Academic
A Necessary Vice
December, 2013 - English 225
As discussed in my writer's evolution essay, this paper explores an ethical analysis of the ticking time bomb scenario – whether or not to torture a suspect with a nuclear bomb loose in a major city. I present the pros and cons of each side, as well as my personal opinion that torture in the situation is actually the most ethical course of action. This is the first paper where I learned to truly construct a persuasive argument, as I address counter- arguments to my position then one-by-one debunk them. This is an extremely effective persuasive strategy that I have used on multiple occasions since.
Framing Catastrophes
December, 2015 - Political Science 329 (ULWC)
In this paper, I statistically analyze the reactions of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton to the Nov. 13 Paris terror attacks and Dec. 2 San Bernardino shootings. Results display that candidates match their political messages to the salience surrounding the catastrophes, and that the candidates significantly differ in their framing of issues relating to the same events. Trump is much more likely to frame the events as matters of terrorism, while Clinton more likely to frame them as issues of gun violence. I chose to include this paper in particular, as I believe it showcases how I have learned to create an original argument and support it through statistical evidence.
Star Power
November, 2015 - Political Science 386
This is one of my favorite papers I have ever written, and certainly the most fun. The class about the evolution of sports in modern society, our assignment was to compare the four major American hegemonic sports (football, basketball, baseball, hockey). I love this paper in particular, because I actually produced original research that nobody had done before. I hypothesized top basketball players would have more individual popularity than the other sports, due to specific aspects of the games. Using social media followers as a metric, I found this to be overwhelmingly evident. This was an especially interesting finding, considering football is far more popular as whole than basketball.
A Transition to War
December, 2015 - Political Science 389
In a class about modern warfare, the assignment was to choose a particular war and examine the specific causes of it, relating to the international theory we had studied throughout the semester. This paper utilizes the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) as a case study, making the argument that new democracies with struggling economies are more likely to experience civil war. This was a very interesting paper to write about, as I was able to learn about a very complex conflict in the years leading up to World War II. It also reveals that a quick transition to democracy can lead to very dangerous outcomes depending on the circumstances and context of the region.