo, but I do think that they could make it easier and even more fun to read. I am planning to take what I liked and disliked from this example of a memo and use it to either incorporate or stay clear of when crafting my own version of a memo.

Project Proposal – Zoe Miller

For my unit 3 project I am going to educate people about discrimination against people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community by using what I learned in unit 2 creating my research portfolio. I plan to use the sources that are in my portfolio, and any other sources I stumble upon, to create a memo that can be handed out in schools, offices, public places like restaurants and stores, and anywhere else that people are interacting with others. The sources that I have to help me contain examples of discrimination in different settings, different people’s stories and experiences and how it affected them, and information about the laws that are enforced or not enforced in each state in America.

I would like to make a fairly short memo that is long enough to get all of the information across but not too long that people get bored. I know that it will need to be a few pages in order to get all of the information that I learned onto it but I would like for it to be something that if people pass by they can still get something out of it. I am going to most likely put some of the experiences statistics, and facts that I researched onto the memo to provide evidence and make myself a credible source. I will also aim to keep the writing style somewhat simple so that people of all ages can read and understand it and to allow for it to be a quick read.

I am writing for people who interact with other people, which is everyone. Most people who are not experiencing this type of discrimination, or discrimination at all, might not realize what they do not know about it. I was shocked to learn how much I did not know about it and honestly feel badly that I thought I knew the entire story about what they experience. My goal is to reach them with more information about what people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community experience in result of discrimination and what others can do to eliminate the effects and even maybe end discrimination.

Discussion Questions Week of 8/9

Question 1

In her article “How to Create a Culture Manifesto for Your Organization (and Why it’s a Good Idea)” Mollie West wants her readers to take away what she is saying and use it to better themselves and their companies. She lays out what she learned about the three organizations and their manifesto and then offers a way to help her readers create their own, using what she learned. She uses quotes from employees at all of the three organizations to emphasize the importance of what that company is doing and the effects that it has on both the company and its employees. I think that West went about it this way because she is showing the reader first hand what was successful and how. She is almost using imagery in a way to help the reader see how they created a manifesto and then why it is a good idea. I think this is effective for this audience because the audience is most likely employees and supervisors at other organizations who either need help creating a culture manifesto or who think it is not going to work and/or worth it. I think that what West says and the way she says it is effective and will show those employees and supervisors why they should implement this into their organizations.

Question 2

For my unit 3 project I plan to take what I learned from my unit 2 portfolio about discrimination against people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community and use it to educate people about how they can make them feel safer and more comfortable. I plan to create a memo that can be given out to offices, schools, public places like restaurants and stores, and anywhere else that people are interacting with each other. I feel that this is the most productive way to give out the information because it is an easy way to spread it and can be created and designed in a way that will engage the readers. I also think that it will meet most if not all of the readers expectations of a memo and will still allow them to understand and maintain the information and the importance of it.

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 7/26

1.

In the article “Associations between sexual orientation discrimination and substance use disorders: differences by age in US adults” the authors discuss the study they did to see what trends there were between the age of adults with substance use disorders and how much sexual orientation discrimination they experienced. They found that US adults who are a part of sexual minorities are twice as likely to meet the criteria for many of the different substance use disorders (SUD). They saw that there are different factors that contribute to SUDs than just age. One being minority stress because it increases exposure to chronic stressors that are related to SUDs and other negative mental health affects.

This source connects to my other sources because they all focus on the main point of my argument, LGBTQ+ discrimination. What I have made sure to focus on when finding different sources is that they all discuss a different aspect of discrimination. This article focus substance abuse disorders and what, if any, the trend is between the different abuses, sexuality, and age; where the main cause is discrimination. It comes from the perspective of five professors who conducted this study to better understand the different abuse disorders that 20 million US adults have. I plan to use the data and results from this article to further discuss the effects of sexual discrimination on people and for evidence on the idea that it needs to come to an end.

2.

In the response titles “A Lack of Privacy makes Anxiety worse”, Emily emphasizes the effects that working in an open office had on her anxiety. She is agreeing with the original article and is giving an example of what she experienced in an open office and what she would do to accommodate herself and her needs. She also includes how she encouraged the company to change their office set up in her exit interview so that future employees do not experience the same things that she did. I feel that this was a productive way to address the issue that she faced because she not only explained it and explained what she did to help herself, she also told the company how to fix it and noted that she was not the only female in the office who felt like this.

Research Plan – Zoe Miller

I am using my research to understand more about why there are people who are discriminated against for something they cannot control and is no one else’s business. I would like to also understand what effects being discriminated for something like that has on people. While this is the case for most qualities that people are discriminated against for, in this case I am researching people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The reason I am interested in researching discrimination in the LGBTQ+ community is because a lot of information has come to light regarding it over the last few years. I do not think that it is fair for people to be discriminated against based off of something that only differs to what people are “used to” at home. I also think that the fact that people care so much about qualities and aspects about other people that have absolutely nothing to do them is interesting but also do not understand it.

I am an ally of the LGBTQ+ movement and know a few people who are a part of the community. It is being reported all over the news and social media and I would like to expand my knowledge on it. I have a disability that people are discriminated against for, while I have experienced a little bit about what it is like to have issues with people because of that disability, I would like to expand my knowledge on discrimination against other topics.

Professional fields matter most to my inquiry because there are more people who are aware that they are a part of this community and who may not necessarily rub it in everyone’s faces but who are also not hiding it in the professional world rather than in the academic world. I plan to continue to look for personal journals with experiences and news articles or posts on social media that discuss what people have had to deal with and what the effects and consequences, if any, there were.