ESSAY 1: SPACE TRAVEL Prompt: Do you think it is important for people to continue to travel into space? Why or why not?* Write an argumentative essay on the benefits of space travel for humanity’s future. Make sure that you include: - A thesis and strong topic sentence - Conclusion - Evidence and support to back up your three main arguments Ensure that your essay is brief and concise. A specific and intentional essay will score higher than a long and rambling essay. Word limit: 750 words *Attached paragraph is on the next page Benefits of Space Travel During humanity’s existence, a need to develop practical innovations is what caused humanity to make crucial advancements to their society. While some embraced their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, others used their curiosity to, ultimately, become the sole rulers of the planet. As they transition with space travel, they will live in a renewed prosperity, where humanity will again transition to a more advanced age. Overall, it is clear that space travel allows human civilization to progress. Through future discoveries, access to deep-space resources, and the repurposing of space research, humanity would greatly benefit from funding space exploration programs. Space exploration allows humanity to access resources unavailable on Earth. By traveling into space, humans can benefit from its plentiful array of goods. The abundance of natural resources in asteroids, moons, and planets is an alternative to scarce resource development on Earth. On the environment, resource development on Earth will become obsolete, allowing its rare mineral reservoirs to be left untouched, a positive byproduct that will reverse the effects of climate change on Earth. Although the initial push to land on, and reasonably gather, space minerals is a prominent challenge, completing this crucial step will mean surplus materials for future technological advancements. Such gathering operations will overall lower the costs of rare earth minerals while adding no weight on carbon emissions. The discovery of large coal sites, for example, have driven down its cost tremendously. Moreover, through deep space harvesting, a larger body of the world’s population can be easily supported. Though not through agricultural innovations, technologies can tear the world’s digital divide. Tearing inequality through access to the media, therefore, will give people access to more information. Overall, humans can look forward to accessing heaps of untouched resources - beginning with space travel missions in their solar system. Along with a high resource capital in space, humans can look forward to their conceptual understanding of the universe because of their thirst for universal knowledge. Naturally, humans are curious beings that will use their intellect to understand the world around them. Even though resources are a trivial motive for space exploration, the opportunity to understand what is unknown to them is, arguably, more enticing. Space exploration propels novel research, such as the study of extraterrestrial life or water’s existence on other planets, which is still largely unknown. With space exploration rovers like Curiosity or Perseverance collect meaningful data on the questions humanity poses, giving them insights into what space is like. Without this research, humans will have a limited understanding of the universe without gathering data from other planets. It is essential for humans to expand their knowledge outside Earth’s scope, which involves research and data collection in outer space. Finally, spaced-related innovations can be effortlessly repurposed into mainstream society. While collecting information in outer space, many space-related inventions benefit life on Earth, take droughts as an example. Humans are able to detect solar and lunar eclipses, droughts, and weather patterns because machinery is sent out into space to survey the Earth’s surface. Many of these inventions help millions gain access to food, water, and other basic needs. From a vantage point, weather surveying devices determine where a drought will hit, and warn local farmers to stockpile their food, potentially saving dozens of lives that would otherwise be affected by the drought. Overall, many space inventions are repurposed towards life on Earth, exemplifying how space travel directly impacts millions of people. The agricultural revolution started because human curiosity wanted to grow past their hunter gatherer ancestors. As humanity transitions to space travel, the same rules still apply. Space exploration will overall benefit life on Earth through increased resource development and sustainability, knowledge of the universe, and repurposed space inventions. Personal Feedback: - Use some rebutting statements, and ensure that sentences are more varied - Writing is still choppy. Ensure that you add longer and varied sentences and appropriate transitions to tie ideas together - In the first body paragraph please elaborate on why harvesting resources is beneficial. The amount of support evidence used is superficial: Earth is left untouched, but what else? - Longer transition words should not be divided by a comma - There is a lot of verbosity in your writing that begs to be shortened. A lot of the clarifying phrases contain hyphens or colons to separate them from the main sentence. These phrases, however, do not add anything to your writing. Johnson's Feedback (The Position Paper): - Introduction is good, hit all the key points. Ensure that you state your perspective as, "after considering both sides, one should embrace the perspective the source provides." - Body paragraphs have good info but they are not fully developed. Write some more! Add some more details, perhaps you should always add a second example to each body paragraph. Aim for 10-12 sentences. - Mention a specific case study to strengthen the credibility of your argument - Lastly, develop your conclusion, you have adequately summarized everything but the conclusion should be 6 sentences or more. Peer Feedback (Ian Thompson): - 1. Do not let the reader assume anything about your essay, or in other words, be clear! Shooting it back to Earth is informal and vague in itself. - 2. Using cliche words like "our ancestors" is very unoriginal - 3. Vary sentence structure, as if you are presenting a speech. - 4. Start the essay off with a different analogy. The reader could get easily confused by the discussion on agriculture, letting the reader get the false impression that the author disagrees with space travel. However false this may be, the essay would benefit from either discussing the transition period, or adding the analogy rationale after solidifying the author’s bias. ESSAY 2: 10-1 SOURCE ANALYSIS PARAGRAPH AND RELATIONSHIPS Source I is a political cartoon depicting a consumer, in a developed country, taking a closer look at the back of the price tag. In the background, an abundance of same-sized shirts hang in the background along with a bolded “Sale” sign. Having a sign in the background exemplifies the consumer demand around cheaper pricing, which demonstrates the negative impacts on sweatshops have within a developing country’s working class. The sign itself can also be alluded to TNCs and subsidiaries, who jump between overseas manufacturing opportunities in search for efficiency, and cheap labor costs. The price tag, labeled as “60% cotton, 20% sweat, and 20% blood”, which directly refers to the universal quote “blood, sweat, and tears”, indicates the physical harm sweatshop management puts their workers through. The tag’s symbolism to the famous quote would likely agree with the phrase “Made in Bangladesh” plastered at the bottom as both agree that the free market, an opportunity of economic globalization, has connected cheap, outsourced labor to European and North American free markets. The tag could also be related to the effects of trade liberalization because the lifting of tariffs, catalyzed by institutions like the WTO or WB, promote developing countries to gain financial loans and their development through TNC outsourcing. As a result, the prevalence of free trade has directly led to the blood and sweat caused by global demand for TNC goods for the cost of their country’s economic benefits. Overall, the source illustrates the detrimental effects free trade and outsourced labor have on a developing country’s working class, being depicted through the “20% blood and 20% sweat” on the tag. As displayed in the source, its irony indicates that the source has a critical perspective on economic globalization, and the effects trade liberalization has on foreign investment into sweatshops. This perspective relates to economic globalization because outsourced sweatshop labor is a direct product of globalization, and the removal of tariffs between nations. Therefore, believes that cheap labor is a net negative to free trading agreements brought on by economic globalization. Source II is a quote by Maude Barlow from the Council of Canadians. The source begins by addressing how the WB and IMF have facilitated th\e expansion of private water companies, many of whom operate overseas. It states that dominant water-based TNCs plan to merge the world’s “water delivery and wastewater systems' ', which demonstrates how the promotion of free trade has caused the world’s water providers to monopolize their products for profit gains. The source continues by depicting the merger company as expanding into foreign markets within developing countries and exploiting their debt-stricken economies in order for them to meet their criteria. For example, the source continues to illustrate that a company will intentionally price hike their products, based on a full-cost recovery policy, for a profit motive. It is clear that this TNC’s perspective aligns with the values of the WB and IMF, who give loans to HIPCs to meet their democratic and anti-corruption criteria. Critics of the IMF say that their short term financial loans come with backhand costs, and harsh agreements, similar to a TNC water company giving water to the wealthy class of citizens. Furthermore, the expansion of TNCs into foreign markets is a prime example of trade liberalization, as well as global policies like the GATT, who aim to increase trade by reducing tariffs. Trade liberalization is a product of economic globalization, and that implementing a flowing economy has led to a deregulated global economy, giving rise to privatized companies to move into third world markets. The source’s description of local governments abandoning their domestic water services exemplifies the effects of a deregulated economy, which pushes institutions such as the CIDA out of the global market in favor of competitive merging companies. In consequence, local governments cannot sustain their domestic produce, which indicates that environmental sustainability, in a primarily free trade economy, is not effective. Overall, the source is depicting the harm deregulation and privatization have on competitive transnational corporations to the detriment of the poorer classes within HIPCs. As a result, this source criticizes the expansion of free trade due to economic globalization. The source’s discussion of the WB and IMF on influencing HIPC markets relates to economic globalization because both institutions embrace increased trade by letting developing countries embrace TNCs, such as Vivendi, to put the HIPC out of poverty. Trade liberalization also connects to economic globalization because it encourages a developed country to import products from foreign countries, such as NAFTA. Both Source I and Source II answer the question: To what extent should the expansion of TNCs as a product of economic globalization be embraced in contemporary society? Source I is a political cartoon that underlines the drawbacks of cheap pricing, discusses the critical aspect of TNCs in the free global market because of the unethical overworking standards outsourced labor has to make to keep up with consumer demand. It examines the global WTO and WB institutions as helping propel the development of outsourced labor and global deregulation. The emphasis on sales and cheap pricing is juxtaposed with the harsh conditions sweatshop workers face, exemplifying the source’s critical behavior on the true cost of cheap outsourced labor. The higher standard of living the consumer should receive from low pricings is not evident, depicted by the consumer’s shocked expression, also illustrating the author’s distaste in sweatshop labor. By showing a shocked expression, the consumer is conveying the critical perspective the author feels. The sweatshop worker’s pain to meet global demands is most likely heard by other consumers who can read behind the label, showcasing the author’s negative perspective on TNC business decisions. Source II is a quote by Maude Barlow that embraces the ideas of Source I by also criticizing the role of TNCs on a consumer’s standard of living in developing countries. It says how TNC mergers result in worse off HIPCs, or the poorest of the poor countries, forced to abandon domestic products by the IMF's demands for debt alleviation. Therefore, the perspective believes that TNCs have caused inequality and domestic job loss due to increased competition and free trade in a globalized economy. Source I is what happens when society embraces Source II’s depiction of economic globalization. Source II exemplifies how globalization has caused an HIPC's population cut off from water as a basic resource because of external TNC price hikes from increased competition in the developing country. The expansion of TNCs to foreign markets can lead to trade liberalization and finally outsourced labor, described in Source I as the blood and sweat labeled on the Made in Bangladesh. Personal Feedback: - Add inventive analysis to your work. Maybe because this quote is about outsourcing, talk about maquiladoras or China Blue, not as a case study (never add examples), but as evidence to what the author is referring to. - Always give a small ‘compound-complex sentence’ description every time you use an acronym. Descriptions force you to use Social Studies jargon only sparingly. Although including these terms might add breadth to your work, too much however, and without detail, is suffocating. ESSAY 3: ASSIGNMENT 1 - MOCK THREE SOURCE ANALYSIS Source 1 “Water for profit takes several forms. Backed by the World Bank and the IMF, a handful of transnational corporations are seeking to cartelize [combine forces to control] the world’s water delivery and wastewater systems. Already, Vivendi and Suez of France deliver private water services to more than 200 million customers in 150 countries. Now they are moving into new markets in the [less developed] world, where debt-struck governments are forced to abandon public water services and hand over control of water supplies to for-profit interests. These companies have huge profits, charge higher prices for water, and cut off customers who cannot pay… Based on the policy known as full-cost recovery (charging for the full cost of water, including profits for shareholders), the water companies are able to impose rate hikes that are devastating to millions of poor people who are forced to use cholera-laced water systems instead…” -Maude Barlow Council of Canadians, “The Tide is High,” The Guardian, February 26, 2003 Source 2 - Source 3 - All three sources answer the question of to what extent should free trade in economic globalization override the sustainable development and stewardship found in local communities. Source one believes that TNCs should not be embraced in comparison to local domestic products. The source’s analogy of D-Day indicates that the expansion of TNCs into foreign markets has dramatically hurt the standard of living of the locals, as seen by their scared looks, which causes its perspective to mainly criticize TNCs. Source two agrees with the perspective of source one by using irony to discuss the negative effects of economic globalization on Earth’s sustainable development. Its irony serves to illustrate how irrelevant free trade and foreign investment is once sustainable efforts are not provided. The benefits from economic globalization seem to overtake the sustainability of the globe, just like in Source one, yet it also concludes with the demise of the global population. Source three is also with the perspectives of Sources one and two on criticizing economic globalization’s impacts on global sustainability and well-being. Using irony to state how crown corporations are taking advantage of outsourcing to expand its influence gives it a condescending tone towards global trade. By using China as an example, the source’s perspective states that the transportation of cheap commodities through increased globalization is not going to help settle a country’s disputes. As a result, the source is criticizing the necessity of free trade and global superpowers trying to help developing countries. Source II is what happens when society embraces the perspectives in Source I and III. Source I illustrates the outcome of domestic manufacturing being destroyed by foreign goods, and Source III embraces the same perspective by exemplifying the physical destruction of HIPCs once free trade gives countries like China access to a developing country’s wealth. As a result, the thirst for power, prestige, and monetary gains causes lower environmental sustainability if left unchecked, as described in Source II, where cities are left plundered from their overproduction of free trade goods. Overall, embracing free trade will lead to long term climate change problems. Source III and Source II also agree with each other’s perspectives on the extent to which countries value environmental stewardship. Source II examines how China is focused on overseas gains in oil over its damaging effects on the environment. Source III traces China’s future once increased trade liberalization, the removal of tariffs by global trading agreements, causes nonrenewable resources and natural disasters to take over cities and towns. ESSAY 4: ASSIGNMENT 1 - THREE SOURCE ASSIGNMENT (~1500 words) Source I is a political cartoon expressing the extent to which globalization affects the spread of pandemics. In the source, it depicts viruses labeled “SARS” being seen parading over their creation of a successful pandemic. To the right, one of the viruses can be seen holding up the globe, showing how globalization, and specifically the migration of global citizens, plays a role in the spread of disease. The source explains the trend that increased global trade, between the developing and developed country markets, subsequently causes increased contact between other nations, leading to a pandemic outbreak. Pandemics are being expressed in the form of the SARS virus, which seems to believe that globalization allows a virus to rightfully proliferate at the expense of individual, global citizens’ lives. At the center of the globe, text can be seen reading “modern global mobility”, which displays how increased global trade and migration of low pay workers, or other citizens, has been the root cause of pandemics. The correlation between the globe being held up and its respective text alludes to the increase in free trade through a decrease in privatization and a counteracting increase in trade liberalization. These free trade forces have caused a greater interconnection of the world, and as a result, they have a greater chance of carrying foreign diseases to developing and developed countries alike. Furthermore, the source portrays the SARS virus as chanting the words “it’s a small world after all”, which is a direct allusion to a famous Disney phrase describing our global village as a “small world”. The allusion indicates that economic globalization has caused the world to become one “global village”, where diseases can easily spread because international free trade causes the world’s citizens to be increasingly interconnected to foreign-made goods. Contributing to the “small world” quote, TNCs are an alarming factor towards globalization. As TNCs capitalize on profits and cheaper labor, some of them are also unintentionally facilitating the spread of diseases within their sweatshops, which can then spread to developed countries to purchase TNC-made goods. TNCs, in the end, equally contribute to the increase in global mobility along with global migrants, because of their sheer influence on the global free trade market. The source relates to economic globalization because the SARS pandemic was caused by global migration and economic globalization of migrants, which is symbolized by the SARS virus holding up the world and praising globalization. The source relates to today’s global situation as the much more destructive virus COVID-19 quickly spread globally as a result of air travel and global migration. Overall, the source is criticizing economic globalization for causing more global pandemics, and the action of holding up the globe implies that the author believes that economic globalization is held responsible for the SARS pandemic. Source II is a political cartoon about how globalization affects the quality of life of refugee camps. The source depicts a vast array of tents with an enclosed border labeled “Refugee Camp”, which alludes to the process of migration where many low wage workers and refugees migrate towards developing nations in search of basic necessities or a better standard of living. The refugee camp serves as a symbol for poverty, partially because of an increased demand for sweatshop labor following subsequent global demand for cheaply-made goods and unskilled jobs. Furthermore, one of the tents is seen as an open book at the center of the cartoon. By portraying one of the tents as an open book, the source is suggesting that humanitarian aid, by global non-profit organizations such as UNICEF which is a UN agency, is helping refugees develop their literacy rates and access to education, which the book symbolizes. In the future, increasing a refugee’s access to education will cause higher employment within a developing country’s knowledge economy, and will cause them to have a higher GDP per capita and quality of life overall. However, the book, which symbolizes increased literacy rates and humanitarian aid for refugees, can be seen standing alone in a vast sea of monotonous refugee tents. The author, therefore, believes that the humanitarian aid refugees get from NGOs and nonprofits is extremely minimal when compared to the amount of migration from economic globalization. The book’s title reads “Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response”, which can be described as an increase in the quality of life for one of the many refugees living in the camp. The title establishes the author's critical perspective on humanitarian organizations, who they believe are doing the “minimum standards” needed to support the basic necessities of refugees. The source relates to economic globalization because the migration of laborers from developing to developed countries, and foreign aid investment into refugee camps, is directly caused by economic globalization. Overall, the author maintains their critical views on economic globalization, pointing to increased refugee migration and lazy humanitarian aid to the effects of economic globalization. Source III is a political cartoon discussing the shifts of quality of life in third world countries. The cartoon features contrasting images between a father and son, who, compared to the 1950s, is wearing a Nike shirt, while the wife in the background has bought clothing from a fast fashion industry. Both the clothing and consumer spending choices exemplify the presence of economic globalization and TNCs in influencing the foreign goods developed nations purchase. As Nike is a clear symbol of outsourcing, the cartoonist aims to establish the expansion of international trade where consumer spending is not found within the 1950s panel. Furthermore, the man can be seen saying contrasting ideas to his son, such as how the citizens of China and India have gone from starving to studying. Because of the evidence of increased consumer spending, TNC brands, and globalization, the author intends to connect the rise in the quality of life of developing nations to globalization. The contrast remains clear within the family’s lifestyle, where they were once eating domestically-produced food to shop from foreign brands, exemplified by the son’s earphones and mother’s spending powers. In the source, it mainly argues that the standard of living, and lifestyle, of both developing and developed nations has drastically improved because of economic globalization. While the son has access to foreign brands and interconnected technologies, the students in China and India have higher literacy rates because of higher education accessibility, and therefore, leading to a higher HDI and a prosperous lifestyle in the knowledge economy. As the students in developing countries have access to education, they can quickly get out of poverty, as the man hints, and then use their expertise to become middle or high class citizens. The cartoon’s implied meaning of an increased HDI in developing countries, and a higher quality of life, are all products of international trade and economic globalization, as the cartoonist argues. Overall, the cartoon is embracing the effects of economic globalization on increasing the HDIs of developing nations. Collectively, all three sources address the question of to what extent does globalization provide humanitarian opportunities to the quality of life of developing countries. Source I is a political cartoon discussing how SARS takes advantage of an economically globalized world where the source’s perspective criticizes international citizens for not addressing the long-term impacts of pandemics because of global transportation and mobility. Source II is another political cartoon portraying humanitarian aid in refugee camps, and presents the perspective that the response towards a refugee’s lower standard of living by humanitarian organizations and non-government organizations, NGOs, is ineffective towards their quality of life in the grand scheme of things. Source III compares developing countries during the 1950s to today where it depicts globalization as a force that supports the quality of life of the poor or middle class within countries such as China and India, which is mainly because of its effect on the support and transportation of goods and services by NGOs. Source I and II agree with the challenges of globalization for which society has to adequately respond to. Source I displays the ease for pandemics such as SARS to spread across continents with access to global migration and the transportation of goods. Although Source II also agrees with how globalization poses challenges for low class migrant workers and global citizens, it differs from Source I by explaining the drawbacks of humanitarian aid on a refugee’s quality of life, whereas Source I focuses on the spread of epidemics. Source I and Source III differ on opinions. Source III views globalization in a positive light because it illustrates how the global consciousness for democratic rights and freedoms in developing countries, for example, has raised the quality of life of third world countries, being comparable to the Charter rights the boy automatically obtains. Source I, on the other hand, criticizes globalization for causing the SARS virus to take a free ride in infecting the population because global trade and trade liberalization is encouraging the spread of diseases. Source II and III share different contrasting opinions on how society responds to the effects of globalization. Source II displays a vast array of refugee tents caused by an increase in migration and global travel. The source continues to describe how the total aid given is a small fraction of the amount of migrants seeking their basic necessities. Source III, therefore, describes a father discussing the beneficial impacts of globalization as citizens in China and India, for example, have a comparable quality of life and individual rights and freedoms, to the son. ESSAY 5: ASSIGNMENT 1 - THREE SOURCE ASSIGNMENT (minimum of ~1 page) “Television brings to the peoples of the Middle East a previously unknown spectacle - that of lively and vigorous public disagreement and debate. In some places, young people even watch Israeli television. In addition to seeing well-known Israeli public figures ‘banging the table and screaming at each other’, they sometimes even see Israeli Arabs arguing in the Knesset, denouncing Israeli ministers and policies — on Israeli television. The spectacle of a lively, vibrant, rowdy democracy at work, notably the unfamiliar sight of unconstrained, uninhibited, but orderly argument between conflicting ideas and interests, is having an impact.” — Bernard Lewis, May 1, 2005 Taken together, all three sources provide critical perspectives on the question of to what extent does economic globalization affect the quality of life of global citizens. Source I is a description of the effects technologies and foreign media have on Middle Eastern societies, and depicts television as having a negative influence on the traditional etiquette and customs of the Muslim majority. The television’s display of “live, vibrant, [and] rowdy democracy at work” illustrates how globalization undermines and assimilates a society’s culture into the most dominant and globalized power. Source II discusses a contrast between the wants and needs of TNCs and sweatshop laborers, and it displays the harmful effects of economic globalization on the quality of life of third world laborers who often have to work for long hours with low wages to meet global demands. Source III envisions the world being carved up by the major TNCs, which says how the national sovereignty and domestic production has been wiped off by the sheer dominance of TNCs on the global market. Source I and II are in agreement with the effects of TNCs and technological advancements on individual quality of life. The first source describes that Middle Eastern countries are being exposed to actions from foreign media that break Middle Eastern customs. The second source is in agreement with economic globalization as a threat towards the identities of the citizens in third world countries, which is symbolized by the businessman’s illogical response to “Third World Labor”. However, both sources differ in which individuals are affected the most by international trade and technological advancements. While Source I takes on the perspective of everyday Middle Eastern citizens, with a high standard of living, because of their technological access, Source II focuses on “Third World Laborers” who are forced to work in sweatshops for low wages. Source I and III share similar views about globalization, yet they differ in their stance on how society should respond. Source I critiques increased globalization for letting citizens learn from Westernized trends as more Middle Eastern citizens gain access to technology, exemplified by a digital divide. Source III, on the other hand, depicts the dissolution of society entirely, rather than the individual, because of a select few multinational corporations. Source III is what happens when the perspectives in Source II are fully embraced. Source II exemplifies that TNCs need sweatshop laborers to keep up with consumer demand in developing countries. As the businessman is trying to gather the employment of low-skilled labor, this ironic action states how trade liberalization, or free trade, has caused the appearance of large TNCs. Source II depicts the outcome of letting multinational companies compete for profits, as they have taken over domestic production and have replaced it with cheap, labor-intensive production. “Source I is a political cartoon by Bernard Lewis about the effects of media through economic globalization on a citizen’s social aspects. The source begins by discussing that television was once a commodity to the Middle East. From the source’s perspective, it is clear that economic globalization has lowered the cost of electronics through the business decisions and innovation behind TNCs, and their employment of low-skilled workers in sweatshop factories. The source continues to depict the loss of culture and quality of life when Middle Eastern citizens are exposed to the globalized media that undermines the customs established by the Middle Eastern way of life. The author, therefore, believes that putting technological advancements into the hands of a few TNCs, or the expansion of the free trade market and blocs themselves, are negatively affecting the more isolated populations. Furthermore, the source also talks about…, which demonstrates the author’s distaste for the social norms that rivaling Israeli television is giving towards the Muslim image and customs. By importing foreign-made products over introducing domestic ones to the general public, TNCs, their subsidiaries, and the collective identities of citizens will be easily affected by international trade, which is focused on the profit motive. The author in this source implies the presence of a profit motive through the expansion of technology and Israeli television into newer, developing markets such as the Middle East. As a result, the author believes that the need for competition and profits by lowering prices, making technological communication systems accessible to Middle Eastern citizens, will contribute to individual freedoms exemplified by the “spectacle of a lively, vibrant, [and] rowdy democracy at work”… Finally, the source discusses… The source’s perspective relates to globalization because of… Overall…”
