RC 2001 Portofolio

RC 2001: Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum
Final Print Portfolio
Jackie Huckert
Appalachian State University

Fall 2015
Final Semester Reflection

PART ONE: Final Semester Reflection
In this section, please replace this writing with the text of your Final Reflection. If you
chose Option #2, please copy the reflective pieces from your ePortfolio into this space.
Rhetorical Analysis First Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret
RC
16 September, 2015
The difference between an article with diagrams and technical words and an
article that is simple yet still relays a message is all in the audience of the piece. For
example, in entrepreneurship there are articles that pepper through popular magazines
such as Forbes that encourage young and old to create their own product or service and
become an entrepreneur. Be your own Boss they say. In a different realm there are also
twenty page research papers on how a person can become an entrepreneur in scholarly
journals such as Managements Daily? These articles are a little more practical in their
analysis and instructions. However, in order to get that extra information, you also have
to decipher it from the article. The trade of is simple, read the technical article and get
more precise information or go with the popular easy to read article with generic steps.
In an interview with Mel Baiada, Tom Decker asks very specific questions about
how Baiada got to the position of making money through owning his own business.
Decker begins with the background on the interviewee and the companies that have
started because of his innovations and persistence. The writer also goes on to tell his own
credentials and the reasons he is qualified to be writing this article. This differs greatly
from an article written by Kimberly Palmer begins with more of an explanation behind
the increase in entrepreneurs in recent years. Palmer is focused on a different, less formal
audience, so she has the freedom to leave out her previous writing experience and reasons
why she is able to write this piece legitimately.

Moving on from the introduction to the articles the authors also take different
approaches in helping the reader reach their pace. In the professional journal article the
writer gets right to the point of the writing. He is precise and gets right to the interview
without giving a lot of unnecessary words ideas. In the piece from U.S. News, the author
gives background from years past. She tells about how many people were starting their
own business and the reasons that they do create their own products and services. For
instance, there are more general statistics about entrepreneurs and their age. Palmer then
sites reasons why people want to have more income and the ways they are achieving their
goals.
In the journal article the interviewer does less of the background and general
information because the audience knows the terminology that he uses. The interviewer is
able to ask specific questions and get the answers from the professional in a quick
manner. The writer was also able to give verbatim answers from the interviewee. The
answers did not have any technical definitions or anything added to make them
understandable to readers. There was more assuming in the articles because of the
platform from which the readers obtain the material.
In the U.S. News article there are less technical words used and more examples to
make the piece make sense. from the baker who launched his own custom cake
business to the bookstore manager who decided shed be better off launching her own
coaching business is from the article explaining the most basic example of
entrepreneurs. The main focus of this article is the traits that an entrepreneur who
becomes successful has. The article is in a numbered list with explanations instead of a

well thought out paragraph structure. The author is more general with her audience, so
the piece seems to flow better.
In the article about Nature vs. Nurture in entrepreneurship there is more of a
formal and educational. There are more direct focus to the article and the purpose behind
writing in general. The author states the purpose behind asking that professional for the
interview and the main focus of het interview in the opening statements and question to
the professional. The writer then circles back to his original idea multiple times
throughout the papers by referencing the father and brother who own a business as well
as whether the classes the person took were helpful because of theory or because of
practical knowledge that came from trial and error in the business world. The questions
asked by the interviewer further his purpose to figure out how entrepreneurship is
learned. The questions from the interviewer include: .
In the other article the author is looser with her purpose. She goes through the list
of basic commonalities between recent entrepreneurs that make them successful. Though
her article is well thought out and has a lot of useful information and ideas they are
simplistic compared to the academic article. The article begins with the first commonality
being a big loss or other major event this is simple language used by the author.
There are not any visuals in either of the articles other than a picture of the person
being interviewed and the person writing the article. However, there is still an
approachability to the U.S. News article that is not present in the academic article. The
tone is more inviting and relaxed compared to the tightly toned and written journal
article. There is a lack of emotion from the interviewer, but in the responses to the
questions of the interviewer the professional can be understood to be passionate about his

job and his business. The professional answers the questions fully and gives a relatable
personality even through the technical wording he uses to describe the work he does.
In both articles there its a sense of comradery between entrepreneurs. The articles
approach the subject differently because of the known readers of the magazines and web
pages. There are easier to understand words and ideas in the popular article but there is
more in-depth experience in the academic article. I believe there is a tradeoff between the
pieces and it truly depends on how much you want to know which article a reader should
pick up. I didnt find either article impossible to read. Probably because of the increase in
business practices and the commonality of business words in most places.
Rhetorical Analysis Second Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawilski
RC
9 September, 2015
article that is simple yet still relays a message is all in the audience of the piece. For
example, in entrepreneurship there are articles that pepper through popular magazines
such as Forbes that encourage young and old to create their own product or service and
become an entrepreneur. Be your own Boss they say. In a different realm there are also
twenty page research papers on how a person can become an entrepreneur in scholarly
journals such as Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship. (Look up proper
punctuation) These articles are a little more practical in their analysis and instructions.
However, in order to get that extra information, you also have to decipher it from the
article. The trade-off is simple, read the technical article and get more precise information
or go with the popular easy to read article with generic steps.
In an interview with Mel Baiada, Tom Decker asks very specific questions about
how Baiada got to the position of making money through owning his own business.
Decker begins by introducing his subject with Mel Baiada is a man who has created jobs
and enriched lives as president and CEO of Sengen and Base Camp Ventures (). The
background on the interviewee and the companies that have started because of his
innovations and persistence give the writer and the person being interviewed credibility
as the paper begins. The writer also goes on to tell his own credentials and the reasons he
is qualified to be writing this article. This differs greatly from an article written by

Kimberly Palmer in U.S. News. That article begins with more of an explanation behind
the increase in entrepreneurs in recent years. Palmer is focused on a different, less formal
audience, so she has the freedom to leave out her previous writing experience and reasons
why she is able to write this piece legitimately unlike the scholarly article.
Moving on from the introduction to the articles, the authors also take different
writer gets right to the point of the writing. He is precise and gets right to the interview
without giving a lot of unnecessary words or ideas. The beginning of the journal states
the purpose of the piece, I want to center this interview on is entrepreneurship:
nature vs. nurture (). In the piece from U.S. News, the author gives background from
years past. She tells about how many people were starting their own business and the
reasons that they do create their own products and services. For instance, there are more
general statistics about entrepreneurs and their age such as 36 percent of respondents,
who were between the ages of 16 and 39, had started side businesses in order to bring in
more income (). Palmer then sites reasons why people want to have more income and
the ways they are achieving their goals. The most common reason is that they want some
information because the audience knows the terminology such as the word market that
he uses as an extension of the platform from which the information is coming. If a person
who had never had any previous knowledge read the article they may be wondering why
a stories being referenced when in reality the writer is talking about basically an opening
where goods or services are needed but not available due to lack of the product or
service. The interviewer is able to ask specific questions and get the answers from the

professional in a quick manner. The writer was also able to give verbatim answers from
the interviewee. The answers did not have any technical definitions or anything added to
make them understandable to readers. There was more of an assuming attitude in the
articles because of the platform from which the readers obtain the material.
entrepreneurs (). The main focus of this article is the traits that an entrepreneur who
becomes successful has. The article is in a numbered list with explanations instead of a
well thought out paragraph structure. The author is more general with her audience, so
the piece seems to flow better.
formal and educational. There are more direct focus to the article and the purpose behind
writing in general. The author states the purpose behind asking that professional for the
interview and the main focus of het interview in the opening statements and question to
the professional. The writer then circles back to his original idea multiple times
throughout the papers by referencing the father and brother who own a business as well
as whether the classes the person took were helpful because of theory or because of
learned. The questions from the interviewer include: .

In the other article the author is looser with her purpose. She goes through the list
of basic commonalities between recent entrepreneurs that make them successful. Though
her article is well thought out and has a lot of useful information and ideas they are
simplistic compared to the academic article. The article begins with the first commonality
being a big loss or other major event this is simple language used by the author.
There are not any visuals in either of the articles other than a picture of the person
being interviewed and the person writing the article. However, there is still an
approachability to the U.S. News article that is not present in the academic article. The
tone is more inviting and relaxed compared to the tightly toned and written journal
article.
There is a lack of emotion from the interviewer, but in the responses to the
questions of the interviewer the professional can be understood to be passionate about his
job and his business. Decker, the interviewer, is trying to keep a professional tone so he
can get his writing published, where as Baiada simply needs to answer the questins. It is
in Baiadas best interest to be relatable in the article so that readers feel like they can
depend on what he says. Baiada answers one question about whether a professor of
entrepreneurship needs to have practical experience by saying The one thing about
running a business is there are high highs and low lows. (). This shows that Baiada has
experience and knows that business is an unpredictable profession. The best advice he
gives is through telling the biggest mistake people make; The number one mistake is
choosing the wrong market ().
In both articles there its a sense of comradery between entrepreneurs. The articles
10

more in-depth experience in the academic article. I believe there is a trade-off between
the pieces and it truly depends on how much you want to know which article a reader
should pick up. I didnt find either article impossible to read. Probably because of the
increase in business practices and the commonality of business words in most places,
however I could understand that some may have difficulty reading an article when they
know nothing about the content.
11
Rhetorical Analysis Third Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawilski
RC 2001-181
16 September, 2015
Academic vs. Professional Writing in Entrepreneurship
article that is simple yet still relays a message is primarily in the audience of the piece.
For example, in entrepreneurship there are articles that pepper through popular magazines
such as Forbes that encourage readers, both young and old, to create their own product or
service and become an entrepreneur. Be your own Boss they say. On the other hand,
there are also twenty page research papers on how a person can become an entrepreneur
in scholarly journals such as Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship.
These articles are a little more practical in their analysis and instructions. However, in
order to get that extra information, you also have to decipher it from the article. The
trade-off is simple, read the technical article and get more precise information or go with
the popular easy to read article with generic steps. This paper will go through an analysis
of these two articles to compare and contrast their styles.
The academic article I reference is The Making of an Entrepreneur: Nature vs.
Nurture, an Interview with Mel Baiada by Tom Decker, from the Journal of Applied
Management and Entrepreneurship. In an interview with Mel Baiada, Tom Decker asks
very specific questions about how Baiada got to the position of making money through
owning his own business. Decker begins by introducing his subject with Mel Baiada is a
man who has created jobs and enriched lives as president and CEO of Sengen and Base
12

Camp Ventures (Decker, 2004). The background on the interviewee and the companies
that have started because of his innovations and persistence give the writer and the person
being interviewed credibility as the paper begins. The writer also goes on to tell his own
credentials and the reasons he is qualified to be writing this article. These steps taken by
Decker to ensure readers are confident to rely on the information in the article establish
the ethos, credibility, of the writer.
This differs greatly from an article written by Kimberly Palmer in U.S. News, 9
Secrets if Successful Entrepreneurs. That article begins with more of an explanation
behind the increase in entrepreneurs in recent years. Palmer is focused on a different
audience consisting of casual readers of newspaper articles, so she has the freedom to
leave out her previous writing experience and reasons why she is able to write this piece
legitimately unlike the scholarly article. However, she does have a level of credibility
because she writes for U.S. News in the Money category. Palmer also builds her ethos by
citing places where she found statistics and information, for example, she uses The 2011
Youth Entrepreneurship Study by Buzz Marketing Group and the Young Entrepreneur
Council to give the statistics on growing side businesses (Palmer, 2014).
Moving on from the introduction to the articles, the authors also take
different approaches in helping the reader reach their pace. In the professional journal
article the writer gets to the point of the writing. He is precise and gets right to the
interview without giving a lot of unnecessary words or ideas. The beginning of the
journal states the purpose of the piece, The main focus that I want to center this
interview on is entrepreneurship: nature vs. nurture (Decker, 2004). There is not a
lot of need for the author to be liked by the reader, he mainly wants to be published in
13

this prestigious journal. Even though there is a lack of emotion from the interviewer,
Baiada can be understood as passionate about his job and his business. It is in Baiadas
best interest to be relatable in the article so that readers feel like they can depend on what
he says. Baiada answers one question about whether a professor of entrepreneurship
needs to have practical experience by saying The one thing about running a business is
there are high highs and low lows. (Decker, 2004). This shows that Baiada has
experience and knows that business is an unpredictable profession. The best advice he
gives is through telling the biggest mistake people make; The number one mistake is
choosing the wrong market (Decker, 2004).
In the piece from U.S. News, the author gives background from years past. She
tells about how many people were starting their own business and the reasons that they
do create their own products and services. For instance, there are more general statistics
about entrepreneurs and their age such as 36 percent of respondents, who were
between the ages of 16 and 39, had started side businesses in order to bring in more
income (Palmer, 2014). Palmer then sites reasons why people want to have more income
and the ways they are achieving their goals. The most common reason is that they want
some extra income because of a financial shortcoming. There is emotional appeal, or
pathos, in this article from the very beginning; A layoff, a new baby, another major life
change successful entrepreneurs can often point to a specific motivating factor, which
they return to when the going gets tough. (Palmer, 2014). The preceding sentence is an
opinion of the author that appeals to readers and the mindset of people who start their
own business.
14

information for entrepreneurship because the audience knows the terminology. Such as
the word market, if a person who had never had any previous knowledge of the
business world read the article, they may be wondering why a grocery store is being
referenced when in reality the writer is talking about an opening where goods or services
are needed but not available. The interviewer is able to ask specific questions and get the
answers from the professional in a quick manner. The writer was also able to give
verbatim answers from the interviewee. The answers did not have any technical
definitions or anything added to make them understandable to readers. There was more of
an assuming attitude in the articles because of the platform from which the readers obtain
the material.
entrepreneurs (Palmer, 2014). The main focus of this article is the traits that an
entrepreneur who becomes successful has. The article is in a numbered list with
explanations instead of a well thought out paragraph structure. The author is more general
with her audience, so the piece seems to flow better. The secrets of entrepreneurs are
also presented in a manner that is easy to relate to. For instance, Palmer talks about
entrepreneurs rely heavily on online communities of similarity minded people. (Palmer,
2014). Following that sentence are common social media sites that are used to connect
people. There are references throughout the article that make the topic relatable.
15

formal and educational tone. There is more direct focus to the article and the purpose
behind writing in general. The author states the purpose behind asking that professional
for the interview and the main focus of the interview in the opening statements and
question to the professional. The writer then circles back to his original idea multiple
times throughout the papers by referencing the father and brother who own a business as
well as whether the classes the person took were helpful because of theory or because of
learned.
In the other article the author is purposeful in her list of secrets of entrepreneurs
but she is not as hurried as the academic article. She goes through the list of basic
commonalities between recent entrepreneurs that make them successful. Though her
article is well thought out and has a lot of useful information and ideas they are simplistic
compared to the academic article. The article begins with the first commonality being a
big loss or other major event (Palmer, 2014). This is simple language used by the
author to keep the audience broader.
In both articles there is a sense of comradery between entrepreneurs. The articles
more in-depth experience in the academic article. I believe there is a trade-off between
the pieces and which article you pick up truly depends on how much you want to know. I
didnt find either article impossible to read. This is probably because of the increase in
16

business practices and the commonality of business words in everyday life, however I
could understand that some may have difficulty reading an article when they know
nothing about the content.
17
References
Decker, T. (2004). The Making of an Entrepreneur: Nature vs. Nurture, an Interview with
Mel Baiada. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 9(2), 97-109.
Retrieved August 30, 2015, from Business Database.
Palmer, K. (2014, January 28). 9 Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs. Retrieved August
30, 2015.
18
Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawilski
RC 2001-181
11 December 2015
Academic vs. Professional Writing in Entrepreneurship
The main difference between an article with diagrams and technical words and an
article that is simple yet still relays a message is primarily in who the piece is intended
for. For example, in entrepreneurship there are articles that pepper through popular
magazines such as Forbes that encourage readers, both young and old, to create their own
product or service and become an entrepreneur. Be your own Boss they say. On the
other hand, there are also twenty page research papers on how a person can become an
entrepreneur in scholarly journals such as Journal of Applied Management and
Entrepreneurship. These articles are a little more practical in their analysis and
instructions. However, in order to get that extra information, you also have to decipher it
from the article. The trade-off is simple, read the technical article and get more precise
information or go with the popular easy to read article with generic steps. This paper will
go through an analysis of these two articles to compare and contrast their styles.
The academic article I reference is The Making of an Entrepreneur: Nature vs.
Nurture, an Interview with Mel Baiada by Tom Decker, from the Journal of Applied
Management and Entrepreneurship. In an interview with Mel Baiada, Tom Decker asks
very specific questions about how Baiada got to the position of making money through
owning his own business. Decker begins by introducing his subject with Mel Baiada is a
man who has created jobs and enriched lives as president and CEO of Sengen and Base
19

Camp Ventures (Decker, 2004). In this artivle the writer focuses on a theme of whether
an entrepreneur is born or develops the necessary skills throughout his/her lifetime. Mel
Baiada contends that it is a mixture of both in regards to his own success. His family had
several entrepreneurs, but he was still pushed to make his own ideas and see if the
business would hold up in the real world. The background on the interviewee and the
companies that have started because of his innovations and persistence give the writer
and the person being interviewed credibility as the paper begins. The writer also goes on
to tell his own credentials and the reasons he is qualified to be writing this article. These
steps are taken by Decker to ensure the readers are confident in relying on the
information in the article established by the ethos, or credibility, of the writer.
This differs greatly from an article written by Kimberly Palmer in U.S. News, 9
Secrets if Successful Entrepreneurs. That article begins with more of an explanation
behind the increase in entrepreneurs in recent years. Palmer is focused on a different
audience consisting of casual readers of newspaper articles, so she has the freedom to
leave out her previous writing experience and reasons why she is able to write this piece
legitimately unlike the scholarly article. However, she does have a level of credibility
because she writes for U.S. News in the Money category. Palmer also builds her ethos by
citing places where she found statistics and information, for example, she uses The 2011
Youth Entrepreneurship Study by Buzz Marketing Group and the Young Entrepreneur
Council to give the statistics on growing side businesses (Palmer, 2014).
Moving on from the introduction to the articles, the authors also take different
writer gets to the point of the writing. He is precise and gets right to the interview without
20

giving a lot of unnecessary words or ideas. The beginning of the journal states the
purpose of the piece, The main focus that I want to center this interview on is
entrepreneurship: nature vs. nurture (Decker, 2004). There is not a lot of need for the
author to be liked by the reader, he mainly wants to be published in this prestigious
journal. Even though there is a lack of emotion from the interviewer, Baiada can be
understood as passionate about his job and his business. It is in Baiadas best interest to
be relatable in the article so that readers feel like they can depend on what he says.
Baiada answers one question about whether a professor of entrepreneurship needs to have
practical experience by saying The one thing about running a business is there are high
highs and low lows. (Decker, 2004). This shows that Baiada has experience and knows
that business is an unpredictable profession.
In the piece from U.S. News, the author gives background from years past. The
focus of the article was on individuals that were starting their own business and the
reasons why they did create their own products and services. For instance, there are more
general statistics about entrepreneurs and their age such as 36 percent of respondents,
who were between the ages of 16 and 39, had started side businesses in order to bring in
more income (Palmer, 2014). Palmer then cites reasons why people want to have more
income and the ways they are achieving their goals. The most common reason to start
making and selling services or products is that they need some extra income because of a
financial shortcoming.
However, there is an emotional appeal, or pathos, in this article from the very
beginning; A layoff, a new baby, another major life change successful entrepreneurs
can often point to a specific motivating factor, which they return to when the going gets
21

tough. (Palmer, 2014). The preceding sentence is an opinion of the author that appeals to
readers and the mindset of people who start their own business. The pathos in this article
is an attempt by the writer to make the piece seem more relatable. There are many people
in todays society that are going through financial issues because of the economic
situation. By addressing the issue of financial troubles the writer is creating an emotional
connection with an appeal of feasibility to become an entrepreneur.
information for entrepreneurship because the audience knows the terminology. Such as
the word market, if a person who had never had any previous knowledge of the
business world read the article, they may be wondering why a grocery store is being
referenced when in reality the writer is talking about an opening where goods or services
are needed but not available. The interviewer is able to ask specific questions and get the
answers from the professional in a quick manner. The writer was also able to give
verbatim answers from the interviewee directly in the article. In other words, the answers
did not have any technical definitions or anything added to make them understandable to
readers. Since the article was published in a journal of management, the writer was able
to make assumptions that the readers would understand the jargon instead of having to
speak in generalized terminology.
make the piece make sense. This quote, from the baker who launched his own custom
cake business to the bookstore manager who decided shed be better off launching her
own coaching business is from the article explaining the most basic example of
entrepreneurs (Palmer, 2014). The main focus of this article is the traits that an
22

entrepreneur who becomes successful has. The article is structured in a numbered list
with explanations instead of a well thought out paragraph structure. The author is more
general with her audience, so the piece seems to flow better. The secrets of
entrepreneurs are also presented in a manner that is easy to relate to. For instance, Palmer
talks about entrepreneurs rely heavily on online communities of similarity minded
people. (Palmer, 2014). Following that sentence are common social media sites that are
used to connect people. The references to social media and the generalized tone make the
article more sharable and more relatable among individuals.
In the professional article about Nature vs. Nurture in entrepreneurship there is
more of a formal and educational tone. There is more direct focus to the article and the
purpose behind writing in general. The author states the purpose behind asking that
professional for the interview and the main focus of the interview in the opening
statements and question to the professional. The writer then circles back to his original
idea multiple times throughout the papers by referencing the father and brother who own
a business as well as whether the classes the person took were helpful. Management is a
theory based educational setting, so the interviewer is attempting to get a feel of whether
the practical knowledge of having a business is better, or if learning about what could
happen and how it could be handled is the best way to become an entrepreneur. The
questions asked by the interviewer further his purpose to figure out how entrepreneurship
skills are acquired in a lifetime.
In the article by U.S. News, the author is purposeful in her list of secrets of
entrepreneurs but she is not as hurried as the academic article. Compared to the academic
journal article, the U.S. News article elaborates on its points and continues an idea to a
23

close rather than jump from question to question without fully discussing a topic. Palmer
goes through the list of basic commonalities between recent entrepreneurs that make
them successful in a well thought out manner that has a lot of useful information and
ideas. The article begins with the first commonality being a big loss or other major
event which seems ordinary and common, but in reality this event inspires entrepreneurs
to start some of the best companies in the world (Palmer, 2014). This simple language
used by the author is relatable to any common person with the next big idea waiting to
feel motivated and encouraged.
In both articles there is a sense of comradery between entrepreneurs. The articles
approach the subject differently because of the known readers of professional journals
and leisure articles vary greatly. There are easier to understand words and ideas in the
popular article but there is more in-depth experience in the academic article catering to
the desires of the readers. I believe there is a trade-off between the pieces and which
article you pick up truly depends on how much background knowledge you have and
what you expect to get from the article. I found both articles accessible and easy to read
because of the background in business I have acquired in my years at college. However, I
can understand the potential for confusion because of the major differences between the
two articles.
24
References
Decker, T. (2004). The Making of an Entrepreneur: Nature vs. Nurture, an Interview with
Mel Baiada. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 9(2), 97-109.
Retrieved August 30, 2015, from Business Database.
Palmer, K. (2014, January 28). 9 Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs. Retrieved August
30, 2015.
25
Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawilski
RC 2100-181
21 September 2015
My rhetorical analysis was about writing in the discourse community of
Entrepreneurship. I am a business management major however I have also an
entrepreneurship minor. Being an entrepreneur is what I really want to do once I get out
of school. Through this assignment I was able to learn some of the common terminology
and expectations within the field as well as how both professionals and academics write
about the community.
Some of the most common articles I found on the internet were about how to be a
successful entrepreneur and how to best start your own business. When looking through
the academic articles on the subject I found many of the same topic discussed. This is
why I chose to write about these two articles. While researching, I found it interesting
that so many people who may or may not be a professional business person have an
opinion on what works best to start up a business. There are several self-help blog articles
about the subject and techniques to achieve the perfect career. This was interesting that so
many want to start a business and be in the business world that writing articles was still
profitable and needed. I did not have much trouble reading the articles, probably because
I took a course in high school that was about entrepreneurship, so I was able to translate
most of the technical words.
26

As far as organization of my paper I tried to set it up as a comparison between the
two papers. If one paper had some ethos or pathos I was looking for it in the other so that
I could create a comparison between the two. I thought this would be a good way to
ensure the paragraphs were not long and drawn out, but also that the information was in
the analysis. This proved to be a good way to keep myself organized as well as relevant
to the rubric for the writing.
If I could reedit my paper, I think I would try to be better about my transitions
between paragraphs and ideas. I have a tendency to finish a thought then end it and jump
to the next topic that needs to be discussed. That is a recipe for poor writing and leaving
readers in the dust, so that is what I would work on. Also, I would probably change the
way in which the paragraphs were ordered. After rereading I think there are parts that
should have been condensed because of the subject matter as well as new topics that
should be added because they are relevant to the class. With these differences though, I
would have to go back through the articles I used to make sure they are present in the
content of the articles as well. I do not want to lie on the analysis of the articles.
As far as my process for writing a paper there is a lot that went into the
composition phase as well as the editing. My process of going from the roughest rough
draft to the cleaner third draft was a wired one. I did not get a lot of comments on the
content on my first draft, so I was forced to go back myself and try to add in some better
ideas and quotations. That was most of the second rough drafts content. In the third
rough draft I tried to polish and perfect the issues I could find. Also I tried to fix any
grammatical errors that were in the paper to make the writing sound more professional.
27

As a whole, I think this paper is not the worst that I have written in the past five
years, but it is also not exactly the best. Yes, I would change some things, but that, as I
understand from Writing about Writing, is normal for a writer of any kind. There are a lot
of tips to take and I just hope to eventually be a better writer.
28
Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part One

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawilski
RC 1200-101
14 October 2015
Reflection Part One Project 2
The topic I selected for this project is entrepreneurship since that is what I want to
do with my career. I got interested in this topic from high school and a class I took there.
I have wanted to own and operate my own business since then. For this project I decided
to create a model of creating a business. In the model I am explaining the necessary
components needed to start the business through smaller versions of the materials. My
plan for this project has not really changed between platforms just a few ways in which
the construction of the project is being completed.
With my platform of a physical model there are limitations to what can be done.
Since I am creating these products from scratch there is a lot of prior planning and
creating. Also there is not a lot of space on the model or in the viewing area for the model
so I am having to scale down a lot of the parts of the project to make it realistic. This is
creating only minimal issues for the crafting because it is difficult to put as much detail
on small pieces especially when each piece needs to be very accurate to form in order to
prove my knowledge of the field. The other part that is being difficult is the first floor of
the building. I have not figured out how to make what I want work in the space I have nor
with the materials I am trying to use. To get over this bump I am experimenting with
many ideas trying to find the one that will work just right for what I need in the floor.
Other than the scaling issue I am coming along quite well.
29
Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part One

So far I have constructed the building itself and painted the inside for each of the
floors. I have finished three of the four floors as far as making the representations of the
accomplishments at those stages. I have begun typing up explanations on the floors that I
have finished, this was a suggestion from my conference so I am trying to make it work
with my original idea and layout that has been updated since the first storyboard. The
research is basically finished. I have met with a professor from the business college who
is well versed in the field of entrepreneurship. She along with some material covered in
my various business classed have helped me to piece together the startup of a business.
In order to finish this project on time I will need to finish up painting the outside
of the building to make it look nicer and complete the overall business building feel that
many associate with a corporation. Also I will have to put the first floor that I am
struggling a little on right now. That will have to be finished as well as finding a way to
put the different levels into the core structure of a standing sky scraper. This might
require some creative glueing on my part, but I have several ideas as to how to make it
work so I am ont worried about it right now. After everything is in the building I will
create a document of sorts that outlines why each component is essential and needed in
starting a business as well as for an entrepreneur to know and recognize.
30
Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawilski
RC 2001-181
28 October 2015
Project 2 Reflection Part 2
My project was for the profession of an aspiring entrepreneur by way of being a
business management major. This is the major I am in, business management, with a
minor in entrepreneurship. I want to one day start my own business and build it from the
ground on up to being a successful company.
To demonstrate my major and what the knowledge base is for it, I made a
physical model. I decided on a model of a business because when you are going into
business and starting a company there is more than two dimensions to it. There are a lot
of people that are involved in starting a business and to do just that you need to be
committed to the product at the end. I decided a model best accomplished this because it
was a visual that showed the dedication needed. It took time and care to put together as
well as some creative elements and quick thinking. All of these characteristics are needed
when building a company from nothing. By making a physical aspect I was able to use
more mediums through which to show a business and the elements that make it up. I
constructed a skyscraper type building because for many entrepreneurs that is the
ultimate goal in the beginning. Having a brand that is recognized is important to business
owners in order to be recognized as an inventor and successful.
I believe that through my project I did a good job of aiming it toward a novice in
the field by making a physical model. I constructed a building that was able to show how
31

to lay the ground work for getting into the field and gaining experience in the different
fields of creating a company. I then attempted to build upon each step with a connecting
larger step to ultimately get to the goal of being a CEO for a successful company by
putting pivotal points of each step on each floor. A novice should know that to build a
business there needs to be a logical progression of steps taken to build on each other.
With each step I incorporated a symbol for the components that go into each step.
The first floor is all about making connections and learning about what market
you want to go into as well as keeping up with the trends. For this floor, I was sitting
trying to figure out what color connections signifies for the wall color. I decided on
yellow because to me I think of people talking and getting to know each other as a bright
thing. This is the beginning point where people are most excited and ready and need to
push through the hardships that accompany starting a new business. Next I put in a mind
map. This was also about connections and figuring out what market to go into. The
connections made were there and some of the knowledge to get into the business was also
there. Each connection is a person that can help you grow your product and recognition
among customers. Next there was a phone on a shelf. As much as technology is growing,
a company leader needs to keep up with the advancements. The phone is there to help
with that as well as help an aspiring business leader stay up with the trends, market
differences and people in day to day operations. Lastly, a resume was on the table. The
resume was made to be obnoxiously large to show how important it is. To start out in
business you need to be well versed in different organizations to find the right fit. Each
company works differently as far as infrastructure and management and this is important
to be able to learn how you want to set yours up.
32

On the second floor, I chose green because this is where the funds come in. The
second level of creating a business is where you create a business plan and pitch your
ideas to investors. When I was trying to come up with the color for the floors I decided
on this green color because it matches the objective of the second step. The most
important part of gaining capital for a business is called a business plan. In a business
plan the entrepreneur sets up their outline of how the business will be conducted. There is
a competitor analysis, price layout, location of the business, summary of the business,
employees needed, and some other parts as well. This is presented to an investor or a
bank to get the money needed to start a business. Also in this level is a license to conduct
business. Without this piece of paper a business can be sued. Depending on the business
you are going into you may need many different ones. For example, in the food industry
you need a health and safety inspector to come in and give your business a grade that
allows you to conduct business. Lastly on the floor is the reason an entrepreneur would
do all the work; the money to start up the business.
The third floor was focused on expanding and creating new products. When going
through colors to paint the walls, I immediately thought of blue prints. Blue prints are
needed for any invention or future building. On this floor some ideas for new items and
buildings can be seen on the walls. I am not an artist nor an architect so mine do not look
as professional as I hope the research and development team would make. Another
component on the floor is a table that can be used for tinkering. The table has
measurements and some items that aid in the creative process for employees. Lastly there
is a computer. The computer will help with calculations, checking on patents for products
33

that could be made and collaborating with coworkers or people from around the world on
an idea. The uses of a computer are endless for a company.
The top floor is representative of continued professionality. The floor is painted
grey to show that there is a requirement of a CEO to be professional in all daily actions as
well as to have a place where meetings can be conducted. The fourth floor was hard for
me to symbolize just because I wanted to get the point across that a CEO needs to be
present in a company. Employees will not respect a CEO who doesnt work or is always
out of the office. To signify this I put in a desk with a calendar. The calendar is useful in
keeping track of upcoming events as well as letting anybody who walks in the office
know where you are if they are in need of something. The picture of your company and
the prestigious business plaque on the back wall is to show business partners or investors
that you are successful and that giving you capital or conducting business with you will
be profitable. Next, the art work on the wall. I put the picture in there to show that even
though an entrepreneur makes it to the top position and has a successful business that
does not mean that they should forget the work that brought them that far. I used bright
colors to show it could be an inspiration to continue to not just accept where you are as a
CEO but instead grow the business.
When I started with this project I considered every element that went into the
project and how it could help me in the long run. I wanted to be credible. To do this, I
added as much detail as I possible could. The business plan on the second floor has a
short description inside on what would be included in a legitimate business plan. On the
mind map on the first floor, I used a true way that I have been researching in how to find
a market. Each part of the business was deliberate and thought out. To identify each
34

component that was supposed to be highlighted in each floor, there was a quick summary
attached to the outside of the building with an explanation of the items that could be
found on the floor.
In arranging my product I wanted it to be very logical and have a progression that
was easy to follow. In order to accomplish this made a skyscraper type building with each
different step being in a consecutive order. This was better than having all of the building
on a single level because the audience would have had a more difficult time of following
my business model.
When creating this project I learned a lot about business and creating your own,
but not in the sense that most would think. Instead I learned how to be persistent with my
own vision of what I wanted and how to take criticism while also going along with what I
wanted. I think that this project taught me a lot about being what current entrepreneurs
always are quoted for saying. I learned how to be deliberate with my time and efforts as
well as how to make something work that did not turn out quite the right way. These are
all lessons about my field that I learned. As far as research learning however, I did not
conduct a lot of research. I have taken several business classes where we have applied
what we learn to the major we are going into, so I used this knowledge. I did have an
interview with a professor from Appalachian State about the Advanced Entrepreneurship
program in the Business College which gave me insight into what I can expect it to learn
in the following years.
If I had more time to work on the project I would have conducted better research
on how entrepreneurs found the process of writing a business plan and how they earned
the capital they needed to fund a project. The extra research would give the project some
35

depth as well as some more writing involved in the layout. Even without this extra
information I did not have a hard time adding to my product. There was an endless
amount of things that go into starting a business and there were a lot of easy to make
items. The hard part was narrowing down the list because of the short time there was to
work on it as well as the desire to keep the size at a reasonable level. Overall, this project
got me excited to continue my education as well as begin thinking about how I can start
my own business.
36
Major Issues Paper, First Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawiliski
RC 2001-181
2 November 2015
Major Issues Draft 1
I am going into business with my major, so when thinking about a topic for this
paper I thought about what is a hot topic in business right now. I thought about wages and
how they are a new main area of political debate in all of the debates that are on
television now. I decided to go with a paper about minimum wage and the changes that
would create with the economy because it is an important issue not only for business
students but also for college students. We have been payed minimum wage for essentially
our entire working career. Jobs where employees earn a higher wage require education
and experience, neither of which we have yet. With this in mind I went into researching
minimum wage laws through the library and recommendations from economic
professors.
In this paper, I hope to address how minimum wage laws have changed over the
past fifty years and how inflation has changed in the past fifty years. I then hope to go
into how the middle class in the United States has grown or shrunk and what factors can
affect that. To conclude my research I am going to analyze how the minimum wage
affects the middle class and what changes there can be to wage to help people get above
the poverty line and into a better life for their families. This paragraph will not be in my
final paper it is just how I am organizing my paper since I have not had a lot of time to
finish all of my research for the paper.
37

In the past fifty years minimum wage has grown with the economy. Minimum
wage is used to prevent employers from exploiting workers and to keep the trade of labor
for services in check. Lately there has been an uproar over how much minimum wage
should be and if there are should in fact be a minimum wage. Minimum wage was first
enacted on October 24, 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act. At that time the minimum
wage was 25 cents an hour with a forty hour work week. In the past fifty years, the
federal minimum wage has been adjusted 6 times ranging from 1963 to 2013, this is the
most recent data I have found so far. The federal minimum wage and the state minimum
wage are not always the same. For example, currently in Seattle, San Fransisco and ?
there is a fifteen dollar minimum wage. 4.7% of the working class make at or below the
minimum wage, 88% of that number are over the age of twenty (forbes).
Inflation rates have changed dramatically in the past fifty years. There has been a
period in the 1970s where inflation was as high as 7.25% to more recently 1.86% in this
current decade. The decrease in inflation rates is referred to as deflation in the economy.
With all of the changes in the value of a dollar it is difficult to determine the proper
amount to raise minimum wage. In the past ten years the minimum wage and inflation
rate have gotten closer together as far as being in a gap. Deflation has occurred in the
economy and now each dollar can buy more of a good. These constant changes in the
rates makes it difficult to keep wages in line with inflation.
Since 2000 the middle class has shrunk in every state from somewhere between 16%. These changes come from little changes in wage while costs of everything rise.
Rising costs include childcare, food, rent, college tuition, etc. With all of these costs
38

adding up the middle class decreases in population. The money that is made from these
increases goes to the upper class nad the lower class just gets poorer from these changes.
The poverty line in the United States is the level in which a family of a given
number can live with the necessities with a certain income per year. The United States
has a guide for determining what the income should be and how people can qualify for
federal help. The help would include school lunches, food stamps, home energy
assistance and many other programs. For a family of four in the continental United States
the minimum income for a family is 24,250 per year. Now this number is an average
amount of money needed to cover the necessities of life in the U.S.. This number reflects
what a family needs to make to cover the expenses and childcare. In most cases this does
not include any luxuries or extras for the family. In the past fifty years the number of
families in poverty has changed in number. However, in the past ten years the amount of
families in poverty has steadily increased. In 2014 the number was up to 9,467,000.
With this data we can see that there is a growing problem in the United States as
far as minimum wage and poverty. In the next section of my paper I will analyze whether
the minimum wage helps these families to get out from under the poverty line as well as
keep other families from entering into poverty. Also, I want to display the effects of
changing minimum wage in the country. Families are struggling to pay expenses with the
money they are making. This needs to be fixed, however, a higher minimum wage may
not be the answer. If it isnt then my next question will be what is.
There has been a lot of debate about raising the minimum wage in the past couple
weeks. There is a push by many politicians to more than double the current amount
federally regulated. These politicians are pushing for this in order to get low income
39

workers in line with inflation rates. In theory this a great idea and could possibly work.
Humans are strongly influenced by motivation. In 2014 unemployment was down
17.46% between January and December. The higher wages motivated people to go
looking for jobs again. However, in other cases with the raise in minimum wage there has
come to a decrease in hours by individuals to still receive the low income housing and
benefits ().
http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/flsa1938.htm
10/30/15
http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/minimum-wage-since-1938/
40
Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawiliski
RC 2001-181
9 November 2015
Major Issues Draft 2
I am going into business with my major, so when thinking about a topic for this
paper I thought about what is a hot topic in business right now. I thought about wages and
how they are a new main area of political debate in all of the debates that are on
television now. I decided to go with a paper about minimum wage and the changes that
would create with the economy because it is an important issue not only for business
students but also for college students. We have been payed minimum wage for essentially
our entire working career. Jobs where employees earn a higher wage require education
and experience, neither of which we have yet. The most effective use of minimum wage
would be to adjust it based on inflation rate in order to support the working class.
In the past fifty years minimum wage has grown with the economy. Minimum
wage is used to prevent employers from exploiting workers and to keep the trade of labor
for services in check. Lately there has been an uproar over how much minimum wage
should be and if there are should in fact be a minimum wage. Minimum wage was first
enacted on October 24, 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act. At that time the minimum
wage was 25 cents an hour with a forty hour work week (Grossman). In the past fifty
years, the federal minimum wage has been adjusted 6 times ranging from 1963 to 2013
(Minimum Wage Since 1938). The federal minimum wage and the state minimum wage
are not always the same. For example, currently there are 19 states that have a minimum
41

wage higher than the federal minimum wage (). 4.7% of the working class make at or
below the minimum wage, 88% of that number are over the age of twenty (Warstoll).
current decade (McMahon). The decrease in inflation rates is referred to as deflation in
the economy. This means that the amount a dollar would buy before inflation has
decreased. With all of the changes in the value of a dollar it is difficult to determine the
proper amount to raise minimum wage. In the past ten years the minimum wage and
inflation rate have gotten closer together. Deflation has occurred in the economy and now
each dollar can buy more of a good. These constant changes in the rates makes it difficult
to keep wages in line with inflation.
Since 2000 the middle class has shrunk in every state from somewhere between 16% (Che). These changes come from little changes in wage while costs of everything
rise. Rising costs include childcare, food, rent, college tuition, etc. With all of these costs
adding up the middle class decreases in population. The money that is made from these
increases goes to the upper class and the lower class just gets poorer from these changes.
number can live with the necessities with a certain income per year. The United States
has a guide for determining what the income should be and how people can qualify for
federal help. The help would include school lunches, food stamps, home energy
assistance and many other programs (Miller). For a family of four in the continental
United States the minimum income for a family is 24,250 per year. Now this number is
an average amount of money needed to cover the necessities of life in the U.S.. This
42

number reflects what a family needs to make to cover the expenses and childcare. In most
cases this does not include any luxuries or extras for the family. In the past fifty years the
number of families in poverty has changed in number. However, in the past ten years the
amount of families in poverty has steadily increased. In 2014 the number was up to
9,467,000.
If the minimum wage were raise to the proposed $10.10 it is estimated by
economists that for the general public there would be an increase in the wage of 11% of
the working population. In the workplace there would be a loss of approximately
500,000 or 0.3% jobs, about 900,000 or 2% of people would make enough money to
come out of poverty as estimated in a study done by the Congressional Budget Office
(Burkhauser).
with this data we can see that there is a growing problem in the United States as far as
minimum wage and poverty. In the next section of my paper I will analyze whether the
minimum wage helps these families to get out from under the poverty line as well as keep
other families from entering into poverty. Also, I want to display the effects of changing
minimum wage in the country. Families are struggling to pay expenses with the money
they are making. This needs to be fixed, however, a higher minimum wage may not be
the answer. If it isnt then my next question will be what is.
There has been a lot of debate about raising the minimum wage in the past couple
weeks. There is a push by many politicians to more than double the current amount
federally regulated. These politicians are pushing for this in order to get low income
workers in line with inflation rates. In theory this a great idea and could possibly work.
Humans are strongly influenced by motivation. In 2014 unemployment was down
43

17.46% between January and December. The higher wages motivated people to go
looking for jobs again. However, in other cases with the raise in minimum wage there has
come to a decrease in hours by individuals to still receive the low income housing and
benefits ().
From my research I have found that there are pro and cons to raising the
minimum wage. However, I believe that there does need to be a change in the amount of
money a worker makes per hour. With inflation being an ever changing variable in the
economy there needs to be consideration for it. When there is minimum inflation in an
economy the money a person makes is fine to live on because the goods and services they
buy are reasonable priced. When there is a spike in inflation the money made at a low
income job will not buy the same amount of goods as it previously could. In response to
these changes in the economy there should be an equal raise or lowering of wages to
match prices of goods and services.
If this were to happen it would be very difficult to achieve since the current
minimum wage is already drastically below the inflation rate. If the minimum wage had
kept pace with inflation since 1968, today it would be at $10.57 per hour, instead of the
current federal minimum wage (7.25) (Gitterman). To solve this problem there would
have to be a legislative bill that goes through a very polarized government about a hot
topic issue. Each side has various pieces of evidence for its beliefs, but collectively
evidence is not conclusive on the effect of a raise in minimum wage. Passing this
legislation would be much like trying to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. What
is known, is that workers are not being paid enough to support the expenses they have at
the current minimum wage.
44
Works Cited
Burkhauser, Richard V. "Another Look At The Economics Of Minimum Wage
Legislation." Australian Economic Review 47.3 (2014): 409-415. EconLit with
Full Text. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Che, Jenny. "The Middle Class Has Gotten Smaller In Every State Since 2000." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Gitterman, Daniel P. "Remaking A Bargain: The Political Logic Of The Minimum Wage
In The United States." Poverty And Public Policy 5.1 (2013): 3-36. EconLit with
Grossman, Jonathan. "U.S. Department of Labor -- History -- Fair Labor Standards Act
of 1938:." U.S. Department of Labor - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
McMahon, Tim. "Annual Inflation Rate Chart." Annual Inflation Rate Chart. N.p., 15
Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Miller, G. E. "What Is the US Poverty Line & Could YOU Live Below It?" What Is the
2015 US Poverty GuideLine? N.p., 1 Nov. 2015. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
"Minimum Wage since 1938." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 30 Oct.
2015.
Weissmann, Jordan. "Should We Raise the Minimum Wage? 11 Questions and
Answers." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 09 Nov.
2015.
45

Worstall, Tim. "The 7 Most Dangerous Myths about a $15 Minimum Wage." Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 4 Aug. 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
46
Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawiliski
RC 2001-181
18 November 2015
Minimum Wage Laws
I decided to go with a paper about minimum wage and the changes that would
create with the economy because it is an important issue not only for business students
but also for college students. We have been payed minimum wage for essentially our
entire working career. Jobs where employees earn a higher wage require education and
experience, neither of which we have, yet as students we still have basic expenses for
loans, gas, and rent. Some people never get out of this stage of their life and only work in
a minimum wage job to support their families. The most effective use of minimum wage
would be to adjust it based on inflation rate in order to support the working class.
In the past fifty years minimum wage has grown with the economy by a small
margin. Minimum wage is used to prevent employers from exploiting workers and to
keep the trade of labor for services in check. Lately there has been an uproar over how
much minimum wage should be and if there should in fact be a minimum wage.
Minimum wage was first enacted on October 24, 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
At that time the minimum wage was 25 cents an hour with a forty hour work week
(Grossman). In the past fifty years, the federal minimum wage has been adjusted 6 times
ranging from 1963 to 2013 to its current position of $7.25 per hour (Minimum Wage
Since 1938). The federal minimum wage and the state minimum wage are not always the
same. For example, currently there are 19 states that have a minimum wage higher than
47

the federal minimum wage including Washington, California and Missouri. 4.7% of the
working class make at or below the minimum wage, 88% of that number are over the age
of twenty (Warstoll). We can conclude from this information that not only high schoolers
and college students are affected by these standards of wages.
current decade (McMahon). The decrease in inflation rates is referred to as deflation in
the economy. This means that the amount a dollar would buy before inflation has
decreased. With all of the changes in the value of a dollar it is difficult to determine the
proper amount to raise minimum wage since within a single year inflation fluctuates
drastically. Since the inflation rate is unstable, there should be a more concrete way of
measuring the worth of a dollar. For instance, in foreign countries they measure the worth
of their dollar against that of the United States because it is the most stable of currency. If
we had a stable measurement it would be easier to keep wages and prices within a
reasonable range of each other.
Proponents of raising the minimum wage believe that it would help the lower
class more into the middle class. Therefore, help the middle class grow and in turn the
economy. However, since 2000 the middle class has economically declined in every state
somewhere between 1-6% (Che). These changes come from little changes in wage while
prices of goods and services rise. Rising prices include childcare, food, rent, college
tuition, etc. With all of these costs adding up the middle class decreases in population.
The continued argument from these increases in price is that the money that is made from
these increases goes to the upper class and the lower class just gets poorer from these
48

changes. However, whether or not this is true is another question. If wages are constantly
lower than the prices of goods then in accordance with the Sticky Wage Theory of
macroeconomics, the extra profit made from producing the goods is going to the owners
of the business while the wages stay low to reduce cost of production. Household in the
top 1% of the wealth distribution have held about 1/3rd of the total wealth in the
economy (De Nardi). So in this situation, money made from increasing prices is going
to the business owners, which are typically the upper class, especially from corporations.
number can live with the necessities with a certain income per year and is generally
related to the families with parents working minimum wage jobs. The United States has a
guide for determining what the income should be and how people can qualify for federal
help, i.e. school lunches, food stamps, home energy assistance and many other programs
(Miller). For a family of four in the continental United States, the minimum income is
$24,250 per year. This number is an average amount of money needed to cover the
necessities of life in the U.S. In most cases this does not include any luxuries or extras for
the family. For example, Carman Iverson is a mother of four who works at a McDonalds
making $7.35 per hour. The wage just increased in the past year from $7.25. Carman is
scheduled no more than 20 hours a week and has trouble keeping up with her expenses.
She is behind on rent, utilities and lives on food stamps. The lack of money she makes
has hindered her getting food, and clothes for herself as well as her four children. In the
past ten years the amount of families in poverty has steadily increased (Shin). In 2014 the
number was up to 9,467,000 people.
49

If the minimum wage were raised to the proposed $10.10 it is estimated by
the working population. A study done by the Congressional Budget Office stated that
there would be a loss of approximately 500,000 or 0.3% jobs in the workplace, and about
900,000 or 2% of people would make enough money to come out of poverty
(Burkhauser). While these numbers may seem small, that is simply because of the great
number of jobs in the United States. 2% of people working in the United States is equal
to nearly a million people. This would be helpful to the overall economy because of the
potential inventions that can come when these people get more money. Many people
would go to school to get a degree, increasing the human capital of the United States
making the country output raise.
There has been a lot of debate about raising the minimum wage in the past year.
There is a push by many grassroots politicians to double the current amount federally
regulated. These politicians are pushing for this in order to get low income workers in
line with inflation rates. In theory this a great idea and could possibly work. Humans are
strongly influenced by motivation. In 2014 unemployment was down 17.46% between
January and December. The higher wages motivated people to go looking for jobs again.
buy are reasonably priced. When there is a spike in inflation the money made at a low
50

evidence is not conclusive on the effect of a raise in minimum wage. What is known, is
that workers are not being paid enough to support the expenses they have at the current
minimum wage. To better the standard of living for the citizens of the United States,
there should be an adjustment of wages in accordance with the inflation rate. This would
solve the current issues of rising prices with a lack of funds to cover the necessities.
51
Works Cited
De Nardi, Mariacristina. Quantitative Models of Wealth Inequality: A Survey. No.
w21106. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2015.
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
2015.
Shin, Laura. "How She Lives on Minimum Wage: One McDonald's Worker's Budget."
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 19 July 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
52

2015.
53
Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Jackie Huckert
Bret Zawiliski
RC 2001-181
18 November 2015
Minimum Wage Laws
Business is all about the exchange of something of value. From the consumer
getting a product, the worker making a good, the manager making sure everything runs
smoothly, money is the main concern as much as we try to deny it. In todays economy,
one of the most polarizing topics in the United States is the regulations on minimum
wage. As college students, there have been few positions that have payed over minimum
wage available to be filled. Jobs where employees earn a higher wage require education
and experience, both of which come with jobs that are not so sought after, yet as students
there are still basic expenses for loans, gas, and rent. Some of the working class never get
above the minimum wage job that they started out at. These working individuals barely
support their families with the basic necessities at these jobs. In this essay there are statics
about the changes in minimum wage and inflation in the past 50 years. With this
information, the essay continues on to analyze the effects of the change or lack thereof in
the numbers and how it is more difficult for a family to survive. The most effective use of
minimum wage would be to adjust it based on inflation rate in order to support the
working class.
In the past fifty years minimum wage has grown with the economy by a small
margin. Minimum wage is used to prevent employers from exploiting workers and to
keep the trade of labor for services in check. Lately there has been an uproar over how
54

much minimum wage should be and if there should in fact be a minimum wage.
Minimum wage was first enacted on October 24, 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
At that time the minimum wage was 25 cents an hour with a forty hour work week
(Grossman). In the past fifty years, the federal minimum wage has been adjusted 6 times
ranging from 1963 to 2013 to its current position of $7.25 per hour (Minimum Wage
Since 1938). The federal minimum wage and the state minimum wage are not always the
same. For example, currently there are 19 states that have a minimum wage higher than
the federal minimum wage including Washington, California and Missouri. 4.7% of the
working class make at or below the minimum wage, 88% of that number are over the age
of twenty (Warstoll). We can conclude from this information that not only high schoolers
and college students are affected by these standards of wages.
Inflation rates have changed dramatically in the past fifty years. In the 1970s
inflation was as high as 7.25%, while the most recent inflation rate is 1.86% (McMahon).
This decrease in the inflation rate is referred to as deflation in the economy. This means
that the amount a dollar would buy before inflation has increased for a certain period.
Eventually the economy will tip like a scale to even the value of a dollar out then the
entire cycle will begin again. With all of the changes in the value of a dollar it is difficult
to determine the proper amount to raise minimum wage since within a single year
inflation fluctuates drastically. Because the inflation rate is unstable, there should be a
more concrete way of measuring the worth of a dollar. For instance, in foreign countries
they measure the worth of their dollar against that of the United States because it is the
most stable of currency. If we had a stable measurement it would be easier to keep wages
and prices within a reasonable range of each other.
55

Proponents of raising the minimum wage believe that it would help the lower
class move into the middle class. Therefore, it would help the middle class grow and in
turn the economy. However, since 2000 the middle class has economically declined in
every state somewhere between 1-6% (Che). These changes come from slight variations
in wage while prices of goods and services such as childcare, food, rent, college tuition,
etc. rise. With all of these costs adding up the middle class decreases in population. The
continued argument from these increases in price is that the excess money that is made
from these increases in price goes to the upper class and the lower class gets poorer from
having to buy goods at that value. However, whether or not this is true is another
question. If wages are constantly lower than the prices of goods then in accordance with
the Sticky Wage Theory of macroeconomics, the extra profit made from producing the
goods is going to the owners of the business while the wages stay low to reduce cost of
production. The Sticky Wage theory says that Household in the top 1% of the wealth
distribution have held about 1/3rd of the total wealth in the economy (De Nardi). So in
this situation, money made from increasing prices is going to the business owners, which
are typically the upper class, especially from corporations. The wages paid to the
employees of the industries are not high enough to figure in the increased perceived value
of goods so there is a large margin between the two.
number can live with the necessities with a certain income per year and is generally
related to the families with parents working minimum wage jobs. The United States has a
guide for determining what the income should be and how people can qualify for federal
help, in other words school lunches, food stamps, home energy assistance and many other
56

programs (Miller). For a family of four in the continental United States, the minimum
income is $24,250 per year. This number is an average amount of money needed to cover
the necessities of life in the U.S. In most cases this does not include any luxuries or extras
such as new clothing or shoes for anyone in the family. In 2014 the number of
impoverished people was up to 9,467,000. For example, Carman Iverson is a mother of
four who works at a McDonalds making $7.35 per hour. The wage just increased in the
past year from $7.25. Carman is scheduled no more than 20 hours a week and has trouble
keeping up with her expenses. She is behind on rent, utilities and lives on food stamps.
The lack of money she makes has hindered her getting food, and clothes for herself as
well as her four children (Shin).
If the minimum wage were raised to the proposed $10.10 it is estimated by
the working population. A study done by the Congressional Budget Office stated that
there would be a loss of approximately 500,000 or 0.3% jobs in the workplace, and about
900,000 or 2% of people would make enough money to come out of poverty
(Burkhauser). While these numbers may seem small, that is simply because of the great
number of jobs in the United States. 2% of people working in the United States is equal
to nearly a million people. This would be helpful to the overall economy because of the
potential inventions that can come when these people get more money. Many people
would go to school to get a degree, increasing the human capital of the United States
making the country output raise.
There has been a lot of debate about raising the minimum wage in the past year.
There is a push by many grassroots politicians to double the current amount federally
57

regulated. These politicians are pushing for this in order to get low income workers in
line with inflation rates. In theory this a great idea and could possibly work. Humans are
strongly influenced by motivation. In 2014 unemployment was down 17.46% between
January and December. The higher wages motivated people to go looking for jobs again.
However there is no definitive proof that this theory, in practice, will actually work other
than the initial drop in unemployment. A free market economy is subjected to frequent
fluctuation so theories like these need years to be studied and analyzed for a conclusion.
buy are reasonably priced. When there is a spike in inflation the money made at a low
evidence is not conclusive on the effect of a raise in minimum wage. What is known, is
58

that workers are not being paid enough to support the expenses they have at the current
minimum wage. To better the standard of living for the citizens of the United States,
there should be an adjustment of wages in accordance with the inflation rate. This would
solve the current issues of rising prices with a lack of funds to cover the necessities.
59
Works Cited
De Nardi, Mariacristina. Quantitative Models of Wealth Inequality: A Survey. No.
w21106. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2015.
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
2015.
Shin, Laura. "How She Lives on Minimum Wage: One McDonald's Worker's Budget."
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 19 July 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
60

2015.
61

Jackie Huckert
Bret Z
RC 2001-181
10 December 2015
Final Reflection of Writing
Throughout this semester I have been challenged in writing my best work to provide for
this class. I have learned the importance of writing to an audience while also analyzing why a
writer does what they do in order to make a point or continue a discussion. I feel like this class
has been very eye opening in its theme that there is a continual discussion in the individual fields
that each person in the class is going into. In previous schooling, students of a class are in
general going to the same place next. This is the first class I have had where each student is
moving into a separate area afterward. From here on out my peers and I will be moving on into
our desired professions so there will not be another class afterward to branch out and read the
writing of others. This class gave an opportunity to learn about other fields as well as go more in
depth in the field I have chosen.
As far as demonstrating my ability to critically analyze reading and writing there have
been many activities throughout the semester where I have spoken in class and provided an idea
that had not been said yet. I feel like I have responded to QQCs and discussions in class in an
analytical way to further my own learning as well as the learning of others. Ethos, Logos, and
Pathos are the rhetorical concepts that I would say have the most effect on the writing in my field
of study. As a business major everything I write and prepare in and for future jobs depends on
people. I have to convince people to trust me from words on a page; I have to motivate others to
follow a cause based on how a story is presented. All of these examples include the basic idea of
62

having an appeal to my audience. These appeals I have come to have a greater understanding of
through the work completed in this course.
As the semester has progressed my writing process has changed, especially in how I
started the process and the final editing. I really enjoyed being able to have a rough draft in
general. In previous classes even the first rough draft was still a draft that could receive a decent
grade. Being able to provide a rough draft of almost a continuous running thoughts on what the
paper will be provided me with an opportunity to receive feedback and ideas without having to
rearrange my entire paper. At this time in the semester I am considerably more confident in my
ability to compose a paper when I need to. I have moved away from my dislike of peer editing
because many of my papers have exceeded my expectations for them from the suggestions that
my peers have offered in this class. In editing my papers I have discovered that when I am
writing I break all of my sentences up into simple ideas that make the paragraphs sound choppy
and unorganized. Through my editing I have also learned how to synthesize my sentences into a
complex thought that needs to be understood. My writing process is a conundrum in and of itself.
I begin papers by starting with a simple idea and I just start writing about it. Most of the time I
have an idea in my mind of what I want to say and the order that the paper would flow well.
Once I get the frame onto the paper then I go back and fill in ideas that need more content and
have a lack of information. Once I believe that I have something that makes sense I wait a day so
I do not look at it much. After that day I return to my paper and go through to see where I have a
stray thought or idea that could confuse a stranger reading my paper. I then revise those portions
of the piece and move into the final grammatical and error check. After a paper is finished, if I
am waiting for a grade or a review I will not look at the paper because I will just get worried
63

about everything I could change to make it better. Instead I wait and review the changes to be
made to better my writing for the next assignment.
My field is business management with a minor in advanced entrepreneurship so I feel like
the writing completed in this course will have many similarities to the writing in my desired
field. With my major the required writing involves mostly business plans and suggestions to
higher management on what could be going better on my level. Throughout the class I have been
working on analyzing the happenings in my papers and how best they can be changed and made
to work in my favor. I have also learned how to give constructive criticism through writing
which is going to be a large part of my eventual field and major. Giving feedback and learning
from my own mistakes is a pivotal skill in my eventual field. In the coming semesters I expect to
have some challenges in the writing portion of my course work because I have a true dislike of
writing in general. I prefer to read rather than write. I have been working on getting into more of
a writing routine and trying to better my enthusiasm for writing. It just goes very slowly. I am
also concerned about how to manage the amount of work that will be required to complete the
courses that I want to take as my major.
This section is copied from my ePortfolio website.

Project 1
The roughest draft of the paper. It was a little crazy and difficult to understand the entire
purpose of the paper. I had a particularly difficult time finding papers that had a link to
entrepreneurship in itself and something that I wanted to say about it. I will say that this paper
challenged my researching abilities and helped me to grow in that aspect of my writing right
from the start.
64

There was more of a direction to this draft. It had better citations and direction to the
quotations. There was a better format to the paper in this draft. There was more of a general idea
now that the sources had been finalized and some feedback had been suggested.
The best of the three. This draft has a better organization and overall content. There were
a lot of changes between the drafts and how they were constructed. This draft had the changes
suggested in my peer editing groups and how the paper could be furthered.
I took into account the suggestions that were made for my final draft. You can expect to
see changes in: the opening sentence for a more concise theme for the paper, in the second
paragraph there is an extra couple sentences in the middle for clarification on the main points of
the article, I removed the extra tab in the fourth paragraph, Each paragraph has had an addition
of a more direct reference to the piece that is being analyzed, in the fifth paragraph there are
syntax changes to make the flow less choppy. Additionally I revised a paragraph by splitting it
into two separate parts in order to add more detail to each point in paragraphs five and six. There
were more sentences rearranged in the following paragraphs before the conclusion. The
conclusion is one of the main parts I changed in this piece, it got completely revamped and
edited.
Project 2
This button on the left is a link to the note cards that were on the outside of my actual
model. Unfortunately they were not photographed for the gallery. The descriptions are in order
of the colored floors from bottom to top. You can find the revised version at the end in a link
called Revisions for Project 2. In that revision I worked to elaborate the purpose of each
component of the model in a more cohesive manner. I wanted to emphasis the reasons behind
65

each item in the model and why a novice in becoming an entrepreneur would need to know this
information in the revisions.
Project 3
The roughest draft of the paper. Includes few citations and a lot of changed material. In
composing this piece I have come to understand that when arguing a point based on research the
writer must have evidence from both sides of an argument to be credible. In the majority of
credible sources I found the writer recognized the opposition in the writing yet used that
information for a counterargument.
The writing of the second draft has improved. There are only a few citations in the piece
just because I add in the citations at the end of the piece. I like to have the citations be the ending
part of my writing because it forces me to return to each of my sources and confirm the accuracy
of my sentences with the sources.
This is the final draft for the assignment, so more details, citations and overall fluidity is
added in the revised copy. All citations are present in the works cited as well as in text citations.
I also added in some of the rhetorical appeals to make the issue come to life instead of just being
statistics on a piece of paper. In doing this I feel like the paper seems more relevant to the current
economic situation in the United States.
Added the revisions from conference and tried to be more precise with my wording. In
this draft you can expect to find an in depth analysis of minimum wage legislature. I began my
revisions by changing the introduction completely. I added new material to summarize what the
paper would be about and I removed the personal pronouns that were still remaining in the paper.
Next I went on to make the writing sound less choppy by combining sentences and ideas
throughout the paper. I defined terms more clearly and I added some extra linking points to
66

examples and ideas. In the conclusion I kept most of the same material just rearranged a little bit
by adding some closing remarks.
67

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RC 2001: Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum

Final Print Portfolio

Appalachian State University

Final Semester Reflection

Rhetorical Analysis First Draft

Rhetorical Analysis First Draft

Rhetorical Analysis First Draft

Rhetorical Analysis First Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Second Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Second Draft

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Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Fourth Draft

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part One

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part One

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Multimodal Ethnography Reflection, Part Two

Major Issues Paper, First Draft

Major Issues Paper, First Draft

Major Issues Paper, First Draft

Major Issues Paper, First Draft

Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Major Issues Paper, Second Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Third Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft

Major Issues Paper, Fourth Draft