Eugenics in America essays

Eugenics in America essays What do you think of when you hear the word eugenics? Well, one thing that should come to mind is Hitler and what he did with the Jews and other people he thought were noncompliant to what he had in mind was the perfect human race. Not only did Hitler do this, but the American people thought it was ok in the mid 19th century. Even in our time there are some things that people are doing that could be considered as eugenics, such as genetic testing. These things and others will be talked about in this paper, and they will attempt to be better explained. What a few people think about eugenics is not necessarily what everybody else thinks about it. The reason for saying this is because from the mid 20th century up to the present, geneticists have been doing genetic testing. One main question that will be addressed is how have we as Americans and other societies of the world tried to control the science of improving the human stock for social and political reasons since 1865. To a nswer this question I guess we will have to start at the beginning. Eugenics was probably really started when Alfred Binet came up with the intelligence test in France. The test was made up of a series of short tasks that were in some way related to everyday problems. The hardest task that was successfully completed was associated to a persons mental age. There were however some concerns that Binet had because of the test. Some of these concerns were: it distinguished between natural knowledge and instruction and he worried about self-fulfilling prophecies. He intended for the test to be used for good to identify children to help and improve rather than to label and limit students. There was someone that wanted to use this test to distinguish between people of good mental health and those that were morons (Goddard). The person that wanted to do this was H H Goddard. He brought Binets scale to America fro...

First-Person Pronouns in Academic Writing - Proofeds Writing Tips Blog

First-Person Pronouns in Academic Writing First-Person Pronouns in Academic Writing During school, many of us were told to never use â€Å"I† in an essay. And so we went on to college, trying our best to write papers without using any first-person pronouns. But where does this rule come from? And is it really wrong to use â€Å"I† in an essay? Read on to find out! When Not to Use â€Å"I† in Academic Writing It is true that using too many first-person pronouns in a college paper will look bad. This is because it looks like you’re expressing an opinion rather than discussing facts. For instance: I think the Watergate scandal had a big effect on American politics. The â€Å"I think† here is unnecessary. Watergate was undeniably a major incident in American politics, so it is not simply an opinion. You could even cite sources where its impact is discussed. It may have involved at least one of these guys. Similarly, overuse of first-person pronouns can detract from the focus of your writing. Take the following example from a scientific paper: I observed the sample through a microscope, and I noticed an unusual microbe. Here, the focus is on the person conducting the study instead of the study itself. But scientific writing is supposed to be objective. It would therefore be better to say: The sample was observed through a microscope. This revealed an unusual microbe. By using the passive voice here, we make sure the focus is on the experiment, not the experimenter. In both of these cases, then, it would be better to avoid use of the first person. Using First-Person Pronouns Correctly However, there are cases when it is correct to use first-person pronouns in an essay. These include: To emphasize or clarify your own role in a study To position yourself in relation to other thinkers For example, we could write the following without using the first person: In studying queue formation in Starbucks, the issue of how social behavior is affected by caffeine withdrawal was explored. However, this gives us no indication of who is conducting the study and the use of passive voice leads to an awkward sentence. We might therefore want to use first-person pronouns to ensure clarity: In studying queue formation in Starbucks, we explored how social behavior is affected by caffeine withdrawal. Another alternative would be using â€Å"the researcher† or â€Å"the author† to refer to ourselves in the third person. But this can also be problematic. For instance: While Ving and Rhames (2001) argued that tea drinkers are more violent, the researchers have not found evidence to back up this claim. The identity of â€Å"the researchers† here could be ambiguous. Does it refer to Ving and Rhames? Another study by someone else? Or is it the authors of this paper? It would therefore be better to say: While Ving and Rhames (2001) argued that tea drinkers are more violent, we have not found evidence to back up this claim. With this simple change, we can immediately what this sentence is saying. In general, then: DO NOT use the first person if it makes your work sound overly subjective or draws focus from what you are meant to be discussing But DO use the first person if it helps to ensure clarity and concision in your writing