Wittenberg Writing Center
Application for Employment: 2014-2015

Applicants will be required to interview withcurrent Writing Center advisors and the Writing Center Director. Once we receive your application, an advisor will call or e-mail you to schedule the interview.

Name:______Class:______

Student ID#:______Major:______

Phone:______GPA:______

Email:______English 101 Grade: ______

If you have not yet completed English 101, ask your professor for an estimated grade. If you did not take 101, let us know why. And, if you are a first-year student, put down your high school GPA.

  1. Writing Sample:

Please include with your application a sample of your academic writing, ideally from a class here at Wittenberg (if you have not written many papers yet, you may submit one from a high school course). The sample should be analytical in nature—personal essays, fiction, or poetry are not as appropriate for our purposes (but if you feel an additional piece will showcase something about your abilities as a writer, then please include one). Limit your analytical sample to no more than ten pages.Also include a cover note explaining the prompt for your analytical essay and a brief description of why you chose to submit this paper.

  1. Reference:

Please list a faculty member from Wittenberg who is familiar with your writing and verbal communication skills (be sure that this person is willing to speak about you and your abilities).

We will write the faculty member to ask for the recommendation.

Name DepartmentEmail

______

Your Signature: ______Date: ______

Please note that advisors are usually required to work a minimum of five hours per week. RAs are not eligible to be advisors. Also, we have room for only a dozen or so new advisors next year, so we will be extremely rigorous in our analysis of the applications.

The Writing Center does not discriminate in its hiring practices on the basis of race, gender, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. Please be aware that all application materials are reviewed by Writing Center advisors as well as the director and are kept confidential.

All applications are due by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 17th

Be sure you have completed all four requirements.

3. Questions: Please answer the following questions. Include an additional sheet if necessary.

Given what you know about the Wittenberg Writing Center, what do you believe you would contribute?

What does collaboration mean to you? Do include an example of such work if that helps.

How do you define “good writing”?

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream, and why? (What do you think it says about you as a person?)

What’s a good caption for the following cartoon?

List the extracurricular activities you’re involved with (student government, Greek life, etc.):

4. Paper Response: The following is a prompt for a research essay, for an English 101 class. After that is a draft of a student’s paper, written in response to the prompt.Pretend that a student brought this essay into the Writing Centeron Friday, April 25th, and wants to know if it makes sense and if it satisfies the assignment. What do you think is most important to focus on? How might you approach a conversation with the writer? Please limit your response to approximately one page. (Remember—you’re not writing to the writer, but rather explaining how you would talk with the writer.)

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English 101
Maguire
Research Essay

Your research essay should be a well-written, engaging argument on a topic of your choosing. Remember, you are entering into a conversation about this topic, and the essay will have to summarize what others have said and then clearly indicate where your own thoughts stand in relation to theirs. This paper is about weaving voices together, about contributing your thoughts to a discussion already in progress.[1]

In terms of criteria, remember the course goals for 101:

  • Produce mature, coherent, persuasive prose
  • Make connections between analytical reading and analytical writing
  • Develop ideas thoroughly
  • Use rhetorical strategies appropriate to subject and audience[2]
  • Focus a thesis and support it with well-selected detail
  • Structure an essay by means of well-developed and coherent paragraphs
  • Observe the conventions of written prose
  • Use the library and other research sources appropriately
  • Assess the relevance and validity of sources
  • Use sources ethically and understand the concept of academic integrity.

All of these goals will come together in this paper.

The paper should be ~2000-3000 words, and it needs to include at least five credible sources, two of which need to be peer-reviewed articles. I also urge you to consider other sources: interviews, movies, or surveys, for example. There are many ways to collect information. The essay will include a “Works Cited” or “References” page. Use either APA or MLA for your citations; just be consistent.

Calendar:

Monday, 3/3: List of ideas
Monday, 3/17: Research topic

Wednesday, 4/2: One bibliography entry

Wednesday, 4/9: Annotated bibliography (minimum five entries)

Wednesday, 4/16: Rough draft

Monday, 4/21: Revised rough draft

Monday, 4/28: Research paper due

The Major Hit in the Game

Michael Vick, four time pro bowler, Desean Jackson, Rookie of the Year, and Peyton Manning future Hall of Famer, have received concussions before. They come from a hard blow to the head and that's more common now in football because players hit head to head more often. According to American Medical Society for sports medicine, high school and college football has the highest concussion rates. It has been estimated in the USA 3.8 million concussions occur and 50% are not reported (Harmon pg.17).

Concussions are the NFL's biggest problem right now. The NFL has made changes to decrease this injury by creating new helmets, rules, and tests. Concussions have caused financial troubles and now they are in progress of paying some of the Hall of Famers. According to Nfl.com, a group of ex players agreed to $765 million settlement for a lawsuit over concussions. It's been reported that over 4500 former players are suffering depression. If a concussion is severe, the concussion develops in the brain as a degenerative disease.

According to the Harmon, "concussions are a traumatically transient disturbance of brain function and involves a complex pathophysiological process." It means concussions are a hard blow to the head that the brain goes through a process that can affect the brain. Concussions symptoms are: headaches, nausea, amnesia, balance problems, dizziness, fatigue, irregular sleeping patterns, and increased sadness (Diehl, pg. 89). There are two kinds of concussions; mild or severe. A mild concussion is the shorter version of concussion since it doesn't last as long and the permanent structural damage is severe (Cecile, Roe pg. 1235). Concussions can cause minor but frequent injuries (Cecile, Roe pg. 1235). Post concussion syndrome also known as PCS, requires persistence of at lease three typical symptoms for at least three months, according to the International Classification of Diseases, Version 10 (Cecilie, Roe pg. 1237).

Imagine this, the sound of cheering fans riding over the beating of your own heart as your feet glide across the ground. You have the ball and your team is depending on you, then bang, you're hit hard and you feel only a sharp pain in your head and down your neck. That's what it is like to have a concussion and the NFL is trying to prevent this injury. According to ESPN Commissioner Roger Goddell said, "NFL players can wear a helmet they want as long as it complies with prescribed standards". These helmets include Schott, Xenith, and Rawlings. They are all new helmets to prevent concussions. Also, they changed the kickoff rules in 2011. Kickoffs are now at the 35 yard line that was moved up 5 yards (Lisa Henderson pg. 12). It was accounted 43% decline in concussions (Lisa Henderson pg. 12). Players are also fired or suspended for head to head hits.

Now, when players are hit hard, doctors take them to the locker room to run tests on them before they can return to the field. On YouTube, there are over a thousand videos on big hits. The videos are nothing but hard hitting videos. Many of these people are injured. Some of them suffer concussions from these hits. It has been researched that the NFL knew about players suffering CTE according to PBS. Many players that played with concussions are suffering and paying the consequences now. Mike Webster was a tough player. He played for the Pittsburg Steelers in 1974. He suffered several concussions and played with them. That caused Mike to act different. According to PBS America his wife said "There was this change in his personality where he didn't trust anybody; he felt everybody was out to get him; that wasn't the Mike I knew and loved". Mike died in 2002 and his brain was used for research. For the League of Denial. Mike is just one of many who are suffering the same thing. Dave Duerson was a former Bears player who killed himself and it was discovered he had pain in the left side of the brain (Intil, John pg. 1). Many of the greats have suffered physical pain.

Concussions can change your life. The change it makes is not for the better it makes you much worse. You can suffer memory lost, pain in your brain, nausea, dizziness, and depression. Many of players have died because of this. Concussions are a serious factor that needs to be fixed in the NFL. It's becoming a big risk now for players to step on the field. The NFL should change the rules and make it more serious that if players are hit above the head there will be consequences. The focus needs to be on the players. The NFL needs to be more safe.

Bibliography

Diehl, Erik A, "What's All The Headaches?: Reform Needed to cope with The Effects of concussions In Football". Journal of Law&Health 23.1(2010); 83-124 Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov.2013.

Gove, Jeremy P. "Three and Out: The NFL’s Concussion Liability and How Players can Tackle the problem. "Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment& Technology Law 14.3 (2012): 649-691. Academic Search Complete. Web. Nov.2013.

Harmon, Kimberly G , Jonathan A Drezner, Matthew Gammons, Kevin M Guskiewiez, Mark Halstead, Stanley A Herring, Jeffrey S. Kutcher, Andrea Pana, Margot Putukian, William O Roberts, "American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Position Statement Concussion In Sport. "British Journal of Sports medicine 47.1(2013)15-26. Academic search complete. Feb.6.Nov.2013.

Intini,John "The Sad New Bears" Macleans 124.10(2010):50-52. Academic search complete,web.6.Nov,2013.

Roe,Cecile, Kirstin Alvsaker, Erick Holter."Post Concussions Symptoms After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Influence of Demographic Factors and Injury Severity in a One Year Cohort Study." Disability and Rehabilitation 31.15(2009):1235-1243.Academic search complete,web. 6.Nov.2013.

[1]The essay may use first person at times, and personal experience is a valid type of evidence, but this is not a personal narrative. There is no reason to use “I think” or “I believe.” You can make your own argument known without explicitly crediting yourself.

[2]You should aim to write for a general, college-educated audience for this paper. Should you wish to focus on a more particular audience, let me know.