Grant Schulz

Due to all of the recent severe concussions in the National Football League, what can be done to help keep the players safer?

1.

A History of Violence

Taibbi, Matt. "A History of Violence."Rolling Stone, 1119 (2010): 32.

The article discusses an increase which has been seen in concussions among football players in the National Football League. In the article the author offers his opinions on the increase, on a willingness to accept serious injuries which is seen among football fans and on changes which have been seen in the athletic ability of football players in the NFL.  This article will be of use to me to explore how serious injuries are dealt with and the changes that are currently being made to help improve player safety.

2.

Austin Collie Clears His Head

Layden, Tim. "Austin Collie Clears His Head." Sports Illustrated, 114.18 (2011): 56-59.

This article is about a current NFL player, Austin Collie, who suffered two concussions last season alone.  It goes over all of the rehab and tests he had to take to be able to play again.  It will be a very helpful article to me because it provides a players perspective and insight to the world of concussions.  One of the most controversial topics is how to tell when a player doesn’t have concussion symptoms and can resume playing.  It is so controversial because players can easily lie about their symptoms just to return back to the game without considering the long term affects.

3.

Does Football Have a Future?

McGrath, Ben. "Does Football Have a Future?." New Yorker, 86.46 (2011): 41-51.

The article discusses head injuries and concussions among football players in the U.S. National Football League and rising public awareness of the dangers associated with the violence of the sport. Emphasis is given to the efforts of journalist Alan Schwarz in bringing media and public attention to football-related injuries such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Other topics include reforms to the game, helmet technology, and the future of the NFL.  This article will be most valuable to me for its new ideas on equipment technology and ways they are improving gear the players wear.

4.

Heads Up!

"HEADS UP!." State Legislatures, 37.2 (2011): 21.

An interview with Roger Goodell, eighth chief executive in the National Football League, is presented. When asked why the NFL is working with congress on a law dealing with youth sports concussions, he answers that concussions are an important public health concern and they can work together to make sports safer. He mentions three core principles in the law, including educating athletes and parents about concussions, removal from play of an athlete who may have a concussion and allowing him to return only after clearance from a doctor.  This document will be of value to me to see what the commissioner of the National Football League is doing to confront the ever so serious issues of concussions.

Assignment 4

Some questions from Brysons essay that made me inquire was when he made things that we see in our everyday life seem so simple.  It made me think a lot about all of the things that I take for granted in my everyday life.  It wasn't something that was totally over my head in a scholarly way or anything, but something that I could relate to.  That's what really made it easy and interesting for me to inquire more about the story.

1.  Should professional athletes be forced to donate a sum of their salary to charities?

2.  Should there be a salary cap in Major League Baseball?

3.  How have cell phones changed the way we communicate today?

4.  How have smart phones changed the business world with creating hundreds of thousands of apps?

5.  What are different resources we can use to power automobiles?

6.  How can we stop, or slow down, illegal immigration into the United States?

Assignment 3

Bill Bryson is an American author who has written many of books in his time.  He has spent most of his time living in England, and his books cover the topics of travel, science, and the english language.

The origin of Bryson's project entitled At Home, comes from when Bryson found a small passage way in his attic that led to a small patio that overlooked a small town in England with many churches.  He then fastforwards to when he is with a friend of his who is an archeologist and Bryson begins questioning him about all the churches in the area.  His friend began to point out to him many different things that Bryson had never noticed before, even though he lived there for many years.  I believe this made Bryson consider all of the ordinary things in his home that he didn't know much about and took for granted.  Like why are salt and pepper found in nearly everyones household instead of all the other thousands of spices there are available to us.  This led Bryson to go room to room in his house and write a history of the world without leaving his house.

I believe this definitely represents inquiry on his part.  He mentions that whatever happens in the world somehow ends up in our home, from every piece of furniture, to the pipes in our floors and walls.  I feel that we overlook just about everything that we use on a day to day basis because we are so used to our own personal routine.  Every item has come from someone's idea in the past and has evolved into what it is today.

Assignment 2

The essay "Building a Mystery" by Robert Davis and Mark Shadle provides alternative ways to compose a research paper.  They argue that there is more ways to write a "research paper" other than the ways textbooks and our teachers have taught us in the past.  On page 419 of their essay, they talk about how a research assignment teaches a student to only produce an assignment without really thinking about it.  What I take from this statement is something that I myself am guily of.  Just researching a topic and getting enough information to fill up the page, but never really taking a deep look into everything I just researched and truly forming my own opinion on the topic.  This is the easy way out of writing an essay and I know that I'm not the only one who is guilty of doing this on a few assignments.  I feel that this is the reason why they are arguing about the ways to write a research paper.  They say that facts and expository writing have limits and you can only inquire so much.  They believe that there should be deeper inquiry, with no limits at all, and I agree with their opinion.  I believe that they think their model for research essays is "better" because it allows their students to use multiple genres to incorporate different ideas into their projects.  They do this by using multi-genre/media/disciplinary/cultural research based projects.  It said that they have had people turn projects in that incorporated video clips, visual arts, and my personal favorite example was of the student who brought a project in the back of a pickup truck.  From a students perspective, I feel like we're all afraid of the word "research paper", everyone dreads it.  It just seems like a long 10 page paper that no one wants to write.  But using these different methods to create a research paper would allow people to think differently than they have with previous papers that they've had to write.  I feel that using these different strategies to analyze research gives us more diverse ideas as students, and it has no boundaries.

Assignment 1

In the essay, The Media Affecting Teenage Rebellion, the main research question that was asked was how does manipulation with the media shape teens rebellious behavior.  I find this a very interesting question after just living as an adolescent for the past 5 years of my life and never really thinking about what influences the decisions that I was making.  As the writer talks about in this paper, I would say the two groups with the greatest on me would be my family and my group of close friends.  I say these two groups because they are the ones I spend the most time with and they are the people who are closest to me.  I never took account to the other factors such as media.  No matter what, we are around certain types of media all the time.  Whether it is from TV, magazine, newspaper, internet, etc.  All of these different types of media portray a certain image that teens really follow.  They have such a great influence over these young kids if they see their favorite celebrity or sports player wearing a certain brand or using a certain product.
I like the way the author of this paper explored both sides of rebellion, stating that not all rebellion is bad and that it can be positive as well.  The line that stuck out to me was continuing your own practice and having individual stands and thoughts is not wrong, but an essential part of life.  This essay a nice job of going over the things we went over in class.  For example, having a solid thesis statement and backing it up, keeping the reader informed about both sides of the story, and using primary sources to support their ideas.