Criticize the following two papers based on these instructions:
A) A paragraph of no less than 100 words that describes your general impression of the draft, one specific strength, and one specific area for improvement.
B) A paragraph of no less than 50 words that analyzes how effectively they used a quote to support their thesis. Use and reference the quote sandwich handout to help you determine how well they used the quote.
C) A paragraph of no less than 100 words that analyzes one of their key paragraphs.While the decision to use the formula depends on the writing style of the author, the constructed. Please use this formula to analyze the paragraph you choose:
1) The central point that the paragraph is trying to make.
2) A sentence to support the central point the paragraph is trying to make.
3) Another sentence to support the central point the paragraph is trying to make.
4) Additional sentences supporting the paragraph’s central point.
5) A sentence or two that wraps up the point being made and provides any needed transition into the next paragraph.
Paper #1;Social Stratification in the Workplace
Most communities have a hierarchy. It can be linear, have multiple levels, or be very one sided with one person as the leader and the rest as the followers. However, communities have dense dynamics within the hierarchy that create another level of roles and responsibilities. During my study of my community, a Gap workplace, I discovered a secondary hierarchy within the organizational hierarchy that supports the organizational hierarchy of management. Based on the interaction I studied, it can be said that the social stratification in this workplace has created a secondary hierarchy based on social status.
I studied the community I ma most a part of, my workplace. My workplace is a part of the Gap Inc. brand. If you’ve never worked for Gap, you might assume that we work like most retail employers, however, you would be incorrect. Gap inc. is a family. From day one we work together to make sure everyone is treated fairly, with respect and welcomed like a friend. Upon my hiring five months ago, I’d never worked in retail, let alone worked for a Gap brand. Within these last months though, my community here has supported and built me up to be a great sales women. Understanding that this community is welcoming and uplifting is key to understanding the point of this paper, while we have an organizational hierarchy, we also have a hierarchy based on social stratification.
Social stratification occurs within every community. It is the categorization of people based on factors such as wealth, power, occupation, or in this case, social status. (Wikipedia) High social status in my community is determined loosely by three factors: seniority, overall knowledge, and performance. Being a job that relies heavily on personal performance, it’s not surprising that performance and overall knowledge determines a person’s social status. Seniority on the other hand loosely determines a person’s social status. One example from my notes is my relationship with a women we will call “Jamie” to keep confidentiality. Jamie has higher seniority than me, however my overall knowledge and performance is higher than hers because I work more hours than her. When we interact, she typically asks me questions as if I were a leader or higher on the level of hierarchy than her. On the technical hierarchy of management, supervisors, and employees, she and I are equals. The dynamic of our relationship however shows another level of hierarchy within the hierarchy itself based on our socially interpreted statuses.
Socially interpreted statuses are how we define ourselves within a community. In my Gap community, we see these statuses based on their achievements in the workplace. An article titled, Status Inconsistency in Organizations: From Social Hierarchy to Stress, introduces the idea of achieved status hierarchies, “Achieved status hierarchies describe how a person defines him or her self and how he or she sets expectations based on characteristics that are partly under his or her control.”
My Gap community’s secondary hierarchy is an achieved status hierarchy because of its foundation of performance, overall knowledge, and seniority. The hierarchy itself has three levels: newbies who are the lowest on the hierarchy, in-betweens who are those that are knowledgeable of most of the stores processes, and perceived leaders who are knowledgeable about all basic operations and beginning supervisory responsibilities.
Movement throughout the secondary hierarchy is fluid. Those who are in the newbie category may not stay in that category for very long or may stay there for their entire duration with the company. Since the secondary hierarchy is based on achieved statuses, a person’s ability to move throughout the hierarchy is entirely dependent on themselves. For example, two newbies I have studied, “Taylor” and “James” have been with the company for the same amount of time. Taylor has excelled in basic procedures and is viewed by most of our management as an “In-between”. She is knowledgeable, able to adapt, and delegates tasks to the other newbies. “James” on the other hand has excelled at basic performances, but does not show the same amount of drive to delegate as “Taylor”. Because of that, he is still considered a newbie.
Social stratification in this community drives both the management hierarchy and the secondary achieved hierarchy. While the management hierarchy is ridged and assigned, the secondary hierarchy is fluid and allows for the employees themselves to decide who is in charge. Although my study only included a Gap community, I believe these secondary communities are important to communities, especially workplaces. While this secondary wasn’t built by the company, it helps everyone within the community understands here they stand, who they can ask for help, and give the people who might be newbies a sense of belonging.
Bacharach, S. B., Bamberger, P. and Mundell, B. (1993), Status inconsistency in organizations: From social hierarchy to stress. J. Organiz. Behav., 14: 21–36.
“Social Stratification.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Paper#2:Community Study: Church
Community life is important to each individual on this earth because it makes us feel part of something bigger. As we get older we incorporate ourselves with groups that share similar characteristics. A community is “a local grouping of people who share a number of important interests and activities, and who are more concerned about those things which they have in common than about those wherein they differ” (Queen, 2014). Personal the most important community I belong to is the church community. After examining details and participating in community events, I discovered interesting characteristics about my community. A church is a sacred place where members are to equally serve God, but as a result of human conduct and deed the community experiences equality and stratification. The decisions members of a community make have a drastic effect on community life.
The church is an important part of every Christian’s life. A community is a group of people who share similar characteristics, interests or ideas. The church community shares similar beliefs as well as interest’s ultimately trying to praise God and end up in heaven. The first churches were created thousands of years ago and ever since they have changed their practices and ways. The more modern churches structures are based on the new testament of the bible. They share similar functionalities of how the church spends their service in fellowship worshiping God. An article on “What is a Living Church?” states, “The local church should be characterized by the study of the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and prayer”(Religion, 2014). Over time as the world and society changed the churches started to slowly deviate from the teachings of Christ. The church was isolated from the rest of the world. Jesus taught the people telling and showing them that the church to be kept clean and away from the earthly and flesh deeds. As times changes members reshaped the church and started incorporating the earthly things in the church. This had a significant effect on the church community and the relationships between one another.
When I first attended my church community in 2001 I remember church service being different than service we have today. Though our church structure may differ then the churches created by the apostles, the firsts followers of Christ, it still holds to the teaching and the ways of Christ. The church Community has a hierarchical structure just as any organization or community. My community gathers mainly Sundays and Wednesdays. The serve usually last 2 hours and during the service members preach, sing, and worship God in prayer. Members usually dress formally wearing dress pants and shirts for males and dresses or skirts for females. Figure 1 demonstrates the hierarchy of a single church community. The leader in the church is the pastor; chosen the members to help keep the church together and well organized. The pastor has Deacons who help the pastor do his duties. The pastor often visits the sick unable to attend church and the deacons help the pastor when he unable to attend all the sick. Below the Deacons are the leaders of sub-groups such as choir and youth and prayer groups. They communicate with the deacons and pastor to organize events. Each sub-group in the community follows the same hierarchical structure. Together the sub-groups create an ultimate church community. Rarely our community would converge and spend time in church with sub-communities form other church communities. For example, our youth choir leaders would have a connection with leaders outside the church and they would organize events where our communities would gather. These cases subsequently form a single community where churches from around the world would gather and worship.
The church follows the laws that God has addressed through his word; the Bible. No matter the race, gender, or class, everyone is accepted by Jesus equally. The church’s main goal is to help accomplish this and bring everyone to Christ. After examining the community with close details and being more active I realized that the church community faces stratification. Stratification in a church is the categorization or rankings of members of different classes, origins, race, or families in the community. The church has service every Sunday and Wednesday for 2 hours, the other days the different sub-groups gather or organize events. During service I noticed that certain most people always sit next to the same people. Usually it’s family related, but when something changes and they must sit with other members the situation becomes uncomfortable or awkward. After service ends everyone goes to their group of people. I noticed the upper class or the rich people never associated themselves with the lower class. The upper class seems to assign who can be in their sub-group and the lower class really doesn’t have an option but to stick with family or members of their type.
One the most important issues seen in church communities from countries outside the US experience disparity between the older and the younger generations. In the community the population of the younger and older members is about equal. The elders all emigrated from Ukraine and hold on to their cultures and ways while the younger generation is more modern and their culture differs from the older generation. Not just the culture but the two generations have trouble getting along because of the language being used. The youth, raised here in the US, speaks English whereas the older generation speaks Ukrainian. Regularly during service when a sermon or a song is performed, both parties have issues understanding and this causes tension in the community. We can see this happening in every community where there are always two opposing sides who view things differently thought they are in the same community. Solutions were proposed to have service in both languages but it is still hard to satisfy both generations since people are selfish and want their way.
A community is a group or organization of people that share similar interest, goals, and characteristics. The most important community I am a part of is the church community. The church community shares multiple things but mostly it shares a common belief in God. Church is a creation of God and members of the church are to be a representation of what Gods children are but as a result of human action we see separation and stratification in church communities. The church faces multiple issues related to stratification. Members organize themselves in groups of different age, family, or class. One of the most important issues is the separation of generations within the church. Though our beliefs and goals are the same the differences in language and age causes tensions in the church community. Finding a common solution to satisfy both generations can be a challenge but sticking to what really matters and focusing less on the little obstacles can help communities succeed.
References
Religion, J. (2014). What Is a Living Church ? by J . S . Whale Review by : Henry P . van Dusen Published by : The University of Chicago Press, 19(1), 21–22.
What is a Community ? Author ( s ): Stuart A . Queen. (2014), 1(4), 375–382.
