Write an observation essay that explains the unique significance of a particular person or place within a larger community. Describe the person or place through vivid description, narration, dialogue and sensory details. Help others outside of your community understand why the person or place is important to the community.

Assignment

Observation, as the CEL describes it, requires writers to “study their subjects and learn something by seeing them in a particular way” (93). Observation essays do more than just report facts: they also “find the hidden meaning, the significant issues, and the important aspects of a particular subject” (93).  

Your purpose in this Observation Essay is to convey the significance of a particular person or place in your community through details that show how the subject “fits” within the community’s priorities and values. Your descriptions and details should make it easy for someone unfamiliar with your community to understand why the person or place you chose is relevant and significant to the community.

*Note: although this essay is intended to be based in recent, firsthand observations, you may write from recent memories instead if you are restricted in travel and mobility during the COVID pandemic. If you are writing from memories, try to recreate scenes and descriptions as though you are seeing them again for the first time. 

In order to achieve this purpose, you need to:

• Observe and Take field notes. Begin with observing the person or place and writing down notes about what you see, hear, and sense. Plan to observe this person or place 2-3 times. In your notes, record specific actions that you notice, dialogue you overhear, interactions you have with other people, and any important details about the scene that might help you SHOW its significance through vivid detail and narration. 
• Describe the person or place through actions, details, and dialogue that offer insight into why this person or place has unique significance as an important part of the community.
• Explain context and background that shows how the person or place matters within the larger community. Context might include history, factual information, anecdotes, geographical information, or other details that help an audience understand the person or place as part of something bigger than themselves/itself.
• Follow a carefully planned organizational structure that gives priority to specific details, themes, and values. Your final draft should be organized to show the significance of the person or place and should not simply list details in the order you observed them.
• Offer a strong introduction that hooks readers with vivid details or action and focuses attention on the significance of the subject. Provide a strong conclusion that 

As you look back over your observations and notes, remember that your essay should do more than simply relate details without any larger significance. Your observation of the person or place should also draw out the unique, interesting, and special qualities of the person or place that help audiences understand why they/it has value as part of a larger community.

Caution: Please keep in mind that writing in this class is public, and anything you write about may be shared with other students and instructors. Please only write about details that you are comfortable making public within our classroom community. You should know that your teacher is required by the State of Texas (Links to an external site.) to report any suspected incidents of discrimination, harassment, Title IX sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct to the UNT Title IX coordinators. If you have any questions about anything personal that you might want to disclose, email your teacher first or consult with one of the resources listed on this page: Information on Sexual Violence and Mandatory Reporting.

Format and Length

• Format: Typed, double-spaced, submitted as a word-processing document.
  12 point, text-weight font, 1-inch margins.
• Length: 1000 – 1250 words (approx. 4-5 pages)
• Value: This project will be graded out of 100 possible points, and will be part of the Unit 2 Project group, worth 20% of the grade for the course.
• Overview: For this writing project, you will use firsthand observations and discoveries to write about a person or place that has special significance in your community. Using details from your observations (or from recent memories), you will describe the person or place and convey their/its value to the community. 

Objectives and Questions

These questions help to guide discussion and set up the objectives for this unit.

• Observe a person or place connected to an issue affecting a larger community
• Record the particular details of an observation
• Reveal / convey the significance of a person, place, or event through specific details in writing

INSTRUCTIONS:

Write a personal narrative (essay) that recalls an event (real or imagined) that led you to a change of mind or a new understanding about the world.

Your personal essay should have a number of the following characteristics: 

• The story is either an invented one, created by the writer to make a point, or, more often, a telling of an actual event that the writer experienced first hand.

• In a narrative essay, the focus is usually on a single experience.  The writer describes to the reader the short- and long-term impact of that experience on his or her life.

• Individual events that are part of the experience are usually presented in chronological order, that is, in the order in which they happened.  The writer may choose to include the use of flashback, a technique that gives the writer the opportunity to include past events as background information.

• The structure of a narrative essay follows the traditional pattern of storytelling:  the characters, setting, mood, and the main conflict are introduced at the beginning; the middle section describes events that develop the main conflict; the conclusion draws the experience to an end.

• The writer usually includes details that describe the setting and the characters involved in the experience.

• The writer uses the concluding paragraph to reflect on the event and sum up the significance of it in his or her mind.  This helps readers to recognize what the writer wants them to learn or to take away from the essay. 

Writers often want to do more than simply present information.  On occasion, they want to persuade their readers to take some sort of action or to think in a certain way.  When this is a writer’s goal, the form of writing she or he uses is called an essay.  

Writers can use a variety of strategies to win readers over and persuade them to think or act in a certain way.  One of these strategies is to tell a story about an event that has special significance to the writer.  An essay based on an experience in the writer’s life is called a personal narrative.  

In personal narratives writers communicate a strong sense of how they feel about their subject.  The reader is usually able to quickly identify the writer’s attitude toward the experience he or she is describing.  Understanding the writer’s perspective or point of view on the subject is the first step to reaching a full understanding of what the writer is saying. 

Reading Personal Narratives

a) Recognizing the purpose of personal narratives

A personal narrative is an essay that tells a story and like all stories, the events are intended to appeal to the reader’s emotions and own experiences.  The writer’s purpose is to communicate both the substance of the event and the emotional impact it had on his or her view of the world.  Usually, the writer uses a single, concisely told story as the basis for drawing a conclusion or making a statement of opinion on a topic or issue.    

Thanks for reading the lesson. Now proceed to the next page to write your assignment.You can erase all the notes above and write your personal narrative in the space below.

  

Every year, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) conducts the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. One of your areas of expertise is appraisal and evaluation, and as such, you have been invited (in your capacity as Director of Personnel Administration for Organization X) to be on a popular podcast to discuss in what ways, if any, this yearly research could be more effective across the board. The inspiration for the podcast and the prompt comes from a drop in response rates for the 2018 survey. In 2018, the percentage of federal workers who responded to the survey came in at almost five percentage points lower than those who responded to the prior year’s survey. The most concerning part of this drop are it happened on the heels of a push from OPM to improve response rates by moving from a survey sample to a census.

The podcast host emailed you as a courtesy, with the following prompt for the show:

“As you know, if an employer waited until evaluation time to start thinking about an employee’s performance, the employee would be in for a weak evaluation. So, based on your expertise in the field of public service, in what ways (if any) could the OPM’s survey be approached in a way that makes it a bit more realistic and reliable?”

Review the survey in this week’s resources and formulate your response using survey data, the course readings, and any additional outside sources you find pertinent to the topic. You may also include personal experience in your response. Remember to cite your sources.

Write out your script for the podcast to both time it and to ensure you have included the required content.

Begin your podcast by providing relevant information and establishing a clear purpose that engages the listener.

Demonstrate thorough knowledge of the topic using relevant, quality details that go beyond the obvious.

Focus on your topic.

Be sure to include details from your experience on the topic along with your researched information.

Make sure there is a brief conclusion that connects the information in the podcast.

Use CaptureSpace to record your podcast. Instructions for using CaptureSpace are included in the Course Resources module.

Podcasts are evaluated based on the following information: 1) how well the introduction sets the scene; 2) clarity, accuracy, and relevance of content; 3) whether the conclusion provided a clear summary of the main points; 4) the structure and flow of the podcast, and 5) technical sound quality (volume and clarity). Creativity is also considered.

  

The Changing World of HRM

Balancing the realities of protecting the organization and the rights of employees, both in and out of work, has become a major focal point for contemporary human resorce managers. For example, by everyone’s account, Peter Oiler was an outstanding employee. Oiler, a truck driver for Winn-Dixie stores and a twenty-year employee, had an impeccable and unblemished work record. He was punctual, trustworthy, and an exceptionally productive employee. Most co-workers viewd him as an asset to the organization. But none of that appeared to matter when Oiler was fired. The reason: Oiler was a cross dresser. On his own time, Oiler changed his persona, becoming Donna, complete with wearing women’s clothing, a wig, and makeup. Frequently out in public with his wife – in restaurants, at church – Donna maintained a dignified public appearance, bothering no one, and simply went on with his personal life as he chose.

Management at Winn-Dixie, however, saw things differently. Shortly after they learned of his cross dressing behavior, Oiler was fired. This happened in spite of the realization that his out of work behavior had absolutely no adverse affect on his job performance. Rather Winn-Dixie’s position was that if he was seen in public by someone who recognized him as a Winn-Dixie employee, the company’s image could be damaged.

Oiler sued the company for wrongfully terminating him on the basis of sex discrimination. He claimed that cross-dressing was nothing more than his “not conforming to gender stereotype as a man.” During the trial, records reinforced that there was not one shred of evidence that any of Oiler’s out-of-work activities affected his ability to work. Nonetheless, the court ruled in Winn-Dixie’s favor, citing there were no federal or state laws that protect the rights of “transgendered” employees. Although, Winn-Dixie won at the trial, they experienced an aftermath that they were not expecting. Many co-workers rallied behind Oiler, wondering if the company could do this to him, what might they do next? Certainly people understood a company could fire anyone for any legal reason, but how much latitude should a company have in defining “legal” reasons? Could they fire an employee who drinks alcohol after work? or views an “inappropriate” movie? or views adult websites? What if one is arrested? Does that result in an automatic termination? The answer is, it could – but there are consequences to this employer action. In such cases, companies have found that terminating an employee for outside or work activities brings negative publicity, lowers employee morale, and increases employee turnover.

W2: Off-The-Job Behaviors

 Non-HR Perspective: As a manager in your organization, if you were faced with a situation like the one shared above, what actions would you take and why? At what point, if at all, would you involve the organization’s human resources department. 

 In developing your response, you want to consider some of the following elements: employee rights, progressive discipline, the effects of off-the-job behaviors on an organization, and other course concepts addressed in your readings. 

*Post must be a minimum of 250 words

 

You will choose a current events that ties to sociological issues or social problems surrounding race, ethnicity, gender, or social class. The Topic that I choose is Refugee Crisis. I found this article on the New York times that talks about the refugee crisis and how things did not change when Biden became president. https://www.instaassignment.com/discussion-questions-pick-2-two-of-the-8-eight-1-what-is-the-significance-of/
The article that you choose can be from any reputable newspaper, magazine, or news website. This current event must be published within the last three months.

From here you will explain the event and use your sociological perspective to analyze this current event. Include a sociological analysis (using at least 4 sociological concepts, definitions, theories, or terms relating to race, gender, or social class from our e-Text).
Your essay will be 2-3 pages in length utilizing APA format.

President Biden, Thousands of Refugees Are Waiting On You
When President Biden took the oath of office, refugees in the U.S. resettlement pipeline felt they finally had some good news. Our client Faida, who fled persecution in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was six months pregnant when she received word that she had met the legal requirements and cleared all background, security and medical checks, and would be allowed to resettle in the United States. https://prohomeworkhelpers.com/2021/06/01/cognition-language-creativity-define-cognition-concept-language-experien/

She even had a plane ticket and was counting the days until she would be in her new home in Pittsburgh, reunited with family and friends.
But President Biden waited too long to sign the documents to restart the refugee program. Faida’s travel date came and went. In the meantime, Faida’s baby was born — a healthy boy who now needs to obtain his own documents in order to be resettled. Like everything in refugee resettlement, this will take time. Meanwhile, Faida continues to wait in an East African refugee camp.

She isn’t alone. More than 715 approved and vetted refugeesLinks to an external site. had their travel plans canceled before President Biden finally acted to revise the refugee capLinks to an external site. for 2021 on May 3, raising the number of refugees the United States would admit to 62,500 from the historic low of 15,000 set by his predecessor. Over the 40-year history of the U.S. refugee resettlement program, average annual admissions targets were 95,000 per year Links to an external site.before plummeting under President Donald Trump. https://homeworkmasterss.com/you-are-being-asked-to-engage-in-a-photovoice-activity-to-document-through-phot/

At a time when the number of displaced people worldwide is the highest it’s ever beenLinks to an external site., we are relieved that President Biden has committed to welcoming more refugees to the United States this year.
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