Terrorism and its Impacts to the Economy
Writing Assignment #3 will be a personal research narrative essay, which sometimes is referred to as an “I-Search” paper.
Courses that fulfill the General Education Requirements (GERs) at UMUC all have a common theme—technological transformations. In following this theme in WRTG 291, we will continue writing on issues of technological impact on society.
Background to this Essay:
In many classes in the past, you might have been instructed never to use the word “I” in your writing. However, throughout this class, in both the response essay and the reflective annotated bibliography, you have been instructed that the use of the word “I” was totally acceptable, even encouraged. In this essay, this use of first-person point of view continues. This essay is a research essay in which you use the word “I.”
Ken Macrorie, a professor at Western Michigan University, wrote a textbook in 1980 called The I-Search Paper. In the book, Macrorie criticized traditional research papers that students were often asked to produce in classes. He designed, instead, a type of research paper that asked students to use the first-person point of view (“I”) in their papers, encouraged them to explore topics that were of interest to them, and required that they comment on their research journey in finding sources and information on their topics as much as on any arguments or conclusions they were making on their topics.
This writing assignment in WRTG 291 is informed by Macrorie's approach, although it does not involve all elements of the research process he asked for.
In the e-reserves section of our class, you will find a chapter from Linda Bergmann, “Writing a Personal Research Narrative.” Please access that chapter.
In that chapter, please read “The Personal Research (‘I Search') Paper,” starting on page 160.
On page 160, Bergmann (2010) writes:
Although an I-Search assignment calls for a personal narrative, like most academic writing it is written to communicate to a particular audience, not for the writer alone. Its purpose is to help you discover and communicate the personal and professional significance of your research to a particular audience.
Moreover, pages 161-162 in Bergmann's chapter list some steps to take in organizing and preparing to write your paper.
Sample Personal Research Narrative Essays:
On pages 162-166 of Bergmann's chapter is a sample personal research narrative essay.
Another sample I-Search paper can be seen by clicking here, although this example has fewer sources and fewer scholarly sources than this assignment calls for.
Moving from the Reflective Annotated Bibliography to the Personal Research Narrative:
For writing assignment #2, you wrote a reflective annotated bibliography on a topic related to technology. In that assignment, for each of the articles you found, you wrote not only a précis of the article but also some vocabulary, reflection, and quotes from the article.
Hopefully through that assignment, you developed an interest in a focused aspect of your topic. The following describe some examples of focusing your topic:
You may have conducted research on whether Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are effective classroom environments. For writing assignment #2, you may have found 5-6 articles on MOOCs in general.
Perhaps, as a result of your findings, you have now done more research and have focused on MOOCs for a particular field of study (e.g., computer programming or creative writing). You then found more articles related to not only MOOCs but also MOOCs for learning computer programming or MOOCs for learning creative writing.
You may have conducted research on cybersecurity. For writing assignment #2, you may have found 5-6 articles on cybersecurity as a broad topic.
Perhaps, as a result of your findings, you have now done more research and have focused on cybersecurity and mobile devices. You then found more articles related to not only cybersecurity as a general topic but specifically on cybersecurity and mobile devices.
You may have conducted research on technology in the health care industry. For writing assignment #2, you may have found 5-6 articles on technology in the health care industry.
Perhaps, as a result of your findings, you have now done more research and have focused on the cloud computing in the health care industry. You then found more articles specifically on this topic.
It is this research experience on which you will write the personal research narrative.
Examining the Sample Personal Research Narrative in Bergmann's Chapter:
Note how, in the sample student personal research narrative on page 162, the student begins by providing the background that gave him interest in the topic. He then discusses his first steps in researching the topic. As he describes his steps in the research process, he uses expressions like, “I was astounded by…” or “This idea seemed valid to me, but…” or “…let me to wonder…” or “At this point in my exploration I have come up with a slight dilemma.”
For your personal research narrative, you want to follow the same pattern. Describe to the reader what you thought when you started researching, what you already knew about the subject, what interested you in the subject, etc. Then describe your various steps, commenting on what surprised you, what ideas did not seem valid to you, what research articles you may have questioned, etc.
You might consider your response essay, which was the first essay you wrote for this class. The personal research narrative is, in some ways, an expanded response essay. In the personal research narrative, you may be responding to several authors while providing a narrative of your thought process and learning process throughout your research journey.
Requirements:
Your paper should be 1800-2400 words. It should include at least ten sources, six of which should be scholarly. The sources are to be cited and listed in APA format.
Additional resources:
In our class, in the e-reserves section, we have a chapter from the book by Graff, G. and Birkenstein, C, They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. The chapter mentions various techniques to apply in stating what an author said and your response to the author. As was recommended for the response essay, it is recommended that you read through that chapter so that you might apply these techniques to this essay.
Submitting the assignment:
Please post a rough draft of your Personal Research Narrative essay as your instructor directs you by the due date your instructor provides. After receiving feedback on your response essay, please use the comments from your instructor to help you to assess your own rough draft.
Please post your subsequent draft of the Personal Research Narrative as your instructor directs you. The number of drafts you write will depend on your instructor's arrangement as well as your timeliness in submitting the assignment.
When I started researching about terrorism, I had little ideas on what terrorism really is. To me terrorism just meant a group of people who aim at destruction of property in order to fulfill their own selfish gains. I knew that people engage in terrorism only for political reasons and that terrorist activities were done only internationally. I thought nationals of a certain country could not perpetrate the acts of terror within their own country but outside their country.
I was interested about the subject because cases of terrorism have increased in the recent past. It has reached a point where acts of terror are no longer unique acts, but are expected even as people carry out their day to day activities. Most governments have tried to tackle the issue of terrorism in their respective nations but have ended up a little successful. I, therefore, carried out research to find the causes, effects and solutions to terrorism.
I started by finding out the causes of terrorism and how they are related to technology. One major reason is because the terrorists are not easy to track and understand (Malisow & French, 2008). With the advancement of technology, I that it could be a tool of surveillance of the trends of terrorists. However, the terrorists themselves use it as a weapon to watch and a weapon to attack when people are unaware.
Before fully understanding the causes, I sought to find out the definition of terrorism. In the book Understanding Terrorism, Martin describes terrorism as a well-planned attack which is politically motivated and could be done by civilians of a certain country or the civilians in conjunction with the people from other countries that support their acts and they mostly attack unprepared groups of people within the country who may be unarmed at that given time. The significant groups which practice the acts of terrorism are called the terrorists (Martin, 2006). The definition of terrorism surprised me because I initially thought that terrorists came only from outside the country yet they could be within the country being terrorized.
Terrorism seemed to be a well-planned attack to me, Hoffman, therefore, confirmed this in his book where he wrote that terror attacks are well planned. Since politics trigger the activities of the terrorists, the terrorist engages in the terror activities with major objectives. Some of the objectives are: to attract attention to their group, this will give them a forum to address their issues of concern that the government will attend to in order to prevent a repetition of the acts of terror. Until the terrorists get what they want, the government may never be able to deter the acts of terrorism within a nation (Hoffman, 2006). As opposed to my thoughts, terrorists also engage in terrorism to fight for their rights.
After understanding the definition of terrorism and how technology has contributed to terrorism, the next step was to identify the cause terrorism activities. Although the act of terrorism is not attractive, many people end up engaging in terrorist activities because of various reasons as below. Ethnicity is one main cause of terrorism. Most people or groups that engage in terrorism activities are the people who are aggrieved within a nation or internationally because their interests have been neglected. Such groups engage in terrorism, not with the aim not only to cause pain and kill people, but also to attract the attention of their government towards attending to their various needs (Marcovitz,, 2001). I conquered with this reason.
Whereas peaceful means of fighting for groups rights could be highly recommended, such groups could have tried the peaceful methods and were unsuccessful and thus resorted to the acts of terror. The fact that certain people rights can be neglected when other people within the same country have both the social, religious, economic and political rights would trigger terrorist activities in order to get attention from the other nationals and the government (Howard, 2012).
Economic problems and poverty are another cause of terrorism. Globalization continues to increase in the world. Whereas globalization aims at improving the economy of the various parts of the world, it has its disadvantages.
One of the main disadvantages is that globalization that is also an outcome of technology neglects the growth of small upcoming industries within the nations and leads to unequal distribution of resources. This leads to people engaging in terrorism. The nationals within the country who feel economically depressed use this as a tool to fight those that oppress them and end up destroying lives and property in the process of conducting their revenge mission (Howard, 2012). For me, engaging in terrorism to solve problems caused by globalization did not seem appealing to me because there are other ways to ensure growth within the country instead of using terrorism as a solution. Therefore, I thought the effects of globalization to encouraging terrorism are minimal.
Anti-democracy is also one of the causes of terrorism. The leaders chosen by the people in a democratic government are expected to represent the needs of those people. A well-established nation that respects democracy should have developed a way in which its nationals can voice their grievances be it social, political, economic or religious. There will be few instances of terror attacks within that country (Corlett, 2003).
However, there are instances where democracy has totally failed. For example, democratic governments are very permissive and open. They allow free mobility of sources of infrastructure including technology. Technology is a weapon that the terrorists use both in the manufacture of explosives, in contacting their supporters, and in planning and carrying out their attacks. Therefore in the countries where democracy fails terror activities could be easily carried out. In the countries that do not practice democracy, the nationals fail to be engaged in decision-making at the national level. This causes rebellion, and some people resort to terror. I also conquered with this reason for terrorism.
Dehumanization within various states has also contributed to terrorism. This is because, the people within the states are treated unfairly. For instance, in a state where there are enough resources to support all the individuals within that state and yet the government chooses to specifically not allocate such resources to a certain group, the group could feel neglected and engage in terrorism (Corlett, 2003).
Religion is another major factor that leads to terrorism. The Muslim fanatics in various places within the world, engage in a terror attack as a motivation by their religion. They engage in terrorism to fight for their religion because it is neglected within many countries. Secondly, the Islamic law is against many political ideologies such as capitalism. This means that the people who observe the Islamic law have to fight and protect the interests of the law that binds them. States that have one religion face less acts of terrorism compared to those that have more than one religion (Richardson & Moore, 2005). This surprised...