Project 2

For Project 2 I have chosen the word "retarded" as my text. I believe the use of this word is derogatory and unethical. In my research so far, I have learned a lot about the changing meaning in the use and terminology of this word and why it is no longer acceptable in society. I have learned why the word is so controversial and why individuals, and more importantly our government, have gone to such great lengths to remove this word from society. By reading documents on this text, I have discovered a lot of the culture of individuals and family of individuals who suffer some kind of intellectual disability or cognitive impairment. By doing so, it has become overwhelmingly easy to understand why this culture or community of people would take such offense to such a word. Much evidence is available to back up these individuals', as well as my own, values and beliefs behind the word. The first piece of evidence that I will focus strongly on throughout my research paper is the popular and recent addition to our government's federal laws; Rosa's Law. Rosa's Law changed all references in federal law from "mental retardation" to "intellectual disabilities". The effort and time put into signing and enforcing this law is evidence enough that this word is unethical. In this case, one thing that someone can say is being valued is a person's right to freedom of speech. Quite frankly, I do believe it is important for every individual to own that right but in this case, as well as in the cases of many other slur or derogatory words, I just don't think it is acceptable to use. If individuals who did argue for their right to free speech understood the harm or hardships that this word caused, I believe they would understand that keeping their morals and ethics in place is more important than practicing their right to free speech. What are not being valued by individuals who carelessly and purposely use this word are the feelings of those who do have an intellectual disability. Our society's morals are not being valued and families in our community are not being valued. As a nation, we need to value the feelings and rights of others.

Project 2 Preliminary ideas

For Project 2 I am choosing a piece of legislation from The United States Code from before the 70's. The code  is about things that the disabled used to be excluded from. Examples of this are applying for visas, signing themselves to contracts, employment, transportation agencies, and educational institutions. In my early research I found that it is much, much easier to find legislation and campaigns that support the inclusion of persons with disabilities as well as the discontinuation of the "R-word" than it is to find legislation from older times that are segregating or discriminating against individuals with disabilities. I am going to talk about why I think old laws were unethical and why the mistreatment of individuals with disabilities is also unethical. I will also talk about the ongoing campaign that I am in called "Spread the Word to End the Word" which is a campaign to stop the use of the "R word". I will find evidence that supports how popular this topic is now and why it is such an important one. This is something I feel very passionately about and have dedicated a lot of my time to campaign for. Therefore, I think I'll really enjoy researching this topic and coming up with a final product.

Project analysis

This project on writing reviews went pretty well. Obviously writing about your opinions on something is one of the easiest forms of writing. However, having to write based on a very specific forum was stressful. I would have much preferred writing in my own style and having more free range to take the review where I wanted it instead of focusing only on where my specific forum had placed it. I think I was very successful in getting my points across in both my reviews. I was able to point out specific strengths of both my movie and my album. The peer review I received for my movie and album said that my reviews made him want to go home and watch the movie as well as go home and purchase the album. In my opinion, that was the exact purpose of a review and in that instance I was successful. Some things I struggled with were, like I said before, having to stick to a certain forum. I found a few restrictions and limitations while writing and I had to constantly double check to make sure I was sticking to a certain style. This was difficult considering I have been working on perfecting my own style of writing my entire life. It was a good challenge for me, though. My writing process also could have been a lot more sensible than mine was. The first day of my process I researched many different forums until I decided which forum would fit each of my objects best. But, I then waited a day to write my first review. When I started writing, I found myself having to constantly go back to my forum to check on different requirements and the style of writing. Then I waited another day to write my second review and found myself doing the same thing having to constantly back track. One thing I would do differently would be to have written some sort of outline or prewriting activity so that I would have a better idea of how I wanted my review organized and structured. Both my forums were pretty free with the way their reviews were structured so that was one thing I had more free reign on.