SAGINAW VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY Writing@SVSU Volume I 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 Vice President of Academic Affairs. Writing Program Administrator M. Pat Cavanaugh Professor of English Editors Christopher Giroux Assistant Professor of English and Writing Center Assistant Director Alison Barger English Major Wren Hayes Business Major Sara Houser Elementary Education and English Language Arts Major Allison Sterken Creative Writing and Professional and Technical Writing Major Kylie Wojciechowski Professional and Technical Writing Major Layout and Design Angela Reinert Administrative Secretary Office of University Communications Tim Inman Director of Photography, Advertising, and Publishing Services Office of University Communications Printing SVSU Graphics Center Welcome to the inaugural issue of Writing@SVSU! Funded by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Writing@SVSU offers a small slice of the good writing and efforts made to promote good writing that occur at SVSU. Possessing good writing skills is essential to having an educated population, a fact that SVSU emphasizes in its curriculum. The solid framework for academic writing that students can find in their First-Year Writing courses is continued through the other courses that are part of the General Education program: Category 1 and Category 10 classes and the many communication-intensive classes from which students can select. As students move through their majors and towards senior capstones, good writing continues to be a measure of success both in- and outside the classroom. Thus, to a large degree, Writing@SVSU functions as a yearbook—one celebrating the ways in which good writing flourishes at SVSU. In the following pages, you’ll find excerpts of some of the winners of various writing contests, events, and scholarships that occur at SVSU, including the University Writing Awards, the National Day on Writing, and the Seitz Scholarship, as well as profiles of the editors of our student publications, Cardinal Sins and The Valley Vanguard. We’ve also included profiles of students from each of our colleges who have found success through writing and essays by faculty members who were awarded some of SVSU’s highest honors, such as the Warrick and Landee awards. We round out the issue with pieces by some of the talented creative writers who visited campus in 2014-15: Tim Seibles, David Baker, Peter Ho Davies, Éireann Lorsung, and Larry Watson. Writing@SVSU also recognizes that writing is about learning; it is a process of discovery. To that end, we have tried to make the creation of this book an opportunity for our students to learn more about the entire writing process, particularly the publication process. We offer special thanks to those students who helped ready Writing@SVSU for your reading pleasure by writing articles, editing, proofing—and then editing, proofing, and checking again, and again, and again. We thank you, Alison, Wren, Sara, Allison, and Kylie, for your help and patience, and we hope you found this a valuable experience. And thanks to Deb Huntley, David Callejo, and Helen Raica-Klotz for their ongoing support of this project. In no way is Writing@SVSU comprehensive in its coverage of the various good writing that occurs on campus. On some level, despite the various editing that has occurred, this publication remains a first draft. Next year we hope to include greater diversity in capturing writing at SVSU—particularly our work in the community. In fact, in the spirit of peer review, an essential component of the writing process, we ask our readers to send us suggestions for other writing successes that we can profile in the future. Until then, we thank you for the work you do to make writing at SVSU a vibrant part of our campus life. Sincerely, M. Pat Cavanaugh Chris Giroux Writing Program Administrator Editor, Writing@SVSU Table of Contents Spotlight on… University Writing Awards ...............................................................................................1 “The Inflation of Prescription Drug Prices: A Public Policy Solution” by Trevor N. Ward ............3 “Makeover: An Essay Exam” by Brandon Lopez ............................................................................9 “The Effects of Therapeutic Interventions Administered by Athletic Trainers in the Management of Patellar Tendinopathy in Adults: A Systematic Review” by Clayton M. Westdorp & Cody M. Forbes ..................................................................................13 “The ‘48’ Problem” by Joshua Bailey ............................................................................................29 “Occupation Unfolding into the Community” by Jordan Vincke ...................................................33 “The Communal Dress” Nathan Daniel Phillips ............................................................................41 “Searching: A Collection of Poems: by Rachael Blaylock .............................................................50 “Standardized Testing Anxieties: Problems and Solutions” by Kelsey Setla .................................52 “Work Application Portfolio” by Kara Stedry ................................................................................54 “Classroom Portfolio” by Jordan Boulier .......................................................................................55 “Crop Report: Sugar Beets” by Landon Zwerk ..............................................................................56 Spotlight on… Scholarships & Prizes ......................................................................................................59 “White Oak Barrels” by Allison Sterken ........................................................................................60 “Blooded Vein, A River to Cross” by Kathryn Karoly ..................................................................64 Spotlight on… National Day on Writing ..................................................................................................65 “Girl Scout Cookies” by Kayla Langmaid ......................................................................................66 “Tattered Atlas” by Kelly M. Schram .............................................................................................70 “Confession” by Lucille Kalinowski ..............................................................................................72 “Brothers Don’t Cry” by Kathryn Karoly .......................................................................................74 Spotlight on… Students .............................................................................................................................77 College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, Faith Chapman .............................................................78 College of Business and Management, Zack Gibson .....................................................................79 College of Education, Elizabeth Hurd.......................................................................................... 80 College of Health and Human Services, Valerie Adams ................................................................82 College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Miranda Strasburg ..........................................84 The Valley Vanguard, Rachel Stocki ..............................................................................................86 Cardinal Sins, Nathan Phillips ........................................................................................................88 Spotlight on… Faculty ...............................................................................................................................91 “What Does ‘Morphology’ Mean Anyway?” by Tami Sivy, Associate Professor of Chemistry ...92 “Writing and the Historian” by Paul E. Teed, Professor of History ...............................................94 “‘The pond is under water’: Lessons Learned from Undisciplined Writing” by Carol Zimmermann, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice ..............................................................96 Spotlight on… Visiting Writers ..............................................................................................................101 “Ode to My Hands” by Tim Seibles .............................................................................................103 “The Osprey” by David Baker ......................................................................................................105 “To Wear Their Own Clothes at All Times” by Éireann Lorsung ................................................106 “Darkness, Invisible: Anna May Wong” by Peter Ho Davies ......................................................107 “An Excerpt from Let Him Go” by Larry Watson ........................................................................108 Spotlight on… University Writing Awards The Ruth and Ted Braun Awards are presented in the categories of General Education, Graduate Programs, Multimedia, and in each of the five colleges to promote excellent writing across the curriculum. Members of the 2014-15 University Writing Committee judged this year’s selections. The committee was chaired in 2014-15 by Kimberly Lacey, assistant professor of English, and Helen Raica-Klotz, director of the Diane Boehm Writing Center at SVSU. Past Braun Award publications are available online at