Blog on Sexual Morality & Marriage

Casual Sex

In an essay in the 2011 British newspaper, The Guardian released data from studies on one-night stands. It explained how women face more psychological affects from one night stands than men do. The data from this essay is relevant to the issues discussed in chapter 3 of our book because of how it relates to the huge issue discussed in chapter 3, which is sexual morality. The author of this essay, Maura Kelly, writes on the side of all four of the sexual morality answers (Utilitarian Answer, The Natural Law Answer, The Kantian Answer, and the Virtue Ethics Answer.)

Maura Kelly begins the essay by explaining that the women felt “used” or that the women felt as if they let themselves down after having a one night stand with a man. This directly relates to the Kantian answer in how it is always wrong to “use’” another person. What Kelly is explaining about her data also can be related to the rest of the answers to sexual morality. For example, the women feeling negative or hurt by the experience is related to the Utilitarian answer in how the sexual behaviors from the man and the woman are leading to pain and unhappiness for the woman. In the Utilitarian viewpoint, this is morally wrong. Kelly does not relate much to the natural law answer but her attempt to encourage women to not settle for one night stands and unhappiness in a way can relate to the natural law answer. If the women stick to the “natural” meaning of sex, which in the natural law answer is the pro creation and unitive sex, then they will not be lead to being felt “used,” having negative feelings, or being un-happy with their sex lives. Lastly, Kelly relates to the Virtue Ethics answer in how she writes about how women should stop lowering their standards and not settle but instead seek to gain better moral values.

This essay lends to support a more moderate view of moral sexual morality than a liberal’s view. The reason is because from a moderate viewpoint, sexual intimacy is morally acceptable as long as the sex takes place in a loving and emotionally intimate context, where Kelly is encouraging these ladies to do so. A liberal’s view would be the complete opposite of what Kelly’s purpose in this essay is. A liberal believes that sex is neither intimate nor special. Liberals’ only moral constraints are to not harm or deceive.

The authors in our textbook all have different views on sexual morality but I believe the majority of the authors would back the voice of Pope Paul VI. The Pope is a conservative and a natural law theorist meaning that he believes in the bioglocal and natural meaning of sex, which also involves pro creation and unitive sex. In the textbook on page 91, the pope’s conservative views come out when he discusses premarital relations and how sexual intimacy is morally correct when it occurs in the context of a marriage.

Blog 14

AUM should move aggressively to pursue the wayfinding improvements herein, not only to benefit students and visitors to the campus but for the potential benefits the project affords the school in terms of prestige and visibility in the community. Campus wayfinding is an indispensable part of university services. While many students and faculty are intimately familiar with college locations, new students, prospective students, family members, and other visitors typically need help navigating the university grounds. Whether it is telling different buildings apart or discerning the most direct walking path across the school grounds, dynamic mapping and navigation will strengthen these visitor services as well as the university brand (“Campus Wayfinding. The Digital Way to Get Around Campus”).

Blog 13

How To Structure?

  1. Most important point is at the end
  2. Most important point comes first because reader gets tired.
  3. Start with a big idea and narrow it.
  4. Start with a narrow example and then consider bigger things.

Stefan’s paper outline:

I. Background information on police officers and types of law enforcement

II. Police officer’s and other types of law enforcement rights to bear certain arms.

III. Pop-Culture example.

IV. Law enforcement equipment and gear.

Blog 11

Wayfinding Improves Navigation between Campus Buildings

Purdue University’s Exterior Wayfinding Analysis and Recommendations Document describes wayfinding as the structuring of information so that people may comfortably and successfully access an environment. One normally associates signage with wayfinding but wayfinding involves far more. Wayfinding includes a myriad of methods for conveying information to people with different needs and cognitive abilities.
Understanding how the brain functions to support navigation is fundamental to developing systems and techniques for delivery of wayfinding information required by the brain. John O’Keefe of University College London shared in the 1971 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his discovery of “place cells” in the brain’s hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory. Place cells are neurons that convey information about the surroundings associated with a particular spatial area. Humans remember how to navigate because we remember the surroundings as we traverse from one spatial area to each succeeding one. Those that have not yet acquired the cognitive association with their spatial surroundings do not have the requisite information stored in their brain for effective spatial recognition and navigation.
Edvar Moser, Mary Brit-Moser, and John O’Keefe shared in the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine as a result of their discovery that cells in the brain’s entorhinal cortex fire when rats pass the points of a hexagonal grid and that the brain uses this pattern as a coordinate system for spatial navigation. They named these neurons “grid cells”. Grid cells essentially assist our brain in identifying our orientation to and between space cells recorded in the hippocampus. Our brain helps us navigate by visualizing time and distance traveled relative to significant points of reference coded in the space cells.
Absence of spatial recognition creates uncertainty and anxiety which may negatively influence an individual’s perception about a navigable space, such as a campus. Colleges compete to attract students and it is important that prospective students and their parents have a positive first impression with respect to the ease of “getting around” on a campus. Anything that makes campuses more user friendly in terms of navigation reduces the anxiety level of prospective students, new students, and visitors.
Effective outside wayfinding is designed not for those who have already developed spatial recognition memory but for those who have not yet developed it. As much as possible, it relies on existing landmarks to create significant place cells and, where landmarks are unavailable, they are created artificially using objects that stand out in relation to the surroundings.
In research for a Master of Science Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mark A. Foltz discussed Design Principles for Wayfinding. Those principles include: create an identity at each location, different from all others so the navigator can associate their surroundings with a larger scale space; use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations; subdivide the space into regions with a distinct set of visual attributes to assist in wayfinding; create well-structured paths; make extensive use of maps; and use signage at decision points.
There are several landmarks in and around the AUM campus that may be utilized as landmarks. They include the Young Library Tower which is the tallest building on campus, the AUM water tower, the Wellness Center at the Taylor Road entrance, and the athletic fields. The AUM website provides the map shown in Appendix A. The map does not adequately describe the available campus landmarks. Those unfamiliar with the campus likely have no idea that the tallest building on campus is the Young Library Tower. Additionally, it is unlikely that they are familiar with the Wellness Center. These key landmarks are merely identified by name not appearance. The map depicts the entire campus as one space with very few identifiable sectors within the campus. Buildings are depicted as solid black cubes with only a rough outline of their two dimensional shape. The map constitutes a very poor tool for newcomers to use in navigating the campus.

Blog 12

Intros

  1. Imagine a scenario
  2. Connect that scenario to our argument
  3. State our thesis

Write a rough draft of your introduction, using Thimell’s work as a model:

Investing into resources to improve the wayfinding system provides a significantly better experience for students, faculty, and visitors on AUM’s campus. An example of pop-culture playing a role in wayfinding happened recently. An article from a website where the author, Alex Schmidt describes a woman’s experience of wayfinding while traveling through the Los Angeles airport. According to Schmidt, the woman’s name was Laura Valdez and she missed her flights in the airport because of the insufficient wayfinding system and particulary, the lack of proper signage. Laura Valdez and many other travelers have had rough wayfinding experiences due to a lack of an efficient system of wayfinding. Not only this instance, but also many other examples such as this is causing many people everywhere to begin to examine their own wayfinding system and determine if it needs to be remodeled. AUM’s campus is needing resources to be invested to improve the wayfinding system to provide their students, faculty, and visitors to prevent the frustration and confusion that results from the inadequate navigating.

Blog 10

The introduction has 2 paragraphs.

Thesis: Due to these rhetorical strategies, the mechanics of online dating and the popular definition of what constitutes a successful profile, dating websites can influence users to embrace deceptive broad appeals in their profiles, rather than specific and authentic ones.

In the 1st background paragraph, it explains that the study of rhetoric is communication in action. The 2nd paragraph explains what the goal of online dating is.

It looks as if the author organized her paper structure by giving her thesis and purpose early in the introduction. She then gives background information and then begins her argument.

The conclusion was effective. She summarized what she talked about in the whole argument and did not leave the audience “hanging” like she did with her hook in the introduction.

There are 12 sources that are listed and it looks like 6-8 are peer reviewed.

She did give opposing views in how she explained the opposition has flaws.

She says that she wishes to go to grad school to get a Master’s degree in rhetoric and composition.

Blog 9

Pop Culture

We should use pop culture in our research:

  1. Shows us a concrete example of our topic
  2. Offers hypothetical solutions to problems.
  3. Makes the topic relatable to the audience

One time in pop-culture, wayfinding was brought to the attention to many Los Angeles citizens. On the website: marketplace.org, an article was published explaining the lack of a sufficient wayfinding system. According to Alex Schmidt from the Market Place, a woman named Laura Valdez has missed many flights she had arranged in LAX airport because of the poor wayfinding system and the lack of proper signage. Schmidt goes onto discuss that LAX airport hired a wayfinding firm to improve their system of wayfinding.

Possible Outline of Major Project:

Thesis: __________

  1. Intro (2 paragraphs)
  2. Personal Story
  3. Purpose and Thesis
  4. Background Info
  5. Intersellar
  6. EPA
  7. Point 1

A.

B.

C.

  1. Point 2

A.

B.

C.

  1. Point 4

A.

B.

C.

  1. Opposing Views

A.

B.

C.

  1. Conclusion
  2. Review Main Points
  3. Guess at the future

MLA Format:

David Baker

Dr. Howard

ENGL 1020

15 April 2015

Wayfinding

Blog 7.5

Example: Clarisa’s Journey

Topic: Art

Issue: art that you can touch/sculpture

Question: should people be able to touch sculptures/art that is built?

Position: people should be able to touch the scultpures/art whenvisiting museums.

Thesis: memorials, superstitions

Focused thesis: when considering whether arts patrons may touch sculpture, we should focus on the value of memorials, superstitions, and textures related to the art pieces. This will demonstrate how valuable touch is.

Topic: Wayfinding

Issue: how to enhance the wayfinding system at AUM

Question: In what ways can AUM provide a more sufficient wayfinding experience for their visitors, prospective students?

Position: I want building signage, road signage, LED lit signage, and proper indoor wayfinding navigational devices and applications.

Thesis: To provide a successful wayfinding experience for visitors and prospective students, AUM should consider implementing building signage, road signage, signage, and the most recent navigational technology.

Thesis: more students should drink juice

  1. Into
  2. Background
  3. First oranges squeezed in Egypt
  4. Plums picked from Africa
  5. Became the first juice
  6. Were sold to the rich

“Download PDFs.” Effectiveness of Wayfinding Towards Spatial Space and Human Behavior in Theme Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813024865&gt;.

In this peer reviewed journal, the overall objective is to examine the effectiveness of wayfinding by watching the behavior of visitors at a theme park. In this journal, visitors will be watched in how they react in spatial space in an outside theme park. From the data the researchers collected, they believe that the visitor’s behavior was abnormal. These observations and statistics should be able to assist the theme park designers in making a better sufficient wayfinding experience for their visitors. I believe the techniques and ideas used in this journal could be beneficial to my final paper in how I plan to introduce a more efficient wayfinding system at AUM.

“SEGD.” Pat. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <https://segd.org/digital-wayfinding-apps&gt;.

On this website, it describes many ways technology can be used to create a more simple and effective way in the wayfinding system. It goes into detail about smart phones with internet, google maps, and other GPS related applications that people use as wayfinding. With all the different wayfinding applications from the smart phones and the use of the internet, I find this website to be helpful with some ideas to consider putting into my research paper.

Blog 7

Quiz Answers

  1. According to your book, what are some ways to evaluate sources?

Evaluating the author- credentials (usu PhD)

Evaluating the publisher- university presses

Evaluating the evidence- pathos vs. logos (statistics, case studies)

Evaluating the genre- type of source

Evaluating the timeliness- a recent source

  1. In what ways can use your phone to organize your research?

Voice Recorder

Camera

Blackboard App

WordPress App

Notes App

Email

Reminders/Alarms/Calendars

  1. How can you order a free book from outside of the AUM library?

The Interlibrary loan – 10 days to keep and takes about a week to arrive

Universal Borrowing/Allies – 28 days to keep and takes 5 days to arrive

  1. What are some other systems besides MLA?

MLA= Modern Language Association- our system

APA= American Psychological Association- social science education and psychology

CSE=Counsel of Science Editors- Chicago, Harvard

Citation

MLA-6th Edition- had to put URL – lines are not stable

MLA 7th Edition- do not-Web

  1. What is an in-text citation?

A quote with a parentheses after it giving the author’s name and the page number after.

Intro material (context) + citation

Example: According to Brooks Johnson from U of Texas, “……” (89).

Example using website would include the paragraph number.

Annotated bibliography

Works cited page with descriptions, evaluations, of each source (100-150 words)

Description will explain how you plan to use the source.

  1. Build works cited page first. See pages 337-356.
  2. Explain who the author is, what form of evidence is used, how the evidence is relevant, and what the new perspective offers.