Essay

Chose a topic from this week's written assignment choices. The minimum length for the written assignment is 400 to 500 words. Written assignments are due by midnight EST on the fifth day of the week.

The purpose of the written assignments is to further your knowledge of the topics you have been reading about and discussing this week with your peers. Please be sure to thoroughly address any questions posed in the assignment. In addition to the requirements stated in each assignment, your responses should reflect college level writing standards: proper sentence format, syntax, grammar, spelling and punctuation.

===================================================================================

Choice 1 - Written Assignment

Koppelman declares that “negative bureaucratic terms” are potentially more harmful than derisive social labels (2008, p. 17). Review the sample list of these terms on page 17 in the text, then do the following:

1. Research an example of this language in a government report, a scholarly study, a textbook, a census, or a documentary, and discuss your example. What group of people does your example address? What types of phrases are used to describe them?

2. Research the group of people addressed in your example. What is their current socioeconomic status? Are they well-received and respected members of the society in which they live?

3. Compare 1 and 2, above: does the type of language you find in your example match the kind of standing and/or prosperity the group has in society? Based on your findings, would you say that Koppelman’s theory about negative bureaucratic terms is correct or incorrect? Why?

#

Choice 2 - Written Assignment

Choice 2:

Cultural Images: Discussing a Historical Example of an American Stereotype

The 1923 news item below appeared in the March 3 issue of Time magazine; it concerns a Congressional proposal to honor black women of the Old South.

Instructions for this week's Choice 2...