Write Stripes

I think that, in order to grab and hold college students' attention, it is imperative to make the issues relevant to their lives. Unless they understand why these issues are important to them, and what kind of impact they have on their own personal lives, they probably aren't going to be very interested. Personalizing something always makes it have a greater impact because it is hitting closer to home. If we could make the students realize that the issues in the political debate today are going to directly influence some aspect of their life, either today or in the near future, then I think that we are going to be able to make them want to listen and learn about them.

In order to meet this challenge, I think the website needs to have a few things. First of all, each topic we write about needs to be clear and to the point. Using big, fancy words is not going to attract attention to those who don't know much about politics. Second, each page needs to be attractive and creative. I know that I don't enjoy looking at a boring website. Last, it needs to be as informative as possible. College students don't like to waste time. I think if it has these aspects, more students will look at it.

Other than choosing topics that are interesting and relevant to the 2004 election, we also need to make those topics appealing to students. We need to present the information in a way that we are speaking to students as if they are intelligent and capable as well as inform them. We need to be careful to explain but not talk down to our readers. We want them to understand our topics and to learn from them. We also need to let them know why these topics are relevant to them and the election. We've all heard these topics at least metioned before but we need to stress the importance of them not only for the nation but for our age.

OK, so at the very best, it's a challenge to motivate college students to become educated about political matters. So how are you going to meet that challenge (other than by choosing good topics, which you've already tried to do.) How will you get (and hold) your peers' attention?

Based upon my interview and investigation I was very surprised at the amount of writing bioengineers have to do on a day to day basis. I emailed a short questioner to several bioengineers at Clemson and received much response. Every person that responded said that they do writing almost everyday. They do technical writing in the form of reports, proposals, and simple things like memos letters. Before this project, I never thought about the amount of writing that I would be required to do as an engineer. I have found that it is essential for me as an engineer to be able to adequately communicate complex ideas in layman's terms.

Does it anyone know if we have another blog due for tomorrow or just the group blog? Thanks!

It's just the group blog--see you tomorrow !

The majority of Clemson students are as apathetic as reported be about politics. However, there is a minority that is very concerned about issues, but this group is mainly very conservative Republicans. The majority of students do not care about national politics. They prefer to live in their Clemson "bubble" and ignore the problems that do not directly affect them now. Many students have the attitude that college is the time to enjoy life and not worry about serious matters, such as politics. Some students get involved in local campaigns, mainly because they know or are somehow associated with the candidate. In addition, students get very involved with the student government elections. This shows that it is not the political process with which they are discontent or bored, but rather the candidates and issues. The minority of students that do care about state or national politics are usually strong right-wing conservatives who grew up in strong political households or have a religious basis or politics. There are some of us who are left-wing Democrats or even neutral who care strongly about politics. I cannot speak for everyone, but I know that I choose not to become too involved or vocal about politics here at Clemson because of the vehement emotions that politics arouse. I would prefer to stay more quiet on the larger front (say, outside of just a class) to avoid the debates and arguments that would be inevitable. There may be others who are not as involved or vocal because of this reason. Many students are not interested in many of the issues and do not have the time to read through everything to get information.
Apathy is a huge problem among the youth of our nation. There are many reasons that college students feel apathetic about the world, but there is definitely one main reason that causes apathy. College students do not feel like the decisions that are made in Washington D.C. directly effect them. To a large degree this feeling is correct. The laws that make the headlines do not pertain to the issues that college students care about. Why should young people care about social security, especially young people in college that will most likely not be dependent on the government for retirement? Other issues do not directly impact our age group either. The one main issue that has caused many young people to take notice of politics is the war. I know that I have been much more political since the war on terrorism has begun. The main way to get young people involved is to address issues that are important enough to grab our attention. These issues include teenage pregnancy, abortion, the military, lower income tax cuts, and perhaps the legalization of marijuana. Our generation is one of sensationalism and that is what it is going to take to get our generation involved.
Some ways to overcome apathy among college students is to relate the issues to their lives. By doing this, college students will realize that these issues actually are really important. Also, these issues should be vocalized in the college community in a way that will grab the attention of college students. For example, putting up flyers with provocative questions or statistics relating to some of these issues might be a start. Below the questions, list a web site that provided more information on the topics. I think a good example of this type of advertising is "the Truth" ads on tv about smoking. The shocking facts they reveal actually make people hear what they are trying to say. I think this is a good way to perhaps overcome some of the apathy among college students when it comes to political issues. Instead of just stating the issues, the issues need to be applied to their lives, and this will make them more interested and opinionated.
One URL is: www.presidentmatch.com. It's a survey that you take and it identifies you with a presidential candidate. Then you can go in and read about the candidate and history and information and stuff. It's pretty cool. The Election Guide is pretty alluring and informational.
Here is the URL of a really good site about political issues. You start by clicking on the mindset that applies to you (ie, liberal, conservative, etc) and the issues that you want to know more about, and then it brings up all of these different sites where you can get more info on that topic. http://www.politics1.com/issues.htm

-Brannon, Jonathan, Mary, Kim, and Lauren

In our group there was not a consensus as to whether or not students are disconnected. Some members experiences make me think that the majority of students are even better informed about issues than we might be. With the attention that our media has projected in our war with Iraq, a lot of political issues outside of foreign policy have been brought to the forefront. Because many people have such differing opinions on the Bush administration, it has brought these issues into our lives as college students through the media, even if they don't directly affect us.

Other members felt that Clemson students are definitely just as politically disconnected as college students are reported to be. There are very few people who actually care enough to pay attention to politics. It seems as thought most people aren't even registered to vote. If college students were more informed about what was actually going on in politics they might be more interested, and want to be more involved in the voting process.

Overcoming apathy in college students is easy in theory but not in practice. If we do not perceive political issues to have direct impact on our lives, then we will not have any interest in them. Since we don't typically pay a lot of taxes it is hard to make us interested, but education is the key. Drawing ties between issues and our lives is the key to making us interested. That is what has happened recently through the media.

Here are two interesting political sites: www.politics1.com/index and http://www.nrlc.org/College/nvote.htm

Brian, Lindsay, Erin, Ashley, And Leslie :-)

As a group we pretty much agree that Clemson students are indeed as politically disconnected as they are reported to be. Andrew is a member of the College Democrats and he says that it is a great suprise when more than 5 people show up for a meeting. That could be due to the Republican majority at this institution, but even then we rarely hear of anything the College Republicans are doing and wouldn't be suprised to hear they get poor showings at their meetings as well. It's so easy just to be oblivious to pretty much everything, even events that are going on in the world outside Clemson. College students are too caught up in their own worlds. It is rare to hear students talking politics or attending any political function. Compared to the students of the 60s and 70s who played an important role in the restructuring of American civil rights and the anti-war movement, students these days could not seem to care less about what goes on in American politics. Most of the students that we have come in contact with and have befriended are typically interested in topics relating to their major. The bottom line is that different subjects appeal to different people. We don't necessarily think that political apathy has anything to do with one's chronological age. We all know people from high school (or were even one ourselves) that were politically active and participated in clubs such as the debate team or whatnot. To say that these students somehow lose their political interest by the time they enter college would totally be false. These students go on to attend college and remain politcally active, there just isn't a large majority of them, especially here at Clemson. A reason for that could be that the colleges and majors offered at Clemson are not necessarily geared towards politically active students.
One reason that we think students are uninterested in politics is because students remain largely unaffected by the political decisions made today, whereas students 30 years ago were faced with much more pressing social issues that affected them directly--racial discrimination, the Vietnam war (for which they would be drafted), and other social issues that played a part in their everyday lives. Students will probably remain apathetic until something happens that directly affects their lives. For example, if the President decided to institute a draft and require all men and women to serve the military for a particular amount of time, then maybe some students might take some interest in politics.
This website gives a run down of every political issue and the stances of prominant politicians in government today. Students can read through the issues and decide with whom they agree and whom they don't. http://www.issues2000.org/default.htm

-Group members: Sarah, Amy, Cortney, Andrew and Suzanne

After conducting my interviews, I was surprised by the sheer amount of writing that is involved in being a bioengineer. I had forgotten about how people must write proposals to apply for research funding. Many of the people interviewed also said that they were not adequately prepared for the technical writing that is involved and that they had to learn on their own. Another thing that surprised me was that many of the bioengineers that I interviewed suggested that the best way to prepare to become a better writer is to practice and that one emphasis for aspiring bioengineers is to practice presentations.

One possible topic that I think would be interesting for the collaborative project would be same-sex marriage. I think that this issue is important for everyone right now because not only does it recognize unions between people but it affects our economy by allowing partners to receive benefits.

Another topic that would interest college-age individuals the education plan No Child Left Behind. I think that education is important to students who are still involved in the process and who are not far from starting a family of their own.

A third possible topic that would be appealing is legalization of medicinal marijuana and prescription drugs, especially since Howard Dean has taken a pro stance on this issue. This is a topic that would definitely grab the attention of college-age individuals and increase voter turnout. This could be the “bait and tackle” necessary to get certain people into the habit of voting. Maybe the next time these individuals go to the polls, it will be over different issues.

For Thursday's paper, should we source our sources like one would in a typical report, with each fact with an indication of its source? Any help I can get would be great.


Adam,

Thanks for posting this here.
You will want to indicate where each bit of information comes from, so you can use inline citation (the kind where you cite the source after each reference) for your formal sources, but you can also (due to the particular circumstances of this piece of writing) refer to other sources (like professors and courses in the program or your own experiences) in less formal ways. The key thing is that your audience is able to identify where the information comes from so they can get more details from your sources if they need them. I hope that helps.
--T. F.

I don't know about college students being reported as being politically disconnected. I always had the mindset that they would be most interested in politics and "being involved." Of course, shortly after I got to Clemson, I realized this was not the case. Perhaps one in ten of my comrades is especially interested in politics.

Also, I don't believe there to be an effective way to overcome this apathy. I've never seen, or even heard of anyone becoming interested in politics. The people who are interested in politics seem to always have been interested in politics, whether it be from an ingrained interest, or because they were brought up to pay attention to these sorts of things.

I am no longer sure of where to go for political website anymore. I used to favor http://www.kuro5hin.org -- but the quality in that site seems to have degraded. There's always Get Your War On, but that is merely an editorial cartoon, and doesn't have real feedback options.

Edit (01/29):
Oops, I neglected the fact that this was supposed to be a group post. I'll get together with my group and get that done directly.

In my experience, college students are very disconnected so far as politics. I, for one, do not follow them closely anymore. The only time I felt like I knew what was going on in current politics was in high school when I took Government and Economics. I have never voted in any sort of election (presidential or even campus government). Many of my friends here are this way also. I could never imagine any of us sitting around discussing politics.
One of the ways to overcome this aspect among college students is to inform them in an entertaining way of current politics. Another way would be to require a general education type course in politics/government. Here's a good website for college students: http://www.pollingreport.com/wh2004.htm. I like this site because it has statistical data for each candidate.

Does anyone know if we are still supposed to do this blog before tomorrow (or even before Thursday) if it is supposed to be done in our groups and we aren't having class tommorrow? I'm not sure what to do. Just wondering. Any input would be great.
:) Lauren

Dear Lauren,

Yes, if possible still do it before Thursday and still do it collaboratively. (I think some of the groups are e-mailing or chatting beforehand.) -T. F.

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe during the wintery weather.
For your first post this week, I'd like you to respond (in your project groups) to the following: 1) In your experience, are Clemson students as politically disconnected as college students are reported to be? If so, why do you think that is the case? If not, what shows you that they are, in fact, interested in politics. 2) What are some ways to overcome apathy among college students? 3) Identify and give the URL at least one political website that does a good job of relating and appealing to college students.

Remember, you only have to do one response per group. Also, because of the bad weather and the requirement to repond as a group, you can have until Wednesday morning to get these posted if you need it.

T. F.

Dr. Fishman-

Can you put the first blog topic of the week up a little earlier, say on Friday? Some of us want to do it over the weekend while things are a little calmer, instead of on Monday night. I know my Monday schedule is always chaotic, so I try to get stuff due on Tuesday done on the weekend.

Thanks! Brannon

Dear Brannon--This is a first (a request for homework over the weekend!) I actually never did this because I thought students wouldn't want to worry about school over the weekend, but I am happy to accommodate your request. I didn't see it until now, but from now on, I'll try to have it up on Thursday or Friday. -T

After playing phone tag with the person I was supposed to interview, I finally managed to get in touch with him. The biggest suprise I had from him was the problems he often has with the inability of his coworkers to communicate. He often deals with people form overseas to whom work is outsourced or even people working in America who were trained in other countries. These workers often have trouble with the fine-tuning of English technical documents, leading to confusion and wasted problems. That was not the only source of difficulty however, he also described fellow workers who desired to be hermits and interact as little as possible with others. It really suprised me that computer programmers would reasonably still expect this, especially after it being constantly hounded into us that communication in programming is very important (commenting especially).