ENGL-2010
Notebook
Notebook 1
On American Manufacturing
America seems to makes very few things in the manufacturing business, in fact go walk into a store and see who makes everything; you’ll see names like China, Mexico, Vietnam, and Quebec, Honduras even, but is manufacturing dead? In World War 2 manufacturing in the United States provided more than a third of civilian jobs, while today it has declined to 8.7%. Manufacturing in the United States is by no means dead, but due to technological advancements and outsourcing low skill jobs to china and other developing nations has devastated the working class by removing good paying manufacturing jobs. Most Americans now work in service–producing industries where inequalities in opportunities, skills and incomes are more apparent. Manufacturing is by no means dead, in fact it may be overdeveloped when compared to other industries, which forces the working class into underdeveloped jobs where skill and pa gaps are more apparent.
America seems to makes very few things in the manufacturing business, in fact go walk into a store and see who makes everything; you’ll see names like China, Mexico, Vietnam, and Quebec, Honduras even, but is manufacturing dead? In World War 2 manufacturing in the United States provided more than a third of civilian jobs, while today it has declined to 8.7%. Manufacturing in the United States is by no means dead, but due to technological advancements and outsourcing low skill jobs to china and other developing nations has devastated the working class by removing good paying manufacturing jobs. Most Americans now work in service–producing industries where inequalities in opportunities, skills and incomes are more apparent. Manufacturing is by no means dead, in fact it may be overdeveloped when compared to other industries, which forces the working class into underdeveloped jobs where skill and pa gaps are more apparent.
Notebook 2-3.a
Research on Manufacturing
Manufacturing in America is not a simple social justice issue. Manufacturing is in fact one of the best industries in America and far exceeds what it used to be, the inherent problem with manufacturing though is what type of manufacturing America does and the skill of the jobs currently available. Unexpectedly manufacturing is a very refined job field, by refined I mean it doesn’t deal with remedial tasks that only need very low skill in that area to complete, which increases productivity by assigning those jobs to machines or outsourcing those jobs. The heart of the problem with manufacturing is that outsourcing and general limitation of manufacturing fields is what is causing the problem in manufacturing. America doesn’t deal with low skill jobs in manufacturing it outsources them instead which creates the problem of forcing people into higher skill jobs, such as customer service or jobs, with higher educational requirements, in a way, it removes gateway jobs; meaning you can do a low skill job like assembly in a factory while you prepare for a better job, similar to fast food jobs but lower skill requirements with the same or better pay.
Manufacturing in America is not a simple social justice issue. Manufacturing is in fact one of the best industries in America and far exceeds what it used to be, the inherent problem with manufacturing though is what type of manufacturing America does and the skill of the jobs currently available. Unexpectedly manufacturing is a very refined job field, by refined I mean it doesn’t deal with remedial tasks that only need very low skill in that area to complete, which increases productivity by assigning those jobs to machines or outsourcing those jobs. The heart of the problem with manufacturing is that outsourcing and general limitation of manufacturing fields is what is causing the problem in manufacturing. America doesn’t deal with low skill jobs in manufacturing it outsources them instead which creates the problem of forcing people into higher skill jobs, such as customer service or jobs, with higher educational requirements, in a way, it removes gateway jobs; meaning you can do a low skill job like assembly in a factory while you prepare for a better job, similar to fast food jobs but lower skill requirements with the same or better pay.
Notebook 3-8.c
Manufacturing Writing Strategies
In the article “Manufacturers bringing the most jobs back to America” By Michael Sauter and Samuel Stebbins, several points are made that bring attention to the fact that out sourcing has been a major issue in the past but may be reversing with several dynamic changes in the world economy. The authors of the article use statistics, interviews, as well as data and projections for specific companies which add to the overall message of manufacturing may be undergoing a revival in America, signs point to it but no definitive conclusion yet. The strategies used in this article will help my writing by providing both evidence and strategies I can use in order to incorporate more accurate information as well more specific information such as explaining the “reshoring” phenomenon by using accurate statistics of specific companies. For instance, Wal-Mart announced in early 2013 a “Made in USA” Program which pledged to purchase $250 billion in American made products by 2023 which can only be done by a “reshoring” initiative and based off projections could add several thousands of jobs and possibly thousands more indirectly.
In the article “Manufacturers bringing the most jobs back to America” By Michael Sauter and Samuel Stebbins, several points are made that bring attention to the fact that out sourcing has been a major issue in the past but may be reversing with several dynamic changes in the world economy. The authors of the article use statistics, interviews, as well as data and projections for specific companies which add to the overall message of manufacturing may be undergoing a revival in America, signs point to it but no definitive conclusion yet. The strategies used in this article will help my writing by providing both evidence and strategies I can use in order to incorporate more accurate information as well more specific information such as explaining the “reshoring” phenomenon by using accurate statistics of specific companies. For instance, Wal-Mart announced in early 2013 a “Made in USA” Program which pledged to purchase $250 billion in American made products by 2023 which can only be done by a “reshoring” initiative and based off projections could add several thousands of jobs and possibly thousands more indirectly.
Notebook 4 6.e
- Question: What conditions need to change in the manufacturing and industrial sectors in order for low skill manufacturing jobs, like the ones outsourced by many companies, to be brought back to American or local soil in relation to the commercial product market.
- Background Research: Several key factors that create the current conditions in the manufacturing and industrial sectors include total cost of labor and manufacturing being cheaper than when outsourced than when manufactured locally, total production comes out to be less when outsourcing products and then selling them in both local and foreign markets which offsets the overhead costs, cost of employee labor is cheaper when outsourced to a cheaper labor market which saves the company costs in comparison to local manufacturing labor costs. These factors not only encourage companies to outsource but also push them to do so due to the current economy in America being less than desirable while foreign labor markets are in a much better position to handle the manufacturing.
- Hypothesis: Creating an environment that best suits companies that create their commercial products in their local market i.e. manufacturing in China for the Asian market, or America for the USA market, requires several changes to the current dynamic with total cost of ownership for a company. First it has to benefit the company to make their products in the local commercial market which means the overhead costs have to outweigh the cheap labor costs of outsourcing, or the economy has to facilitate cheap labor within the local market, both can be created but the economy solution is dependent and unstable. Second re-shoring manufacturing jobs cannot increase commercial product cost which means a solution is to create low skill jobs like the ones in china and reducing the overhead cost so the manufacturing labor is affordable for the company.
- Current implementation by the re-shoring initiative and other companies shows that overhead costs can be cheap enough when re-shoring so that manufacturing in local markets is beneficial for the company, but not every time, it is a case by case basis, more often it benefits larger companies who are in multiple markets that require exporting and importing into other markets which add to the overhead costs. Overall it can be successful and is becoming more successful with the destabilizing of the Chinese economy and other such instances in other manufacturing sectors, making re-shoring more popular due to reduction of overhead costs.
Conclusion: Reducing overhead costs for local manufacturing is key to creating local manufacturing for local commercial markets, creating cheap labor and low overhead costs will encourage local market manufacturing which means either increasing the cost to import or export, or developing low skill manufacturing jobs that act as gateway jobs for progression through that job market, by creating a job that doesn’t require higher education will be a benefit to companies as high school students will be able to manage the job easily enough which goes for college students as well while they gain higher education, which stimulates both higher education and the job market at the same time.
Notebook 5 2.E
Manufacturing in America
What i know
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What i don't know
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list of resources
- Re-shoring Initiative
- Statistical Studies on economy affect and job market influence of out sourcing jobs
- CEO and employee interviews and how outsourcing affects the personal and business side of things within a company.
- History of manufacturing and its affects on society
- Projection statistics on bringing back manufacturing jobs
- Books and studies on the issue, a large number of such books exist today.
- Political policies of all countries involved in and regarding manufacturing.
- proposed policies that attempt to fix the issue.
Notebook 6 2.A
Personal Experience
My personal experience with American manufacturing is regarded as an outside perspective, I have not been personally involved in the manufacturing in America, Several of my engineering instructors worked in industry and regarded the manufacturing side of industry as a growing problem. I think it is very important to explore both the perspective of personal bias of those involved in manufacturing in America and the perspective of no bias regarding the issue, so we can gain the non bias evidence and how its affecting people respectively. The assumptions I have about the American Manufacturing issue is that its affecting enough people to be called an issue and that it is documented enough so that i can gain reliable data to properly define the problem what that problem is affecting in the long and short term. The primary research methods i need to conduct are personal interviews or documented experiences of those involved in manufacturing and the other method of research I need to do is economic and company based studies in order to understand the cause and effect of the issue. Conflicting views on issues always exist, most can be found when regarding the whole issue rather than just what is causing the issue, for instance manufacturing as a whole is at doing very well in America our output of materials and resources is at an all time high due to innovations and increased product flow, but the main issue is in commercial manufacturing where we outsource our jobs and create a vacuum in the job market, manufacturing as a whole is not the main problem. Overall my experience with the issue is not a personal one, rather it is an outside perspective which I believe is very important to explore, it allows me to define the problem and the amount of people it affects without personal bias getting in the way.
My personal experience with American manufacturing is regarded as an outside perspective, I have not been personally involved in the manufacturing in America, Several of my engineering instructors worked in industry and regarded the manufacturing side of industry as a growing problem. I think it is very important to explore both the perspective of personal bias of those involved in manufacturing in America and the perspective of no bias regarding the issue, so we can gain the non bias evidence and how its affecting people respectively. The assumptions I have about the American Manufacturing issue is that its affecting enough people to be called an issue and that it is documented enough so that i can gain reliable data to properly define the problem what that problem is affecting in the long and short term. The primary research methods i need to conduct are personal interviews or documented experiences of those involved in manufacturing and the other method of research I need to do is economic and company based studies in order to understand the cause and effect of the issue. Conflicting views on issues always exist, most can be found when regarding the whole issue rather than just what is causing the issue, for instance manufacturing as a whole is at doing very well in America our output of materials and resources is at an all time high due to innovations and increased product flow, but the main issue is in commercial manufacturing where we outsource our jobs and create a vacuum in the job market, manufacturing as a whole is not the main problem. Overall my experience with the issue is not a personal one, rather it is an outside perspective which I believe is very important to explore, it allows me to define the problem and the amount of people it affects without personal bias getting in the way.
Notebook 7 5.j
.The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient analogue computer and orrery, it is used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses. The mechanism was dated to be around 2000 years old and has actually corrected some of modern astrology after it was reverse engineered. The discovery of this mechanism challenged the basic consensus that we couldn't make something so complex and accurate 2000 years ago, but since its discovery we have begun to understand how dedicated and careful Greek scientists were in their workmanship. To relate this to my social justice issue, the biggest complaint from companies regarding outsourcing is quality of service and products, today we do not take much pride in our quality of work which is a big complaint from companies and consumers alike. Considering the fact that 2000 years ago the Greek could make an analogue computer so advanced in calculation that it corrected modern astrology using nothing but hand tools, when compared to today's very accurate machines and production lines it seems rather pathetic to think a group of individuals with hand tools could outperform the modern industry in both quality and scientific advancement, sadly this is the case which stands as testament to the fact that we do not produce quality anymore, we produce quantity. By analyzing ancient workmanship and comparing it to today's products I learned the biggest difference between us and our ancestors is that as time went on we became less obsessed with quality performance, products, and advancements, today we focus on getting as much intellectual property and products on the shelves as possible, in doing so we make no progress and ultimately we make an issue even worse. In regards to manufacturing it was interesting to learn about the quality of products and how quality has become an issue in today's markets.
Notebook 8 5.l
*Please note these are not the actual definition of these words, they are definitions created by me and placed in the context of the issue that i am researching which is American Manufacturing*
Term Definition
Term Definition
- Outsourcing- Utilizing a foreign job market to meet the supply and demand trend of a company, this includes many goods and services such as manufacturing and IT support.
- Re-shoring- Re positioning the jobs that are in a foreign job market and instituting them back into the localized job market that is directly involved in the supply and demand trend of a company or economic market.
- Manufacturing- The production of a product from raw materials and or refinement of raw materials.
- NAFTA- A free trade agreement that allowed companies to have direct control over their work force due to the access of foreign markets such as Mexico which allowed companies to directly bypass labor unions and get better deals elsewhere.
- Quality Assurance- The assurance of a product's quality, usually handled by the manufacturer that handles the product, quality assurance cannot be guaranteed by a company that outsources due to lack of, or difficulty in, communications.
- Total Cost of Ownership- The total cost required to own the company, this includes shipping, handling, manufacturing, taxes, packaging, employee wages, and all other expense made by the company in day to day operations.
- Job Market- The availability of jobs in a given economy, suffers when jobs aren't available or a skill gap arises without an educational pipeline of progression to fill the available job openings.
- Skill Gap- A state of the job market that arises when the skills required to do the job in question are not available from the populace either due to the lack of people educated in that field or because a pipeline of progression that creates the people skilled enough to do the job doesn't exist.
Notebook 9 6.A
Genre Rules
Memoir
Memoir
- Focus on the memory you want to explore and then link it to the big picture, don't jump from memory to memory.
- stay clear and concise, imagery is very helpful when exploring memories.
- develop the memory you are writing about so that the message you want to get across is clear, its easy to describe a vivid memory that has no point, it is harder to develop a memory so that it speaks volumes about a topic.
- keep the memory at a good descriptive length, a long memory will lose the reader, but an extremely short memory wont get the point across.
- focus on the person you are profiling but do not make a biography of their life, focus on what they are doing to with the topic that you selected and spend less time on their past or other details that don't pertain to the topic.
- use quotes by the person and evidence that backs up the person and their goals, this reinforces the selected topic by utilizing the person you are evaluating and what they have done in regards to the topic.
- develop the actions of the person and let the actions speak for that person, its far easier to profile a person who has done things that pertain to the topic than profiling a person who has only said they would do things in regards to the topic.
- keep the topic at the forefront of the readers mind, after all you are profiling the person in relation to the topic, you are not profiling the topic in relation to a person.
- Gather all of the facts from the original source, not just a website citing the source of another website.
- remove personal bias from the paper, let the facts speak for themselves, the paper is not about personal thoughts its about the facts.
- Bring in graphs, imagery, data, and other viable means of delivering the facts that isn't just text.
- develop the dynamic of the topic, how the topic works, what its doing now and how did it get to the point its currently at.
- develop multiple view points of the topic, how would somebody else see the topic that your looking at?
- develop biased and unbiased view points on the topic, what are the facts of the topic? what are personal opinions on the topic? what would someone directly involved with the topic think?
- figure out if words are the best way to convey your point. would a picture say a thousand of your words for you? or would an interview be better to convey a point? would a video or animation be more exciting than text?
- understand what the best source would be to make the point seem credible. would a professional's stand point make a better case than yours? would the personal experience of someone affected by the topic be more relatable to the reader? or would an outside perspective be best to understand the topic?
Notebook 10 7.c
Civic Engagement
Group work has many positive and negative aspects, both for the individual and for the group. Individually in a writing project group a person can benefit by improving his writing, he can get different perspectives and feedback on their writing and improve based off of it, the individual can also gain consistency regarding other pieces involved in the project i.e formatting. the effect of the group on a persons writing can shape and sharpen a persons point, allow sources to be changed so credibility improves, your perspective can change, and your message can become clearer, but their are also negatives regarding all of this as if the feedback is poor or the person reading lacks knowledge on the topic and or conflict arises it can make the above mentioned benefits hinder a persons writing in a group. Regarding civic engagement a group can make you more engaging and less engaging, the experience can affect your civic engagement, if its a good experience and people want to work and do a good job then civic engagement should be more active for the individual, but if no one wants to work and few people care about doing a good job then civic engagement will cause a person to be less engaging in the group. personally I have had good and bad group projects, personally a good or bad group wont affect the quality of my work but a bad group will affect the quality of the entire project, so I prefer good groups for projects.
Group work has many positive and negative aspects, both for the individual and for the group. Individually in a writing project group a person can benefit by improving his writing, he can get different perspectives and feedback on their writing and improve based off of it, the individual can also gain consistency regarding other pieces involved in the project i.e formatting. the effect of the group on a persons writing can shape and sharpen a persons point, allow sources to be changed so credibility improves, your perspective can change, and your message can become clearer, but their are also negatives regarding all of this as if the feedback is poor or the person reading lacks knowledge on the topic and or conflict arises it can make the above mentioned benefits hinder a persons writing in a group. Regarding civic engagement a group can make you more engaging and less engaging, the experience can affect your civic engagement, if its a good experience and people want to work and do a good job then civic engagement should be more active for the individual, but if no one wants to work and few people care about doing a good job then civic engagement will cause a person to be less engaging in the group. personally I have had good and bad group projects, personally a good or bad group wont affect the quality of my work but a bad group will affect the quality of the entire project, so I prefer good groups for projects.
Notebook 11 5.d
Writing regarding American Manufacturing currently exists mainly as research papers, analysis papers, project proposals, and other data based writing styles. The writing currently circulates in company circles, economist groups, political science majors, and many other groups that deal directly with manufacturing in some way. The audience for these papers are companies, economist's, political scientists, the curious every day American looking for facts, and other intellectual groups that need to know this information. Genres that are most effective usually involve raw data, no opinions, they get the point across and develop the situation based of of observable and proven data.Genres that are the least effective involve opinions, such as persuasion essays, or argument essays by a disgruntled ex employee, these aren't very effective because most of these don't analyze the big picture and draw from it in order to create an accurate analysis and solution. this information helps by showing what is effective and what is not, developing the topic naturally with data and information rather than inference and guess work really makes the point for people that need the information.
Notebook Reflection
Notebook 5 was an activity that made me rethink several f my projects and how i was researching my topic. The most interesting or fun activities for me were Notebook7 and 9 because they made me think about processes and other things that related to my topic in interesting ways.The activities i liked best are the research and indirect correlation projects like in notebook 7 due to the fact that they usually give me more perspectives and information I didn't know about before. Activities i would try again for other other assignments or papers would be research oriented activities and listing what i do and do not know about the topic so i can better understand it. Three tools and strategies I now have that i have confidence in are 1. formatting specifics and rules 2. Genre specifics and development 3. where to include information and where to include opinion. Overall this class helped me refine my writing style and habits and will benefit me in the future with my degree in engineering.
On Communicating and Collaborating
- My process for writing and research primarily involves defining and understanding the issue that I’m interested in, in this case Manufacturing. I focused on defining the problem with it and then exploring why the problems existed, followed by what could be done to reverse the trend that created the problem. After exploring my issue my perspective changed to one of awe more than anything, awe at the fact that people could create a mess this big, this issue is complicated and complex and spans areas of expertise that would take a lifetime to understand by myself. My exploration of the Bureau of Labor Statistics helped shape the complexity of this issue as well as my research into economic policy regarding NAFTA showing how complicated the issue was.
- I chose to write in the research paper and proposal genres because they reflected this issue best, the research paper explored it and its issues to the fullest while the proposal paper built off the research paper and attempted to solve some of the issues. The profile, while a good piece of writing, did not reflect accurately my issue and what I wanted to convey, but would work great for an adaptation, and exploring a personal memory in the flash memoir seemed to be the least effective piece of writing for this issue. Personally I think by using the research paper and the proposal I painted a picture of the complexity and intricacy of the issues in manufacturing and how delicate fixing the situation would be, I couldn’t do that with any other genre combination.
- The profile adaptation that I created was best utilized as an example of addressing the issue in manufacturing in modern society, I specifically used it to show that action can be taken but one man cannot solve it himself. My process for converting my profile paper into an adaptation was to pin point the main points, define the issue, and then show how Harry Moser addressed some of the issue in his own way, followed by him acknowledging the fact that other things needed to change along the lines of economic policy and work force. I picked the profile because it was the next paper that was closely related to the issue of manufacturing, the memoir was just the least effective piece out of all my projects when looking at this issue. What I learned about transitioning my paper into a PowerPoint was that my paper essentially became very condensed, straightforward, and lacked large amounts of detail, but still conveyed the important details.
- S a collaborative effort revising and designing for the magazine project was a smooth process. We set hard deadlines for each paper and on those deadlines they were emailed or uploaded to be retrieved by the lead writer (me) and then I would revise and edit them(all of the papers I revised and edited) accordingly, i.e. spelling, grammar, formatting, and sentence structure, if there was anything major that needed to be addressed I would discuss it with the author of the paper and have them revise that major portion. Luckily there were no major revisions required and the only problems were quite a number of grammar mistakes, some spelling errors, I unified the formatting across each paper, and corrected a number of sentence structure errors. We set up weekly meetings and deadlines for each other; I was to finish the papers I received within a day of receiving them, 8 for one due date and 5 for the other due date, then get them to Chase for the references and works cited, he had one day to get those done, and then he sent them off to Jess, the Visual Editor, to post and organize o the site, Dillan organized the due dates and we spent the last few days of the project refining the site and correcting any last minute revisions. We communicated and we got the work done quickly and efficiently while giving each other feedback.