Writing@SVSU
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SAGINAW VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY BLANK PAGE Writing@SVSU 2017–18 Saginaw Valley State University 7400 Bay Road University Center, MI 48710 svsu.edu ©Writing@SVSU 7400 Bay Road University Center, MI 48710 CREDITS Writing@SVSU is funded by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences. Editorial Staff Christopher Giroux Associate Professor of English and Writing Center Assistant Director Joshua Atkins Literature and Creative Writing Major Sara Houser Diaz Elementary Education and English Language Arts Major Samantha Geffert Literature and Secondary Education Major Kelsey Hyde French Major Elissa Lovell Secondary Education Major Ashley Murdock Communication Major Imari Tetu Professional and Technical Writing Layout and Design Tim Inman Director of Marketing Support Office of University Communications Printing SVSU Graphics Center Preface Welcome to the 2017-18 issue of Writing@SVSU, the university’s yearly attempt to capture a small slice of the good writing that occurs at and because of SVSU. Writing, like all intellectual undertakings, both humbles and empowers. Writing is laborious, requiring sweat and tears of pain, and it is pleasurable, producing achievement and tears of joy. Writing begins mysteriously in a hidden place of thinking, drafting, and revising, but writing emerges like magic into our visible world, bold black words on brilliant white paper, offered up to be read and judged. Writing@SVSU presents the second half of these contrasts, appearing before us as a published set of academic arguments, creative stories and poems, human interest profiles, and thoughtful reflections. Like all published works, Writing@SVSU reinforces the illusion of each accomplishment by hiding the struggles, doubts, and procrastination that bedeviled each author herein. So, in this issue, as we read each page with enjoyment, let us reflect on the hidden writer’s life that we cannot see, on what came before, on what is not published here. Every writer hopes for positive affirmation: the lover desires her poem to open a heart, the student prays for a good grade, the aspiring author longs to be published. However, every writer finds humiliation on the discarded pages that lead to success. Consider the novelist whose manuscript is rejected 50 times before a publisher takes a chance on it. Reflect on Harper Lee, whose editor asked for a complete rewrite of her first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Sometimes our humiliations are smaller: when I was an undergraduate, my pride rose as a professor read a passage from one of my essays out loud to the class; pride soon turned to embarrassment, however, when he honed in on my hilarious misspelling of “wanton” as “wonton.” A very good lesson on the value of a dictionary! In the pages before us, the hidden work of editors has rescued authors from failure and humiliations. Caring professors mentored the student writers through the process of imagining, drafting, and refining the essays that won awards. Writing Center mentors may have consulted with those student authors to further polish their texts. An editorial staff of faculty and students lovingly framed, assembled, and fine-tuned the entire publication. Invisible to us, a small army of editorial eyes and pencils ensured victory for each writer here. However, for every author published here, scores struggled and triumphed in anonymity, their achievements personal not public, their rewards private and unremarked. For every winner of a University Writing Award, many more were nominated, recognized by their professors; I know from personal experience that those affirmations often give writers the confidence to dream larger, to risk more, to achieve greater things. And, beyond the nominees, think about all of the other student writers in the courses from which these winning essays were selected. They too pushed through the challenges presented by their writing assignments, finally getting something down on paper, relieved (for sure), satisfied (perhaps), and triumphant because they didn’t give up. And, like every writer in this volume, they will soon have to do it all again—we are human; therefore we write. Erik K. Trump Professor of Political Science Faculty Advisor of The Sovereign Faculty Mentor of 12 Winners of the Braun Awards BLANK PAGE Table of Contents Spotlight on… The University Writing Awards “A Framework for Creating Positive Change: Solutions for Slum Improvement through Local Empowerment,” by Kellie Rankey .......................................................... 11 “Locke’s Revolution: John Locke and the American Revolution,” by Joshua Cianek ..... 25 “Hey, Siri, How Do We Fight the Patriarchy?,” by Brianne Dolney ............................... 30 “An Excerpt from ‘Language and Power: An Investigation of Student Perceptions of Labeling Nonnative Speakers,’” by Emma Kirsch ............................................. 34 “Efficacy of Rebound Diathermy as a Thermal Heating Agent: A Critically Appraised Topic,” by Alissa C. Rhode and Lauren Lavelle ................................................ 41 “Substance Use Disorder Services and the Opioid Addiction Crisis” by Carmen M. Randall ............................................................................................................. 48 “Using Molecular Machines for Polypeptide Synthesis,” by Bradley Hunt..................... 54 “Young Blood Run Cold: Competing Perceptions of Sculptures and Childishness in Middlemarch,” by Victoria Phelps .................................................................... 63 “(worship in) a hospital where all the rooms are empty,” by Zoey Cohen ...................... 69 “Classroom Portfolio,” by Madeline Angel ................................................................... 71 “Traîtrise,” by Bria Rivet .............................................................................................. 72 “The Effectiveness of Electrical Stimulation Therapy on Wound Healing-Rates of Pressure Ulcers,” by Sushma Ghale .................................................................. 73 “The U.S. Government Should Punish Fake News by Law,” by Sooyeon Jung .............. 83 Spotlight on… The National Day on Writing “Not Lost in Translation: ‘The Ensigns of Command,’” by Kelli Fitzpatrick.................. 88 “Notes on an Inquisitive Sacrificial Cult,” by Victoria Phelps ........................................ 90 “In Summer,” by Bria Rivet .......................................................................................... 91 Spotlight on… Students The College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, Nik Berkobien ........................................ 94 The College of Business and Management, Emma Hondzinski ...................................... 95 The College of Education, Nicole Hansen ..................................................................... 96 The College of Health and Human Services, Alissa C. Rhode........................................ 98 The College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Autumn Zender ....................... 100 The Valley Vanguard, Connor Doyle ........................................................................... 101 Cardinal Sins, Victoria Phelps and Mackenzie Bethune............................................... 104 Spotlight on… Faculty “Spread the Light,” by Andrea Frederick ..................................................................... 110 “Be a Reader to Be a Writer: Reflecting on My Journey,” by Kaustav Misra ............... 112 “Literature, Alive,” by James Sullivan......................................................................... 114 Spotlight on… The SVSU Writing Center “After,” by Alexa Foor ................................................................................................ 120 “An Excerpt from ‘Post-Ghostbusting,’” by Madison Martin ....................................... 121 “Learning to Soar,” by Elizabeth Kennedy .................................................................. 122 “Belief,” by Lindsey Mead .......................................................................................... 123 “The Trouble with Existence,” by Jennifer Williamson ............................................... 124 Spotlight on… The Community Writing Centers “Trust Is Like a Shovel,” by Jennifer Torres ................................................................ 128 “The Break-Up,” by Spencer Williams ........................................................................ 129 “Blind,” by Tristan Harman ........................................................................................ 131 “The Difference Between Stillness and Dancing,” by Jack Rechsteiner ....................... 132 “Signs, by Marjorie Talaga ......................................................................................... 133 “Late-Winter Walk Around the Pond,” by Suzanne Sunshower ................................... 134 “Chiaroscuro,” by Brad Yurgens ................................................................................. 135 Spotlight on… Visiting Writers “Show Me Where It Hurts,” by Su Hwang .................................................................. 138 “Money,” by Jane Mead .............................................................................................. 140 “on the structure of birds,” by Asiya Wadud ................................................................ 141 “An Excerpt from A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City,” by Drew Philp .....................................................................